Phillauri (film)

Phillauri
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Anshai Lal
Written by	Anvita Dutt Guptan
Produced by	Anushka Sharma Karnesh Ssharma Fox Star Studios
Starring	Anushka Sharma Diljit Dosanjh Suraj Sharma Mehreen Pirzada
Cinematography	Vishal Sinha
Edited by	Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Music by	Songs: Shashwat Sachdev Jasleen Royal Score: Sameer Uddin
Production companies	Fox Star Studios Clean Slate Filmz
Distributed by	Fox Star Studios
Release date	24 March 2017 (2017-03-24)(worldwide)
Running time	131 minutes
Country	India
Languages	Hindi Punjabi
Budget	₹29 crore [1]
Box office	est. ₹46.6 crore [1]

Phillauri is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language fantasy-comedy film directed by Anshai Lal and produced by Fox Star Studios with Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh Sharma under their banner of Clean Slate Filmz. Director Navdeep Singh and writer Sudip Sharma are associated with the film as creative producers. The film stars Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh, Suraj Sharma and Mehreen Pirzada (in her Hindi debut) in the lead roles. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} The film's first official poster was released on 3 February 2017. The film was released on 24 March 2017. It failed at the box office. ^[6]

Plot

A young man Kanan returns to India from Canada to marry his long-term girlfriend Anu, but learns that he is a Manglik (born under an unlucky star) and has to marry a tree before marrying her. He reluctantly marries the tree, which is duly chopped down after the completion of the ceremony. As a result, from that day onward he is haunted by the spirit of a woman named Shashi, who lived in that particular tree and hence claims to now be 'married' to him.

The story of Phillauri and Shashi is slowly revealed via the latter's flashbacks. Back in an unspecified time period, Shashi is a bright young woman who never fails to read the works of a poet named Phillauri that is regularly published in a local weekly. Everyone in the village of Phillaur thinks that the poems are written by the singer Roop Lal 'Phillauri', who is the heart-throb of the village. However Roop Lal notices that Shashi, unlike all the other village girls, never comes to hear him sing. When he confronts her and tells her that he is the Phillauri who writes the poetry by narrating one of his famous poems to her, he is shocked when Shashi slaps and insults him. She asks him to use his talent – of being able to connect with the common man through his songs – for something important (especially when the struggle for independence is on) and not for frivolous matters. From that day onwards Roop Lal is a changed man, dedicating his life to knowing and understanding the poetry of Phillauri (which it is clear now that he is not the author of), and spreading its message via his beautiful singing to others.

On one particular night while Roop Lal is alone at home singing one of Phillauri's poems, Shashi comes to him and reveals that she is the one who writes poetry under the pseudonym of 'Phillauri' (which she can't do openly, being a woman). Subsequently, love blossoms between the two (the poet and the singer who translates her poetry to song and spreads its message far and wide), but Shashi's elder brother (a reputed doctor of the village who brought her up) eventually learns about the affair and intervenes between the lovers. Roop Lal confronts Shashi's brother and admits to having been an alcohol-addicted good-for-nothing who still is not worthy of her, but tells him that he (Roop Lal) is going to Amritsar to record all the songs written by Shashi and will eventually return and ask for her hand in marriage.

The very fact that Shashi writes poetry is a revelation to her brother, and as time passes he too reads the poems and starts appreciating her obvious talent. Meanwhile, Roop Lal records the songs in Amritsar (the gramophone record is credited to both) and is paid a handsome fee of three hundred rupees. He immediately sends the entire amount as a money order to Shashi's brother, along with a letter stating his intention to return and marry her on Baisakhi. Shashi's brother, by now convinced of Roop Lal's changed nature and good intentions as well as the deep love between the couple, starts the preparations for her marriage.

On the day of the wedding Shashi discovers that she is pregnant, but does not disclose the news to anyone except her close friend Amrit (Nidhi Bisht). She expectantly waits for Roop Lal along with all her relatives and the entire village, but eventually the day ends with him nowhere to be seen on any of the buses from Amritsar. Her brother has to face the intense embarrassment and shame of sending everyone away, and this in turn hurts Shashi so much that she commits suicide (by hanging herself from a tree) due to an overwhelming sense of sadness, despair and betrayal.

In the midst of all these flashbacks by Shashi's spirit the parallel storyline in the present continues with Kanan (whose confused ramblings about seeing a ghost naturally no-one believes), ending up in trouble with Anu who feels that he is not really interested in marrying her (which is partially true since he is getting cold feet). In order to clear the misunderstanding Shashi finally manages to reveal her presence to Anu as well (though Anu still cannot see her), and having heard her entire painful story Anu realises that Shashi's spirit is in fact still stuck on the mortal plane due to her unfulfilled love. At that point Anu's grandmother asks Kanan to say something to his bride, and Shashi prompts him with her poem. Grandma sings a few lines of the same, being her favourite, which as fate would have it is the one Roop Lal recorded. The record label mentions the recording date as 1919, which results in an epiphany for Kanan who immediately takes Anu (with Shashi in tow) to the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which took place on that very day 98 years ago.

The movie ends with Shashi's spirit reuniting finally with her lover Roop Lal's (who was indeed killed in the massacre on the very Baisakhi day he recorded their songs and was to return to marry her). Before they both ascend to heaven Shashi tells Kanan and Anu (who can now see her) to love and cherish each other always, and that is what they promise each other as they embark on a new phase of their very own love story.

Cast

• Anushka Sharma as Shashi Kumari Gill / Shashi Lal “Phillauri” - Roop Lal's love, Kanan's Technical First Wife (Dead "Phillauri" Spirit) (Few lines as Mona Ghosh Shetty)
• Diljit Dosanjh as Roop Lal "Phillauri" - Shashi's love
• Suraj Sharma as Kanan Gill - Anu's and Shashi's husband
• Mehreen Pirzada as Anu Gill - Kanan's Real but in-effect Second wife
• Manav Vij as Kishan - Shashi's brother
• Nidhi Bisht as Amrit - Shashi's friend
• Shivansh Miyan
• Raza Murad as Gurubaksh Singh
• Hassan Saad as Nikhil
• Shivam Pradhan as Piyush
• Sunil Mehra as Anu's Father
• Suparna Marwah as Anu's Mother
• Salima Raza as Biji
• Hobby Dhaliwal as Kanan's Father
• Shabnam Wadhera as Kanan's Mother
• Abhishek Banerjee as Soma, Roop Lal Phillauri's friend
• Shivam Pradhan as Piyush
• Amrit Pal as Raju
• Samrat Raichand as Soldier
• Hagupreet Singh as Bitoo - Roop Lal admirer
• Kishore Sharma as Panditji

Production

Principal photography of the film commenced in April 2016. ^{[7] [8]} The shooting of the film went on floors after the Punjabi festival of Vaisakhi 2016. ^{[9] [10]} First day of the shoot was on 19 April 2016. ^[11]

Soundtrack

Phillauri
Soundtrack album by Shashwat Sachdev and Jasleen Royal
Released	6 March 2017 (2017-March-06) [12]
Recorded	Studio Enzy
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	33:54
Language	Hindi, Punjabi
Label	T-Series
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music of the film is composed by Shashwat Sachdev with Jasleen Royal as a guest composer while the lyrics have been penned by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Aditya Sharma, Neeraj Rajawat and Shellee. Sameer Uddin has composed the background score. The music rights are acquired by T-Series. The first song "Dum Dum" was released on 16 February 2017. ^[13] The soundtrack was released on 6 March 2017.

All music is composed by Shashwat Sachdev (except where noted)

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Dum Dum"	Anvita Dutt	Romy, Vivek Hariharan	5:13
2.	"Whats Up" (Music by Jasleen Royal)	Aditya Sharma	Mika Singh, Jasleen Royal	3:04
3.	"Sahiba"	Anvita Dutt	Romy, Pavni Pandey	5:30
4.	"Naughty Billo"	Anvita Dutt	Diljit Dosanjh, Nakash Aziz, Shilpi Paul (Rap: Anushka Sharma)	3:01
5.	"Bajaake Tumba"	Anvita Dutt	Romy, Shehnaz Akhtar	3:18
6.	"Din Shagna Da" (Music by Jasleen Royal)	Neeraj Rajawat	Jasleen Royal	3:36
7.	"Dum Dum (Punjabi Version)"	Shellee	Romy, Vivek Hariharan	6:23
8.	"Dum Dum (Reprise) Diljit Dosanjh Version"	Anvita Dutt	Diljit Dosanjh	3:49
Total length:				33:54

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Phillauri has an approval score of 40% based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 6.1 out of 10. ^[14]

Nihit Bhave of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 and said that, "The idea is superbly original, culturally on point and has great potential. The problem is, you only get what you see in the trailer." ^[15] Sweta Kausal of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 saying that, "There is nothing extraordinary about Phillauri. It is a light-hearted, average love story." ^[16] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that, "The film is a lively, lighthearted drama enlivened with some fine cinematic touches." ^[17] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express criticized the film for being too slow saying that, "The pacing is not just languid, it is positively slow, and it allows scenes to go on for much longer than they should." and gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5. ^[18] Rajeev Masand of News18 praised the performances of actors Suraj Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh and Anushka Sharma but criticized the long length of the film and gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that, "Phillauri isn’t a consistently smooth ride. It’s uneven and bumpy and unforgivably slow in portions. But a lot of it works and some of it flies." ^[19]

Accolades

Award Ceremony	Category	Recipient	Result
10th Mirchi Music Awards [20]	Lyricist of The Year	Anvita Dutt for "Sahiba"	Nominated
	Upcoming Music Composer of The Year	Shashwat Sachdev for "Bajaake Tumba"
		Shashwat Sachdev for "Sahiba"
	Best Song Engineer (Recording & Mixing)	Shadab Rayeen, Shashwat Sachdev, Neeraj Singh, Julian Mascarenhas, Kotzmann Jan & Katzmann Cenda for "Naughty Billo"
	Best Background Score
Jagran Film Festival [21]	Best VFX Award	Red Chillies Entertainment	Won

References

1. "Phillauri - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com.
2. India (15 April 2016). "Anushka Sharma, Punjabi singer Diljit Dosanjh's Phillauri goes on floors". The Indian Express. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
3. "Anushka's banner approaches Life of Pi actor". The Asian Age . 8 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
4. "Spotted: Anushka with her brother Karnesh on the sets of Phillauri". PINKVILLA. 23 April 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
5. Iyer, Sanyukta; Mirror, Mumbai (28 March 2016). "Anushka's next:The title is derived from a small town in Punjab, Phillaur". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
6. "Anushka Sharma Hit Movies List | Anushka Sharma Box Office Collection - Bollywood Hungama". 17 December 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
7. "Phillauri". Bollywood Hungama . Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
8. "Anushka Sharma announces next production 'Phillauri'". The Times of India . 22 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
9. ANI (29 March 2016). "Anushka's 'Phillauri' to Go on Floors Post Baisakhi". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
10. "Anushka Sharma's Phillauri To Go On Floors This Baisakhi!". PINKVILLA. 28 March 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
11. "Shoots starts! Diljit Dosanjh shares picture from the sets of 'Phillauri'". Zee News (in Latin). 19 April 2016. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
12. "Phillauri (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". iTunes. 6 March 2017.
13. "Phillauri 2017 Songs on Saavn". Saavn . 16 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
14. "Phillauri". Rotten Tomatoes .
15. "Phillauri Movie Review". The Times of India .
16. "Phillauri movie review: Anushka and Diljit charm with their presence, but the film shines only in parts". Hindustan Times. 24 March 2017.
17. "Phillauri Movie Review: Anushka Sharma Gets Into The Spirit Of This Unconventional Entertainer". NDTV.
18. "Phillauri movie review: Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh film suffers from languid pace". The Indian Express. 25 March 2017.
19. "Phillauri Review: It Isn't a Consistently Smooth Ride But It Still Works". News18. 27 March 2017.
20. "Nominations - Mirchi Music Awards 2017". MMAMirchiMusicAwards. Retrieved 13 March 2018.
21. "Redchillies VFX bags award for 'Phillauri' at Jagran Film Festival 2017". 26 September 2017.

External links

• India portal
• Film portal
• Bollywood portal

• Phillauri at IMDb
• Phillauri at Bollywood Hungama