A voice-over by RD [Anil Kapoor] introduces the four main characters: Ranvir Singh [Saif Ali Khan] runs a successful business he inherited from his father. His younger stepbrother Rajiv Singh [Akshaye Khanna] mooches off of Ranvir and is an alcoholic. Ranvir is dating an upcoming model Sonia [Bipasha Basu], while his personal assistant Sophia [Katrina Kaif] appears to be secretly in love with him. Ranvir is also involved in an intense competition with a rival horse-owner Kabir [Dilip Tahil]. The film opens with a murder plot involving a car accident which Ranvir narrowly survives. When Ranvir loses money in a race because his jockey had been bribed by Kabir, Ranvir plants a bomb in the jockeys car and kills him, showing Ranvir to be a ruthless businessman. In a drunken stupor, Rajiv confesses to Ranvir that he likes Sonia and that he would quit drinking if he could spend his life with a girl like her. Ranvir immediately stops dating Sonia so that Rajiv can have her. Rajiv and Sonia begin dating and appear happy, until in a twist, Rajiv reveals he knows of Sonias shady past and suspicious motives. Rajiv reveals that his father had secured identical life-insurance policies for huge sums on each of the sons. He explains that he wants to kill Ranvir in what would appear to be an accident and inherit $100 million dollars in insurance payments and wants Sonia to play along. Sonia agrees to help in exchange for $20 million. They pretend to get married and Rajiv ignores Sonia in this fake-marriage while continuing to play an alcoholic. As per his instructions, Sonia seduces Ranvir who confesses he loved her all along. Rajiv reveals the rest of his plan: to threaten to commit suicide in response to Sonia and Ranvirs affair by leaping off a tall building, have Ranvir appear on the terrace, and get Sonia to push Ranvir off. However, in a new twist, it turns out Ranvir was aware of the plan all along as Sonia, who had apparently fallen in love with Ranvir, had been keeping him updated. Things go according to plan but Sonia double-crosses Ranvir and pushes him off, saying she loved him, but the money was more important. Inspector RD appears at this point to investigate the death, accompanied by a ditzy assistant [Sameera Reddy]. He immediately suspects foul-play in the death of Ranvir. During his investigation, Ranvirs assistant Sophia reveals that she was actually married to Ranvir, and produces a legitimate marriage certificate. Sonia is shocked that their plan has been thwarted as Sophia would now be the heir to the insurance money. In another twist, Sophia was in on the plan all along and is secretly dating Rajiv. Rajiv plans to bump off Sonia after he and Sophia get the insurance money. However, RD figures out during his investigation that Sophia and Rajiv had faked her marriage with Ranvir and that he had been tricked into signing the marriage certificate. RD confronts Rajiv about this and agrees to remain silent about it in exchange for $25 million. Rajiv hires the same hitman who had attempted to murder Ranvir at the beginning of the film to kill Sonia, revealing that he had been behind the first murder attempt too. Just as the hitman is about to kill Sonia, Ranvir reappears and rescues her. Ranvir then confronts Rajiv and explains that he had overheard Rajiv discussing the failed murder attempt with the hitman and had been playing along the whole time so he could get the insurance money from his own fake-death and the insurance money from killing Rajiv. He allows Rajiv one last chance to win by agreeing to a car-race. Ranvir shows up to the race in a sports car, and when Rajiv protests, he switches cars with Rajiv. This turns out to be a trick as Rajiv had tampered with the brakes on his own car. Ranvir in turns lies to Rajiv, claiming he had planted a bomb in his car, similar to the one that killed the jockey, and that it would be detonated if Rajiv ever slowed down below 100 kmph. This deceives Rajiv into crashing into a petroleum tank, killing him and Sophia, who had been riding with him. Ranvir narrowly escapes death himself. In the end, Ranvir collects the insurance money from Rajivs death and his own fake-death and is fleeing the city, only to be stopped by Inspector RD, who had been in on the plan too and had helped Ranvir fake his death and get the insurance money. Inspector RD takes his half of the money, only to find a bomb in the bag along with the money. However, the bomb does not detonate, and Ranvir reveals that it was a mere precaution to see if RD would try to betray him and take all the money. Ranvir rewards RD for his relative honesty by allowing him to live.

Notes

* The track Khwab Dekhe [Sexy Lady] was recorded after the release of the soundtrack on 9 February. It replaced the original song Mujhpe To Jadoo in the film. Tips Music then re-distributed the soundtrack, adding Sexy Lady, after the release of the film.

Sequel

There is also a scheduled sequel to this movie, Race 2, but Bipasha Basu is being replaced by Kareena Kapoor. Katrina Kaif also wont be seen in the sequel, but Priyanka Chopra and Asin Thottumkal will also be featured in the film. John Abraham is set to play the villain in the film as he liked the script of the film and gave his approval for the film.

Critical

= Taran Adharsh gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating that Race "is a superb entertainer all the way" and that it "has not just style, but a lot of substance too". Hanumant Bhansali praises the film and also says that Race is "a winner all the way". In contrast to Adharsh and Bhansali, Race also met with some negative reviews, forcing the response from critics to be mixed.

Commercial

= After receiving a largely positive response from critics, Race went on to be the fourth biggest Bollywood hit of 2008 behind Ghajini, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Singh is Kinng. The film opened with a total of Rs.35,61,00,000 in India, £880,423 in the United Kingdom and $ 1,376,024 in the United States of America. As of 30 May it grossed Rs.63,67,00,000 [$14,886,600] in India, and $9,505,321 in other parts bringing a worldwide total of Rs. 68,00,00,000

Goofs

When Katrina Kaif gets money from the bank, the notes are actually Australian $100 bills.