Jai Ho is a 2014 Indian action drama film directed by Sohail Khan and produced by Khan along with Sunil Lulla. The film stars Salman Khan, Tabu and newcomer Daisy Shah in lead roles alongside Danny Denzongpa as the antagonist. Sunil Shetty and Genelia D'Souza appear in cameo appearances. The film is an official remake of the 2006 Telugu film Stalin directed by A. R. Murugadoss, whilst the basic plot has been inspired from Pay it Forward.
Jai Ho released on 24 January 2014 to mixed critical reception and was a 'average grosser' at the box office.
Plot
Jai (Salman Khan), an ex-army officer, likes helping people and beats criminals single-handedly. He was a major in the Indian Army, but was suspended because of a disciplinary action after he ignored the orders of the high command and went ahead to rescue a bunch of children from terrorists. He now lives with his mother (Nadira Babbar) as well as his sister Geeta (Tabu), the two of which are not on speaking terms with each other since Geeta married a Muslim man against her mother's wish.
Jai once helped a physically disabled girl, Suman (Genelia D'Souza) to write her examination, but on another day, during one of her other examinations, no one turned up to help, despite her persistent begging. Depressed, Suman commits suicide, by jumping of the building. Disturbed by this incident, Jai feels that unlike himself, people don't help others and hence plans to start a network system that works on the concept that everyone should help three people and should ask them to help three more people and so on. Jai believes that this network will help develop a better attitude among the people but faces disappointment.
One day, Jai beats a rich man who injured a child beggar. To take revenge, the rich man employs some goons who take Jai's sister Geeta and friend Rinky (Daisy Shah) into their custody. Jai saves them and breaks the hand of a goon who happens to be the henchman of an MLA (Mukul Dev), who is also the son-in-law of Home Minister Dashrat Singh (Danny Denzongpa).
The Home Minister takes it as a prestige issue and tries to avenge Jai by kidnapping his nephew but loses his son-in-law (Mukul Dev) in the process. When the Chief Minister Ashok Pradhan (Mohnish Bahl) comes to know about Jai's concept, as his own life was been saved by a school girl, he intervenes to bring in a patch-up between Jai and Dashrat Singh. Instead, Dashrat Singh plans to kill him and frame Jai in the murder. But Jai runs away with the injured Chief Minister and saves him. Dashrat Singh's son Arjun Singh (Haroon Qazi) along with his goons attack Jai. Jai kills him but gets severely injured after getting hit by a knife that was punched in his back by Dashrat's daughter (Sana Khan) before he killed Arjun. A rickshaw driver (Mahesh Manjrekar) and army officer and former colleague Arjun Kaul (Sunil Shetty) help him to get to the hospital. Meanwhile, Dashrat Singh spreads the rumour in the media that Jai was responsible for trying to kill the Chief Minister but finally the Chief Minister recovers and reveals the truth leading to a crowd beating Dashrat Singh. Finally, the doctors successfully save Jai. Jai comes to know that his help-three-people concept worked well and the same concept saved his life. He walks out of the hospital to find thousands of people waiting for him and he thanks them all for making his concept a success. The plot of the story gives a message among the youth that one must practice and follow goodness.
Cast
Development and promotion
In late 2012, Sohail Khan announced his intention to remake the Telugu film Stalin starring Chiranjeevi and Trisha. Renaming it Mental, Sohail began to put the project into action. Shooting started on 27 February 2013 but was then postponed from February to March. Shooting began in late March 2013. The project was re-titled to Jai Ho. While there were rumors that the film would release in 3D formats, Sohail Khan said, "First, let me complete my film in the normal format. Then I'll take a call". The first poster was unveiled by Salman Khan on 6 December 2013. It consists of a digitally merged image of thousands of fans rendering a portrait of Khan and was created by his fans.
Critical reception
India Today have the movie 2 out of 5, with the comment that it is a rip off of Ek Tha Tiger with mindless action and Salman Khan show. Anupama Chopra gave the movie 2.5 out of 5, wondering if it is even a film. She further laments that it's more of a cartoon. Taran Adarsh gave it 4.5 stars out of 5 and calls it a "noble, well-intentioned message narrated in an entertaining format". Subhash K. Jha gave it 4 stars out of 5 and says, "'Jai Ho' makes for an engaging if somewhat incomplete view of present-day corruption-ridden India".
Business
Jai Ho was released on around 3900 screens in India. The domestic and overseas theatrical rights were sold for 1.10 billion (US$17Â million). Jai Ho had around 40 crore (US$6.3Â million) spend on the production side. The film cost around 65 crore (US$10Â million) including marketing and prints but not including Khan's remuneration. The film suffered losses from piracy as a pirated print of the film was uploaded on YouTube by a Dubai-based user on January 28, 2014. The video had 1,08,151 views till the time it was taken off by the video-sharing site on February 1. A better print of the film was put up on Feb 2 morning. DNA reported that Khan had requested that the ticket prices be kept at the minimum so that people could see the movie because of its message.
Domestic box office
Website Boxofficeindia.com said that Jai Ho opened well at single screens like Jodhpur, Lucknow, Indore, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and CI with occupancy of 80â€"100%, 25â€"30% better than Dhoom 3 and Chennai Express and moderately well, 50% at multiplexes of Delhi, Punjab, Bangalore and Kolkata. It had an opening day collection of around 188.0 million (US$3.0 million) nett. The second day collections were about 165 million (US$2.6 million), taking the total to 335 million (US$5.3 million). On Sunday, the film collected 262.5 million (US$4.1 million) to take its weekend total to 606.8 million (US$9.5 million). Jai Ho had a noticeable drop on Tuesday as it grossed around 7.75 crore nett taking the five day total to a little over Rs 74 crore nett. Jai Ho emerged as the fifth highest weekend of all time in terms of worldwide gross by managing to gross Rs 200 crore worldwide in three days. Jai Ho dropped further on first Wednesday with collections around Rs 5.25-5.50 crore nett to take 6-day total to 79.50 crore (US$12 million). Jai Ho had the ninth highest first week of all time as it grossed 81.72 crore (US$13 million) nett in its first week. The film nett. grossed Rs 3 crore nett on its second Friday. The film has collected Rs 90 crores nett in 9 days. Jai Ho collected Rs 13.50 crore nett in its second weekend taking its domestic total 95 crore nett in 10 days. Jai Hai has been made tax-free in Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. Jai Ho two week business was around Rs 101.50 crore nett as it crossed around Rs 21.29 crore nett in its second week. Jai ho on its third Friday had collections set to be around Rs 50 lakhs nett,with tax exemption in Gujarat also. Jai Ho grossed around Rs 2.25-2.50 crore nett in its third weekend taking the business to Rs 105.50 crore nett after seventeen days. The two week distributor share of film is Rs 56 crore. Jai Ho took its total to Rs 107 crore nett in after three weeks as it added around Rs 4 crore nett in third week.
Overseas
Bollywoodhungama estimated the first weekend overseas gross at $US3.55 million, while Box Office India estimated $3.45 million and called it "decent business". The final overseas business of Jai Ho is US$6 million, thus making it one of the highest overseas grossing Bollywood films of 2014.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Jai Ho is composed by Sajidâ€"Wajid (3 tracks), Devi Sri Prasad (1 track) and Amaal Malik (3 tracks). The soundtrack was released on December 24, 2013, consisting of nine tracks.
Track listing
All lyrics written by Sajid, Irfan Kamal, Danish Sabri, Sameer, Anjaan, Kausar Munir, Shabbir Ahmed, Armaan Malik and Devi Sri Prasad, all music composed by Sajidâ€"Wajid, Devi Sri Prasad and Amaal Malik.
