Dedh Ishqiya

Plot

Khaalujaan "uncle dear" (Naseeruddin Shah) and his nephew Babban (Arshad Warsi), a thief duo, pose as a Nawab and his attendant, and manage to run away with a prized necklace from a jewellery shop. During the police chase, they get separated; Babban escapes, while Khalujaan is injured. Months later, Babban traces Khalujan, again posing as a nawab, this time at a poetry contest. It is a mushaira (gathering of poets) organised by Begum Para (Madhuri Dixit), the widowed Begum of Majidabad, supposedly in compliance with the wishes of her deceased husband. The winner of the poetry contest will win the widowed Begum as his bride, and become the Nawab of Majidabad.

Babban traces Khalujaan on the opening night of the contest. There is another adventurous rascal in the fray, a local MLA-gangster named Jaan Mohammed (Vijay Raaz), who is making the poet Nawab Italwi (Manoj Pahwa) write poetry for him to recite at the contest. The contest proceeds; while Khalujaan has his heart set on Begum Para herself, Babban falls in love with her maid, Muniya (Huma Qureshi). Khalujaan tries to impress the Begum by giving her the prized necklace which he had stolen earlier, but on the final day, Begum declares Jaan Mohammed to be the victor. She declares that she will marry him and then he will become the new nawab of Majidabad.

Since the necklace has clearly failed to move the Begum, Khaalujaan decides to see if a gun will serve the purpose better. However, even as he approaches the Begum brandishing his chosen instrument of persuasion, he finds the dowager being hustled away at gunpoint by a masked man. Khalujaan chases them and blocks their way only to discover that the masked man is none other than his nephew Babban. It turns out that the Begum had plotted her own kidnapping in order to extort money from the nawab-elect (Jaan Mohammad). More twists are then revealed: the Begum was nothing but a dancing-girl (courtesan) who had seduced a middle-aged nawab and married him, only to find that the nawab was actually a pauper who supported his lavish way of life by selling his inherited properties and jewels. He also neglected his wife, who (it is very strongly suggested) developed a relationship of intimacy with a sympathetic maid-servant, Muniya. By the time the nawab died of good living, he had become completely bankrupt and even his palace had been mortgaged to the money-lenders. After his death, the penniless Begum had been helped financially and courted by Jaan Mohammad, a local rich man who was besotted with her and wanted to marry her. He also wanted the title and status of being the "Nawab of Majidabad", which according to the movie would be conferred on the man who marries the widowed Begum (this is a silly narrative device, such a thing can never happen in India).

However, Jaan Mohammad was a man of low birth and uncultured mannerisms, a former street-thug, turned businessman, turned politician, who even employed a bunch of beefy goons to promote his business and political interests. The idea of marrying such a man was repellent to the Begum, who was anyway in love with her maid-servant. It was also socially unacceptable, which is what the Begum tells Jaan Mohammad. It is he who comes up with the idea of holding a contest. The birth and breeding of the man who wins the contest will be irrelevant; the begum can say that she had no choice but the marry the winner. Thus, the mushiara itself is an elaborate hoax: the late nawab had never stipulated that his widow should marry someone else, much less that the winner should be recognized as "nawab of Majidabad." It was the Begum's own idea, the purpose being to snare a rich man and marry him. The Begum did not want to marry Jaan Mohammad, but she wanted his money, therefore she was staging a kidnapping in order to receive a ransom from Jaan Mohammad. She has employed Babban to act as her kidnapper and extort a hefty ransom from Jaan Mohammad, who was expected to pay up because otherwise he would never fulfill his dream of becoming a Nawab.

Babban duly phones Jaan Mohammed (who is by now aware of the Begum's cunning plan) to bring a ransom of 10 crore (100 million) rupees in cash to the railway station. All four of them (Begum, maid, and the uncle-nephew duo) reach the railway station to collect the money, but find that they are surrounded by Jaan Mohammad's goons and henchmen. To their good fortune, Nawab Italwi arrives with a police force and cross-firing starts (it turns out that Nawab Italwi also is not what he seems to be; he is a policeman in disguise). Begum and Muniya escape from the situation leaving behind Babban and Khalujaan to be arrested. Two months later, the uncle-nephew duo get bail and, as they leave the jail, they are given a letter from Begum and Muniya. It is a cheeky letter of thanks and goodbye from the women, informing the men that they have sold the priceless necklace and used the proceeds to buy a house and settle down in a faraway town whose name they withhold. Uncle and nephew are now exactly at the same situation where they were at the start of all these shenanigans—the movie ends with the duo once again surrounded by Mushtaq (Salman Shahid) and his gang of rowdy vagrants.

Cast

Casting

At a private party held in Mumbai, Shemaroo Entertainment and Vishal Bhardwaj, who had previously produced Ishqiya (2010), announced the sequel with the same cast and crew. It was later announced that Vidya Balan, the heroine of Ishquiya, would not feature in the sequel. In April 2012, Madhuri Dixit signed on to play the role of Begum Para, the grey character at the center of the film; it was Dixit's first role after moving back to India from the USA in November 2011. The two male leads Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi were retained from the original. The role of supporting actress first was offered to Asin Thottumkal but, she refused to work in a supporting role, and she said in one interview that she thought that the role is not very attractive and therefore she rejected it. Kangana Ranaut then signed Dedh Ishqiya and said she was going to start shooting soon. However, in December 2012 she was dropped, supposedly due to persistent date issues, but allegedly because she was trying to get her supporting role expanded into a major role so that the film would revolve around her. She was replaced by Huma Qureshi. Arshad Warsi stated that he was paired with Huma and Madhuri was paired opposite Naseeruddin Shah.

Filming

The shooting was initially scheduled to start in September 2012, but was shifted to November, and was further postponed even at that time, due to issues related to Kangana Ranaut's desire for an expansion of her role. Shooting finally began on 27 February 2013, after she was replaced with Huma Qureshi. Mahmudabad palace near Barabanki was spruced up for the shoot. The "First Look" of the film was released on 25 October 2013 and the trailer was released on 8 November 2013.

Madhuri Dixit performed a mujra to the song Apne Karar Mein. The dance was choreographed by Pandit Birju Maharaj.

Soundtrack

With the exception of the song Hamari Atariya, the music of the film is composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, and the lyrics of all the other songs have been written by Gulzar. The song Hamari Atariya was originally sung by Begum Akhtar in the 1950s, and a new version was recorded with the voice of Rekha Bharadwaj.

Three songs were released as singles: Hamari Atariya sung by Rekha Bhardwaj (a re-working of Begum Akhtar's original), "Dil Ka Mizaaj Ishqiya" sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, and "Horn OK Please" sung by Honey Singh, Sukhwinder Singh and Anushka Manchanda.

All lyrics written by Gulzar (except Hamari Atariya).

Critical reception

Dedh Ishqiya garnered mostly positive reviews from critics. Anupama Chopra, the Hindustan Times movie critic said, "Dedh Ishqiya is worth watching just for Abhishek Chaubey's ambition. He is not constrained by the demands of the box office." Giving it 5 out of 5 stars, Rediff India's movie critic Raja Sen called Dedh Ishqiya a genuinely smart film.

Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama also gave positive review, Ishqiya was sharp, spicy and volatile, with impulsive characters and a storyline taking a somersault every few minutes. Dedh Ishqiya is no different. It transports you to a diverse world, but like the first part, this one focuses on love and deceit as well. Also, it's far more complex this time around and the truth hits you like a ton of bricks!

Deepanjana Pal from Firstpost praised director Chaubey the most, saying: "Chaubey is two films old and compared to Ishqiya, Dedh Ishqiya is far more elaborate, complicated and ambitious. Like a skipping stone, the film touches upon a variety of genres — action, comedy, romance, social critique — and Chaubey handles them deftly"

In another Firstpost review, Mihir Fadnavis said: Dedh Ishqiya is smarter, funnier, richer and way more gorgeous than its predecessor. If you're a fan of clever lines with terrific actors, great writing, masterful direction and Urdu poetry, Dedh Ishqiya hits your sweet spot. If you don’t really give a damn about any of this and just want a fun time at the movies, Dedh Ishqiya is perhaps the most hilarious thriller Bollywood has produced.

There was a few negative reviews as well. Martin D'Souza from Glamsham Editorial gave the film a negative review and a score of 2/5, stating that the film opens on the wrong foot and moves at a very languid pace.

Box office

Made on a budget of around ₹370 million, Dedh Ishqiya only managed to recover ₹408 million from the box office, which is less than one-third its investment. It is therefore Bollywood considered a flop film. But, Producers claiming profit so they consider it to be a worldwide above average performer.

Dedh Ishqiya opened with average occupancy, even though it was released on less than 1200 screens. It collected ₹30 million (US$470,000) (3 crore) on its opening day. The film grossed around ₹115 million (US$1.8 million) (11.5 crore) during its first weekend. Dedh Ishqiya collected around ₹17.5 million (US$270,000) nett on first Monday taking its four-day total to ₹133 million (US$2.1 million). Overseas collection of Dedh Ishqiya was around $525,000 in first weekend.

In the second week, Dedh Ishqiya had a dull performance, earning just ₹40.0 million (US$620,000) in the weekend and ₹65 million (US$1.0 million) between Monday and Wednesday in the domestic box office. Its performance overseas was even more dismal, bringing in ₹15 million (US$230,000) (1.5 crore) over the week, making for a worldwide grand total of ₹316 million (US$4.9 million) (31.6 crore) in two weeks (this larger figure includes sale of satellite and music rights). This effectively ended the theatrical run of the film, because in the third week, Dedh Ishqiya lost almost all its screens to Jai Ho.