Ek Paheli Leela

Ek Paheli Leela
Official Poster
Directed by	Bobby Khan
Produced by	Bhushan Kumar Krishan Kumar Ahmed Khan Shaira Khan
Written by	Bunty Rathore (Dialouges)
Screenplay by	Jojo Khan
Story by	Bobby Khan
Starring	Sunny Leone Jay Bhanushali Rajneesh Duggal Rahul Dev Mohit Ahlawat Rahul Dev
Music by	Songs: Meet Bros Anjjan Amaal Mallik Dr. Zeus Tony Kakkar Uzair Jaswal
Cinematography	Bashalal Syed
Edited by	Nitin FCP
Production company	Paper Doll Entertaiment
Distributed by	T-Series
Release dates	10 April 2015 (2015-04-10)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	15 crore (US$2.4 million)[1]
Box office	26.57 crore (US$4.2 million)[2][3]

Ek Paheli Leela is a 2015 Bollywood musical-thriller film, written and directed by Bobby Khan and produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar. It stars Sunny Leone in the titular lead role with Jay Bhanushali, Rajneesh Duggal, Jas Arora, Mohit Ahlawat and Rahul Dev in pivotal roles. Choreography is done by Saroj Khan and Ahmed Khan. Music for the film is composed by Amaal Mallik. T-Series has acquired the music rights of the film. Principal photography of the film began in Jodhpur, India.^[4] Trailer of the film was unveiled on 6 February 2015 with the release of film Shamitabh. The trailer of the film went viral on YouTube and also topped the list of YouTube’s most viewed Bollywood movie trailers in the first quarter of 2015.^[5] The reviews criticised the script and the acting.

Plot

The movie starts with Karan (Jay Bhanushali) shifting homes in Mumbai. Karan is shown as a singer and musician who often helps his sister Radhika with music for her fashion shows. Radhika (Shivani Tanksale), is a fashion photographer who works closely with Andy (an event manager), and for a show the duo manage to get on board the sizzling Meera (Sunny Leone). Meera, is a model, whose ramp show is a big hit. Over a night of drunken revelry, Radhika and Meera bond. On the shoot next day, lights go out when Meera is alone and she faints. When Radhika takes her to doctor, she finds out that Meera is claustrophobic. On prodding, Meera reveals that her parents passed away in a plane crash which she survived. The trauma of it lingers even in her present. Meera is offered by Andy a fab shoot in Rajasthan. But since she has a fear of planes, she declines. Radhika and Andy get her drunk and bring her to India.

Meanwhile in Bombay, life is getting more difficult for Karan, who gets persistent dreams of someone whipping him. In an attempt to figure why, his friend takes him to a Pandit (Nari-Shakti Scholar) who tells him that his pain is rooted in his past life. There's an unfinished business that needs to be completed.

Meera meets Ranveer Singh (Mohit Ahlawat), a prince, in Rajasthan. The two eventually fall in love and get married. Ranveer is in middle of a property dispute with his cousin Vikram Singh (Jas Arora) - who doesn't leave one instance of leching at Meera.

Karan travels through his past and figures out that he was Shravan (Rajneesh Duggal), 300 years ago. He was in love with a girl named Leela but his master Bhairao (Rahul Dev) (known for his artistic skills) adopts her as his muse. She becomes the object of his lust. Bhairao begins making a statue of Leela. But when the statue is complete, she excitedly gets Shravan to see it. Shravan, who decides not overpower his master chides Leela for it. Bhairao discovers that Leela is in love with Shravan. In a fit of rage, Bhairao kills both Shravan and Leela. Karan travels to Jaisalmer to figure out why his past is still haunting him.

He goes to Bhairao Kaksha (a place of dispute between Ranveer and Vikram). Vikram finds Karan and he takes him to Ranveer. Meera recognizes him as he had composed songs for her ramp act before. Karan tried to tell Mira about his real intentions of excavating the truth. When Meera is eventually told by Karan about his past and their relationship then, she takes offense and asks him to leave. Karan then plays a song that takes Meera back into their past and she recognizes the incidents Karan was telling her about.

Meera and Karan gets kidnapped by Vikram who is looking for a statue that Bhairao made of Leela. The current market cost of the statue is 1000 crores and the greedy Vikram wants the moolah to himself. When there, Meera tries to recollect things from the past. When asked about the statue, Karan reveals that the statue was hidden behind a wall. When Vikram gets to the statue, he is killed by Ranveer. Karan tries to woo Meera,but Meera doesn't receive well his luring. She slaps him and makes it clear that the Ranveer is the love of her life. It turns out Karan was wrong all along. He was actually the reincarnation of Bhairao and not of Shravan (who got reincarnated in Ranveer). Karan tries to redeem his ills by committing suicide but Meera and Ranveer don't let him.

Cast

• Sunny Leone as Leela/Meera
• Rajneesh Duggal as Shravan
• Jay Bhanushali as Karan
• Mohit Ahlawat as Prince Ranveer
• Rahul Dev as Bhairao
• Jas Arora as Prince Bikram
• Shivani Tanksale as Radhika
• VJ Andy as himself
• Ahsaan Qureshi as Man Singh
• Daniel Weber as Flight attendant (Cameo)

Production

Bobby Khan will be making his directorial debut with this film. He stated that Sunny Leone was the only actress suitable for the roles and she was only the choice.^[6] He also stated that big actors refused to do the film because of Leone.^[7] Actor Mohit Ahlawat returned to films after four years.^[8]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack comprises 9 songs.^[9] Ensemble singers like Tulsi Kumar, Arijit Singh, Kanika Kapoor, Monali Thakur, Meet Bros Anjjan, Mohit Chauhan, Krishna Beura, Alam Khan, Aishwarya Majmudar, Neha Kakkar and Pakistani singer Uzair Jaswal have lent their voices for the film.^[10] The song "Dholi Taro" from the film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was remixed for a dance scene featuring Leone.^[11] The full audio album was released on 10 March 2015.

A remix album was made by DJ Chetas and was released on T-Series YouTube on 26 March 2015.

Reception

Box Office

The film was released on 10 April 2015 with estimated occupancy of 20%^[12] with greater occupancy in single screens than multiplexes.^[13] On its opening day it collected 5.30 crore (US$840,000).^[14] Followed with a little drop on Saturday on which it earned 5.20 crore (US$830,000), taking up the weekend collection to 15.85 crore (US$2.5 million). With having average word of mouth, collections dropped in week days and collected 24.28 crore (US$3.9 million) in its first week.^[15]

Critical Reception

Mid Day called it " semi-porn rubbish",^[16] while IBNLive gave it 1.5 stars stating that the dialog was full of crude sexual jokes and that it was "soft porn" emphasising the short skirts of the women and the physique of the men.^[17] The Hindustan Times said the film had a " ludicrous script" and "wooden" acting.^[18] India Today praised the cinematography and Leone's dancing.^[19] Mumbai Mirror called it " an insincere, lavish and titillating compilation of every item song ever made." ^[20] Rediff stated although the film was poorly written and had many flaws in its execution, it succeeded at its purpose of being a one-woman show to highlight Leone.^[21] Indian Express gave the film zero stars stating "all this film wants to do is to exploit its leading lady’s awe-inspiring stack... From as many angles as possible, the closer the better".^[22] NDTV called it a "vapid yarn about love, desire and obsession unfolds against good-looking backgrounds".^[23]

References

External links

• Ek Paheli Leela at the Internet Movie Database