Batla House

Batla House is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film[5][6] written by Ritesh Shah and directed by Nikkhil Advani. Inspired by the Batla House encounter case that took place on 19 September 2008, the film stars John Abraham as the title character named Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, the police officer who played a crucial role in the encounter. The story showcases the encounter and in its aftermath, Sanjeev's struggle to catch the fugitives and prove the encounter wasn't a fake one, while dealing with nationwide hatred and posttraumatic stress disorder.

Batla House
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNikkhil Advani
Produced by
Written byRitesh Shah
Based on2008 Batla House encounter case
StarringJohn Abraham
Mrunal Thakur
Music byScore:
John Stewart Eduri
Songs:
Rochak Kohli
Tanishk Bagchi
Ankit Tiwari
Taz
CinematographySaumik Mukherjee
Edited byMaahir Zaveri
Production
company
Distributed byPanorama Studios
Anand Pandit Motion Pictures
Release date
  • 15 August 2019 (2019-08-15)[1]
Running time
146 minutes[2]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget470 million[3]
Box officeest. 1134 million[4]

The film was theatrically released in India on 15 August 2019 during Independence Day weekend.[7][8] It became commercially successful at the box office.

Plot

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav is informed that his team have cornered 5 university students in L-18, Batla House, who might have been involved in the 13 September 2008 Delhi bombings, the responsibility for which was claimed by the terrorist organisation "Indian Mujahideen" (IM). Sanjeev orders not to engage until he arrives, but a relentless inspector, Mohan Chand Sharma, proceeds with some officers. Sanjeev arrives and upon hearing the gunshots, decides to engage. The building is cleared, and Mohan Chand is found shot down. Sanjeev enters the room and there's more shooting, as a result of which two students, Dilshad and Javed, end up dead and Tufail is arrested alive. Adil Ameen and Sadiq escape. Sanjeev now starts facing the heat from media and politicians who start billing the encounter as a fake one. They're joined by the whole nation in condemning the Delhi Police and everyone starts demanding justice for the students who were supposedly killed to account for the bombings. Sanjeev's wife, Shobhna Yadav, a news anchor, is however unwilling to accept this and decides to stay with Sanjeev, who soon becomes diagnosed with Posttraumatic stress disorder, frequently hallucinating about getting shot by the terrorists. Shobhna somehow stops him whenever he becomes suicidal. Sanjeev now starts looking for the Dilshad and Javed, and finds one of them to hiding in Nizampur. Sanjeev is informed by his senior that he would be awarded for the encounter and that he must celebrate. Realizing he's not been told where to celebrate, he heads to Nizampur where he manages to find Dilshad, one of the fugitives. Everyone tries to stop Sanjeev, who chases, beats up and almost arrests Dilshad, only to be cornered by the politicians and public who let him escape but without Dilshad. After being awarded the President Medal, Sanjeev begins his hunt again and this time, through Dilshad's girlfriend Huma, tricks him into coming to Nepal. He teams up with his officers once again, and sends a van to pick up Dilshad, as a part of his plan. The latter, however, sends someone else to check for anything suspicious. Sanjeev runs to stop his officers from engaging upon realizing Dilshad's not in the van and lets it flee. Learning of nothing suspicious, Dilshad informs the van driver he'd depart the next day, and upon landing in Nepal, is stopped, thrashed and arrested by Sanjeev and his team.

The court proceedings begin, where the opposing lawyer brings up arguments to counter Sanjeev's truth and a parallel story of fake encounters, as per which Mohan Chand and his men brought the students in L18, tortured and decided to kill them when they were ordered not to do so, following which Mohan Chand was shot by one of his officers. Sanjeev, however, brings out the truth that actually his officers had been closely watching the students and realized they belonged to the Indian Mujahideen. The real shootout then plays out, showcasing Mohan Chand and his team engaging when the students fire, and the very fact that Mohan Chand died gives Sanjeev's argument a strong support when he tells everyone that no officer has ever died in a fake encounter. His arguments convince the court to sentence the 2 terrorists to life imprisonment, while the last one somehow escapes the country.

While sections of the media still oppose the ruling and believe the police to be culprits, a video clip that surfaced in 2016 featured a confession from the terrorist Javed who had escaped the encounter, about he managed to do so and later join the ISIS, further confirming the credibility of the encounter.

Cast

Production

In May 2018, Nikkhil Advani announced the film with John Abraham, to be based on Operation Batla House of 2008. The film was to be shot in Delhi, Lucknow, Mussoorie, Mumbai, Jaipur and Nepal starting in September 2018 in span of 50 days.[10][11] Ravi Kishan[12] and Nora Fatehi joined the cast of Batla House in November 2018.[13] The film was wrapped in the second week of February in 2019.[14]

Release

The film was released on 15 August 2019 along with Mission Mangal.[15]

Soundtrack

Batla House
Soundtrack album by
Recorded2018–2020
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length15:55
LanguageHindi
LabelT-Series

The songs are composed by Rochak Kohli, Tanishk Bagchi, Taz and Ankit Tiwari. Lyrics written by Tanishk Bagchi, Gautam Sharma, Gurpreet Saini and Prince Dubey. The first song "O Saki Saki" is a version of the song "Saaki Saaki" from the film Musafir.[16][17] The song "O Saki Saki" was launched on 15 July 2019.[18] "O Saki Saki" has become a TikTok trend as of June 2020 with users doing the dance.

One of the songs, "Gallan Goriyan", was removed from the film's final cut and was instead released as a separate single due to thematic inconsistency at the time of the film's release. The song, a recreated version of an eponymous original from the 2000 album Oh Laila, was released on 11 June 2020 by T-Series.

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsMusicSinger(s)Length
1."O Saki Saki"Tanishk Bagchi (Original Lyrics: Dev Kohli)Tanishk Bagchi (Original Music: Vishal-Shekhar)Neha Kakkar, Tulsi Kumar, B Praak3:11
2."Rula Diya"Prince DubeyAnkit TiwariAnkit Tiwari, Dhvani Bhanushali4:39
3."Jaako Rakhe"Gautam G Sharma, Gurpreet SainiRochak KohliRochak Kohli, Navraj Hans4:07
4."Gallan Goriyan"KumaarTazDhvani Bhanushali, Taz3:58
Total length:15:55

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics.[19] Bollywood Hungama gave the film 4.5 stars out of 5 and called it "one of the finest films of the year" while praising the performances of John Abraham and Ravi Kishan, the action sequences and the screenplay.[20] The Times of India gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and felt that Abraham delivered "the best of his career" performance, while also praising the action sequences but criticizing the pacing of the second half.[21] Prasanna D Zore writing for Rediff.com gave it 2 stars out of 5 and noted that only second half had gripping moments.[22]

Box office

Batla House earned a decent 19.5 crore nett in India on its opening day.[23] It dropped 50 percent to earn 7.5 crore nett on the second day.[24] On Saturday, the third day, the film's business grew by 30 percent to 9.5 crore nett, for a three-day total of 31.5 crore nett.[25]

As of 5 September 2019, with a gross of 106.80 crore in India and 9.82 crore overseas, the film has grossed 1206.2 million worldwide.[4]

Home video

Batla House was made available as VOD on Prime Video in October 2019.[26]

References

  1. "John Abraham and Mouni Roy start filming Batla House to release on Aug 15, 2019". Zee News. 22 October 2018.
  2. "BATLA HOUSE (2019)- British Board of Film Classification."
  3. "Batla House Movie Box Office Collection Day 1: John Abraham's action thriller makes decent opening". India TV. Retrieved 17 August 2019. With the total budget of 47 crores including the COP & PnA [cost of production and print and advertising]
  4. "Batla House Box Office". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  5. "John Abraham on Twitter: Batla House is a sensitive subject. Here's a sneak peak of this action thriller". Twitter.
  6. "BATLA HOUSE". British Board of Film Classification. 13 August 2019.
  7. "Batla House first look: John Abraham film to release on Independence Day, to clash with Brahmastra". Hindustan Times. 21 September 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  8. "Batla House: John Abraham starrer to release on Independence Day 2019". The Indian Express. 21 September 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  9. https://www.gaonconnection.com/gaon-connection-tv/bhabi-ji-ghar-par-hain-actor-sandeep-yadav-lucknow-uttar-pradesh
  10. "John Abraham Joins Nikkhil Adavani's Next Film On Batla House Encounter". NDTV. 16 May 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  11. Bhattacharya, Roshmila (16 May 2018). "John Abraham to play cop Sanjeev Kumar Yadav in Nikkhil Advanis Batla House". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 30 October 2018.
  12. "Batla House: Ravi Kishan opens up on his character, terms the film as 'one of the finest breaks". India TV News. 4 November 2018.
  13. "Nora Fatehi Is All Set To Share Screen Space With John Abraham in Batla House". NDTV. 1 November 2018.
  14. "It's a wrap for John Abraham starrer Batla House". Bollywood Hungama. 13 February 2019.
  15. "BATLA HOUSE (2019)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  16. "O Saki Saki: 'Dancing With The Heavy Fire Fans Was Risky,' Says Nora Fatehi". NDTV. 16 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  17. "Batla House song O Saki Saki: Nora Fatehi's dance is high point of this recreated version". The Indian Express. 15 July 2019. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  18. "Batla House song 'O Saki Saki' sees Nora Fatehi match steps to Tanishk Bagchi's recreation of 2004 classic". First Post. 15 July 2019.
  19. "Batla House box office collection Day 3: John Abraham film witnesses boost". India Today. 18 August 2019.
  20. "Batla House Movie Review". Bollywood Hungama.
  21. "Batla House Review". The Times of India.
  22. Zore, Prasanna D (15 August 2019). "The Batla House Review". Rediff. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
  23. Singh, Harminder (16 August 2019). "Batla House Has Decent First Day". Box Office India. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  24. Singh, Harminder (17 August 2019). "Batla House Second Day Business". Box Office India. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  25. Singh, Harminder (18 August 2019). "Balta House Does Well On Saturday". Box Office India. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  26. "Batla House". Amazon. October 2019. Retrieved 10 October 2019.
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