Rascals (film)

Rascals

Theatrical release poster
Directed by David Dhawan
Produced by Sanjay Dutt
Sanjay Ahluwalia
Vinay Choksey
Screenplay by Yunus Sajawal
Starring Sanjay Dutt
Ajay Devgn
Kangna Ranaut
Arjun Rampal
Lisa Haydon
Music by Vishal-Shekhar
Cinematography Vikas Sivaraman
Editing by Nitin Rokade
Distributed by Eros Entertainment
Release date(s) October 6, 2011 (2011-10-06)
Country India
Language Hindi

Rascals is an Bollywood action comedy film, directed by David Dhawan and produced by Sanjay Dutt, Sanjay Ahluwalia and Vinay Choksey. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Kangana Ranaut, Lisa Haydon and Arjun Rampal in lead roles, and is distributed under the Sanjay Dutt Productions Pvt. Ltd. and M/s Rupali Aum Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. banners. It was presented by Bharat Shah.[1]The film released on 6 October 2011 and was a critical and commercial failure.[2]

Contents

Plot

Chetan Chauhan (Sanjay Dutt) and Bhagat Bhosle (Ajay Devgan) are two con artists, who have recently robbed Anthony Gonsalves (Arjun Rampal). Bhagat first meets Anthony and steals his suitcase, covering it up with a fake suitcase of his own, and tries to leave with it, but the real suitcase accidentally comes out of the fake one, causing Anthony to chase Bhagat, who escapes. When Anthony goes to his car, he finds out that someone stole it. Chetan takes the car to a dealer, who changes the color of the car to fool Anthony in case he comes.

The two cons meet each other on a flight to Bangkok. Bhagat brags to Chetan that he is going to meet a girl named Dolly(Lisa Haydon), who he has paid for 4 nights and 3 days. Bhagat even tells Chetan the code word for meeting Dolly. When they reach the airport in Bangkok, both rob each other, but only Chetan is successful, as he gets Bhagat's cash and expensive watch, while Bhagat gets Chetan's fake wallet with fake money and fake credit cards. The two become enemies since then. But both meet again when their eyes fall on Khushi (Kangna Ranaut). Chetan lies that he is a donor, who helps the needy, while Bhagat acts to be a blind man, who was once a Navy officer. Both of them play foul tricks to get Khushi, which leads to disastrous results! Later, Bhagat gets hurt in an accident with his motorbike, and claims that the shock repaired his eyesight. After a party, Bhagat, Khushi, and Chetan go to a church while they are drunk, where they meet father Pascal(Satish Kaushik).

Khushi says she wants to marry both Bhagat and Chetan, but Father Pascal says that only one will marry Khushi, and the two must fight each other in the ring. The two fight, while accidentally hitting Father Pascal in the process. Chetan and Bhagat eventually get unconscious, and wake up to find Pascal beaten up(by the cons themselves), and Khushi is missing. Soon, Anthony greets the two cons, and tells them that he has kidnapped Khushi. If they want her, they need to give him the money that they stole from him in 24 hours. The two first go to a local bank in Bangkok, and tries to tell the bankers to give them money. The bankers get confused by what they mean, and tells them about their loan policy. Soon, a group of real robbers come to the bank. One of them insults Bhagat and Chetan, and the two fight back, taking out all the robbers in the process. As the cons try to leave with the cash, a banker stops them and asks for it back. Later, they steal money dressed as Santa, and goes to Anthony's plane. Anthony gives them Khushi. When the cons ask Khushi who does she love more, she goes straight to Anthony. The two cons were actually conned by Anthony, Khushi(Anthony's girlfriend), Father Pascal(Khushi's real father),and BBC(A friend of Anthony).

Later when Anthony reaches back home in India, he realizes that Bhagat and Chetan had stole from his own home to give him the ransom money, thus conning him of his own cash.

Cast

Production

Film was originally set to release on 15 July 2011 alongside Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara but was delayed and was set to release on 12 August 2011. Later, the film was announced to release on Diwali, 26 October, thus clashing with Shahrukh Khan's production, Ra.One. The film was later given to 6 October 2011, thus having a Dussehra release.

Reception

Critical Reception

Rascals has been panned by critics all around. Top film critic Rajeev Masand from CNN-IBN said that it is a third-rate comedy that borders on the offensive, and criticized the fact that it makes light of everything from starving orphans in Somalia to the physically handicapped.[3] rediff.com's Sukanya Verma called Rascals "a series of misadventures that are dumb, dated and dreary", and gave it 1.5 stars out of 5.[4] NDTV rated it the same, said that its gags are tasteless and devoid of originality.[5] Manisha Lakhe from DNA was quite scathing - she said that "smashing your toes by a hammer would be more entertaining", rating the movie 1 out of 5.[6] Gaurav Malani from The Times of India gave it a negative review calling the film a a silly and stupid comedy!.[7] Komal Nahta gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 adding: "Rascals is a poor comedy which will fail to make its mark."[8] Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times gave the film 1 star out of 5. ending his review by: "Credits start rolling. Nonsense ends. Poof. Thank you." [9]

Box Office

upon release, Rascals took a good opening at the box office, having 60%-70% collections across the country for early shows at multiplexes. However the film opened to full houses in single screens.[10] It collected Rs 7 crores net on it opening day. Rascals had a fall on Monday as it grossed around 5.25 crore nett, taking its The eight day first week to a Rs 59 crore nett gross. It dropped by 85-90% at the start of its second week as it managed to collect 3 crore on its second Friday, thus taking a 2.75 crore nett in its second weekend.[11][12] The film has collected 3.75 crore nett it its second week and had a two week total of 67.50 crore nett.[13] Rascals had a good opening of around $750,000 in Overseas. The film grossed £118,000 in United Kingdom, $165,000 in North America, $225,000 in UAE and $40,000 in Australia.

Soundtrack

The film's music has been composed by Vishal-Shekhar while lyrics penned by Irshad Kamil and Anvita Dutt Guptan. The rights were sold to Venus Music.

No. Title Singer(s) Length
1. "Rascals"   Neeraj Shridhar 4:25
2. "Parda Nasheen"   Neeraj Shridhar, Sunidhi Chauhan 4:23
3. "Tik Tuk"   Daler Mehndi, Monali Thakur, Vishal Dadlani 3:53
4. "Shake It Saiyyan"   Sunidhi Chauhan, Haji Springer 3:54
5. "Rascals (Dance Mix)"   Neeraj Shridhar, Vishal Dadlani 4:08
6. "Shake It Saiyyan (Hip Hop Mix)"   Sunidhi Chauhan, Haji Springer 3:50

Controversy

Rascals faced legal problems when the multiplex giant Cinemax filed a legal suit against the producers of the film Vinay Choksey and Sanjay Ahluwalia. The said suit demanded a stay order on the release of the film. Confirming this, Vinay Choksey says, "Yes it is true that Cinemax has filed a law suit against us. However, the amount of Rs. 2 crore was taken for a totally different reason and Rascals is in no way a part of that sum. It is just an arm twisting technique that they are employing to recover that sum." [14]

References

External links