Gunday

Gunday (English: Outlaws or Goons) is a 2014 Indian action crime thriller film written and directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film featured Priyanka Chopra Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor in the lead roles with Irrfan Khan in supporting role. The film starts off in the 1970s, with a young Bikram and Bala, who become gun carriers and coal bandits. They ultimately grow up to become the most powerful goons of Calcutta. The film was released on 14 February 2014.

The film also released in Bengali with a full Bengali soundtrack also composed by Sohail Sen. Though, in some of the Bengali songs, the singers differ from the original. This will also be the first Indian film to have its trailer premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival.

Plot

The film opens with the historic independence of Bangladesh and after the third Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. Starving, two kids named Bikram and Bala are taken in by a man named Lateef (Pankaj Tripathi), who offers them to work for him, and illegally smuggle guns to other men. He cares for them until one day an army officer that they give guns to, tells Lateef to leave one of the two boys behind to work as his child sex slave or otherwise he'll take Lateef's daughter. Bikram hears this and tells Lateef that he'll stay behind in order to save Bala, his friend. Bala then comes back to save Bikram and kills the army officer. The two boys then run away, as Lateef is killed by the police.

They arrive at Kolkata by train and start their livelihood by working at a small restaurant. Bala gets into a fight with the owner who slaps him, scolds him and calls him a refugee. They start looting coal from trains and selling it in the market for a lower price. Then Bala slaps the owner of restaurant and warns him. As they grow up, Bikram (Ranveer Singh) and Bala (Arjun Kapoor) have started looting whole coal trains. In this process, they kill famous coal trader Divakar, (Deepraj Rana), who calls them "refugees" and does illegal coal trades. But their hearts always yearn for their own identity in India, with the boys believing they are Indians. On their journey from gun couriers to coal bandits and new businessmen, they convert all their illegal trades to legal business with the help of Kali Kaka (Saurabh Shukla), they become town heroes, building schools and hospitals. They also provide work and help to the poor, thus becoming white collared and good hearted 'Gunday'. A.C.P. Satyajeet Sarkar (Irrfan Khan) who is now summoned to Kolkata to catch Bikram and Bala, however, with the brothers successful in covering their tracks, Sarkar warns them that he will arrest them the day he finds a single piece of evidence against them.

Then Nandita (Priyanka Chopra), a cabaret dancer, enters the boys' lives and both Bikram and Bala fall in love with her. They decide that whomever she loves will marry her. After some persistent wooing, Nandita calls them to a theater where Bala gets into a quarrel with a person over a comment on her and subsequently kills the man. Bikram asks Bala to run away for now so that he can be safe and promises not to meet Nandita until he returns. Nandita tells Bikram she is in love with him and if he does not come to Durga Puja, she will never see him again. Bikram agrees to the meet, however, Bala finds out about this through one of his henchmen, Himanshu, (Anant Sharma) and returns to Kolkata during Durga Puja. On spotting Bikram and Nandita together, Bala shoots at Bikram in rage after blaming him of breaking his promise, but misses and the bullet hits Nandita. She is rushed to hospital and survives, but Bikram and Bala's friendship is damaged in the process.

Bala then finds out that all their business is in Bikram's name, hence he angrily calls Bikram and asks for equal partition of the business. He agrees and transfers half the business to Bala. Bala then talks about dividing Nandita between them, with the "winner" getting to marry her. Bikram gets angry and they both start fighting. Bikram wins but spares Bala, as Bala once saved Bikram when they were kids. Bikram warns Bala not to bother Nandita or he will kill him. Bikram and Nandita decide to get married but she gets kidnapped by Bala. Bikram then joins hands with Sarkar and goes against Bala. Nandita feels bad for Bala as he wants to marry her and warns her that if she won't dump Bikram, he'll kill her. She then explains to him that she still loves Bikram, explaining the characteristics that Bikram has that Bala doesn't. Bala lets Nandita leave, as he realises his mistake. Nandita is then revealed to be an under cover police officer working for Sarkar, and is helping him to get Bikram and Bala separated. Meanwhile, Bikram gets to know about the true identity of Nandita as well as the man who Bala "killed" is also alive, with the man also a police officer. Nandita tried to convince Bikram otherwise, but Bikram believes that the police system were responsible for destroying his and Bala's innocence and childhood. Nandita wants Bikram to surrender but he refuses and goes away to reunite Bala.

Bala gets trapped by his own henchmen Himanshu who is the late coal bandit's brother, who was killed by Bikram and Bala. Bikram rescues Bala and they kill Himanshu. Both get reunited but find themselves surrounded by police, spearheaded with Sarkar and Nandita. After a long chase they both get cornered by Sarkar and Nandita. Nandita tries to convince Bikram that she is truly in love with him and he should surrender, whilst Sarkar also tries to convince Bala to surrender. But to their surprise, Bikram and Bala spot a train passing by and start running to catch it. Sarkar and Nandita then start firing bullets at them. The film ends with bullets fired towards them but it does not reveal that they were killed or not.

Cast

• Ranveer Singh as Bikram Bose

Darshan Gurjar as young Bikram

• Arjun Kapoor as Bala Bhattacharya

Jayesh Vijay Kardak as young Bala

• Priyanka Chopra as Nandita Sengupta
• Irrfan Khan as A.C.P. Satyajeet Sarkar
• Saurabh Shukla as Kaali Kaka
• Pankaj Tripathi as Lateef
• Victor Banerjee as DCP of Calcutta
• Anant Vidhaat (Sharma) as Himanshu
• Deepraj Rana as Divakar

Production

Development

In August 2012, Ali Abbas Zafar stated that the film would be titled Gunday and starts in the 1970s with young Bikram and Bala who grow up to be famous goons of Calcutta.

Casting

Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor were given the lead roles of Bikram and Bala, Ali Abbas Zafar revealed. Priyanka Chopra as the lead actress, as she would play the love interest of the male actors and special task force agent in later scenes. Zafar also commented that both the lead actors will be seen as Bengali per the way the film is set, during the birth of Bangladesh. Both Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor debuted with YRF banner, with Band Baaja Baaraat and Ishaqzaade, respectively. The actors had undergone physical training to fit their roles. Actor Irrfan Khan was selected for the role of a Police officer in the film where Khan stated "I will be playing a 'larger than life' character in the film". Later, actor Sushant Singh was hired for a cameo role in the film.

Filming

The film was primarily shot in Mumbai at Yash Raj Studios followed by long schedule in Kolkata. Lead actor Ranveer Singh got hurt a few times while shooting the film, including twice when shooting the song Jashn-E-Ishqa. He was then hurt when he banged heads with another person. Singh was hurt for a third time, this time on a bigger scale, when he injured his foot. There were two days left, so quite a few sequences in the song were shot with a group of people holding Singh's injured foot while he performed his moves. Singh also injured himself while shooting after falling from height; he was rushed to the nearest hospital. During filming in Kolkata, some old native professionals were hired to create the set for the Durga Puja song sequence under the Howrah Bridge to give it a realistic look of the 1980s. Part of the song Jashn-E-Ishqa was shot on the Howrah Bridge, with Ranveer, Arjun, and a gang of bikers. The sequence, as Ranveer said, was "not easy to execute, the team was under a lot of pressure [and] we only had a very specific time slot. We literally blocked all the traffic on Howrah Bridge. There was a lot of stress. But, we lucked out of it." The film unit had been shooting at Khottadih Colliery area, Asansol-Durgapur Police area of Eastern Coalfields Limited. Four people, including three crew members, on their way to the shoot were injured when the Toyota Innova they were travelling in collided head-on with a truck on NH-2 near Bansra in Raniganj Police Station area on 21 September 2013. The truck driver fled but both the vehicles were seized. The production team turned back to Mumbai for the shoot after finishing schedule in Kolkata. Priyanka Chopra had done a Cabaret number named Aslaam-E-Ishqum in the movie. Also the song Jiya has been filmed at locations around in Oman as a part of movies last schedule. Bappi Lahiri worked with Yash Raj Films for the first time for this movie. The film was edited by Rameshwar S. Bhagat.

Promotion

The teaser trailer of Gunday was released on 21 November 2013, while the theatrical trailer was released on 13 December 2013 via video uploading site YouTube. A trailer was shown with Dhoom 3 on 20 December 2014. The official trailer of the movie inaugurated at the Dubai International Film Festival on 14 December 2013.

The world premier of the film was held in Dubai on 12 February 2014 at the Meydan IMAX with the full cast in attendance. The film released on 14 February in 2800 screens across India; with the Bengali version releasing in 50 or less screens.

The film's promotions also took place in major metros of the country while the biggest being in New Delhi visit to Kirori Mal College in Delhi University which attracted more than 15000+ students, the highest till date for any film promotion. As an alumnus of the college, the director, Ali Abbas Zafar. The cast performed on the songs 'Tune Maari Entriyaan' whereas both Arjun and Ranveer performed on Jashn-e-Ishqa. They also answered the questions about their film asked by celebrity anchor Bharat Jain.

Release and reception

The world premier of the film was held in Dubai on 12 February 2014 at the Meydan IMAX. The film released on 14 February in 2800 screens across India; with the Bengali version releasing in 50 or less screens.

The teaser trailer of Gunday was released on 21 November 2013, while the theatrical trailer was released on 13 December 2013 via video uploading site YouTube. A trailer was shown with Dhoom 3 on 20 December 2013. The official trailer of the movie inaugurated at the Dubai International Film Festival on 14 December 2013.

Pakistan stopped issuing No-Objection Certificates to Indian films in early 2014 pending legislative changes which meant that Gunday was not allowed to be screened there. Despite of performing quite well in box office, the Assamese language film Raag was removed after one week run in the theaters of Assam under allegtions that Yash Raj Films had pressured the removal to make room for Gunday. This led to a controversy against Bollywood movies generally trying to suppress regional films.

The narration about the story's background at the beginning of the movie, which says that Bangladesh was created through a war between India and Pakistan, lead to a campaign initiated by Bangladeshis on social media calling for the production house to apologize for its representation of Bangladeshis and redact portions of the film, as well as criticizing the film's historical accuracy about the Bangladesh Liberation War. A week later, Yash Raj Films made an official apology.

As of 7 October 2014, Gunday is #1 on imdb's Bottom 100 list, making it the least liked movie ever made, based on user ratings. The movie achieved the mere score of 1.8 on the website.

Critical reception

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it 3.5/5 and stated, "On the whole, Gunday has a credible story to tell, is packed with unexpected twists that keep you on the edge and offers entertainment in large doses. This racy, gripping masala fare is sure to hit the pot of gold at the box-office!" The Hindustan Times' Anupama Chopra rated the film 3/5 and said "Gunday has an 'angry young man swagger'. Though the story is set in the 1980s, Zafar recreates a classic ’70s vibe with punchy dialogue-baazi, scenes designed to make you applaud and doinng that relentlessly. She stated the film as a "unabashed love letter to the 1970s". She also praised the performances of Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor, the two lead characters. Mohar Basu of Koi Moi gave the movie 3.5/5 stars and noted, "I won’t question the novelty of the attempt because the film was clearly an ode to an extremely inspiring era of crackling work in cinema. But, Ali Abbas Zafar doesn’t match up to the tall promises of giving us a wholesome lip smackingly satisfying commercial film that is not sloppily written. Gunday gets hammy on multiple occasions and in over 2 and half hours of its run time, it fails to swell to the height that was expected of it. It is only Ranveer-Arjun’s easy chemistry, a spirited effort of not resorting to remakes and Irrfan Khan’s subtle rendering of the astute cop that works for me here." Srijana Mitra Das of Times of India gave the movie 3.5/5 stars saying, "Gunday's fun while it lasts. Bala and Bikram's chemistry is literally fleshed out well - don't miss the cheeky salaam to Salman Khan when their shirts fly off - and you giggle as they're scolded, "Daant mat dikhao!". More depth and more fire would've sharpened this film, but Gunday offers glitter coating a grim tale." Rohit Khilnani from India Today gave the movie 3.5 stars and reported, "It's packed with action, emotions, friendship, drama and some terrific performances." Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV gave the movie 2/5 stars and wrote, "It really is difficult to keep a two-and-a-half-hour film from losing its wheels when its engine room is bereft of the propellant of genuine inspiration. Gunday is like the dusty minefields it is set in. Its loud explosions deliver loads of coal, but no trace of any diamonds." As of June 2014, the film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 100% based on 5 reviews.

Box office

According to boxofficeindia.com, the film started off doing well in Northern Central and Eastern India as it was responsible for about 60% of the viewers. The movie had beaten the collections of some of the biggest openers of 2014, with the help of solid collections from East Punjab areas, due to there being a holiday. The movie had collected 150 million (US$2.4 million) as per early estimates, along with a large amount of collections coming from multiplexes than single screens. Gunday had a drop in collection gross on day 2, as it was Valentine's Day when the movie was released, collecting about 110 million (US$1.7 million). The first weekend it collected about 500 million (US$7.9 million) bringing Sunday business at 140 million (US$2.2 million). On Monday, boxofficeindia.com stated the movie collected about 60 million (US$940,000). The movie gathered up to 590 million (US$9.3 million) domestically, with boxofficeindia saying the film had done good to reasonable business in most circuits, while under-performing in Southern and Eastern markets. The first weekend worldwide total gross was around 680 million (US$11 million). On the eighth day, the film had a steep drop of 85% and collected 20 million (US$310,000). Its two week box office collections were reported as 710 million (US$11 million) nett. End of third week Gunday collected 780.42 million (US$12 million) and sets a February record in Box-Office India. Final collection ended at 1.20 billion (US$19 million) of movies box office at worldwide run.

Soundtrack

Gunday's music was made by composer Sohail Sen, while its lyrics were penned by Irshad Kamil and Sanjay. Jashn-E-Ishqa was released on 26 December 2013, followed by the release of the soundtrack and other songs. Jashn-E-Ishqa is the introductory song to Gunday and was formerly named Rang-De-Ishqa. Jashn-E-Ishqa is said to be, as described by Kapoor, "a celebration of love, of brotherhood, the whole film is defined by it. It's the Bikram and Bala's theme".

Original soundtrack

The original version of Gunday's soundtrack was composed by Sohail Sen, while the lyrics were written by Irshad Kamil, except where noted. The original version of the soundtrack was released on 10 January 2014.

Bengali soundtrack

The Bengali version of Gunday's soundtrack is composed by Sohail Sen, while the lyrics are written by Sanjay, except where noted. This version of the soundtrack released on 18 January 2014. Some singers remain the same for both versions, while others are only in the Bengali version.

Reception of soundtrack

The Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3.5 stars and noted: "Sohail Sen seems to have finally got his act right. His songs have immense popular appeal, substance and the right blend of melody and contemporary styles."

Joginder Tuteja from Rediff.com gave it 3.5 stars and said: "Composer Sohail Sen does well to fuse it with Western arrangements while ensuring the overall tune is catchy. Even though not all songs are chart-buster material, Gunday offers a lot of variety in its soundtrack."

The Hindustan times rated the album with 3.5 stars and said, "set in the 1970s, the soundtrack of the movie, which features Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra in the lead roles, boasts of 10 tracks, including a rap, a cabaret number, a classical and a Bangla version of Tune Maari Entriyaan. Gunday has songs for every mood and music lovers couldn't have asked for more."

References

External links

• Official website
• Gunday at the Internet Movie Database