Bangalore Days

Plot

The story revolves around three cousins, Arjun 'Aju' (Dulquer Salmaan), Divya 'Kunju' Prakash (Nazriya Nazim), and Krishnan 'Kuttan' P.P.(Nivin Pauly), who have shared a close bond since their childhood. Arjun, whose parents are divorced, is a bike mechanic who lives his life on his own terms. Kuttan is a software engineer whose heart and soul is back home in his village. Divya has completed her graduation and aspires to do her Master of Business Administration from Indian Institutes of Management but is compelled to get married to workaholic corporate executive Shivadas 'Das' (Fahadh Faasil) because of her parents' astrologer's suggestions. After their wedding, Divya moves to Bangalore as Das is settled there. Kuttan does the same for his job while Arjun joins a biker gang as a mechanic in the same city.

Divya feels emotionally alone as her husband Das continues to ignore her. Her only solace is the time she gets to spend with her cousins Aju and Kuttan. Naive Kuttan, who wanted a traditional, modest, saree-clad girl for a wife, falls in love with an air hostess called Meenakshi (Isha Talwar) on the Bangalore to Kochi flight. They date and Kuttan changes from a reserved and shy person to a trendy person to impress her. But his dreams are shattered when her ex-boyfriend arrives at her flat and he realizes that she was only trying to get back with him. He breaks off his relationship with her.

Divya and Das's personal life keeps falling into despair. After an argument one day, Divya, upon inspecting a room in their apartment that Das never lets anyone enter, is shocked to find it filled with photos, knick-knacks and possessions of a strange girl (Nithya Menon). In horror of not having a place in Das's heart and life, she leaves Das and returns home to Kerala in sorrow, with Kuttan. There they are still pulled into despair as Kuttan's father has abandoned his rich family and gone for a permanent pilgrimage, willing all his wealth and its rights to Kuttan and his sister. Kuttan has to bring his mother to Bangalore, after she convinces him to.

Arjun was a bike racer but due to a foul incident, he is forced to serve a one-year ban from racing. He falls for a radio jockey named Sarah (Parvathy) but when he finally meets her in person, he finds that she is a paraplegic. He starts to like her attitude and starts to follow her. They became good friends but Arjun is saddened when he learns that Sarah is to leave for Australia on a university scholarship.

Meanwhile, as Divya and Das are in a middle of getting a divorce. Arjun learns that a few years back, Das was an ex-bike racer. He then went by the name Shiva and is a leader of his biker gang. Shiva had given up on racing after he was involved in an accident that killed his love Natasha Francis (Nithya Menon). Upon knowing what happen, Divya decides to return to Bangalore and takes up her MBA while remaining in the same house as Das. She gradually win over by a repentant Das and arranges for him to meet Natasha's parents. After the meeting, Das is able to let go of his past. Divya forgives him and they get their marital life on track.

Kuttan's mom gets to know about the urban Indian culture with her neighbours and after 3 months decides to visit her daughter in Oklahoma, USA.

In the airport, Kuttan and his mom see Meenakshi, who will be an air hostess in Kuttan's mom's flight to London. Meenakshi approaches Kuttan and reveals that her relationship with the old boy friend has broken permanently and she will be waiting for his call. Just seconds after that, Kuttan goes by and talks with her. Though what he says is not revealed, it is clear that he replied in the negative and he tells his mom to go to the flight.

Arjun gets a chance to race on the same day that Sarah has to leave for Australia. With Divya, Kuttan, and Das cheering for him, he wins the race. After the race, Arjun realizes how important Sarah is to him and that meeting her changed his life. He asks her not to leave for Australia. Sarah forgoes her scholarship to stay with him in Bangalore. In the end, Kuttan gets married to his neighbour in Bangalore, a foreigner named Michelle (Paris Laxmi), a European Bharathanatyam dancer. Who has embraced the culture of Kerala. The film ends with Divya, Das, Arjun, and Sarah breaking into their room and all of them posing for a photo.

Development

After the success of Manjadikuru and Ustad Hotel, Anjali Menon announced her new project named L for Love, and said it will be produced by Anwar Rasheed and Sophia Paul in later Anjali clarified that the film was titled Bangalore Days. Anjali described the film as very simple film at its core, about people we all know, about dreams, relationships, love and how our environment can transform us and yet within. In a conversation to a leading newspaper, Anjali said that most of the film would be shot completely in Bangalore, the City of Garden, as the story demands it and the film will features bunch of youngsters who have migrated to Bangalore for work and their lives in the city. The film was again from the friendship of Anjali and Anwar Rasheed shared when they worked together in the previous films. Menon announced that the film features new actors and actress of Malayalam cinema including Nivin Pauly, Dulquer Salmaan, Nazriya Nazim and Fahadh Faasil. Rafeeq Ahmed, Santhosh Varma and Anna Katharina Valayil wrote the lyrics while Gopi Sunder signed to compose the music of the film. Cinematography was handled by Sameer Thahir and editing was given to Praveen Prabhakar. The first look trailer of the film was released online on 7 May 2014, followed by a subtitled version on 12 May. Anjali selected Nazriya, Dulquer and Nivin which will be perfect and fit for the role of three cousins. Fahadh was later selected to do his character. Maniyanpilla Raju, Praveena, Vijayaraghavan, Kalpana and Vivas was signed to do supporting roles for the film.

Filming

Filming of Bangalore Days started in December 2013. The filming was wrapped in February 2014 and completed shooting in 40 days. The film was shot in Bangalore, Kochi at a budget of ₹8.5 crore (US$1.3 million). The song "Ethu Kari Raavilum" was shot in Mysore and some of the scenes in Sankey.

Music

The soundtrack features five songs composed by Gopi Sunder. He was sued for copyright violation by Bryan Adams on the basis that the song "Nam Ooru Bengaluru" bore a strong resemblance to Adams' song "Summer of '69". The lyrics were written by Rafeeq Ahmed, Santhosh Varma and Anna Katharina Valayil.

Release

The film was originally scheduled for release on 9 May 2014, but was rescheduled due to delays in production. The film released on 30 May 2014 in 205 theatres, making it one of the biggest release for a Malayalam film, simultaneously all over India. At the time of release, Bangalore Days was the Malayalam film to have a subtitled release in maximum number of screens. The movie released with English subtitles, in more than 200 screens across India. The film released in UAE on 3 July 2014.

Bangalore Days was distributed in India by A & A Release through August Cinema. Star Movie was the distributor in the United States, Indian Movies in United Kingdom and Tricolor Entertainments in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Japan.

Critical reception

The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise towards the direction, performances, music and cinematography. Veeyen of Nowrunning.com stated that "Bangalore Days is a buoyant examination of love, the basest of all human emotions and the bonds and bondages that it leaves in its wake. Pungently played out in the metro city of Bangalore, it's a stunning reminder of a spectacular marvel that unravels before us every day — a marvel called life." The reviewer of Sify.com gave the verdict as "Good" and said, "Bangalore Days is a young, vibrant film that is colourful and peppy." Krishnanunni U. of Oneindia.in rated the film 4 in a scale of 5 and described it as a "perfect youth entertainer." Aswin J Kumar of The Times of India wrote, "Bangalore Days might not be charming as a whole, still Anjali shows intent in knitting together family bonds in purely comic vein, throwing up characters like a wife and husband who just drift apart from each other out of love for independent life. This is a film that talks cheerfully about love and hope," and rated the film 3.5 in a scale of 5. Paresh C Palicha of Rediff.com wrote, "The first feature film Anjali Menon directed was Manjadikuru where children get a perplexed view of the adult world. Bangalore Days can be seen as an extension of that, where those children are grown up but still want to hold on to their childhood." He gave the film 3 out of 5 stars.

Box office

The film collected ₹8.5 crore (US$1.3 million) in its first week. According to Hindustan Times, the film's total gross collection was about ₹45 crore (US$7.0 million) worldwide, making it the highest grossing Malayalam film of the year and one of the highest grossing Malayalam films of all time. The film ran for two months in Hyderabad.

Accolades

Remake

The remake rights of the film, for Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages, was jointly acquired by Dil Raju and PVP Cinemas. The Tamil version of this film, titled Bangalore Naatkal was released on 5 February 2016. The film is directed by Bhaskar and produced by Prasad V. Potluri under the production companies PVP Cinema and Bommarillu Bhaskar Cinema.The film stars Arya, Bobby Simha, Sri Divya, Rana Daggubati, Raai Laxmi, Parvathy and Samantha Ruth Prabhu in starring roles.