Dhadak

<p>Madhukar “Madhu” Bhagla, a young college student from a family in , wins a contest and receives his prize from Parthavi Singh Rathore, a rich girl from a political family who also happens to be studying in the same college as Madhu. His friend Purshottam later finds Parthavi bathing in a lake and informs Madhu. Madhu impresses Parthavi but incurs a minor injury meanwhile. The two begin to have feelings for each other. Madhu goes back to his family where his father makes him promise to stay away from Parthavi since she hails from a powerful, affluent family. Madhu ignores Parthavi at college, but she later confronts him about him ignoring her. The two admit their love for each other and begin meeting secretly. Madhu asks Parthavi for a kiss, but she dares him to come to her brother Roop’s birthday party. They share a kiss at the party, but are discovered by Parthavi’s father, Ratan Singh Rathore. Roop and Ratan thrash Madhu and his friends but later are told by Inspector Shekhawat to calm down and wait for the election results before taking any severe action. Once the elections are over, Madhu and his friends are arrested on false charges pressed by Ratan, who wins. Parthavi pleads with Ratan to release Madhu and his friends. In an ensuing scuffle, she manages to get hold of a gun and threatens to shoot herself if Madhu is not freed. Madhu runs up to her and together, they elope. With the police on their trail, Madhu and Parthavi board a train to , where Madhu contacts his maternal uncle and the two travel to . Madhu’s uncle advises them to go to for the time being. While in Kolkata, they rent a small room for living; Madhu starts working in a roadside restaurant after learning while Parthavi finds work at a call centre. One day, Madhu goes to her office to gift her a new phone bought from his hard-earned money. Madhu sees Parthavi with her manager and thinks that she is cheating on him. Heartbroken, he returns home. After Parthavi returns home, they argue severely; Madhu slaps Parthavi in the heat of the moment and Parthavi begins to doubt why she came with Madhu. Parthavi is briefly missing, but Madhu finds her in her office and realises how much he loves her. He proposes to her and they marry. Soon, Parthavi becomes pregnant and they have a son, Aditya “Adi” Bhagla. During the for their new house, Roop and his gang arrive with many gifts for her family, hinting at reconciliation. However, Madhu is not convinced and asks Parthavi to stay away but she brushes it off in excitement. Parthavi leaves her son at home with Madhu and steps out of the house. Madhu and Aditya are flung from the balcony and die in front of Parthavi, with Roop overlooking them. Producer acquired the Hindi remake rights of the 2016 film in November that year, after the film’s unexpected commercial success. On 15 November 2017, Johar announced through his handle that a film featuring and in lead roles was under production, and released three first look posters to commemorate the event. On the following day, he released another poster and revealed that the film was tentatively titled and was an official remake of . The film marks the debut of , daughter of and . was meant to be Khatter’s debut film too, but he was then cast by in (2018). Kapoor, who had watched for the first time with her mother , expressed that she wanted to debut with a similar film. A few days later, Johar approached her on her mother’s insistence with the role of the female lead in the Hindi remake of . Khatter watched after he was approached for the role, during which he learned that was adapting it into a Hindi film. Kapoor elaborated and wrote the backstory of her character so that the role felt “more real” to her. Since was set in unlike , Khaitan took Kapoor and Khatter to Rajasthan and allowed them to spend time with the local people and eat the local food to make them understand the background, language and background of their characters. Khaitan preferred to call an adaptation rather than a remake of since he had made some changes to the storyline of the original film. He cited “how chose to tell that story and the uniqueness he brought to the film” as his inspiration for the remake. Khaitan, a Marwari Rajasthani himself who grew up in , set and Kolkata as the premise for the film, and that required deviating from the original to stay “true to [himself] and the story [he is] telling. Another reason for choosing the two cities was “that they are visually and linguistically so different from each other”. Khaitan called a tribute to . After he was sure that he wanted to make , Khaitan worked to distance himself from , making (2017) in the meantime. Later, he began writing using those sequences which he instinctively recalled from , and eliminated those that did not come to him immediately. After writing the script, about four to five months before filming, he told Khatter and Kapoor their characters’ behaviour, speech, and their inter-personal relationships. However, he did not treat Khatter or Kapoor as “star kids” since he wanted to create a “good film” with newcomers. Johar told him that the film “could be the biggest decision in [his] life, or the biggest mistake in [his] life”. Khaitan preferred to make a high quality film over one that was commercially viable. commenced on 1 December 2017 in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Kapoor was joined by her mother on the first day of filming. Shortly after filming began, the shoot was disrupted in , Rajasthan, after a part of the Ambikeshwar Mahadev Temple was damaged by the film’s unit. While scenes were being filmed at the Jagat Shiromani Temple and Panna Meena Ka Kund, the crew members had parked their vehicles near Ambikeshwar Temple. One of their vans hit the of the temple. A police case was lodged against the film unit head by the temple authorities for damaging their historic property. During the schedule of filming, two sequences were filmed by onlookers and circulated on . By contacting the Help Centre, the makers managed to remove one of the videos, but the other kept circulating on social media. This disrupted the filmmakers’ plans to keep the character looks hidden. After the incident, the a no-phone policy was practiced on the sets of , in which mobile phones and cameras were banned from being carried even by members of the cast and crew. The team urged the public to not indulge in such activities and to cooperate with them. In January 2018, the visuals for the song “Zingaat” was filmed. It was choreographed by . In the same month, the schedule of principal photography began. For a solo dance number picturised on Kapoor choreographed by , Kapoor rehearsed continuously for two days, and then shot it over a 24 hour period in a studio in Mumbai. After Sridevi’s , the film’s team took a break to allow Kapoor to pay respects to her mother. She returned to filming shortly after. In March 2018, shooting shifted to Kolkata; some of the sequences were filmed at Victoria Memorial. Filming was completed by mid-April 2018. The music of the film is composed by while the lyrics are written by . The background score is composed by John Stewart Eduri. The music album of the film was released by on 2 July 2018. The album was positively received. The song, “Dhadak”, was mixed by Vijay Dayal at YRF Studios in . The music video of the track was released on 19 June 2018, and features Janhvi Kapoor and . Composer said, “When we first heard the narration of , we knew that it was going to be an epic love story. So, while composing the music of the film that thought remained at the core. “Dhadak Hai Na” is a completely new composition, but it was made with the same thought of creating something epic. Like , the music of has the quality of being cinematic and dramatic. It’s made on an international soundscape and when listeners hear the theme song, I think they will feel the depth and the scale of composition”. John Stewart Eduri composed the background score. The song was released on 19 June 2018 on ‘s page. On the same day of release, it was made available for online streaming at and . It garnered about 9 Million views within 24 hours. It trended at top position in India on , and for almost a day. It also trended at second and third positions on for several days and completed 50 million views on 7 July 2018 and 100 million views on 3 September 2018. wrote, “Shreya Ghoshal fans have fallen in love with her voice all over again”. The article even praised the lyrics of the song and the chemistry of the actors, stating, “Everything from the lyrics, music to the chemistry of the lead actors has got a thumbs up from the audience.” The track became an instant hit and many covers of the song were also made by various artists from all over India. Attaching some of these covers in her article, Rachna Srivastava wrote, “Tripping on Dhadak’s title track? Let these covers help you trip a li’l more” Writing for , Puja Sahu mentioned that the track has been trending at peak position on YouTube India and has garnered in about 9 Million views within a day of its release. The reporter further praised the chemistry between Janhvi and Ishaan. An article in read, “Bollywood celebs go gaga over Ishaan Khatter and Janhvi Kapoor’s romantic number. The soothing song sung by Ajay Gogavale and Shreya Ghoshal will tug at your heartstrings instantly.” The song debuted on Mirchi Music Top 20 countdown on 30 June 2018 at 5th position and climbed up to the 1st position in the next week itself. On Aircheck Top 20, the song debuted on 2 July 2018 at the peak position. The track was marked at the highest position at . It was also marked at Rank 1 at the . s official trailer was released on 11 June 2018. Despite being initially scheduled to release on 6 July 2018, the film was postponed, and was instead released on 20 July 2018. It was released in over 2235 screens in India and a total of 2791 screens worldwide. Apart from India, the film was also released in the Middle East, United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Fiji and Pakistan. received negative reviews from critics. It was particularly criticized for being a poor remake of , glossing over the subject of caste-based discrimination present in the original. Critics also felt that the film did not work as a standalone romance. On the website , has a rating of 31% based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. of gave it two and a half stars out of five; while praising both Kapoor and Khatter for their acting prowess, he found the film to be “relatively sanitized”, and questioned the logic behind remaking , writing, “[T]he caste angle, evidently too hot to handle in a mainstream Bollywood film, is largely swept under the rug in .” Saibal Chatterjee of gave the film two stars out of five, expressing that “[the] muddled screenplay, bland storytelling and uneven lead performances leave this glossy Karan Johar production without a proper, palpable heartbeat”, concluding, “The result is a grind that pretty frames and fresh faces cannot mitigate”. Writing for , Rachit Gupta gave the film three and a half stars out of five and praised the direction, “[Khaitan] presents the naive romance with sensitivity, even while fusing the story with ample dramatic highs”. While noting that the “glossed over aspect makes it unbelievable”, Gupta was more positive, writing, “With all its strengths and weaknesses, attempts to highlight some shocking truths about our society and for that it makes a worthy watch.” Rohit Vats of gave it two and a half stars out of five, writing, “Though Khaitan has tried to deliver subtle messages…, in the end, all this boils down to launching two potential future stars.” Vats also noted that “[Kapoor] and [Khatter] were probably misfits for a rural setting”. A reviewer for the gave the film two and a half stars out of five, saying, “The remake extracts all the juice from the original and then squanders it in irrelevant plot conversions” but deduces: “If is still watchable in parts, it’s because Ishaan Khattar [ ] is constantly injecting his exuberant conviction into every scene.” Shubhra Gupta of gave one and a half stars out of five and said, “Barring a few patches, has neither requisite drama nor authenticity. It underlines all its scenes with blaring background music, to tell us how to feel. It doesn’t work, not as an official copy of , nor as a standalone Bollywood romance.” Sukanya Verma of gave it two stars out of five and writes, “The heartbreak of shabby treatment from one’s own family, the struggle of employment sans proper qualification in an alien city, the resentment, doubts and insecurities spawned by unending challenges hardly registers in s superficial, clueless worldview.” However, she praised Khatter, who “never seems out of his depth no matter how silly the setup” and Kapoor for her expressive ” eyes”. of gave the film one and a half stars out of five and criticized, “In , [time and thought]… are sketchily written, as are the pair’s struggles in their new life away from their parents”. earned 8.71 crore nett on its opening day domestically, which was the highest ever for a film starring newcomers in India, breaking the previous record held by (2012), also produced by Dharma Productions. It earned 11.04 crore nett on its second day and 13.92 crore nett on its third day, taking the weekend collection to 33.67 crore nett. In its first week, the film had a total collection of 51.56 crore nett. The film emerged as a commercial success, and has a worldwide gross of (US$13 million) with (US$11 million) in India.</p>