Raveena Tandon plays high society lady Sonal Modi, who alleviates her boredom and passionless marriage by careless cheating on her jet-set businessman husband Raj (Sanjay Suri). Tandon is pitch perfect in this part as she finds the ideal toy boy in the fresh-off-the-boat Mohan (Ashish Bisht). Mohan comes to Delhi from his hill state hometown in the hope of making it in the world of modelling, but who fails to make the cut in a talent pageant.

On the surface, Onir's Shab looks like a critique of the big, bad world of fashion in New Delhi. There's even an insight on the world of high society and its warped morals. But what makes this film more than just a sensational piece of cinema is its reflection into relationships. Four stories get intertwined as the characters keep crossing paths. While the narrative isn't always crystal clear, the emotions are strong and the story of Shab is its strength. It isn't director Onir's best film.

When a film is directed by Onir, some controversial characters are surely an integral part of his story. His latest offering Shab deals with such dark and complex characters based out of the hustle bustle in Delhi. An aspiring model from a small town Dhanaulti, Mohan aka Afzar (Ashish Bisht) comes to Delhi for an audition. He meets Sonal Modi (Raveena Tandon), a rich and brash wife of a renowned industrialist Vivek Modi (Sanjay Suri) who initially rejects Mohan on the ramp but later uses him sexually by offering him money. He accepts her in every possible way.

Mohan is an aspiring model. He comes to Delhi from Gadwal with a dream of becoming a model but gets rejected in the audition. However, one of the judges Sonal Modi gets attracted towards him. Mohan is bankrupt and when he is on the verge of leaving Delhi, he approaches Sonal for a job. Sonal, who is in a disturbed marriage, 'hires' him for satisfying her on the bed and introduces him to the world as her personal trainer. She renames him as Azfar, the gifted one! Sonal keeps on using Azfar promising him that she will introduce him to a good designer.

Style tends to strangle substance in portions of Shab. Nonetheless the seductive, mysterious bubble that it unfolds in - the New Delhi sub-culture of fashion designers, cafe-owners and high society movers and shakers who are rarely brought alive in Hindi cinema in quite as mellow a manner as they are here - lends it a soft allure. A finely honed script, an intriguing gallery of characters, intelligently elliptical editing and consistently good acting all around more than make up for the film's somewhat glacial veneer and occasional lack of clarity.

Onir explored various shades of issues that have forever been sidelined by the society -- people in homosexual relationships or suffering at the hands of AIDS -- in his previous ventures. This time, the National Award-winning filmmaker delves into the murky world of Delhi and the unconventional relationships that take wing in the shadow of the city's high-class lifestyle, with Shab. With his brilliant understanding of human emotions, Onir takes a leap into the "forbidden" love stories of the society with his latest venture.

'Shab' is a story about broken people on the lookout for a real connection that can lead to happiness. But they look for it in the wrong places. While Mohan (Ashish Bisht), a typical small town model looks for his bit of paradise in the arms of the rich Delhi socialite Sonal Modi (Raveen Tandon), chef Neil (Areesz Ganddi) looks for it in the arms of his 'straight' boyfriend who uses him financially as a bank and emotionally as a doormat. There's Raina (Arpita Pal), with a mysterious past who moonlights as a waitress in Neil's caf as she supports her young sister.