Aazaan

Aazaan
Movie poster
Directed by	Prashant Chadha
Produced by	M. R. Shahjahan
Written by	Prashant Chadha Shubra Swarup Heeraz Marfatia.
Screenplay by	Shubra Swarup
Starring	Sachiin J Joshi Candice Boucher
Music by	Salim-Sulaiman
Cinematography	Axel Fischer BVK
Editing by	Amitabh Shukla Humphrey Dixon
Studio	JMJ Entertainment PVT LTD Alchemia Films
Release date(s)	October 14, 2011 (2011-10-14)
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Aazaan (Hindi: अज़ान, Urdu: أذان) is the 2011 action film directed by Prashant Chadha starring Sachiin J Joshi and South African model Candice Boucher. Aazaan marks the debut of entrepreneur turned actor Sachiin J Joshi of Energy Drinks and Candice Boucher who will be seen in title role.,^[1] It is one of the most expensive films in Bollywood.^[2]

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3.1 Pre-Production 3.2 Filming 3.3 Post-Production 3.4 Accidents 4 Release 5 Reception 6 Music 6.1 Audio Listing 6.2 Reception 7 Controversy 8 References 9 External links

Plot

The film begins with a suicide bombing attack in Germany Peace conference where Indian Home Minister (Sachin Khedekar) is affected by an unknown virus. In RAW headquarters, Sofiya (Amber Rose Revah) joins the investigation. RAW HQ is threatened by a threat who calls himself Doctor. In HQ, army officer Aazaan Khan (Sachiin J Joshi) is interrogated about the case because of his brother's, Aman Khan, involvement as a terrorist in the suicide bombings.

Aazaan is deployed in Waziristan to infiltrate the enemy force and to find whereabouts of his brother.

Cast

• Sachiin J Joshi as Aazaan Khan:^[3]
  Aazaan Khan, half Afghan and half Indian gets drawn into an espionage to find his younger brother a suspected terrorist. He is a young army officer and working for RAW (India's Research and Analysis Wing). Sachiin trained in Krav maga and Kalaripayatu for his role.^[4]
• Dalip Tahil as Mahfouz:
  He is a savant on a mission and is trying to save world from being destroyed by Doctor.
• Candice Boucher as Afreen:
  She is a sand-artist and she grounds Aazaan with human emotions of love. Prashant had known Candice for four years and found her perfect for role of a Moroccan girl. Acclaimed sand artist Alexandra Konofalskaya from Belarus was hired to train her for her role in the film.^[5]
• Arya Babbar as Imaad:
  He is a misled but passionate man.
• Alyy Khan as Sam Sharma
• Ravi Kissen as Pandey:
  A controversial RAW officer.
• Sachin Khedekar as Home Minister
• Sajid Hassan as Doctor:
  He is ex-CIA and into biological warfare and is determined to carry out the absolute annihilation of India.
• Samy Gharbi as Malak:
  He is tough from the inside out and loyal to Doctor.
• Vijayendra Ghatge as Home Minister
• Sarita Choudhury as Menon
• Amber Rose Revah as Sofiya:
  Prashant saw her role in From Paris With Love and sent her script of Aazaan. Being part Polish, he found her perfect for the role although she had never worked in any Polish films.^[6]
• Neet Mohan as Aman Khan

Production

Pre-Production

Cinematographer Axel Fischer BVK was called for cinematography of the film due to his experience in the field for action-thrillers. Former Playboy cover-girl Candice Boucher was signed as the lead actress opposite Sachiin J Joshi who would be playing a sand-artist in the film.^[7] Amber Rose of From Paris With Love fame will also be starring alongside. Amitabh Shukla and Humphrey Dixon were signed as the editor.^[8]

The international action company Action Concept is been given the work to direct the action stunts since the film involves shooting on multiple foreign locations.^[9]

Filming

The filming took place at multiple international locations like Morocco, Hong Kong, Algeria, Poland, France, Germany and India.^[10] The climax of the film was shot in Chechnya, Russia. Azaan is the first film to be shot in Chechnya after it became an ecological disaster zone, with oil and chemical leaking into the ground and radioactive material left lying about.^[11]

The shooting was schedule in these countries for seventy days which included many local cast to add the genuine international look to the film.^[12] During the shoot of for a torture scene in Marrakech,Morocco, Sachiin went bare bodied hours at a stretch at a temperature of 0 to −4 Celsius impressing the production crew.^[4] Alvernia Studios in Poland handled the physical production work including camera, light and music score recording.^[13]

Some of the action scenes were shot in Bangkok including stunts in which Sachiin Joshi jumped from a 55-storey tower. Some climax shots were also shot by director Prashant Chadha with the rest of the cast including Ravi Kissen and Arya Babbar.^[14]

Post-Production

The Digital Intermediate and VFX of Aazaan was done by Pixion Studios.^[15]

Accidents

• It was reported that Sachiin got injured when filming a scene where he had to lay down with a sniper, and got hit next to his eye.^[16]
• Sachiin fell of a trailer crash scene. Stunt involved Sachiin jumping off a speeding trailer but fell of much before the marking point and hit the footpath. “We all saw him jump off the trailer and hit the road hard but it all happened so fast that we couldn’t do much. Though Sachiin didn’t call it a day, after some pain killers he was back on the sets,” said the director about the accident.^[17]

Release

The first look of Aazaan was unveiled at Festival De Cannes,2011 and received an overwhelming response.^[18] The film was released on October 14, 2011.

Reception

Aazaan received mixed response from critics praising it for its polishing and music but commenting on its lack of strong plot. Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India gave the film a 3 star rating out of five praising its shoot-outs, action sequences and cinematography.^[19] IBNLive called it a movie with no content but high on style pointing flaws in the film's script.^[20] Subhash K. Jha of NDTV gave the film a 3 1/2 star rating out of five praising its screenplay and said, "Aazaan is not a film which wastes time in self-congratulation after staging one more terrorist explosion. It moves on relentlessly. The world has to be saved. Self-importance is miraculously averted."^[21]

Rediff movies gave the film 1 star out of five calling it a jerky ride and a wasted effort.^[22] Komal Nahta, one of the well known critic, also gave the film single star criticizing its confusing screenplay, the performance of the new hero and the unconvincing climax.^[23] Movie Talkies gave the film 1.5 stars calling it 'Aazaan', A Recipe For Disaster' ^[24]

Music

Aazaan
Soundtrack album by Salim-Sulaiman
Genre	Film soundtrack
Label	Xtreme Music

The music for the film is given by the duo of Salim-Sulaiman and is under Xtreme Music label^[25] and was launched by Sanjay Dutt.^[26] On IIFA Rocks the duo of Salim-Sulaiman showcased the first exclusive preview of Aazaan music performing live with host of dancers from the Shiamak Davar Institute of Performing Arts. Three songs Afreen, Bismillah and Khuda Ke Liye were performed live for audience.^[27]

Audio Listing

Reception

Music of Aazaan was received warmly. Bolywoodhungama.com praised the vocals of Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and listed Afreen and Khuda Ke Liye as their best pick from the listing awarding the album an over all of three stars our of five.^[28]

Controversy

• A group of people have filed a case against the film that it has the potential of hurting the religious sentiments of a specific community and thus the film should be banned also demanding the change of films title.^[29]
• Another problem emerged with Censor Board of China for depicting the country as India's main enemy. As a result the word China was muted out in the film.^[30]

References

External links

• Official website
• Aazaan at the Internet Movie Database