Marjaavaan

Marjaavaan (transl. I will die) is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language romantic action film written by Milap Milan Zaveri. It is directed by Zaveri and produced by T-Series and Emmay Entertainment. Marjaavaan stars Sidharth Malhotra, Tara Sutaria, Riteish Deshmukh, and Rakul Preet Singh. It was described by co-producer Bhushan Kumar as a violent and dramatic love story.

The music of Marjaavaan was released under T-Series and became a chartbuster with songs like “Tum Hi Aana”, “Thodi Jagah” and the item number “Ek Toh Kam Zindagani”. It was distributed by Pen India Limited. After change of release date three times, Marjaavaan finally premiered worldwide in theatres on 15 November 2019 and received negative reviews from film critics.

Plot

Raghu is a loyal goon to the local thug Narayan Anna who controls the water mafia in Mumbai. Anna’s dependence on Raghu doesn’t sit well with Vishnu (Anna’s son), whose complexes arise from more than just his short stature, as he is only three feet tall. When Raghu falls for Zoya, a mute musically-inclined Kashmiri girl who teaches children music, Vishnu jumps at the opportunity to use it to discredit his father’s most favorite goon.

Vishnu kidnaps Gaitonde (one of his father’s enemies) and tells a kid Zoya had selected for her music festival to shoot him. Zoya sees this and flees, but Vishnu is already alerted of her presence. Vishnu tells his father that there was an eyewitness to Gaitonde’s murder, and that witness is Zoya, so Anna orders Raghu to kill Zoya, not knowing that Raghu loves her. Raghu finds Zoya and tries to run away from Vishnu and his father, but Vishnu catches them and orders Raghu, Zoya, and all the kids to be killed. Vishnu’s father tells Raghu he and the kids will be safe if he kills only Zoya, as she is the eyewitness to Gaitonde’s murder. Zoya tells Raghu to kill her so that he and the kids remain safe. Zoya gives Raghu the gun, places her thumb over his, pulls the trigger, and dies in his arms.

The police arrest a traumatized Raghu for Zoya’s murder. In jail, Raghu becomes depressed and broken. The children bury Zoya, Raghu’s friends, and her friends. Vishnu tries to get Raghu killed in jail, knowing if he is released, he will take revenge. However, Raghu beats up the goons Vishnu hired. Vishnu then cuts off Raghu’s friend Mazar’s leg because Mazar kicked him. When Vishnu’s father tells him that Raghu will be sentenced to life, Vishnu helps Raghu get out by bribing the proofs, planning to kill Raghu upon his release. However, when Raghu returns, Vishnu sees that Raghu is not the same after Zoya’s death. His father tells him that Raghu died the day he killed Zoya. Vishnu tries various ways to bring Raghu back to his old ways but fails. Raghu had completely changed, and all his old habits had changed. Vishnu’s father catches him and warns him against this, but Vishnu angrily kills his father and sends goons to kill Raghu. However, Raghu kills them all and buries them. He visits Zoya’s grave and vows revenge on Vishnu; his friends join him in this mission.

On the day of Dussera, when Vishnu comes to burn Ravana’s idol, Raghu arrives and starts beating all the goons. Vishnu pierces an arrow into Raghu’s heart, but Raghu burns him. While dying, Raghu sees Zoya’s soul and dies peacefully, surrounded by friends and family. The police arrive, and the inspector tells the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) that Raghu died. The ACP replies that Raghu returned to his life, which was with Zoya.

Cast

• Sidharth Malhotra as Raghuvendra “Raghu” Nath, Zoya’s love interest
• Riteish Deshmukh as Vishnu Shetty, Anna’s son
• Tara Sutaria as Zoya Ahmed, Raghu’s love interest
• Rakul Preet Singh as Aarzoo Hussain
• Nassar as Narayan “Anna” Shetty, Vishnu’s father
• Shaad Randhawa as Mazhar, Raghu’s best friend
• Ravi Kishan as ACP Ravi Yadav
• Om Kanojiya as Timepass
• Anant Jog as Gaitonde, one of Narayan Anna’s enemies
• Amit Mehra as Gaitonde’s son
• Varinder Singh Ghuman as Rakka
• Bikramjeet Kanwarpal as Prison Fighter
• Godaan Kumar as Shafi, Raghu’s friend
• Uday Nene as Gopi, Raghu’s best friend
• Alina Kazi as Payal Hussain, Aarzoo’s younger sister
• Swati Seth as Zarika, Zoya’s friend
• Nora Fatehi (special appearance in song “Ek Toh Kum Zindagani”)
• Nushrat Bharucha (special appearance in song “Peeyu Datt Ke”)

Production

Filming

Principal photography of the film began on 7 December 2018 with Malhotra sharing his picture on his official Instagram account. The second schedule is set to roll in from mid-January and will end by March. Sidharth Malhotra is shooting with a dozen goons and has switched to action mode. “The stunt team wanted to shoot with a body double because Sidharth’s back and shoulder would be on fire but he was adamant on doing the scene himself to make it look authentic and stay true to his character”. Siddharth wrapped up his portion except for songs on 15 March 2019. He announced the news by posting a picture with crews with a heartfelt message. In November 2019, Deshmukh revealed that Shah Rukh Khan had helped the production team with some VFX shots for the former’s role as a dwarf.

Marketing and release

The official poster of the film was shared by Sidharth Malhotra on 30 October 2018, announcing the release date of 8 November 2019. On 5 August 2019, Malhotra announced that the film is delayed to avoid the clash with Siddharth Anand’s big budget film War starring Tiger Shroff and Hrithik Roshan, but the release date was not confirmed. On 23 August 2019, the first poster was unveiled by Malhotra, giving the new release date of 8 November 2019. On 3 September, a second poster was unveiled, in which it was shown that the release date of the film is advanced to 8 November. on 10 October, he announced new release date of film is 15 November 2019.

The film was released on 15 November 2019 after the release date was advanced by a week to accommodate the release of Bala.

Reception

Khaleej Times rated the film 1.5 stars out of 5 and said, “‘Marjaavan’ falls several shades short of a proper Bollywood masala entertainer that it aspires to in spite of having all the ingredients for it. The weak and clichéd plotline along with heavy-duty dialogues that should have impressed but end up sounding hollow is only part of the problem.”

The Times of India rated the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and reviewed, “Marjaavaan attempts to check all the boxes for an emotional action rollercoaster, but its dated execution doesn’t quite make the kill.”

Mumbai Mirror rated the film 2 on 5 stars and said, “This Sidharth Malthotra, Riteish Deshmukh and Tara Sutaria-starrer is a tedious watch.”

Scroll.in rated the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote, “A 1980s Bollywood flashback with characters who are cardboard cutouts.”

Box office

Marjaavaan‘s opening day domestic collection was ₹7.03 crore. On the second day, the film collected ₹7.21 crore. On the third day, the film collected ₹10.18 crore, taking total opening weekend collection to ₹24.42 crore.

As of 16 December 2019, with a gross of ₹56.88 crore in India and ₹8.46 crore overseas, the film has a worldwide gross collection of ₹65.34 crore.

Soundtrack

Marjaavaan
Soundtrack album by Tanishk Bagchi, Meet Bros, Payal Dev, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Aditya Dev and Sanjoy Chowdhury
Released	27 November 2019
Recorded	2018–19
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	51:10
Language	Hindi
Label	T-Series
Producer	Bhushan Kumar
External audio  Official Audio CD Jukebox on YouTube

This music of film is composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Meet Bros, Payal Dev, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Aditya Dev and Sanjoy Chowdhury with lyrics written by Kumaar, Tanishk Bagchi, Kunaal Vermaa, Manoj Muntashir, A. M. Turaz, Rashmi Virag, Prasoon Joshi, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Dope Leo and Mujtaba Aziz Naza.

The second song “Ek Toh Kum Zindagani” is a remake of the song “Pyar Do Pyar Lo” from the film Janbaaz, being the second remake of the song after Anees Bazmee’s Thank You, where it was composed by Pritam.

The fourth song Haiya Ho, is a remake of “Chahe Meri Jaan Tu Le Le”, a song from Dayavan.

Two songs of the film which were removed from the final cut were released later as singles as they didn’t go well with the narrative of the film. They were the song “Peeyu Datt Ke”, starring Nushrat Bharucha which was released on 2 December 2019 and the song Masakali 2.0 which is a recreated version of the song “Masakali” from the 2009 film Delhi-6 and was released on 8 April 2020 by T-Series.

Kinna Sona, a Pakistani song originally sung by the Pakistani qawwal Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was covered by Pakistani singer Atif Aslam for the films soundtrack. In February 2019 the All Indian Cine Workers Association levied a ban on all Pakistani artists, hence the track was replaced at the last minute by a version sung by the Indian singer Jubin Nautiyal. Although the song remained a cover of the Pakistani Qawwali. In June 2020 T-Series released the initial cover sung by Atif Aslam on YouTube, however were forced to remove it and issue an ‘apology’ after a threat-laced campaign led by the far-right Indian nationalist party: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.