Daring and different - that's Pooja Bhatt's Jism for you. You have just got to hand it to the director Amit Saxena and writer Mahesh Bhatt for not making the lead female a pretty, pious woman. The openness with which they have handled erotica is another laudable feat.

Jism is about Kabir Lal (John Abraham), a self-destructive lawyer whose only aim seems to be to drown himself in rum. That is, till he meets the sensuous and sexy Sonia (Bipasha Basu), the young, ambitious wife of millionaire businessman Rohit (Gulshan Grover). Once they meet, there seems to be little else on screen other than a lot of their jism. Infact, the story hardly moves till the first half is over, when Rohit turns up from an extended business trip.

While Kabir hopes in vain to get her back, Sonia puts forth the condition that they can be together if they manage to get rid of the unwanted baggage - Rohit. The plot is hatched and the plan carried out. That is when things start to go wrong for Kabir. His conscience wakes up and he realises the enormity of what he has done. To make matters worse, his DCP friend starts to suspect him. Rohit's sister, who had been out of the picture till then, pops up to demand her share of his enormous property.

As the trail heats up to Kabir and Soniya, it finally dawns on Kabir that Soniya never meant to keep any of ther promises. But it's too late to wriggle out of the situation. So far so good. But the writer has not done justice to the climax by giving Soniya an uncharacteristic change of heart when she suddenly realizes that she loves Kabir and can't do without him.

As far as performances go, Bipasha and John spell chemistry with a capital C. In fact, Bipasha has brought forth the darker side of a woman very well. Debutante John looks very comfortable in his role. But it might help to reconsider his habit of walking through half the movie with a bare torso, a la Salman. Gulshan Grover as Rohit is wasted. A veteran actor, he is capable of much more but is reduced to a bumbling middle-aged man with a bemused look.

The music of the movie might be another highpoint of the movie. M M Kreem has yet again given some haunting numbers that keep reverberating long after you have heard them. Shreya Ghoshal has done a fantastic job with both Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai and Chalo Tumko Lekar Chale. Kay Kay's rendition of Awaarapan Banjaarapan is also good.

On the whole, Jism is a movie worth watching at least once, at least as to acknowledge the producer's efforts to make a daring film.