Vodka Diaries | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kushal Srivastava |
Written by |
|
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Cinematography | Maneesh Chandra Bhatt |
Edited by | Aalaap Majgavkar |
Music by | Songs:
|
Production companies |
|
Distributed by | AA Films |
Release date |
|
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Box office | ₹ 1.26 crore (US$8,448,300 in 2023 terms) [1] |
Vodka Diaries is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language thriller film co-produced and directed by Kushal Srivastava. It is an unacknowledged remake of Shutter Island. Set in contemporary Manali, the story revolves around a club called Vodka Diaries, where a few murders occur; their investigation is undertaken by the protagonist, ACP Ashwini Dixit. The film was produced under the banner of K'Scope Entertainment Pvt.Ltd. and Vishalraj Films & Production Pvt. Ltd. and released on 19 January 2018. [2] [3]
A series of murders brings ACP Ashwini Dixit (Kay Kay Menon) and his junior colleague, Sub-Inspector Ankit Dayal(Sharib Hashmi) to the club Vodka Diaries in Manali. Three carefree and flirtatious young men are murdered on the same night in the presence of three mysterious women. Vodka Diaries seems to be the centre of the mystery. As the investigation deepens, his wife Shikha(Mandira Bedi), a poet, goes missing. Ashwini tries to unravel the reason behind her disappearance.
However, it is later shown that the victims are alive and well, and no one whom Ashwini had met is now able to recognise him. This puts the detective on a chase, with everyone he knows failing to recognise him or anything that he talks about, and a pursuit of his wife and the killer with anonymous calls and apparent clues appearing to him time and again. Towards the end, it is revealed that Ashwini's real name is Rishi Gautam, a famous writer. On the day of release of his new book, "Redemption of the Murderer", Gautam had quarreled with his wife Shikha, when he saw her with another man named Mayuk (Vikram Sakhalkar). In a fit of rage over her allegations of not spending quality time with her and wrongly suspecting her of infidelity, Gautam had accidentally killed Shikha by throwing a glass bottle at her. He was traumatised and was diagnosed with intensive obsessive identification disorder by psychiatrist Roshni (Raima Sen). Gautam began to hallucinate, believing he was the main protagonist detective of his book, Ashwini Dixit and thinking that Shikha is alive and with him. To treat him effectively, Roshni recreated the entire plot of his novel "Redemption of the Murderer", with the intention of getting Gautam to play the role of Ashwini in his book, with actors around him playing along with him and pretending to be characters of his book, but ultimately leading 'Ashwini' to discover the identity of Gautam Rishi for himself. Eventually Gautam is acquitted by court as Mayuk testifies that the former's act was accidental and not intentional.
In the end, Gautam (alias Ashwini) continues to live and work as a writer in a secluded cottage, with hallucinations of Shikha.
Vodka Diaries | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soundtrack album by Parvaaz Band, Sandesh Shandilya & Harry Anand | |||||
Released | 9 February 2018 [8] | ||||
Genre | Feature film soundtrack | ||||
Length | 16:14 | ||||
Label | Zee Music Company | ||||
|
The soundtrack of Vodka Diaries has been composed by Parvaaz Band, Sandesh Shandilya and Harry Anand.
No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Singer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Beparwah" | Khalid Ahamed and Kashif Iqbal | Parvaaz | Khalid Ahamed | 05:44 |
2. | "Sakhi Ri" | Aalok Shrivastav | Sandesh Shandilya | Ustad Rashid Khan & Rekha Bhardwaj | 03:59 |
3. | "Heeriye" | Harry Anand | Harry Anand | Labh Janjua & Shalmali Kholgade | 03:06 |
4. | "Angoor" | Harry Anand | Harry Anand | Harry Anand | 03:25 |
Rajeev Masand criticized the film, saying that, "The gorgeous snow laden landscape of Manali is the setting for Vodka Diaries, which starts out as a whodunit, quickly turns into a psychological thriller, before it finally reveals itself to be a waste of time." and gave the film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5. [9] Lasyapriya Sundaram of The Times of India appreciated the performances of the actors but criticized the poor writing saying that, "What works for the film are the performances by its lead actors. Kay Kay Menon, does the best he can with the material at hand. But even an accomplished performer like him cannot save a film that sounds conceptually good, but is derailed by its poor execution. The film's dialogue writing also leaves much to be desired. While the mystery should be intriguing in a suspense thriller, what remains a mystery is the lack of anything intriguing." and gave the film a rating of 2 stars out of 5. [10] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 1.5 stars out of 5 and said that, "On paper, Vodka Diaries, starring Kay Kay Menon, Raima Sen, Mandira Bedi, Sharib Hashmi, may have sounded like an engaging whodunit. But what we see is clearly not." [11] Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 2 stars out of 5 and said that, "Vodka Diaries is about under-utilised actors and losing a promising opening. It probably needed a more thorough approach." [12]
Life in a... Metro is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language drama film co-produced, co-written and directed by Anurag Basu. Partly inspired from Billy Wilder's romantic comedy film The Apartment (1960), it features an ensemble cast of Dharmendra, Nafisa Ali, Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon, Shiney Ahuja, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Kangana Ranaut and Sharman Joshi in lead roles. The music is composed by Pritam with lyrics by Sayeed Quadri. It narrates the lives of nine people living in Mumbai and deals with topics such as extramarital affairs, sanctity of marriage, commitment phobia and love.
Emraan Anwar Hashmi is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. Born into the Bhatt family, he began his career an assistant director on the horror film Raaz (2002). He made his acting debut with the crime film Footpath (2003), and achieved his breakthrough for his starring role in the erotic thriller Murder (2004).
CID is an Indian police procedural television series originally aired on Sony Entertainment Television from 1998 to 2018. The series was created by B. P. Singh and featured stars Shivaji Satam as ACP Pradyuman, Aditya Srivastava as Sr. Inspector Abhijeet, Dayanand Shetty as Sr. Inspector Daya, Dinesh Phadnis as Inspector Fredricks aka Freddy and Narendra Gupta as Forensic expert Dr. Salunkhe respectively.
Aksar (transl. Often) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language erotic thriller film directed by Anant Mahadevan and produced by Narendra and Shyam Bajaj under the banner of Siddhi Vinayak Creations. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Udita Goswami and Dino Morea. It features the song "Jhalak Dikhlaja" sung by Himesh Reshammiya, who also did a remix video for the film's promotion. Released on 3 February 2006, the film was a box-office success.
Kasamh Se is an Indian soap opera produced by Ekta Kapoor for Balaji Telefilms. The show aired on Zee TV from 16 January 2006 to 12 March 2009. The story is about three sisters: Bani, Piya and Rano.
The Train: Some Lines Should Never Be Crossed... is a 2007 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Hasnain Hyderabadwala and Raksha Mistry. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Geeta Basra and debutant Sayali Bhagat in the lead roles, and tells the story of a married couple caught up in a complex emotional tangle revolving around an extramarital affair. It is a remake of the 2005 American film Derailed. It was a box office disappointment.
Sameer Iqbal Patel, also referred to as Sammir I Patel and Sameer Patel, is a film director, producer, writer, actor and former model from India. Patel started his career as a model. He has appeared on TV shows and has written and directed a dozen commercial plays.
Crook: It's Good to be Bad is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mukesh Bhatt. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Neha Sharma, South African model Shella Alan and Arjan Bajwa in the lead. It was released on 8 October 2010. Mostly shot in Australia and South Africa, the film is based on the controversy regarding the allegedly racial attacks on Indian students in Australia between 2007 and 2010.
Rishi Bhutani is an Indian actor, who appears in Bollywood films. Bhutani first gained recognition as an obsessive son in the thriller movie Bolo Raam (2009), in which he gave a critically acclaimed performance and earned a nomination for Best Actor category at the Lions Gold Awards. He next appeared in the biopic Jai Jawaan Jai Kisaan (2015), portraying the freedom fighter Jawaharlal Nehru. Other notable projects include Ram Ratan, Ashley and CuteGirl_87, Vodka Diaries (2017) is with Raima Sen, K.K Menon and Mandira Bedi. He did notable films with National Award Winner Om Puri - Gandhigiri, Bolo Raam and Jai Jawan Jai Kisan. His last film, Lines, is critically acclaimed now available on Voot online platform. His upcoming movies are French movie - Highland, Zindagi Jhingalala Re and Bed No.17.
Adaalat (transl. Court) is an Indian television courtroom drama anthology series about a defence attorney, K.D. Pathak, portrayed by Ronit Roy. The first season of the show premiered on Sony Entertainment Television on 20 November 2010 and ran for five years, ending on 11 July 2015. The show aired 431 episodes in its first season. Adaalat returned for its second season on Sony Entertainment Television on 4 June 2016 and ended on 4 September 2016. The show aired 26 episodes in its second season.
Baishey Srabon is a 2011 Indian Bengali neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Srijit Mukherji. It was his second film. The cast consists of Prosenjit Chatterjee, Parambrata Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Abir Chatterjee and director Gautam Ghose, making a comeback after a 29-year absence. The film centers on two journalists and two police officers chasing a vengeful psychopath, who leaves behind couplets from Bengali poems.
Arjun, also known as Har Yug Mein Aayega Ek - Arjun, is an Indian Hindi-language action crime TV series which aired on Star Plus from 11 August 2012 through 23 February 2014 on Monday and Firday evenings. It is the fifth television series of 4 Lions Films.
Tarkieb is a 2000 Indian crime drama film directed by Esmayeel Shroff and produced by Jay Mehta. It stars Nana Patekar, Tabu, Shilpa Shetty, Aditya Pancholi, Milind Soman and Ashutosh Rana. The film was shot in Panchmarhi.
Ankur Arora Murder Case is a 2013 Indian Hindi medical thriller film directed by Suhail Tatari and written and produced by Vikram Bhatt. The film stars Arjun Mathur, Tisca Chopra, Kay Kay Menon, Paoli Dam. The film takes up an urgent and disturbing issue of death during surgery and is based on a real-life incident where a boy dies on the operation table due to medical negligence. The shooting of the film started after nearly one year of research and similarities to real life are in this case, not coincidental. The movie released on 14 June 2013 and made a profit of 2.5 Crores approximately. It was declared semi hit.
Ungli (transl. Finger) is a 2014 Indian vigilante crime thriller film directed by Rensil D'Silva and produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Karan Johar under Dharma Productions. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Randeep Hooda, Kangana Ranaut, Neha Dhupia, Angad Bedi, Neil Bhoopalam and Sanjay Dutt. Mahesh Manjrekar, who collaborated with Dharma Productions for the first time, appears in a negative role. The film was released on 28 November 2014.
Raja Natwarlal is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Kunal Deshmukh and produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur under UTV Motion Pictures. The film features Emraan Hashmi in the title role, alongside Humaima Malik, Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon and Deepak Tijori. The film was released on 29 August 2014 and received positive reviews from critics.
Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya is an Indian television drama series, which premiered on 23 May 2014 on Zing. The second season of the show was launched in September 2014, the third season was launched on 21 November 2014, the fourth season was launched on 17 April 2015, the fifth season was launched on 17 July 2015, the sixth season was launched on 2 October 2015, the seventh season was launched on 12 February 2016, the eighth season was launched on 1 July 2016 and the ninth season was launched on 18 November 2016 and ended on 27 October 2017. Season 11 was launched on 24 October 2020 and season 12 on 15 August 2021.
Major Mohommed Ali Shah is an Indian actor, motivational speaker and former military officer. He is a member of the board of the International Film and Entertainment Festival of Australia who gave him an award.
Kushal Srivastava is an Indian film director and producer. He is best known for his films like Vodka Diaries, The Battle of Ayodhya, Speed Dial, and The Job. He is an Ex Air Warrior who served in the Indian Air Force for seven years as Equipment Assistant in Logistics department.