Fukrey

Plot

The film is set in Delhi, where four "Fukrey" (a colloquial Punjabi term for slackers) boys, come together to make easy money.

The group includes two school backbenchers, Hunny (Pulkit Samrat) and Choocha (Varun Sharma), who are perpetually dreaming of making it big. They want to get into the local college but don't have the grades. The college guard Pandit (Pankaj Tripathi) tells them that he can leak to them the class XII papers at a rate of ₹ 50,000 per subject. Through Pandit (Pankaj Tripathi) they meet Zafar (Ali Fazal), a former student of the college and a struggling musician. The fourth character is Lali (Manjot Singh), whose father runs a sweet shop. Lali is currently pursuing his degree through correspondence and like Hunny and Choocha also wants to get into the same college but doesn't have the marks. Pandit tells Lali to donate ₹ 250,000 in the college development fund to get a seat in return. Zafar's girlfriend, Neetu (Vishakha Singh), has broken up with him and his father is critically ill and needs money for his treatment.

The four meet up at Pandit's office where Hunny explains his scheme. Each night Choocha has a dream, which Hunny later interprets as a lottery number, which they buy and win. And for every rupee invested, they get ten rupees (basically ten times) back. However, since now they all together need a lot of money, they need someone to invest lakhs. So, on Zafar's insistence, Pandit takes them to meet a local gangster, Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chadda) where Hunny tells them their scheme. Bholi is ready to invest and Lali also gives his shop papers as mortgage. Bholi tells them to come the next day with the number. However, the same night everyone except Choocha falls asleep.

The next morning, Choocha narrates a fake dream which Hunny interprets and gets a number. They go to Bholi and tell the number. But it backfires and Bholi loses her money. Now to recover her money, she gives them a packet containing drug pills which Zafar, Hunny and Lali have to sell at a rave party the same night. She keeps Choocha as security with her. At the party, Police and Narcotics teams conduct a raid and Lali escapes with packet with the police chasing him. Lali manages to fool the police and reaches Neetu's place. He also sees Zafar there. Neetu throws the drugs down the drain just as the police are about to search her home. The police leave her place warning Lali. Zafar in the meanwhile tells the whole story to Neetu. Lali also calls Choocha telling him to run from Bholi's house which he succeeds in doing.

The next morning, all the five land up at Bholi's place. She gives them 24 hours to pay all the money due otherwise she would take the money by selling Lali's shop. The four are fighting at Zafar's place where Choocha tells them the truth about not seeing the dream. However, he tells them that he slept last night and he saw a dream. Zafar is not interested while Lali, Hunny and Neetu are. Hunny interprets the dream but they are short of cash even after Neetu is ready to give her savings. However, next morning Lali is able to borrow cash from a homeless man who used to remove parts from Lali's motorbike. They invest and win a huge amount. Meanwhile, Zafar, in fear, meets the Narcotics Team telling them the truth and also calls Neetu, Lali, Choocha and Hunny where they confess to the police.

They go to Bholi's house and give her the money. Then Hunny tells Bholi that he wants to sell those drug pills again and gives her an advance. Impressed Bholi goes inside and returns with the pills only to be caught red handed by the police and Narcotics who have raided her home. In a flashback, it is shown that while Hunny, Choocha, Lali and Neetu were investing the money, Zafar met the Narcotics division and made a plan to catch Bholi. Now with Bholi behind bars, the police pardon the four and they are free.

Three months later, it is shown that Hunny and Choocha are entering the same college on horses as they had planned in the beginning of the film while Pandit is shocked and Lali, Zafar and Neetu are having a good laugh.

Cast

Filming

The film was shot extensively in Delhi at various locations, including Miranda House, where most of the college sequences and opening song was shot.

Re-release

The film was re-released in theatres due to public demand and popularity. The PVR Cinemas showed Fukrey along with other movies in September 2013.

The sequel of the film has been hinted for public demand as said by Ali Fazal at the success party. The movie was well-received and the audience completely enjoyed the film. Also the characters had become memorable. Thus keeping in mind all these factors, the makers feel it will be worth it to have another script like this in place.

Critical reception

Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama rated it 3.5/5 and quoted, "Fukrey is a twisted and delectably uproarious take on the shortcuts the youth of today indulge in". Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN rated the movie 2.5/5 and noted that, "A tighter script and more screen time for the excellent Pankaj Tripathi, as enterprising campus security guard Panditji, might have helped turn this moderately entertaining film into a rollicking good caper." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a 3/5 rating.

Box office

Fukrey grossed around ₹142 million within the first five days of its release. By the end of its second week, the film had collected ₹290 million nett in the domestic markets. The business of the film was varied across India. It was a success in Delhi/UP and East Punjab, as well as in Rajasthan but average in the rest of the country. The film collected around ₹20 million nett on its second Friday which was just 20% less than the first day. The second weekend and second week business were excellent for the film. Fukrey collected ₹360 million in the domestic markets by the end of its theatrical run.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Fukrey, released by T-Series on 14 April 2013, featured music composed by Ram Sampath.

Reception

The music of the film received good reviews, specially for the song "Ambarsariya", an adaptation of a traditional Punjabi folk song, performed by Sona Mohapatra.

Sequel

On 30 January 2016, a sequel to the film was announced. The sequel will feature the original cast and will be again directed by Lamba and produced by Excel Entertainment. Filming began in August 2016 in Delhi. The film is scheduled to release on 8 December 2017.