Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost
Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost (lit. 'My friend from Mumbai has arrived') is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language drama film starring Abhishek Bachchan, Lara Dutta and Chunky Pandey. The film is directed by Apoorva Lakhia. The film touched on the subject of the influence of television on village life.
| Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Apoorva Lakhia |
| Produced by | Vishal Nihalani |
| Written by | Apoorva Lakhia |
| Starring | Abhishek Bachchan Lara Dutta Chunky Pandey |
| Narrated by | Amitabh Bachchan |
| Music by | Anu Malik Ranjit Barot |
| Cinematography | R. J. Gururaj |
| Edited by | Steven Bernard |
| Distributed by | Rubberband Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 147 mins |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
| Budget | ₹8 crore (US$1.1 million) |
| Box office | ₹14 crore (US$2.0 million) |
Synopsis
Dinanath Singh (Snehal Lakhia) is honored by the Indian Government, which is televised live. While receiving the honors, Dinanath informs the Government that his village is still without electricity, and he is promised that electricity will be provided in his village immediately. And electricity is provided in the village. Dinanath's grandson, Karan (Abhishek Bachchan), who is in Mumbai, hears of this and returns to the village along with a C-Band ten foot satellite dish and a super flat stereo television. When the satellite is set up, the villagers are thrilled by the TV shows. This helps create a running gag of copying TV culture into the rural lives. The changes lead to the village priest (Akhilendra Mishra) complaining to Chotey Thakur Rudra Pratap Singh (Yashpal Sharma) that the villagers are turning away from his temple and worship. Rudra is not concerned as he himself has a TV set in his home. But when the priest informs Rudra that his sister, Kesar (Lara Dutta) and Karan (Kanji) are in love, Rudra makes a threat to destroy Karan and all of the village in the presence of a TV crew filming the whole drama and telecasting it live worldwide. The plot comes to a culmination when, angered by Karan's antics, Rudra arrives to destroy the village. The villagers stand up to the exploitation and fight Rudra and his goons.
Cast
- Abhishek Bachchan as Karan Singh
- Lara Dutta as Kesar
- Chunky Pandey as Ajay Singh
- Aditya Lakhia as Surya
- Yashpal Sharma as Rudra Pratap Singh
- Daya Shankar Pandey as Hari
- Akhilendra Mishra as Priest
- Amitabh Bachchan as Narrator
Soundtracks
The music was created by Anu Malik. The music response for this movie was very good and some of the songs like "Shaher Ka Jadoo Re" topped some of the Bollywood music charts.
| # | Title | Singer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Koi Bheega Hai Rang Se" (Holi Re) | Zubeen Garg, Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik | 06:26 |
| 2 | "Shaher Ka Jadoo Re" | Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik | 06:20 |
| 3 | "Jeetenge Baazi Hum" | Sonu Nigam, Mahalakshmi Iyer | 05:20 |
| 4 | "Saiiyan" | Sunidhi Chauhan | 05:25 |
| 5 | "Mujhe Tune Jo Dekha" | Sonu Nigam, Alka Yagnik | 06:24 |
| 6 | "The Journey" (Instrumental) | 02:20 |
Audience response
Though not a very successful film at the box office, the performance of Abhishek Bachchan was appreciated. Through this film, he adopted the rough guy look which he has continued to appear with in most of his films. It was Apoorva Lakhia's directorial début who went on to become one of the closest friends of Abhishek Bachchan.