Gumraah (2023 film)

Gumraah
Threatical release poster
Directed by	Vardhan Ketkar
Written by	Aseem Arora Vardhan Ketkar
Story by	Magizh Thirumeni
Based on	Thadam (2019) by Magizh Thirumeni
Produced by	Bhushan Kumar Murad Khetani Krishan Kumar Anjum Ketani
Starring	Aditya Roy Kapur Mrunal Thakur Ronit Roy
Cinematography	Vineet Malhotra
Edited by	Sahil Nayar
Music by	Score: Ketan Sodha Songs: Mithoon Vishal Mishra Tanishk Bagchi Abhijit Vaghani
Production companies	T-Series Films Cine1 Studio
Distributed by	Pen Marudhar Entertainment
Release date	7 April 2023 (2023-04-07)
Running time	127 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	est. ₹25 crore
Box office	est. ₹10.68 crores

Gumraah (transl. Astray) is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Vardhan Ketkar and produced by T-Series Films and Murad Khetani's Cine1 Studios. The film stars Aditya Roy Kapur in a dual role along with Mrunal Thakur and Ronit Roy. It is a remake of the 2019 Tamil film Thadam. It revolves around a murder investigation which becomes complicated after the police discover two lookalike suspects.

Principal photography began in October 2021 on the occasion of Dussehra. The filming was wrapped up on 16 July 2022. The film was released in theatres on 7 April 2023. The film received mixed reviews with praise for the action sequences, but underperformed commercially, becoming a box-office bomb.

Plot

In the opening scene, a man in a yellow raincoat breaks into a house, causing the victim in the house to flee in fear. He and the man battle for hardly a moment before he kills him. Before leaving, the murderer is seen destroying any potential clues. However, before he jumps from the balcony to escape from the crime scene he accidentally knocks over a flower pot. He holds the pot from falling in accidentally leaving a bloody fingerprint on the pot.

The following morning the police come over to conduct an inquiry into the murder case and when they are conducting the investigation they try to look at the case as a typical robbery scene, but the inquiry is then headed by Shivani Mathur appointed specially by the commissioner, a young police officer who is wise enough to piece together what happened based on clues. Akash's sister told investigators that he had taken 2 million from the family bank account, but no such money was found in the house locker. Shivani interviews all the neighbours in the colony and one neighbour later says that they spent the night in the house in front of the victim celebrating his girlfriend's birthday and the killer was caught in one of his selfies. Shivani's superior, ACP Dhiren Yadav, recognises Arjun Sehgal as the perpetrator and feels relieved to have his chance at revenge. To begin, he has Shivani look into Arjun's history from the perspective of the murder. The cops eventually arrest Arjun and provide him with evidence. He gives a flimsy alibi, and Yadav is relieved that the investigation may finally be closed. But a constable takes into custody a man named Sooraj for drunken driving and disorderly conduct who looks strikingly similar to Arjun.

The movie takes us back three months later, where shown Arjun, a brilliant engineer, falls in love with Janhvi who is a movie reviewer, he asks her out for a cup of coffee and she says no telling him that his question is wrong asking him to try again. He asks her if it is about equality and after much deliberation, he understands that she hates coffee and is a tea lover, having the both of them falling in love with each other. However, Sooraj is a minor criminal who, together with his friend Chaddi, makes a living by perpetrating cons. He is introduced as the criminal who steals an ATM that is known to have at least 24 lacks of money within which is confirmed by a news reporter who reads the news that Chaddi shows to the goon. Sooraj convinces the goon that the only reason he needs his help is due to the technology within the machine, the goon not wanting to give up on the opportunity pays him 2 lacks in advance and promises to open the machine only in front of Sooraj. The goon tries to open the machine without Sooraj only to find out the machine is filled with monopoly notes. Sooraj then sends the video of the newsreader being a setup who is shown to be laughing and driving away with Sooraj and Chaddi happily with the two lacks scammed away.

Arjun shows Janhvi the condos his first construction on his company he opened with all of his savings and loans that he has been working on for the last three years and shows her his dream coming to life and shares his fear of his dream failing, Janhvi gives him all the strength he needs to believe in himself.

Sooraj is shown to be drinking with Chaddi where Chaddi opens up about how after his dad died his shop was inherited by him, he sold phones and iPads in bulk and would scam the customers by putting bars of soap in a few boxes and one day he ended up selling this to someone who's brother was in sector 23 police station who has sealed his shop and have promised to send him to jail for the next 4 years. Sooraj feeling sorry for Chaddi asks for the case files and carefully goes through them all night. The next morning at the court Chaddi is shown to be begging the opposition to make an out-of-court settlement but he refuses stating he has all evidence against Chaddi and goes away in haste to the court only to be stopped by Sooraj with the question "What evidence?" which shows how Sooraj has eloquently identified that the police memo notes talks about fake iPad boxes and not actual iPads, which will only be argued at court that a scrap shop will not have original boxes in the first place. Sooraj is a criminal, but his legal acumen is on par with that of a top attorney.

Later Arjun is shown talking to Jhanvi who says she has to go away to Mumbai for one week and also how she has to go to Dubai afterwards to surprise her mom and asks Arjun to join her to discuss their marriage. Jhanvi tells Arjun about all the marriage proposals her mom keeps sending her and Arjun jokes about asking her to consider one of them to which she leaves annoyed, the story then spans to Sooraj driving with Chaddi after the court and is shown to be meeting with an accident. One of the mob bosses he conned for the two lacks for the ATM brings Sooraj and hits him kidnaps Chaddi and holds him for ransom by pricing each of his organs to be sold in the black market, demanding a complete 2 million as payment for the deception he perpetrated on Chaddi. Sooraj imagines fighting the goons but realizes that in the huff Chaddi would get shot and lose his life. The mob boss gives him seven days to bring him the 2 million which he promised would be inside the ATM. Sooraj promises to pay 25 lacks for Chaddi's life and agrees to come with the money in a week.

Later Arjun is shown to be searching for something as Jhanvi waits for him at the airport but she checks inside the airport and as she sulks she sees Arjun with a boarding pass who says he wants to talk to her before she leaves, he opens up how he never liked tea, and how boring the foreign movies she shows him, and ever since Jhanvi showed him the marriage proposals he feels that both of them had no spark, Jhanvi responses in anger that if this is what he wanted to tell her he should have rather stayed home to which he says he only feels home with her. And his question brings him down to his knees where he asks her if she will let him be at home forever. An overjoyed Jhanvi makes out with Arjun and he says he couldn't find the ring he bought for her delaying him and overjoyed Jhanvi and Arjun are shown to be parting ways from each other.

Sooraj gambles away his last handful of money to earn the money to pay the mob boss but comes out empty-handed and is humiliated. An angered Chaddi calls out Sooraj that he is selfish and is only worried about him and has left him in trouble in mid-conversation Chaddi is shown to be kidnapped by unknown goons. The mob boss calls Sooraj and reminds him that he only has two days left to save Chaddi or take Chaddi in pieces.

Arjun is shown to be celebrating the sales of his condos where Sooraj is begging everyone he knows for money. Arjun leaves early from his surprise party towards his car and the scene pans out to an angered Arjun and a scene of Sooraj frustrated and in anger both heading in their car and bike in the rain angrily. The scene pans out to Arjun or Sooraj dressing up in the raincoat from the night of the crime committing the crime and later Arjun is shown showering with the cut wound at home and Sooraj pouring alcohol in an exact similar wound on his arm. Then the movie pans out to the present day.

At present Yadav asks his attorney friend to come to the station. Whilst Shivani flushes Arjun with water and starts questioning him about the night of the murder, Arjun says "Chaddi" only to be slapped by the police officer telling him We did not ask what you were wearing but where you were, to which Arjun says he was with Chaddi his friend and proceeds to give him the info and is shown to be using a handkerchief to wipe his face which Shivani realises was taken from her pocket when being brought to the store room which she takes for the DNA test. The constable tries to assault Arjun to which he quotes the law and cases of how they have no right to assault which fears the constables in raising a hand to him.

While Yadav's lawyer arrives at the station he tells him that they finally caught Arjun to which the lawyer rejoices but only to be shown the complication of both Arjun and Sooraj being identical. The lawyer says that the photo is now useless evidence in court and that they will get bail without any trouble. Yadav tells his friend that he has been waiting to extract revenge from Arjun for the last 8 years and he is retiring in two months and this is the perfect opportunity to do so. The lawyer asks him to delete the entry of Arjun from the station and he can only buy himself two extra days before they have to be presented in court. The authorities now have 48 hours to collect proof. The movie is then panned out to Shivani with both Arjun and Sooraj side by side where a constable asks her who she thinks is the murderer which lines up to the intermission.

Yadav calls out all the officers and tells them that both Arjun and Sooraj should not meet each other and that they need to do everything in their power to find who was in the photo that night. Constables are shown to be taking a DNA sample from Arjun and shown the injury on Arjun's shoulder when asked how he was hurt the flashback goes towards the night of the murder but he lies that he was hurt at construction. Both Arjun and Sooraj show the same injuries. And Sooraj is also shown to have the same flashback and lies that he was hurt by drunkenly driving his bike.

A creepy lab specialist calls up Shivani flirts with her and tells her that the hair from the murderer was found in the fingernails of the victim and that he will solve the case if they send him the DNA samples of the culprit, the constable who was supposed to be delivering the sample is shown to be slacking and flirting with a woman. An angered Shivani sends the DNA samples to the lab and requests the results to be given immediately and conducts a dog sniffing test on the identified evidence only to find that both of them have traces of smell from the victim. No one from the house or neighbourhood identifies Arjun and Sooraj. Shivani questions Chaddi if he knows the victim to no avail but identifies Sooraj and tells her that he could never murder someone and he was with him on the night of the murder where Sooraj had passed out from winning the case against Chaddi's shop.

The DNA found at the crime scene matches both of them, revealing that Arjun and Sooraj are identical twins in the present day, but the evidence acquired by the police is usually deceiving. The two of them begin relating their tale. Their parents' marriage was falling apart, and their mother took to gambling, which ultimately led to the couple's separation and eventual divorce. While Arjun did not have the same strong feelings for his mother as did Sooraj, the reverse was also true. Being an attorney, their father took away the kids and prevented his wife from seeing them; she grew depressed as a result and ended up dying by suicide. The brothers went in different directions since, and have refused to acknowledge each other's existence for long.

Shivani is confident that Sooraj is the perpetrator due to his criminal record and flimsy alibi. The old constable tells Shivani that Yadav is out for revenge on Arjun because, eight years ago, Arjun helped his daughter elope with her lover and Yadav tried to pull all the legal apparatus against Arjun, but his daughter testified in Arjun’s favour in court. Shivani and Yadav find themselves in a faceoff by concealing evidence from each other to secure a solid alibi for Arjun and Sooraj. Six months later, the court still is sure that one of them committed the crime, but they also can't condemn either of them because of their solid alibi.

A few weeks later, Shivani received Janhvi's missing person case file. When Janhvi's friend does some digging, she finds out that Janhvi went to a class reunion just before she disappeared. Later that day, she gets a text from Janhvi saying that she and Arjun are no longer together and that she is getting married instead, to none other than Akash. Because she fabricated Arjun's alibi, she can no longer dispute that the crime was committed for financial gain.

After learning of Janhvi's messages, Arjun decided to confront Akash, as revealed by Arjun. After a brief altercation, Arjun coerces Akash into telling the truth about his connection to Janhvi. They were dating in college, but Akash tells him things didn't work out. He approached her at the reunion, but she avoided him. He then rapes her in his hotel room after spiking her drink. She overdoses on drugs and dies from sexual assault. Akash then pays 2 million to the police to drop the case. Arjun murders Akash out of rage and then flees the scene.

After hearing that Arjun had been arrested for murder, Sooraj told him that he had cleaned up the scene and planted evidence to divert the police's attention from himself. Sooraj assured him that Arjun would not be convicted because he had not committed the crime. Arjun gives Sooraj keys to the house he's been living in and they split up.

Cast

• Aditya Roy Kapur in a dual role as:
  • Arjun Sehgal
  • Sooraj Rana "Ronnie"
• Mrunal Thakur as Sub Inspector Shivani Mathur
• Ronit Roy as ACP Dhiren Yadav "Dhiru" IPS
• Vedika Pinto as Janhvi Behl
• Keeya Khanna as Mrs. Rana, Arjun's and Sooraj's mother
• Mohit Anand as Prithvi
• Ivan Rodrigues as Advocate Bijou
• Deepak Kalra as Kulbhushan "Chaddi"
• Navneet Kaur as Radhika Yadav Valmiki, Dhiren's daughter
• Akshay Bhagat as Purushottam, the goon who filed a case on Chaddi
• Sachin Khurana as Ravi Sehgal, Arjun and Sooraj's father
• Micky Makhija as Judge (Final Verdict)
• Aditya Lal as Aakash Sardana, murder victim
• Tanvie Kishore as Aakash's sister
• Chahat Vig as Divya

Production

Development and casting

In 2019 following the release of Thadam there were rumours that a Hindi remake was in the works. On 4 March 2020 the film was officially announced as an untitled crime-thriller by Bhushan Kumar and Murad Khetani through social media, confirming that T-Series and Cine1 Studios are co-producing the film with debutant Vardhan Ketkar announced as director. Sidharth Malhotra was first announced as the lead alongside Mrunal Thakur. The filming was supposed to begin in mid-2020 with a release date of 20 November 2020, but it was postponed following the coronavirus outbreak in late March 2020. Later in January 2021, there were reports of Sidharth Malhotra walking out of the project due to unknown reasons and the project was put on a hold.

In July 2021 the makers announced the revival of the project with Aditya Roy Kapur as the new lead. Later in September 2021 Mrunal Thakur was also confirmed to be a part of the project. Vedika Pinto was selected to appear as the love interest opposite Aditya. Ronit Roy and Navneet Kaur Thind was also cast to play important roles in the film.

Filming

Filming began in October 2021 on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra. The second schedule began in May 2022 in Mumbai with Thakur joining the shoot alongside Ronit Roy. The team wrapped up the filming in July 2022.

Soundtrack

Gumraah
Soundtrack album by Mithoon, Vishal Mishra, Tanishk Bagchi and Abhijit Vaghani
Released	14 March 2023
Recorded	2022–2023
Studio	VM Studio, New Edge Studio, Future Sound of Bombay & Headroom Studio Mumbai
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	13:48
Language	Hindi
Label	T-Series
Official audio
Gumraah – Full Album on YouTube

Mithoon, Vishal Mishra, Tanishk Bagchi and Abhijit Vaghani have composed songs for the film. First single titled "Soniye Ji" sung, composed, and written by Vishal Mishra was released on 14 March 2023. On 18 March 2023 another song titled "Ghar Nahi Jana" composed by Tanishk Bagchi and sung by Armaan Malik, Zahrah S Khan and Salma Agha was released. The third single title "Allah De Bande" was released on 31 March 2023 and the title track was released on 5 April 2023.

Track Listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Soniye Je"	Vishal Mishra	Vishal Mishra	Vishal Mishra	2:40
2.	"Ghar Nahi Jana"	Rashmi Virag	Tanishk Bagchi	Armaan Malik, Zahrah S Khan, Salma Agha	3:41
3.	"Allah De Bande"	Mithoon	Mithoon	Jubin Nautiyal, Aaman Trikha, Mithoon	4:48
4.	"Gumraah (Title Track)"	Bhrigu Parashar	Abhijit Vaghani	Sachet Tandon, Parampara Thakur	2:39
Total length:					13:48

Release

The film was theatrically released on 7 April 2023. The digital rights were acquired by Netflix and the film started streaming on the platform as from 4 June 2023.

Reception

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 33% of 9 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10.

Dhaval Roy of The Times of India rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "An engaging plot, twists and turns and good storytelling make Gumraah worth a visit to the theatre". Rishil Jogani of Pinkvilla rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and termed the film "very enjoyable" with elements of a commercial thriller. Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote: "While the story with solid twists and turns looks exciting, the film lacked the gripping and pacey screenplay, which would have taken Gumraah to another level".

Box office

It flopped at the box office, opening worldwide at ₹1.22 crore.Opening weekend was ₹5.93 crore.

As of 27 April 2023, the film has grossed ₹9.86 crore (US$1.2 million) in India and ₹0.82 crore (US$98,000) overseas for a worldwide gross collection of ₹10.68 crore (US$1.3 million).

The film underperformed commercially, becoming a box-office bomb.

External links

• Gumraah at IMDb
• Gumraah at Bollywood Hungama