The background score and soundtrack was composed by A. R. Rahman. The Hindi lyrics of the tracks were penned by Irshad Kamil, whereas the Tamil lyrics were written by Vairamuthu.
Within a week of its release, its collections surpassed
34 crore (US$5.4 million). The film was declared Super Hit by Box Office India. Post four week its run, the film grossed 80 crore (US$13 million) worldwide.
Cast
- Dhanush as Kundan Shankar
- Sonam Kapoor as Zoya Haider
- Abhay Deol as Jasjeet Singh Shergill/Akram Zaidi
- Swara Bhaskar as Bindiya
- Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Murari
- Shilpi Marwaha as Rashmi
- Suraj Singh as Anand
- Kumud Mishra as Zoya's Father/Guruji
- Arvind Gaur as Guptaji (cameo)
- Sujata Kumar as Chief Minister
- Vipin Sharma as Kundan's father (cameo)
- Ishwak Singh (Doctor from Lucknow)
- Tejpal Singh (Father of Abhay Deol)
- Late Ginny Singh (JNU activist)
Plot
Kundan Shankar (Dhanush) is the son of an Hindu Tamil priest. Since his childhood days, Kundan has had a strong and obsessive one-sided love for Zoya Haider (played by Sonam Kapoor), a Muslim girl residing in Varanasi whose father is a professor. Though he sees her first as a child, Kundan is steadfast in his love for Zoya. He always attempts to be around her and hold her hand but gets slapped several times in the process. Zoya finally changes her mind because of Kundan's constancy of affection and attraction. Zoya's family is orthodox, preventing the lovers from being together. After Zoya moves to Aligarh for further studies, Kundan harmonizes with Zoya's family, assisting them with various chores. Zoya gets into Jawaharlal Nehru University and discovers a long-lost strength as she confronts and then falls for student leader Akram Zaidi (Abhay Deol).After a period of eight years, Zoya returns to Varanasi. She barely recognizes Kundan when she meets him again. Kundan again attempts to ask Zoya for her love but she is reluctant, revealing that she is in love with Akram. Zoya then urges Kundan to convince her family about her marriage with Akram. Initially refusing because he still loves her, Kundan eventually agrees to it and sets about trying to convince Zoya's father of the match. Kundan gets the wedding of Zoya and Akram arranged. Kundan promises Zoya that he will also tie the knot with another girl and will forget her. Kundan proposes to his childhood friend Bindiya (Swara Bhaskar), who has had a crush on him since childhood.
On the day of their marriage, Kundan finds out that Akram is a Sikh,
whose actual name is Jasjeet Singh Shergill. This enrages Kundan as Zoya
had used their religious differences to convince him that their match
was not possible. Kundan reveals everything to Zoya's parents thereby
interrupting their marriage ceremony. Later, Kundan is informed by his
friend that Zoya tried to commit suicide and is in a critical condition.
He rushes to the hospital where he is also informed that Jasjeet was
mercilessly beaten by Zoya's relatives. Kundan rushes to find him, along
with his friend and Jasjeet's sister. At the hospital, Jasjeet talks to
Kundan and says that despite Jasjeet's misgivings about the plan, Zoya
convinced him to portray himself as Muslim to marry her, a plan he
should not have agreed to as it was a lie. Kundan also forgets about his
own marriage with Bindiya. For this reason, Kundan's family disowns
him. Later, Jasjeet's parents take him back to his village. Kundan tries
to redeem himself by taking Zoya to Jasjeet's village. However, he is
devastated to find that Jasjeet has succumbed to his injuries, finally
making Kundan understand that his one-sided love has resulted in an
innocent man's death.Kundan then becomes homeless and begins visiting various religious places and volunteering in their activities so that he can atone for his sins. During one such visit to the banks of Ganga, a man advises him to do the right thing rather than running away from his sins.
Motivated, Kundan locates Zoya to Jawahar Lal Nehru University, where she is spearheading the activities of the political party "All India Citizen Party" (AICP), created by Jasjeet. Kundan joins the nearby canteen and serves the people of the party, working at a tea-stall, all the while trying to get Zoya's attention. Over time, Kundan becomes popular among the party due to his simple nature. The party workers are impressed as Kundan also helps the party in negotiating some tough situations by using his simple yet witty tricks. Slowly, he emerges as a popular face of the party, disturbing Zoya. She holds a grudge that the person who is responsible for Jasjeet's death is now taking his place. She also tries to instigate party members against Kundan but Jasjeet's sister Rashmi (Shilpi Marwaha), who is also Zoya's best friend, tells Kundan to continue, as he is the best choice for fulfilling Jasjeet's vision.
Kundan, however, only wants Zoya to forgive him. His motive in being there, working for the party is to redeem himself in her eyes. The Chief Minister (Sujata Kumar) tells Zoya privately she must seek revenge on Kundan so as to take the place Jasjeet held for the AICP. To get back the position, she tells her to let Kundan get injured as he delivers his campaign speech for the party. Zoya apparently seems to gets brainwashed by this plan and as the Chief Minister desired, Kundan is hurt badly and sent to ICU, thus fulfilling Zoya's revenge.
At a press meet following Kundan's injury, the chief minister denies having any hand in the blast that hurt Kundan. She says this can be confirmed by the fact that Zoya would now be joining their party. However, when Zoya steps forward, she reveals that the plan was plotted by her and the Chief Minister and that she is prepared to go to prison for this. Zoya leaves the press meet and finds out through a policeman that Kundan was aware of the plot and still let himself be injured. Shocked by this fact, she rushes to the hospital to be with Kundan.
In a final voice over, a dying Kundan wonders about letting go. He says he might have the desire to live again, if Zoya called out to him, but then again everything had become so tiring and he would rather let go and rest (euphemism for dying). He speaks of the nature of love that continues, by saying that he can be born again and again in the same Benaras with the same surroundings, fall in love with a girl like Zoya again, and become a Raanjhaana with her love.
Characters
Actor Dhanush plays the character Kundan who has a passion for his city Banaras and Zoya (played by Sonam Kapoor). It depicts him a young boy and a teen who turns into a sensitive adult. Sonam Kapoor quoted her character as, "'Zoya' is child-like and unpredictable. She can be cold and at the same time, objective. She has every quality that makes her desirable to a man." In an interview, Kapoor revealed that for playing the role of a school girl in the film, she drew inspiration from the character Jaya Bachchan played in the 1971 film Guddi. Actor Abhay Deol as Akram plays a secure yet confident university student, socialist and a budding politician.
Critical reception
- India
Critic Komal Nahta responded positively and said, "On the whole, Raanjhanaa is an interesting, entertaining and a fairly different love story. It is like heady wine and its effect will only grow." Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN wrote, "For its immensely entertaining first half, a winning score by AR Rahman, but most of all for Dhanush, this is a film that's worth your time. I'm going with three out of five for Raanjhanaa. It's not perfect, but it'll do." Resham Sengar of Zee News gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and summarized "Raanjhanaa is a love story that does not fall within the confines of a clichéd Bollywood romance." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3.5 out of 5 and stated, "On the whole, Raanjhanaa encompasses romance and myriad emotions most wonderfully, besides bravura performances and a popular musical score from the maestro." Adarsh also called it "a film that touches the core of your heart" and said it was "definitely worthy of a watch". At NDTV, Saibal Chatterjee gave it 3.5/5 and opined in the review, "The film defies the expectations of the audience at several crucial junctures and holds out absolutely no apologies for springing abrupt surprises. A love story with a huge difference that benefits no end from a clutch of exceptional performances." Sukanya Verma of Rediff Movies gave 3 out of 5 stars and claimed, "Raanjhanaa isn't easy viewing. Kundan and Zoya aren't easily likeable. They have flaws. They make mistakes. Blunders, really but Rai shows them for what they are; he never paints a pretty picture. And this brutal honesty coupled with a commanding Dhanush is what works." Meena Iyer of The Times of India claimed, "Raanjhanaa is a love story that has a Shakespearean touch and is mounted on a lavish scale". She noted, "You may not like this film if you cannot digest brooding love stories", and gave it 3.5 out of 5. Kaushik Rmesh of Planet Bollywood gave the film a 8 on 10 and summarized, "A realistic romance that brims with impressive elements (including and especially the enchanting music), Raanjhanaa is surely a winner at the end and must be watched for its unconventional handling and freshness".
Nabanita of One India gave the film 3.5 out of 5 and wrote, "Raanjhanaa works, and yes, the movie has maximum possibilities to strike the right chords amongst the audience, only and only because of Dhanush and his heart-touching performance." Rachit Gupta of Filmfare called the film a "great love story" and concluded, "Grab a ticket, clutch the hand of your loved one and go fall in love. This time with great cinema". Critics at Indicine gave a score of 65 out of 100 and summarized, "The intentions of Aanand L Rai seem genuine. He wants to show us the world where he grew up in, wants to romanticize the feeling of nostalgia and unrequited love." Tushar Joshi writes for DNA India, "Raanjhanaa works because of Dhanush's ability to make you believe in his love for Zoya. You might not agree with his approach, but deep down you cheer and root for him each time Zoya plants a slap on his face." At Deccan Chronicle, Khalid Mohamed mentioned, "Raanjhanaa: Playing ping pong with love", and gave it three stars out of five. India Today rated the film 3/5 and judged, "Raanjhanaa harks back to the way Bollywood used to make love stories once upon a time. With some imagination, the effect would have been nostalgic, too." Shubha Shetty Saha of Mid-Day assigned 3.5/5 to the film and praised actor Dhanush and stated, "And then the second half is when the pace dips, the sincerity of the storyline gets somewhat hazy and the film gets wee bit disappointing. An absolutely believable one-sided romance takes a slightly deceptive political drama twist and I am not sure if that is what you wanted it to be. It is unpredictable, yes, but not in a great, believable way." At Mumbai Mirror, Karan Anshuman pointed, "Raanjhanaa flows like good poetry. It is arguably the best love story of the year so far, the kind of film others in the genre should aspire.".
On the contrary to above, critic Mayank Shekhar wrote, "His (Dhanush) character is supposed to be gifted with great inter-personal skills. It doesn't quite show." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave it 2.5 out of 5 and mentioned, "Raanjhanaa is a film which is all of a piece in its engaging first half, and a good Bollywood launchpad for Dhanush. Makes me want to see what he will do in his second pass." At Emirates 24/7, Sneha May Francis said, "While music maestro AR Rahman tunes the track, and leaves us occasionally cheerful, the moments are far too few to erase the horrid after effects of this movie." Critic Manohar Basu at Koimoi stated, "However a sluggish screenplay and lurching script makes Raanjhanaa a half baked effort and hence gets a 3/5 from me." Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu concluded, "A dream debut for Dhanush even if the film gets stuck in its messy political subtext that kills the romance."
- Overseas
Controversy
The Central Board of Film Censors (CFBC) banned the film before its scheduled release in Pakistan. Chief Executive Officer of IMGC Global Entertainment Amjad Rasheed, the importer of Raanjhanaa, revealed that he received a letter from the CBFC with directives to shelve the film's release which stated that the film portrays an inapt image of a Muslim girl (played by Sonam Kapoor) falling in love with a Hindu man and having an affair with him.Click here for movie trailer(Official): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER9vmhxFucg
Watch full movie at here for free: Raanjhanaa (2013)- Full Movie In HD
