Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal

Goal!

Theatrical poster
Directed by Vivek Agnihotri
Produced by Ronnie Screwvala
Written by Anurag Kashyap
Rohit Malhotra
Vikramaditya Motwane
Starring John Abraham
Bipasha Basu
Arshad Warsi
Shernaz Patel
Boman Irani
Music by Pritam
Cinematography Attar Singh Saini
Editing by Hemal Kothari
Release date(s) 23 November 2007
Running time 167 mins
Country India
Language Hindi

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal (English: Get Set Goal) is a 2007 Bollywood film. It was released on 29 November 2007, produced by Ronnie Screwvala and directed by Vivek Agnihotri for UTV Motion Pictures. The film stars John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani. The film's soundtrack is composed by Pritam with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal is a contemporary fictional story of the South Asian community in the UK, told through the prism of professional football.

Contents

Plot

Southall United Football Club, composed entirely of South Asian players, is facing its deepest crisis ever. It is bankrupt, with no stars, no coach, no sponsors, no spectators and, most importantly, no owner. When the club falls behind on the lease payments for its home ground, the city council sends a notice ordering it to vacate the ground so that it can be demolished to make way for a commercial complex. South Asian football commentator Johnny Bakshi (Dalip Tahil) serves as the frontman for the council, and although he pays lip-service to the contrary, very much looks forward to the demise of Southall United and the construction of the complex. The club has only one way to save itself, its home ground and its honour – win the Combined Counties Football League championship and its prize money of £3 million, a very tall task indeed.

Southall United captain Shaan Ali Khan (Arshad Warsi) takes on the challenge of trying to save the club. First, he convinces a disesteemed ex-player, Tony Singh (Boman Irani) to become the team's coach, despite its being branded the laughing stock of English football. Shaan and Tony set about rebuilding the tattered club, and the team works hard to prepare for its first match.

Meanwhile, Sunny Bhasin (John Abraham) is an ace striker who wishes to one day play for the England national football team. However, his dreams are shattered when he is cut by Aston, an English football team consisting entirely of white players, on account of his skin colour. Sunny has always disregarded his Indian background and considered Southall United to be a joke of a club, and initially rejects outright an offer from Tony to play for Southall United. However, after Sunny's humiliating rejection by Aston, Tony again approaches him. Telling Sunny he is sad but not shocked about what happened with Aston, he again offers him a place at Southall United. Sunny, though, again turns Tony down, boasting that no Southall player can tackle him and that he could score against them in 10 seconds flat. In response, Tony challenges Sunny to a ten-minute match in which Sunny must steal the ball from Tony; Tony defeats Sunny handily, proving that although he has been discredited, he has not lost his skills. Seeing that he still has much to learn, Sunny finally agrees to join Southall United. The other members of the club, especially Shaan, are not happy that Sunny has become their teammate, as on many previous occasions he had vandalized their homes and shops, but they eventually warm to him somewhat.

With Sunny on board, Southall United begins its climb up the Combined Counties points standings. With success after success, the team is elated. To go along with his success with the club, Sunny has also managed to gain the affections of Rumana (Bipasha Basu), Shaan's sister and the club's physical therapist, much to the captain's chagrin. Nonetheless, Southall keeps winning, worrying Johnny Bakshi and the Southall city council.

Johnny devises a scheme to lure Sunny away from Southall United in order to deprive the team of its ace striker and, by extension, victories. He convinces Sunny to sign a lucrative contract to play for Millwall F.C. Shaan and the rest of the club are angered by his betrayal, and Rumana is heartbroken. However, Johnny's plan backfires when Sunny learns that his father, who had been staunchly against his son's football career, had been a Southall United supporter and had survived a beating at the hands of whites outside of a bar when Southall had last contended for the Combined Counties championship back in 1985. Moreover, the man who he had saved from that beating was none other than Tony Singh, the current coach of Southall United.

Realizing his mistake, Sunny returns to Southall and resolves to stand up for his rights and that of South Asians all over the UK. The team ultimately claims the Combined Counties title, preventing the city council's plan to demolish its stadium.

Cast

Crew

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for the film was released on November 2007. It has been given a rating of 3 out of 5 on indiaFm.com.[1]

Lyrics by Javed Akhtar. Background score by Sanjoy Chowdhury, the son of late Maestro Sri Salil Chowdhury.

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
Studio album by Pritam Chakraborty
Released
23 November 2007 (India)
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Label
T-Series
Producer Ronnie Screwvala
Professional reviews

The reviews parameter has been deprecated. Please move reviews into the “Reception” section of the article. See Moving reviews into article space.

Music Review at IndiaFM.com

Pritam Chakraborty chronology
Life In A... Metro
(2007)
Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal
(2007)
Singh Is Kinng
(2008)
Song Singer(s) Duration Notes
Billo Rani Anand Raj Anand, Richa Sharma 5:33 Picturised on John Abraham, Bipasha Basu, Sana Khan, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani
Halla Bol Daler Mehndi 5:05
Hey Dude Devrat 5:00 Picturised on John Abraham & Arshad Warsi
Ishq Ka Kalma Neeraj Shridhar 4:44 Picturised on John Abraham & Bipasha Basu
Tara Ru Javed 3:51
Billo Rani (Remix) Anand Raj Anand, Richa Sharma 4:42

Response

Indiafm.com gave the film 3 Out of 5, saying that "On the whole, Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal has an ordinary first hour, but the post-interval portions, especially the exhilarating climax, makes up for everything."[2] Joginder Tuteja of IndiaGlitz gave 3.5 of 5 stars stating the film is "One more sports anthem in 2007".[3]

Production

The film had the working title of Goal until August 2007.[4]

Casting

Originally Saif Ali Khan was offered the role of Sunny Bhasin but he declined due to issues with date problems.

Boman Irani left the movie set for one day to be on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Kaun Banega Crorepati), to be Sanjay Dutt's partner. Later on the show he performed a prank with Dutt on his co-star Arshad Warsi.

Locations

The film was shot in Southall & Brick Lane, England.

While the film was being shot at the Millwall Football Club, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai made a surprise appearance to watch the filming of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal[5][6]

Old Trafford the stadium of Manchester United F.C. is shown during a scene where Tony tries to inspire the players to play for more than themselves for honour, glory and pride by telling them the story of the Munich Air Disaster and how Manchester United fought through the odds. The cast got to shoot inside the dressing room too.

Release

A sneak peek of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal was unveiled at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival[7]

Reebok launched an exclusive collection of football gear called the GOAL Collection.

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal was released in India & Pakistan on same day.

Sequel

After the release of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal, director Vivek Agnihotri announced that there will be a sequel to the film. The sequel will have the same principal cast of John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Bipasha Basu and Boman Irani. The film is yet to begin production however, it has been confirmed by Agnihotri and Abraham. The sequel's working title is Goal 2.[8][9]

See also

References

External links