Ishqiya
File:Ishqiya.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Abhishek Chaubey
Produced by	Raman Maroo Vishal Bhardwaj
Screenplay by	Vishal Bhardwaj Abhishek Chaubey Sabrina Dhawan
Starring	Vidya Balan Naseeruddin Shah Arshad Warsi Salman Shahid Anupama Kumar
Music by	Vishal Bhardwaj
Cinematography	Mohana Krishna Agapu
Editing by	Namrata Rao
Studio	Shemaroo Entertainment Vishal Bhardwaj Pictures
Distributed by	Shemaroo Entertainment
Release date(s)	29 January 2010 (2010-01-29)
Running time	150 minutes
Country	‹See Tfd› India
Language	Hindi
Box office	25 crore (US$4.99 million)[1]

Ishqiya (Hindi: इश्किया) is a 2010 Indian black comedy thriller film starring Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Naseeruddin Shah, and Salman Shahid in the lead roles. The film is directed by Abhishek Chaubey in his directorial debut and is produced by Raman Maroo and Vishal Bharadwaj. The film was released on 29 January 2010.^[2]

Upon release, the film performed much better than expected at the box office. Expectations for the film were low, and it opened to a below-average opening. However, due to excellent reviews and strong word-of-mouth, the film picked up in many places and sustained well. The film was declared an average performer at the box office. It was also selected to be screened at the 34th Cairo International Film Festival.^[3] The producers of the film, Shemaroo and Vishal Bhardwaj have announced a sequel to the film with the same cast and crew.^[4]

Plot[link]

The film starts with Krishna Verma (Vidya Balan) trying to convince her husband, Vidyadhar Verma (Adil Hussain), a local gang-lord, that he should surrender. He agrees, but is soon killed in a gas explosion. Two criminals Iftikhar aka Khalujan (Naseeruddin Shah) and Razzak Hussain aka Babban (Arshad Warsi) botch up a job and escape from the clutches of their boss Mushtaq (Salman Shahid), who wants to bury them alive. They land up in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to seek refuge in the house of Vidyadhar Verma.

Instead they meet his widow Krishna, who gives them shelter and tries to seduce both of them in order to achieve her own secret goal. She proposes the kidnapping of Kamalkant Kakkar aka KK (Rajesh Sharma), a small businessman. The duo reluctantly agree, since they want to escape the clutches of Mushtaq. Khalujan and Babban meantime realize that they are falling for Krishna, but they do not reveal their feelings to each other. Khalujan decides to tell his feelings to Krishna, but is shocked when he sees Krishna and Babban having sex. Khalujan is angry, but keeps quiet. However, when the kidnapping does not go as smoothly as wanted, Khalujan and Babban start fighting.

Meanwhile, Krishna tortures KK and asks him where her husband is hiding, revealing that Verma might be alive. KK finally calls Verma. Both Babban and Khalujan realize that Krishna was just using them. They confront her, whereupon she reveals that KK and Verma were partners in the illegal business and that Verma is still alive. The duo reach KK's factory and are shocked to find Verma. Verma's goons blindfold the duo and take them to a deserted spot. When they take out their blindfolds, Babban sees Nandu (Alok Kumar), a boy he had previously met, pointing a gun at them. However, Nandu leaves them alive and explains the whole story. He tells that Verma had no plans to leave his criminal life, so he faked his death in front of Krishna, so that she would think he is dead.

Khalujan and Babban race back to Krishna's house, where they have left her tied to a chair. Meanwhile, Krishna succeeds in opening the tube of gas cylinder, causing a gas leak. Verma confronts her and she tries to kill both of them by igniting a lighter. Verma assaults Krishna while the duo arrives. Soon, police arrive at the scene too. Verma's goons are killed in a shootout, while Verma is killed in a gas explosion. The duo save Krishna and soon the trio is seen walking away from the burning house.

Unknown to them, Mushtaq is pointing a gun at them. Suddenly Mushtaq's wife calls. The trio are still seen through the gun hole of Mushtaq, thus making their fate unclear, although it can be assumed that Mushtaq left them alive.

Cast and characters[link]

• Vidya Balan as Krishna Verma, 30 years old, femme fatale, small-town girl, mysterious woman and forgotten widow; Krishna is a bundle of contradictions. She was seen as a woman madly in love, as an object of desire, as a vision of purity and engaging herself in a lustful bout with another man.^[5]
• Naseeruddin Shah as Khalujan/Khalu/Iftikhar, 51-year-old Khalujan is a pure romantic at heart. He is a bit of an odd cookie in the world of crime. Sure, he has a sharp mind and body and has been toughened up over the years living in the world of guns and gangsters; yet, he is very emotional and tender at the core. He wants to go back to his village and wants to settle down in a quiet, peaceful country life existence. Only, life had other plans for him. Love happens to him. Krishna happens to him.^[6]
• Arshad Warsi as Razzak Hussain aka Babban, 32-year-old Babban is in more ways than one, the antithesis of the kind of man his uncle is. If Khalujan is all heart and soul, Babban is all flesh and blood. He is hot-blooded, lustful and scoffs at the idea of true romantic love. Babban is cynical, indifferent to finer things in life and tough as nails. Through the course of the film, Babban discovers what it is to love and to be betrayed. It makes the dormant softer side of him come alive. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Babban cares, for Krishna.^[7]
• Salman Shahid as Mushtaq Bhai, Master of Khalu and Babban; a cold-blooded criminal who is chasing the duo after they botched up his job, causing him loss of money. Due to him, the duo has to take refuge in Vidyadhar Verma's house.
• Adil Hussain as Vidyadhar Verma/Shyam Prasad Kulshreshtha, Husband of Krishna
• Rajesh Sharma as Kamalkant Kakkad aka KK, Founder of KK steel company, partner of Vidyadhar Verma in arms business; runs his arms business in garb of steel foundry.
• Anupama Kumar as Manju Kakkad, Wife of KK; a typical wife of a rich businessman and a clueless person in all the drama.
• Alok Kumar as Nandu, A 15 year old boy and acquaintance of Babban.
• Gauri Malla as Mamta (Nepali actress), Niece of a beauty parlor owner; runs a brothel in garb of beauty parlor; KK is her regular customer.
• Anisa Bano as Tai
• Jai Singh

Reception[link]

Box office[link]

In just three days, the gross box office collections of the film in India crossed Rs. 15 crore on 522 screens. Friday morning shows opened with 40-60 percent in key areas like Delhi,Lucknow,Mumbai and Pune evening settled down to 65-70 percent with average occupancy cultivating first day gross box office of Rs. 3.85 crore, with glowing reviews ranging from 3-4 star ratings and strong word-of-mouth from audience, Saturday showed an impressive jump of 25-30 percent and settled down to Rs. 5 Crore, Sunday showed further jump of 30 percent compared to Friday and 8-10 percent compared to Saturday, garnered further Rs. 5.40 crore cultivating to cumulative an astounding opening gross weekend collection of more than Rs. 14 crore at the box office.^[8] After five weeks Ishqiya grossed Rs. 22,05,00,000 and was declared an average performer at the box office.^[9]

Critical reception[link]

The film opened to positive critical response. Accolades were received for the performances by the three central characters, like Anupama Chopra, the NDTV movie critic said, "Ishqiya would have faltered if the performances had not matched the writing but all three leads are absolutely terrific.", while giving the movie 3.5 stars out of 5.^[10] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN while giving the film 3.5 on a 5-star rating, called it, "a delicious little film that teeters dangerously between saucy comedy and suspenseful noir....the film sparkles for its inspired writing and uncompromised direction.".^[11] Pratim D. Gupta of The Telegraph called Ishqiya "a rollercoaster rustic ride through ishq aaj kal" and praised director Abhishek Chaubey calling his "one of the most assured debuts in recent Hindi cinema".^[12] Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, "Ishqiya could have been an average film had it not been for the screenplay.".^[13] The Indiatimes review also gave 3.5 stars out of 5.^[14] Taran Adarsh of bollywood hungama while giving the film 4 on a 5 star rating scale, said "You can't help but fall in ishq with Ishqiya. Tired of sherbat? Try this spicy jaljeera for a change!".^[15]

Awards and nominations[link]

58th National Film Awards^[16]

• Won National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer - Rekha Bhardwaj - "Badi Dheere Jali"
• Won National Film Award for Best Music Direction - Vishal Bhardwaj
• Won National Film Award for Best Audiography (Location Sound Recordist) - Kamod Karade
• Won National Film Award for Best Audiography (Re-recordist of the Final Mixed Track) - Debajit Changmai

2011 Filmfare Awards

Won^[17]

• Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer - Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - "Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji"
• Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist - Gulzar - "Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji"
• Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance - Vidya Balan

Nominated

• Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Vidya Balan
• Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor - Arshad Warsi
• Filmfare Award for Best Music Director - Vishal Bhardwaj
• Filmfare Award for Best Sound Design - Shajith Koyeri

2011 Star Screen Awards

Won^[18]

• Screen Award for Best Actress - Vidya Balan
• Screen Award for Best Supporting Actor - Arshad Warsi
• Screen Award for Best Lyricist - Gulzar - "Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji"
• Screen Award for Best Male Playback - Rahat Fateh Ali Khan - "Dil Toh Bachcha Hai Ji"

Nominated^[19]

• Screen Award for Best Actor - Naseeruddin Shah
• Screen Award for Best Music Director - Vishal Bhardwaj
• Screen Award for Best Background Music - Vishal Bhardwaj
• Screen Award for Best Female Playback - Rekha Bhardwaj - "Ab Mujhe and Badi Dheere"
• Screen Award for Best Lyricist - Gulzar - "Ibn-e-batuta"
• Screen Award for Best Editing - Namrata Rao
• Star Screen Award for Best Sound Design - Shajith Koyeri
• Star Screen Award for Most Promising Debut Director - Abhishek Chaubey

2011 Apsara Awards

Won^[20]

• Apsara Award for Best Actress - Vidya Balan
• Apsara Award for Best Lyricist - Gulzar for "Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji"

Nominated^[21]

• Apsara Award for Best Film - Raman Maroo and Vishal Bharadwaj
• Apsara Award for Best Screenplay - Vishal Bharadwaj, Abhishek Chaubey and Sabrina Dhawan
• Apsara Award for Best Story - Abhishek Chaubey
• Apsara Award for Best Music - Vishal Bharadwaj
• Apsara Award for Best Playback Singer (Male) - Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for "Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji"
• Apsara Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Naseeruddin Shah

2011 Zee Cine Awards

Won^[22]

• Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female - Vidya Balan
• Zee Cine Award for Best Lyricist - Gulzaar - "Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji"

Nominated^[23]

• Sa Re Ga Ma Pa - Song of the Year - "Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji"
• Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Male - Naseeruddin Shah
• Zee Cine Award for Most Promising Debut Director - Abhishel Chaubey

Soundtrack[link]

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and the lyrics are penned by Gulzar. The music was released on 1 January 2010. The reception to the music has been positive with "Dil To Bachcha Hai" and "Ibn-E-Batuta" being instant chartbusters. The track "Badi Dheere Jali", based on an Indian classical Raaga "Lalit" and the ghazal "Ab Mujhe Koi" are sung by Rekha Bhardwaj.^[24].

Track listing[link]

Sequel[link]

A sequel to this film, named Dedh Ishqiya is under the stage of pre-production. Shooting starts at the end of 2011. Arshad Warsi and Naseeruddin Shah are going to return for the sequel. As per latest update Vidya will not be part of the sequel and Kangna Ranaut will enact a pivotal role. Madhuri Dixit has been roped in for the female lead, this will be her first film after Aaja Nachle. She is playing the role of a begum and will be reciting poetry. She is opposite Naseer.

See also[link]

• Bollywood films of 2010

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Ishqiya at the Internet Movie Database