Atrangi Re
Atrangi Re is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy drama film directed by Aanand L. Rai and written by Himanshu Sharma. Produced by T-Series Films, Colour Yellow Productions and Cape of Good Films, the film stars Dhanush, Sara Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar in the lead roles. The film tells the story of a girl named Rinku who is in love with a magician named Sajjad. She gets forcibly married off to Dr. Vishu. Vishu soon falls in love with Rinku but the love triangle gets weirder when Sajjad shows up.
The film's idea was conceived by Rai in 2013, after the release of Raanjhanaa. He developed the screenplay with Sharma, exploring the subject of complexities of human emotions, especially love and was certain to cast Dhanush given the relativity of subject, script and time but the rest of the casting was eventual. As the project was officially announced in late-January 2020, the filming process began in March 2020 and completed within March 2021, despite losing out six months of filming in between owed to the COVID-19 pandemic in India. The film was shot across Varanasi, parts of Bihar, Delhi, Agra, Mumbai, and few scenes in Madurai, Karaikudi. The score and soundtrack album were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics written by Irshad Kamil. The cinematography and editing were performed by Pankaj Kumar and Hemal Kothari, respectively.
After being rescheduled multiple times from its release dates, as a result of the nationwide lockdown due to the pandemic, the makers premiered the film through Disney+ Hotstar on 24 December 2021, thereby bypassing theatrical release. It was also dubbed and released in Tamil under the title Galatta Kalyaanam. The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, praising the unconventional plot, performances of the lead actors, direction, soundtrack and score, but criticised the incoherent screenplay and execution of overall storyline.
Plot
The story begins with Rinku Suryavanshi being chased by her family's goons at Siwan Junction railway station as she tries to elope with her long-term boyfriend. She is caught and beaten by her grandmother Dulhayen, who orders her to wed any bachelor to get Rinku off her hands. The following day, Rinku's aunt gives her drugged kheer, which is meant for Rinku's parents' death anniversary.S. Venkatesh Vishwanath "Vishu" Iyer, a Tamilian doctor briefly visiting with his friend Madhusudan "MS", a psychiatrist, gets kidnapped and drugged by Rinku's uncles who were actually aiming for MS, and the two are forcefully married. They travel to New Delhi by train, where they learn that both of them oppose the marriage and already have lovers: Vishu will be engaged to his friend Mandakini "Mandy" in two days, and Rinku's boyfriend, performing artist and magician Sajjad Ali Khan, will reach Delhi in a week. The two stay for a day in a hostel where Vishu lives and there, Rinku tells Vishu how her parents were immolated to death as a result of Dulhayen's conspiracy. The two reach Madurai for Vishu's wedding but Mandy sees a trending video showing their forced marriage, thus calling off the wedding; in the drama that ensues, Vishu angrily berates Mandy's father for misbehaving with Rinku, and leaves.
Angry and sad, Vishu returns to Delhi with Rinku and realizes he loves her. However, Sajjad has arrived, and Rinku runs off to meet him. Vishu sends MS to see that Rinku leaves safely; in a twist, it is revealed that Sajjad is imaginary and Rinku is mentally ill, talking and eloping with someone who is not there. Bewildered by this, MS speculates that Sajjad may be someone from Rinku's childhood, and Rinku's growing love for Vishu creates guilt in her because she has loved Sajjad for years, and if she loves Vishu, Sajjad will have no scope to exist. He runs to Vishu, who is in the operation theatre, and tells him about "Sajjad". They leave to find Rinku. Vishu meets Rinku on a train and manages to stop her by saying that he needs to file for divorce before leaving. Vishu then hastily concludes that the love story Rinku told him could be of her parents'.
Vishu and MS devise a plan to medicate Rinku and attempt to drive "Sajjad" away as MS feels that the more Rinku's mental health improves, the more "Sajjad" will become ill. One day, a drunk Rinku kisses Vishu on the cheek and "Sajjad" sees this. The latter tells Rinku to ask Vishu what sets him apart. Vishu, in retaliation, starts to break bottles on his head and is taken to the emergency room. As an apology, "Sajjad" confesses that he will make the Taj Mahal disappear for him. Vishu and his friends gather people and just when he is about to do so, MS gives Rinku her medicine and she sees that Sajjad's "magic trick" has failed. At night, she asks Vishu why everyone was clapping even though the Taj Mahal didn't disappear. Frustrated, Vishu confesses his love for Rinku, telling her that she is his wife and he is supposed to stand by her.
"Sajjad" feels threatened by Rinku's love for Vishu and attempts suicide. MS and Vishu, being doctors, take "Sajjad" to "operate" on him. MS tells Vishu to consider letting Rinku know that "Sajjad" died on the operating table but Vishu disagrees. The next day, while filing for divorce, Rinku refuses, saying she wants both "Sajjad" and Vishu. Vishu takes her to the Delhi Junction railway station to meet "Sajjad", who is "going to Japan" for a show as she can see "Sajjad" where she intends to. He also says that he will wait for her at the station until evening so she should elope with Sajjad or change her mind and return to him.
At the station, Rinku spots "Sajjad" with a little girl who he says is Rinku herself when she was a child. He says that she must go to Vishu, her soulmate, and that this time, he will no longer return. At this point, Rinku breaks down remembering her childhood. Eventually, it is revealed through a flashback that "Sajjad" is a real person, who, in fact, is her father; he had run away with her mother Manjari, married and had Rinku. However, the Suryavanshis filed a case and Sajjad was arrested. Rinku and Manjari were forcefully brought back home. Sajjad was released from jail and started performing in the circus. Manjari often secretly attended his shows with Rinku and they spent time together.
One day, just before Sajjad's firewalking performance, the Suryavanshis replaced the artificial fuel with real fuel, which immolated Sajjad. Among the audience, Manjari realises that Sajjad is burning and runs to him to save him, but both die together in the flames in front of little Rinku. This shapes up her paracosm with Sajjad all the way into adulthood, a fact that Vishu and MS had already realised, causing them to play along. This ends when "Sajjad" disappears and Rinku runs back to Vishu, who was distributing sweets to others saying that his wife has returned. The two finally reconcile and it is shown in parallel that Vishu is carrying Rinku, just like Sajjad would carry a young Rinku.
Cast
Production
Development
During the production of Tanu Weds Manu: Returns, writer Himanshu Sharma came up with the script idea to Rai, which did not materialise, and the latter went to work on other projects. Following the release of Zero, Rai decided to revive the script which was based on human emotions, which he added: "It comes from just one thing that is you are willing to fall in love. We are scared of falling in love because we are scared of getting hurt. The minute you get rid of that fear, you will understand people and their emotions better. I have been fortunate enough to meet people who are so willingly available with all their emotions." As per Rai, "when the story of Atrangi Re was discussed as an idea in 2014, Rai stated that only thing that was certain was Dhanush, the rest of the casting happened gradually. For the character of Vishu, Rai wanted Dhanush to portray another colour of his. Raanjhanaa was about redemption, but Atrangi Re, it is about a different kind of expression of love." He called the role "very layered role", citing example that "there are people who like to be silent and you don't know them at all, but then there are people like the character Vishu who are quiet, but you still understand them". Dhanush in an interview with Firstpost stated: "The director and writer attracted me to the project and that is all. I Rai to bring my madness to his character "Vishu" and that is what he tried. On designing the character Rinku, Rai called it "beautiful, restless and innocent". Khan's age went in her favour, as the role required "somebody young and fresh, without baggage".The film was announced on 30 January 2020 under the title Atrangi Re. With Dhanush, Khan and Kumar were announced as the leading actors, Himanshu Sharma was signed to write the screenplay. Furthermore, A. R. Rahman was signed to compose the film's background score and soundtrack album and Irshad Kamil wrote lyrics to the original songs. This marked Rai's second collaboration with Rahman, Himanshu and Kamil after working together in Raanjhanaa, as well as Rahman's first soundtrack for a production by both T-Series Films and Cape Of Good Films.
Speaking about the film and its storyline, Rai stated that the film cannot be classified in any specific genre. He added: "All the three characters are funnily weird and it's their emotional journey. I am always looking for partners who are as emotionally touched as I am with the story and all three of them are like that. Every character in this film has own traits will put them in an unseen space." Rai decided to set the storyline in Bihar and Madurai, in belief that the film will "be an amalgamation of two Indian cultures". It has been reported that the title was initially registered by Salman Khan under his production company, and gave the title to Rai under a condition that the film was directed by Rai himself. He expressed his gratitude to Khan for giving up the title.