Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty

Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	A. R. Murugadoss
Produced by	Aruna Bhatia Twinkle Khanna Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Written by	A. R. Murugadoss
Starring	Akshay Kumar Sonakshi Sinha Govinda Sumeet Raghavan
Music by	Songs: Pritam Background Score: Prasad Sashte
Cinematography	Natarajan Subramaniam
Edited by	Amitabh Shukla
Production company	Hari Om Entertainment Sunshine Pictures
Distributed by	Reliance Entertainment
Release dates	6 June 2014 (2014-06-06)
Running time	170 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹50.00 crore (US$7.4 million)[1]
Box office	₹176 crore (US$26 million)[2]

Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is a 2014 Indian action thriller film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, and produced by Vipul Shah. It features Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead roles, along with Govinda, Freddy Daruwala and Sumeet Raghavan in supporting roles. It is a remake of the 2012 Tamil Action film Thuppakki which was also directed by A. R. Murugadoss.^[3] The film released on 6 June 2014,^[4] becoming the biggest nett grosser of the first half of 2014.^[5][6] Akshay Kumar was nominated Filmfare Award for Best Actor at 60th Filmfare Awards.

Plot

Virat Bakshi (Akshay Kumar), Captain in D.I.A., a wing of Indian Army, returns to his home in Mumbai on a holiday. On his arrival, his parents rush him to see Saiba Thapar (Sonakshi Sinha), who they wanted him to marry. But Virat rejects her with an excuse that she is old fashioned and not his type. On the contrary, Saiba is a professional boxer, and is completely modern in her outlook. Virat notices her in a boxing match and falls for her instantly.

One day, while traveling in a bus with his friend sub-inspector Mukund "Makhiya" Deshmukh (Sumeet Raghavan), Virat witnesses a bomb explosion killing innocent people. Virat manages to capture the man who planted the bomb but he escapes from the hospital with the help of a police officer. Virat kidnaps the terrorist again and also forces corrupt police officer Ashok Gaikwad (Gireesh Sahedev) to commit suicide. He later discovers that a terrorist group has planned, serial blasts in Mumbai in a couple of days with the help of 12 sleeper agents. Along with his fellow Army officers and Mukund, Virat manages to track these bombers and kills them before they could trigger the bombs.

When the leader of these sleeper cells (Freddy Daruwala) finds out about the team of officers involved in the failure of the terrorist attack, he begins to target their families by kidnapping someone close to them. When Virat realizes the plan, he substitutes one of the girl to be kidnapped, with his younger sister Priti (Cherry Mardia). Using his pet dog Rocky and his sister's dupatta, he manages to reach the terrorist's hideout. He eliminates all the terrorists and rescues all the victims including his sister, who was about to be killed after Virat's bluff was exposed. Virat also captures Asif Ali (Dipendra Sharma), who was the leader of the group but later kills him on realizing that Asif is just the second-in-command of the sleeper cell.

When this attack fails, the terrorist leader decides to target Virat himself. He kills Kapil, one of the army officers and forces Virat to surrender. Virat decides to sacrifice his life and plans a suicide attack by instructing Mukund and his fellow officers to follow him via a tracking chip inserted in his arm and plant a bomb at the terrorist's hideout. Virat then drives to a port in various cars, as told by the leader and ends up on a ship full of terrorists. To his surprise, Virat finds out that the cars he was asked to drive had bombs in them, which will frame him and his team as terrorists and also boost their plans to recruit sleeper cells in Indian Army with the help of Joint Defense Secretary of India — Mr. Alvin D'souza (Zakir Hussain), who is also a member of this terrorist group. Virat has a one-on-one fight with the leader and escapes on a boat before the ship explodes, also later killing the leader. The film ends with Virat forcing Alvin D'souza to commit suicide and later returning to border along with his team.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Virat, Captain in D.I.A., a wing of Indian Army.^[7]
• Sonakshi Sinha as Saiba Thapar, a boxer.^[8]
• Sumeet Raghavan as Mukund Deshmukh, Virat's friend also an Sub Inspector, Mumbai Police.
• Freddy Daruwala as The leader of the sleeper cells.^[9]
• Govinda as Pratap, Virat Bakshi's Senior Commanding Officer (Cameo Appearance).
• Zakir Hussain as Alvin D'souza.
• Gireesh Sahedev^[7] as ACP Ashok Gaikwad (cameo)
• Dipendra Sharma as Asif Ali
• Maroof Raza in special appearance.
• Cherry Mardia as Priti, Virat Bakshi's sister

Production

The film's production commenced in 2013 with the working title of Pistol under the banner of Hari Om Entertainment and Sunshine Pictures. The songs are composed by Pritam Chakraborty, while the background score is composed by Prasad Sashte. The stunt coordinator of the film is Greg Powell.^[10]

The production budget of Holiday is around ₹30 crore (US$4.4 million) without Akshay Kumar remuneration, print and advertising costs.^[11] According to director A. R. Murugadoss, Akshay's role is that of an Army officer for which Akshay lost some weight to fit in the role and to look 12 years younger from his real biological age. Kumar also sported a crew-cut hairstyle for his role.^[12] Whilst Sonakshi will play a role of boxer and Virat (Kumar's) love interest Saiba.^[8] Model and debutant Freddy Daruwala will play the main antagonist pitted against Kumar.^[9]

The film was originally scheduled for a release in early May 2014, which would have clashed with the release of Action Jackson.^[13] However, Action Jackson released on 5 December 2014, while Holiday released on 6 June 2014.

Music

Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty
Soundtrack album by Pritam Chakraborty
Released	30 May 2014 (2014-05-30)
Genre	Feature Film Soundtrack
Length	29:42
Label	Zee Music Company
Pritam Chakraborty chronology
Shaadi Ke Side Effects (2014) Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty (2014) Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)

The songs featured in the film were composed by Pritam. Additional songs featured in the audio CD were composed by Kaushik Dutta. The lyrics were written by Irshad Kamil for the songs featured in the film. Sukumar Dutta wrote the lyrics for Kaushik Dutta's compositions which were featured in the audio cd only.

Prasad Sashte composed the background score of the movie.

Track listings

Critical reception

The movie has received positive reviews from the critics. ABP News similarly rated it 4.5/5,calling it a"fast paced,exhilarating roller coaster ride"^[14] Taran Adarsh gave 4/5 and states that it is a slick action-thriller that keeps you engrossed, enthralled and captivated all through, thanks to its fascinating premise and a watertight, razor-sharp screenplay.^[15]
The Times Of India gave the movie 3.5 rating describing it as This one applauds the jawans who live in the jaws of death, and is a 'wake up' call for all the 'sleepers' that abound. Bravo!"" ^[16] Rachel Saltz of The New York Times stated that "The action sequences mostly have tension and punch, even if the movie is old-school long — 2 hours 41 minutes — and the plot doesn’t bear too much scrutiny".^[17] The romantic angle of the movie was criticised.^[18] Hindustan Times praised the performance of Akshay Kumar.^[19] Filmfare critic praised the movie as, "Genuinely smart action thriller" ^[20]

Box Office

The film collected ₹112.65 crore (US$17 million) nett in its theatrical run at the Domestic box office.^[21] Box Office India declared it a "SuperHit" in India.

References

External links

• Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty at the Internet Movie Database