Pocket Gangsters

Synopsis

Pocket Gangsters is the story of the world of crime where some criminals have set their goals on kidnapping and making hostage demand ransoms from the relatives or friends of those taken. What begins as drama becomes a comic thriller when they turn their criminal attention toward the daughter of a wealthy man in order to gain millions.

Cast

Inspiration

Kidnapping has become an illicit world-wide business netting 150 billion dollars per year. This film addresses the issue in a darkly comedic fashion. Pocket Gangsters addresses the dark world of "pocketing" human lives, IE: putting a victim's life in grave peril and demanding an obscene amount of ransom from the relatives or friends of the hostage. In the film, a young woman whose family is worth millions, is kidnapped. Director Hemant Nilim Das related that the film "is loosely based on the story of the kidnapping and murder of an NGO-activist Sanjay Ghose" as "a hostage drama cum comic thriller," and inspired by events centered in Guwahati, an area which has become "the epicenter of child-kidnapping".

Filming

In May 2013, the film was reported to have entered production. Playback singer Shalmali Kholgade, known for her multiple awards for Ishaqzaade's "Pareshaan" sang for the "Janiyaa jaaniyaa" track for this film. Actor Raghubir Yadav held the role of a blind gangster and memorized the entire 127 page Pocket Gangsters script in 4 hours in preparation for his role, as well as having spent time studying students at a school for the blind to educate himself for portraying a blind character. An issue that affected the project was actor Vijay Raz being injured while shooting a combat scene with Madhur Mittal. Being a one-take film, he continued. After completing the scene, he was taken to a clinic and treated for a "minor injury with swellings". The project also dealt with freezing weather. One morning when shooting a swimming pool sequence at Guwahati, the temperature was as low as -4°C.

Controversy

An incident creating controversy was the leaked releasing of a raw and unedited kidnapping and rape scene from the film. This angered the director and resulted in his sending a legal notice to news and content website IndyanNewz.com for their unauthorized leaking of the film's proprietary property. That leak resulted in a controversy questioning the rape scene being used for the film's promotion.

Release

The film was initially announced with a slated release date in July 2013, and subsequently re-slated for a release for September 2014, but due to delays in post-production, release was postponed until finally being released in January 2015. Being noted as "India's first one-take, one-shot and uncut film", the finished film released January 2015 in over 900 theater screens across India.

Reception

Times of India praised the project, writing "The plot has numerous twists and turns, the storytelling is highly cathartic and music is romantic. Truly a gangster spirited feature... the film engages you from the beginning till end with shock and awe."