Brothers (2015 film)

Plot

The film opens in medias res where street fighting issues are raised in Mumbai. Sports chairman Peter Braganza (Kiran Kumar) expresses his desire of making street fighting a legal sport and decides to open a league called Right 2 Fight (R2F). Meanwhile, in prison, Garson "Gary" Fernandes (Jackie Shroff), a recovering alcoholic and former MMA expert under rehabilitation, is released from his jail term and his younger son Monty (Sidharth Malhotra) comes to pick him up. Monty gets tensed when his father asks about his elder son David and takes him away to their home. At home Gary acts protective of all the belongings of his wife Maria, who died many years ago. David (Akshay Kumar), now a physics teacher, has a daughter suffering from a kidney disease. Unable to arrange money from the bank and other sources he arranges money through street fights. This pressurizes his wife Jenny (Jacqueline Fernandez) as she is worried about David. Meanwhile, Gary, who misses his wife Maria (Shefali Shah), starts hallucinating about her. Gary then tries to meet David but the latter ends up throwing Monty and Gary out of his house in rage.

Monty is then revealed to be Gary's illegitimate child. Maria nevertheless loved Monty, as she did to David. The two brothers had a close, loving relationship until David was 18 and Monty was 15. The night on Monty's 15th birthday, Gary came home drunk and apologizes to Maria for destroying the family, but mentions his lover Sarah's name, instead of Maria's. An enraged Maria confronts Gary about this. In a drunken state Gary hits Maria who gets injured and dies. A furious David pushes Gary aside. When Monty comes close to Maria, David angrily pushed him away, holding his father and brother equally responsible for his mother's death. This creates a rift between Gary, Monty and David.

David later loses his job in the school when the principal Shobhit Desai (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) learn's about David's involvement in street fights. Monty, who wants to be a fighter, is then introduced to Suleiman Pasha (Ashutosh Rana), a fight agent. Suleiman fixes a match with Mustafa in which Monty gets defeated. This enrages Gary and Monty decides a rematch with Mustafa, where Monty defeats Mustafa and is declared a selected fighter for R2F by Peter. The fight gets recorded and uploaded on YouTube and soon Monty becomes an internet sensation. Monty undergoes training to become the R2F champion. Meanwhile, David too decides to be a full-time fighter and Jenny encourages him to do so. Suleiman trains David and fixes a match while Monty celebrates his victory at a bar. David soon is victorious in the fight. R2F soon becomes a sensation and fighters from all over the world show their interest in the league. Eventually, brothers David and Monty make it to the finals.

Gary, feeling guilty, leaves the arena as he thinks that he is responsible for the conflict between the brothers. Pasha advises David to not let his relationship with Monty get in the way of his win. The match begins. Both David and Monty put up a strong fight, however David eventually ends up breaking Monty's shoulder. He immediately shows concern for his younger brother, but Pasha asks him to keep fighting and not care about Monty's arm. Gary rushes to David and apologizes for his mistakes. He asks David to not take out his anger towards him on Monty, and reminds him that Monty is his brother. David, already conflicted, turns to Monty and envisions a young Monty instead. Monty, on the other hand, agrees to continue the match despite a broken shoulder and blurred vision. The match continues. David overpowers Monty once again. While David keeps Monty pinned to the ground, he asks Monty to stop fighting. Monty, in turn, says that David has always only thought of himself as he deserted Monty out of anger once Maria died, and asks him to keep hitting. David is overridden with guilt and sorrow; moved to tears, he apologizes. Seeing this, Monty gives up and allows David to win the tournament. Monty reconciles with David and the latter takes Monty away in his arms.

Cast

Development

The film was announced in late August 2014. Producer Karan Johar had announced the project on his Twitter blog. Special stunt co-ordinators Eric Brown and Justin Yu from Los Angeles choreographed the film's stunt and MMA sequences.

For the role of a MMA fighter, Kumar had taken weight-specific diet and shot his scenes depicting his workout. Kumar had gone in six-month training of several martial arts including judo, kyudo, aikido, karate

Actor Sidharth Malhotra underwent into training sessions of Jujitsu and aikido and the actor apparently gained 10 kilograms for the role.

Marketing

Vroovy a joint venture of Hungama and Gameshastra had released the 3D video game titled "Brothers: Clash of Fighters" available for Android phones.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the album is composed by Ajay-Atul while the lyrics are written by Amitabh Bhattacharya. Critic Joginder Tuteja from Bollywood Hungama gave 3 stars of 5 quoting, "The music of Brothers doesn't really go all the way when it comes to good expectations that came from it being a big chartbuster album in the making. However, from situational numbers perspective, it does well to keep you engaged for most part of it. Expect the 'Brothers Anthem' to haunt you all the more once you are through experiencing it with the film. " Kasmin Fernandes from Times of India rated 3 out of 5 with mixed reviews.

Reception

Fernandez received critical acclaim for her role and it is said to be her best performance yet. Trade Analyst Komal Nahta said, "On the whole, Brothers, a mixed martial arts film, may carry mixed reports but it will ultimately prove to be a paying proposal for all concerned. It will do good business in multiplexes and single-screen cinemas, and in 'A', 'B', 'C' and 'D' class centres." Film critic Subhash K Jha gave 4 stars out of 5 and said "Brothers may not appeal to those who look for laughter in times of despair.There is barely room for a whiff of a smile in this dark sanguinary and seductive tale of destruction and redemption told in a free-wheeling style that accommodates derivations and innovations without apology or awkwardness." The Times of India(TOI) gave 3 stars out of 5. Bollywood Hungama gave 3 stars out of 5. Koimoi(koimoi.com) gave 2.5 stars out of 5. Film critic Raja Sen for Rediff wrote, "Weighing 158 unbearable minutes, Brothers is nearly 600-times as long as the Rousey win – and not one-millionth as thrilling." Sen reviewed the characters of the film and concluded, "But that's all this film has, a ball-busting Kumar and one particular fight that ends with delightful abruptness. Everything else is exhausting." He gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5. Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV opines, "For all the hoopla, Brothers, in going for the jugular, punches well below its weight. It makes so much noise that any sensible point about brotherly bonding and filial fidelity that it might be trying to make is completely drowned out by the decibels. Take your earplugs along." He gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5. Anuj Kumar of The Hindu newspaper reviewed, "The problem is, be it emotion or action, Karan is in no hurry to say cut. At times it works for the emotion to seep in but many times over elaboration dilutes the punch. The music is a let down. Kareena Kapoor deserved a better song and choreography for the special appearance." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express summarized, "Akshay Kumar, Sidharth Malhotra's film gets dragged down by its over-wrought mawkishness." At firstpost, critic Deepanjana Pal stated, "Akshay Kumar is hot but with Jackie Shroff and Sidharth Malhotra this film is a hot mess. A few more films like Brothers and Bollywood will have achieved what no amount of litigation can manage — the freedom to copy freely. Because if Gavin O'Connor, who directed and co-wrote Warrior, ever sees how his story has been brutalised, he might just go on a campaign claiming that intellectual property rights be damned, Hollywood is better off not being associated with Bollywood remakes." Martin D'souza from Glamsham stated "The fight director makes BROTHERS look good" and gave 2 stars out of 5. Subhash K. Jha from skjbollywoodnews stated "Definitely one of Akshay Kumar's glorious achievements." and gave 4 stars out of 5.

Box office

Brothers made Rs.52.08 crore in its opening weekend in India. The film brought in ₹15.36 crore (US$2.4 million) internationally. Adding the film's gross India business of 70.30 crores, after week one Brothers' worldwide business stands at 106 crores at the Box Office.

India

In the season where films have started doing well at the Box Office, Brothers has managed to find audience for itself over the weekend. If the start was good, if not phenomenal, there was some good escalation waiting to take place on the rest of the weekend. Saturday was always going to be the key for the film and the Karan Malhotra film managed to cross the 21 crore mark. Sunday did not see as many footfalls as Saturday but still did better than Friday, as a result of which 52.08 crores came in once the weekend was through. Brothers made quite a low business on its 3rd day i.e. 1st Sunday at the Box Office. The movie collected 15.45 crores on Sunday, which is almost equal to its Friday business (15.20 crores). Nevertheless, thanks to its super jump on Day 2, the film's overall opening weekend collections have come to a good amount of 52.08 crores. The film now stands as the 2nd Highest Weekend Grosser of the year. Bajrangi Bhaijaan, with 102.60 crores, holds the record of Top weekend grosser of 2015. The film went on to collect just 64.80 crores net in its first week in India which is a poor result because it has a big holiday. Brothers crashed 88% in its second weekend as it grossed just 5.25 crore nett apprx in its second weekend. The ten days business of film is just 69.83 crores. Brothers grossed 80 lakhs nett on its second Monday and has grossed just 6 crore nett apprx in its first four days of the second week.

Overseas

Brothers has performed low in Overseas but it's a decent business, the collections is around $2.4 million in first weekend, as business in Gulf (850k approx) and Pakistan is pretty good but with US at $400,000 apprx and UK at £175,000 approx, the film won't be going best. Brothers did $3.6 Million after 12 days.