Josh (2000 film)

Josh
Movie poster
Directed by	Mansoor Khan
Produced by	Ganesh Jain, Ratan Jain, Balwant Singh
Written by	Mansoor Khan
Starring	Shahrukh Khan Aishwarya Rai Chandrachur Singh
Music by	Anu Malik
Cinematography	K. V. Anand
Editing by	K Dilip
Distributed by	United Seven Creations
Release dates	June 9, 2000
Language	Hindi
Budget	17 crore
Box office	33 crore [1]

Josh (Devanagari: जोश, translation: "Frenzy") is a 2000 Bollywood action crime film directed by Mansoor Khan. The film stars Shahrukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai in the lead roles, along with Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor, Priya Gill and Vivek Vaswani in supporting roles. The film released on 9 June 2000, and became the fourth highest-grossing film in India in 2000.^[2]

Plot

The film starts in a coastal state of Goa, a strange noble town called Vasco, named after Alberto Vasco, the richest man who used to live in Vasco in 1958 but has now died. The film then drops to Vasco, Goa, 1980, where there are two gangs who rule. Gang no. 1 called the Bichoos (Hindi: Scorpions), who are Hindus, while Gang no. 2 is called Eagles, who are Christians. The plot bears uncanny resemblance to West Side Story.

The Bichoo gang's leader is Prakash (Sharad Kapoor), while the Eagles are led by Max (Shah Rukh Khan). They are all enemies, they fight, run, chase, and beat. But they are usually stopped from fights by Father Jacob, or the Town Inspector (Sharat Saxena). One day Prakash's brother Rahul (Chandrachur Singh) comes to visit after 2 years, who is a master-chef working in Mumbai. Rahul loves Goa the more he sees of it, and as he tours around Vasco, he meets Shirley (Aishwarya Rai), the twin sister of Max and he falls in love with her straightaway.

Knowing about Eagles and Bicchhoo rivalry, Rahul keeps his mouth closed. He opens a pastry shop 'Treat House' and settles in Vasco. Meanwhile, he becomes part of the Eagles-Bichchoo rivalry, and gets closer to Shirley. The whole situation is unprecedented in this city, which gets all the more intriguing when Rahul comes across a secret about Max and Shirley's past; a secret that will change their lives forever, and that, which leads to a death. He comes to know that Max and Shirley were actually the illegitimate children of Alberto Vasco, the founder of the town. Rahul wants to reveal this to Shirley in a letter but due to circumstances it falls in the hands of Prakash. Prakash plans to murder Max, to get his father's lands worth Rupees 20 lacks [20 thousands]. This leads to fight sequence between both, where Max accidentally shoots Prakash while defending himself. Max is arrested and his trial puts a rift between Shirley and Rahul. Max is about to go to the gallows, but the truth is finally revealed by Rahul and he acknowledges his brother's mistake.

The story ends with a happy note while Rahul and Shirley are married, Max too marries his love interest Roseanne (Priya Gill).

Cast

Production

Aamir Khan was the original choice for the role of Rahul, but felt it was not substantial enough compared to Shahrukh Khan's role of Max.

Music

A. R. Rahman was signed in as the music director first, but he opted out, due to time constraints and other commitments.^[3] After Rahman opted out, Mansoor Khan roped in Anu Malik to complete the music fast, and release the film on time.

Reception

The PlanetBollywood gave the film 7.5/10 and wrote "Mansoor succeeds as a director in keeping the movie fast and interesting, though it is the characters who come out much stronger than the movie".^[4] Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama noted "On the whole, JOSH is a well made film with great performances and a hit musical score. But the Goan ambience will restrict its prospects in some states due to lack of identification. Also, an average second half and a weak climax are major limitations".^[5] Upon release, the film tasted the success at the box office collecting 33,00,00,000^[2]

References

External links

• Josh at the Internet Movie Database