Hulchul is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Priyadarshan. It is a remake of the 1991 Malayalam film Godfather. The film stars Akshaye Khanna and Kareena Kapoor, with an ensemble cast of Sunil Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Arshad Warsi, Amrish Puri, Paresh Rawal, Arbaaz Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Farha Naaz, and Laxmi in other prominent roles.

Plot

Angar Chand lives a rich lifestyle in a small Indian town with his wife and four sons. The eldest son, Balram falls for Dhamini, who reciprocates his feelings. Though her mother Laxmi opposes this, Angar wants their wedding. Dhamini's dad, Sanjeev, accidentally kills Angar's wife Parvati. Dhamini is forcefully married off to Kashinath Pathak. Enraged, Angar kills Sanjeev and is jailed for 14 years. After being released from jail, Angar returns home to declare that women won't be allowed in his property, posting a sign on the front gate and forbidding his sons to ever marry. 6 years later, Dhamini's daughter Anjali is in college with Jai, Angar's youngest son. Angar learns Anjali will marry the state's Home Minister. Still having a grudge against women, he breaks the wedding by political pressure. Laxmi instigates Anjali and asks her to pretend be in love with Jai, just for revenge so that they can defeat Angar. Seeing Anjali's interest in himself, Jai also pretends to be in love with her, just for revenge, so that Laxmi gets defeated. However, things take a turn when they really fall in love. It's revealed that Angar's second son, Kishan, is married to a dance teacher named Gopi, for seven years, and has two children. Angar finds out about this and kicks Kishan out as well as Jai as Jai supports Kishan. Laxmi fixes Anjali's marriage with her lawyer's son, Sattu. She asks Angaar Chand's to keep a watch on the wedding venue, so that Jai will not enter the wedding. Angaar, in a bid to defeat his son, agrees to safeguard it. On the wedding day, Jai enters the venue with the help of Veeru (Laxmi's son). He knocks Sattu unconscious and dresses as the groom. He goes through marriage rituals but reveals himself at end of the ceremony, finally marrying Anjali. She asks Laxmi to end the feud. Jai asks Angar to forgive him, who leaves and contemplates all his sons' actions. Anjali and Gopi are finally welcomed into the family, with the four sons.

Cast

Soundtrack

According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 10,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fourteenth highest-selling. Vidyasagar reused three tunes from his previous compositions with slight changes: "Rafta Rafta" is based on "Aasai Aasai" from the 2003 Tamil film Dhool, "Ishq Mein Pyaar Mein" is based on "Thaamara Poovukku" from the 1995 Tamil film Pasumpon, and "Hum Dil Ke" is based on the Tamil song "Panikaatrey" from the 2002 Tamil film Run, respectively. The lyrics are penned by Sameer.

Reception

Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave the film 3 out if 5, writing, "On the whole, HULCHUL works two ways. It'll appeal to those who enjoy light entertainers and also those who like family drama kind of situations." Anupama Chopra of India Today praised the "humour" of first half of the film but criticised the second half of the film, writing, "Then, for reasons unknown, the director decides to get heavy-handed. The humour is diluted by melodrama, an item number and violence. The change in tracks derails the film. Which is a pity." Conversely, Raja Sen of Rediff.com called the film a "painful watch", writing, "Hulchul, as a film, is worse than that glue-bowl: equally extraneous and redundant, but much more irritating."

Awards

50th Filmfare Awards: Nominated