Pagalpanti (2019 film)


Pagalpanti is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Anees Bazmee and produced by Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar under the banner of T-Series along with Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak under the banner of Panorama Studios. The film stars an ensemble cast of Anil Kapoor, John Abraham, Ileana D'Cruz, Arshad Warsi, Urvashi Rautela, Pulkit Samrat, Kriti Kharbanda and Saurabh Shukla in the lead roles.
Principal photography of the film commenced on 17 February 2019 in London.
It was theatrically released in India on 22 November 2019. It received generally unfavorable reviews from critics who mainly criticized the writing.

Plot

Raj Kishore is plagued by bad luck which also follows his longtime friends Junky and Chandu. Any venture the trio engage in results in losses or setbacks; even their fire-cracker shop burns down on its inaugural day. The trio fool Sanjana by making her fall in love with Raj and into getting them a bank loan to start a new package delivery business but her uncle, having similarly been fooled by them before, catches wind of them and demands their money back. The trio escape and inadvertently end up making their first delivery: a highly expensive sports car for Jhanvi, daughter of Raja Saahab and niece of WiFi Bhai. They deliver the car in a destroyed condition for which they are tortured by Raja Saahab and his goons. They offer their services as servants, a suggestion which WiFi accepts; he convinces Raja Saahab to hire them against their astrologer's wishes who is aware of Raj Kishore's bad luck. They get employed as disposable servants; Junky and Chandu are used for testing food that Raja Saahab's and WiFi's enemies may have poisoned while Raj Kishore is used as their decoy while traveling. In the process, Chandu and Jhanvi fall for each other.
During one of their traveling assignments, old enemies Bulli and Tulli Seth attack their convoy where it is revealed that WiFi is actually a coward. Fed up of their constant rivalry, businessman-turned-don Niraj Modi who absconded India after taking huge loans proposes to end their conflict by offering each party ₹700 crores to invest. By their continued stroke of bad luck, Raj Kishore, Junky and Chandu end up causing a fire that burns the whole stack of money. In a bid to save what's left of their money, Raja Saahab and WiFi send the trio to bet on their lucky horse. They instead overhear a conversation about another horse and bet on it which instead loses the race. Unable to pay Raja and WiFi, the trio escape with Jhanvi and Sanjana and her uncle following them. The group ends up on a glue truck where Jhanvi's lips get stuck to Chandu's cheeks and Sanjana and her uncle get stuck on their backs. They arrive in an abandoned house where they meet Kavya who has been staying there posing as a ghost after facing rejection in her acting career. There, Raj accidentally discovers a basement where Niraj Modi keeps his stockpiles of cash. The trio steal the money and arrive at Raja Saahab's and WiFi's house just when they are about to be executed by Modi for not paying them. They settle the money and buy out Niraj Modi's properties.
Eventually, Modi discovers that the trio pulled a fast one on him by stealing his own money to buy his properties. He arrives at Raja Saahab's house and threatens to kill them all. Raj Kishore reminds him that his money is not really his own but stolen from India and Raj Kishore himself is an ex-employee of one of the banks Modi took loans from and thus was one of many people who lost jobs because of Modi. Raj also goads Modi's henchmen into keeping the money for themselves. A skirmish ensues involving two escaped lions and concludes with detectives arriving to take Modi into custody. Raj, Junky and Chandu reconcile their differences with Raja Saahab and WiFi.

Cast

Development

Pagalpanti was announced on 21 September 2018. In April 2019, Bazmee shared his experience of shooting in London. In a statement he said,
"Shooting in London was not less then a roller-coaster ride. We had a few difficulties considering the weather conditions there."

Filming

Principal photography began in February 2019 in London. The London schedule lasted two months and ended in the final week of April 2019, wrapping up principal photography. John Abraham was injured while filming an action scene for the film in Mumbai. The production filmed scenes in Faversham, where Market Street doubled as a busy London market and Guild Hall was converted into a fireworks shop. The Historic Dockyard Chatham was used for a car chase scene along Slip 5, Museum Square, Ropery Street and Anchor Wharf.

Marketing and release

Ahead of the release of the film a sequel has been planned. Kumar Mangat, the producer said "It is going to be a big franchise, and our team has started work on the script for part two...." The first teaser poster was released on 18 October 2019. On the same day the character posters of the ensemble cast were released. The trailer of the film was released on 22 October 2019 by T-Series. It has garnered 19 million views since its release. The official second trailer of the film was launched on 12 November 2019.
The release date of the film was advanced and was released on 22 November 2019.

Reception

Pagalpanti received generally unfavorable reviews from critics.
Bollywood Hungama gave it 2.5 stars out of 5 and praised the background score, cinematography, production design and costumes but criticized the writing, direction, music and VFX. Ronak Kotecha from The Times of India gave it 2 stars out of 5, praising the action sequences and cinematography but criticized the writing, placement of songs and the characterization of heroines. Priyanka Sinha Jha from CNN-News18 gave the film 2 stars out of 5 and praised Arshad Warsi and Brijendra Kala but criticized the writing, heroines and clichéd humor. A reviewer from Times Now similarly gave it 2 stars out 5 and praised the performances, a few jokes, cinematography and production values. The criticism was aimed at the length, writing and editing.
Vinamra Mathur from Mid Day gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and found it unintentionally funny. Suparno Sarkar from International Business Times similarly gave it 1.5 stars out of 5 and felt a few scenes were funny, further praising Anil Kapoor and Saurabh Shukla's partnership. However, the reviewer criticized the screenplay, lack of good comedy and punchlines, and the forced songs. Sukanya Verma from Rediff.com gave it 1 star out of 5 and criticized the humor, VFX, labelled the script as a "stuff of pre-schooler dreams" and found the performances to be "better suited for a school play." Jyoti Sharma Bawa from Hindustan Times criticized the humor, writing, dialogues, music, heroines and forced patriotism.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Sajid–Wajid, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Tanishk Bagchi and Nayeem-Shabir, with lyrics written by Shabbir Ahmed, Arafat Mehmood, Yo Yo Honey Singh and Danish Sabri.
The song "Tum Par Hum Hai Aatke" from the film Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya which was originally composed by Himesh Reshammiya, lyrics by Sudhakar Sharma and sung by Kumar Sanu and Kavita Krishnamurthy, was recreated by Tanishk Bagchi.
The song "Bimar Dil" from the film ChaalBaaz which was originally composed by Laxmikant–Pyarelal, lyrics by Anand Bakshi and sung by Mohammed Aziz and Kavita Krishnamurthy, was recreated by Tanishk Bagchi.

Box office

Pagalpantis opening day domestic collection was 4.75 crore. On the second day, the film collected ₹6.50 crore. On the third day, the film collected ₹8.25 crore, taking total openning weekend collection to ₹19.50 crore.
, with a gross of 39.3 crore in India and 9.87 crore overseas, the film has a worldwide gross collection of 49.17 crore.