Dharam Sankat Mein

Plot

Dharampal (Paresh Rawal) is an atheist living in a Hindu household. He is very stereotypical towards Muslims. He starts his days with the old songs of a Punjabi Sikh pop singer Manjeet Manchala (Gippy Grewal), who has now stopped producing albums and disappeared mysteriously. As well as this, he has regular arguments with a Muslim man named Nawab Mehmood Nazim Ali Shah Khan Bahadur (Annu Kapoor) who happens to live in the same area as him. Dharampal later visits his late mother's bank vault to collect her belongings. He then finds adoption papers certifying he was adopted in 1960 and that his biological parents were Muslims. This shocks him, considering how much he dislikes Muslims, and he decides to keep this a secret. Eventually, he admits to Nawab that he is also a Muslim, and that he must find his real father in order to speak to him. They discover that his father is in critical condition due to old age, living in a senior home. The Imaam taking care of his father tells Dharampal that if his father saw that his only son has been brought up as a non-Muslim, it could cause severe damage to his health. Therefore, he tells Dharampal to learn how to become a true Muslim and come back to meet his father once he is ready.

With the help of Shah, he begins to learn the ways of Muslim people. However, the Imaam declines Dharampal's request to meet his father once again, claiming he is still not coming across as a true Muslim. Meanwhile, Dharampal's son falls in love with a young girl named Shraddha and in order to marry her, he must have her father accept him and his family. Shraddha's father is a devout follower of a spiritual baba named Neelanand (Naseeruddin Shah). To help him impress Shraddha's father, he asks Dharampal to also follow Neelanand and become spiritual. However, at one occasion, Dharampal ends up admitting publicly that he is a born Muslim. Dharampal's family and Shraddha's father witness this, and Neelanand advises Shraddha's father not to have his daughter marry Dharampal's son. Due to this, Dharampal's family leave him. A case is lodged against Dharampal for offending Muslims, and in the court, the Immam comes and gives character witness of how Dharampal detests Islam. His witness backfires when Nawaab, now Dharampal's attorney, accuses the Immam of trying to wrongfully convert Dharampal to Islam.

The court gives permission to Dharampal to see his ailing father. However, before they arrive at the senior home, his father has already died. Furious over the whole situation, Dharampal tries to bring down Neelanand, the main cause of most of his troubles. He then accidentally discovers that Neelanand Baba's eye twitches due to Blepharospasm, a very rare abnormality causing contraction of the eyelid, which the Punjabi pop singer Manjeet Manchala also suffered from. This reminds Dharampal that Manchala had disappeared years ago, and then matches the voices of Manchala and Neelanand, confirming they are the same person. He then crashes an event of Neelanand and reveals to a large audience how Neelanand Baba is actually a born Sikh and has been a fraud and characterless pop-singer with various cases lodged against him for adulterous relationships with many women. He gives a speech on how the religion a person follows should not matter as long as they are acting rightfully. Dharampal's family finally returns and his son is allowed to marry Sharaddha.

Cast

Critic reviews

Bollywood Hungama - 3 stars out of 5 and The times of india - 2 stars out of 5.

Neel Dharma promotion

Viacom 18 Motion Pictures launched an teaser campaign to promote the film. Using Naseeruddin Shah's character of Neelanand Baba, they created pseudo religion called Meel Dharma. Neel Dharma had its own website, Facebook page and Twitter account. Dharam Sankat Mein also used WhatsApp in its mobile promotion where subscribers received updates on the film from the first person account of Neelanand Baba. It is the first time a Bollywood film has 3 National Film Award and Filmfare Award winners in its main cast.

Soundtrack

The film's music is composed by Meet Bros Anjjan, Sachin Gupta, Jatinder Shah, Kaptan Laadi while lyrics are penned by Kumar.