Karwaan
Karwaan is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language road comedy-drama film written and directed by debutant Akarsh Khurana, and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Priti Rathi Gupta. The film stars Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar. It marks the Bollywood debut of Salmaan, and was also Khan's penultimate film before his death in April 2020. It was released on 3 August 2018 and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics.
Plot
Avinash Rajpurohit works for an IT company in Bengaluru. He is dissatisfied with his job and his boss, and was forced into it by his father Prakash, whom he did not have a good relationship with, and who was unsupportive of Avinash's passion for photography. One night a travel agency calls him to inform him that his father has died in a road accident, and that the body will be despatched to him. He takes delivery of a corpse and hands it over to his van driver friend Shaukat. As they are about to cremate it, they discover that it is the body of an old woman. Avinash is informed that the corpse with him is that of the mother of Tahira, a widow who lives in Kochi, and that Prakash's corpse and personal effects are with her. The two decide to travel to Kochi to exchange the corpses.Avinash and Shaukat set out when Tahira calls them, saying that her teenage daughter Tanya has gone incommunicado, possibly due to shock after hearing her grandmother's news. They go to Tanya's college in Ooty, where Avinash meets her trying to leave the hostel. Initially she is aloof and irritable, angering Shaukat, but he agrees to take her along. En route, they discover that along with the corpse is a box containing the personal effects of Latha Nambiar of Kottayam, who was also killed in the accident, but are told there that Latha's niece is getting married in Kumarakom. At the wedding, as Avinash and Tanya spend time with the groom, a gang of goons, which had been demanding payment from Shaukat for long, make off with his van. Avinash, Shaukat and Tanya—along with the wedding's aged shehnai-player, who impressed Shaukat—chase it but in vain.
Shaukat and the shehnai-player are admitted to a hospital, where Shaukat falls in love with a young woman, but is dismayed to find that she is the shehnai-player's wife. Meanwhile Avinash and Tanya spend time at an inn, but when Tanya picks up a pregnancy test at a chemist's, they start an argument over her morals and she leaves for the hospital. There they come across Avinash's doctor friend Raghu, who takes them to his home, where Avinash rekindles a long-lost friendship with Raghu's wife Rumana. The next day, at the police station, Avinash, Shaukat and Tanya find their van wrecked, but in its place is a new car. They go to the gang's hideout on the pretext of repaying their dues, but flee when the goons arrive. Later Shaukat shares with Avinash and Tanya his experiences of him and his mother being tortured by his late father, at which they all agree that their fathers' lives and deaths have caused them great suffering.
The three reach Kochi where Tahira warmly welcomes them. That evening Avinash discovers in his father's diary that he actually wanted Avinash to retire from his job and take up photography full-time, but could not talk to him out of Avinash's resentment for him. At the prayer meet later that evening in memory of both Tahira's mother and Prakash, Tahira and Avinash make speeches for the two deceased people, who are then cremated. They spend the night at Tahira's, making merry with her friends and family. The next day Shaukat finds out that Tasneem, the shehnai-player's young wife, has been tortured by her aged husband; she asks to divorce him and Shaukat takes her along with the others back to Bengaluru. An inspired Avinash walks out of his job and starts a life of freedom with his new friends.
Cast
- Irrfan Khan as Shaukat
- Dulquer Salman as Avinash Rajpurohit
- Mithila Palkar as Tanya
- Sameer Saxena as Doctor Raghu, Rumana's husband
- Amala Akkineni as Tahira Moidenkutty
- Akash Khurana as Prakash Rajpurohit
- Beena Banerjee as Tahira's mother
- Nipun Dharmadhikari as Amey, Avimash's colleague at his white-collar job
- Donna Munshi as Tasneem
- Rohit Dandwani as Office Employee
- Abir Abrar as Avinash's neighbour
- Boloram Das as Cargo officer
- Sarang Sathaye as Sanjay
- Adhaar Khurana as Rahul
- Shubrajyoti Barat as Nambiar
- Ambika Mohan as Latha Nambiar
- Adrika Shetty as Laxmi
- Habib Azmi as Aziz Hussain
- Kriti Kharbanda as Rumana Salim
- Siddharth Menon as Rajat, the groom at the wedding
Production
Development
In August 2013, it was reported that Akarsh Khurana would be making his directorial debut with a dramedy written by Bejoy Nambiar, the story of which would revolve around three characters, going on a road trip. Initially it was reported that Arvind Swamy and Nawazuddin Siddiqui would be playing two of the three lead characters, but in May 2014 Bejoy Nambiar informed that as a result of modifications made in the script, Arvind Swamy would not be part of the project and Rajkummar Rao had been brought in to do the film which was titled Focus at that time. In June 2014, when the film was one month away from going on floors, director Akarsh Khurana opted out of the project owing to creative differences with Bejoy Nambiar, the writer and producer of the film. Bejoy Nambiar brought in Heeraz Marfatia as a replacement for Akarsh Khurana but the shooting of the film failed to take off and after several delays Bejoy decided to postpone the project for a year so as to focus on his own directorial venture Wazir.In April 2017, it was reported that Ronnie Screwvala had decided to revive Bejoy Nambiar's Focus through his new production house RSVP Films and Akarsh Khurana had been brought back to direct the film with Irrfan Khan and Abhishek Bachchan in lead roles. In June 2017, Abhishek Bachchan parted ways with the film because the shooting schedule was clashing with that of Paltan, another project of his that he was doing with J.P. Dutta. In August 2017, Akarsh Khurana informed that Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar had been finalized to play the central characters in the film along with Irrfan Khan. On September 1, 2017 the first look of the film was unveiled, through which it was revealed that the film had been given the name Karwan.
Filming
of the film started from 31 August 2017. The film was shot in Ooty and Kochi.Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Karwaan consists of songs composed by Prateek Kuhad, Anurag Saikia, SlowCheetah, Shwetang Shankar and Imaad Shah with lyrics been written by Prateek Kuhad, Akarsh Khurana, SlowCheetah and Imaad Shah as per the official trailer of the film unveiled on 27 June 2018 on YouTube.Release
The film was released worldwide on 3 August 2018.Critical reception
The film mostly received mixed to positive reviews.The Hindustan Times rated 4 out of 5 and praised the acting of Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan and Mithila Palkar. Filmfare rated 4.1 out of 5 and said "Watch the film for the fine acting by Mithila and Irfan. This comedy will surely tickle your funny bone and would make you reflect on life as well". Times of India rated 3.5 out of 5 and said "Karwaan might not live up to the expectations, but it leaves a warm fuzzy feeling in the heart that says all's well that ends well". DNA India rated 3 out 5 and said "Irrfan Khan's film oscillates between being a fun-ride and a dark-drag". The rating from Firstpost was 2.5 and mentioned Dulquer and Irrfan are absolute dears in a sweetly understated road flick.