Hera Pheri (2000 film)

Hera Pheri (transl. Foul Play) is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language cult classic comedy film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Neeraj Vora, starring Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tabu, Om Puri and Gulshan Grover. The film is a remake of 1989 Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking which itself was inspired by the 1971 American TV movie See The Man Run. It is the first instalment of the Hera Pheri franchise. The plot revolves around two tenants, Raju and Shyam, and their landlord, Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, who are in desperate need of money. They chance upon a ransom call through a cross-connection and hatch a plan to claim the ransom for themselves.

Hera Pheri
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Priyadarshan
Written by	Neeraj Vora (screenplay and dialogues) Anand Vardhan (adapted story)
Based on	Ramji Rao Speaking by Siddique-Lal
Produced by	A. G. Nadiadwala
Starring	Akshay Kumar Suniel Shetty Paresh Rawal Tabu
Cinematography	Jeeva
Edited by	N. Gopalakrishnan
Music by	Songs: Anu Malik Guest Composers: Lalit Sen Bally Sagoo Background Score: Surinder Sodhi
Production company	A. G. Films (P) Ltd.
Release date	31 March 2000 (2000-03-31)
Running time	138 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹7.5 crore
Box office	₹21.4 crore

The film was released on 31 March 2000. It opened to mixed reviews, some of whom applauded the performances of Kumar and Rawal particularly. The film is considered Kumar's foray into the comedy genre. However, the film achieved moderate success, grossing ₹21.4 crore at the box office against a budget of ₹7.5 crore. It spawned a sequel, Phir Hera Pheri, released in 2006.

Over the years, the film has evolved into a cult classic, and is widely regarded as one of the best Indian comedy films ever made. The film is noted for its authenticity and depiction of economic problem of lower middle class families in India, situational comedy, dialogues, performances of the lead trio Kumar, Rawal and Shetty. It was voted the best Bollywood comedy film of all time in an online poll conducted by The Indian Express in 2014. It was remade in Telugu as Dhanalakshmi, I Love You in 2002 by Siva Nageswara Rao.

Plot

Ghanshyam Tripathi, also known as Shyam (Suniel Shetty), arrives in Mumbai from Gurgaon seeking a job at the bank where his late father worked. Apparently, his father died in a fire accident at the bank, so Shyam should receive the job according to the company's rules. However, the bank manager (Asrani) informs Shyam that another person named Shivshankar Panikar died two minutes after Shyam's father in the accident. Panikar's daughter, Anuradha (Tabu), has also applied for the job, and since Panikar was senior to Shyam's father, the preference should be given to Anuradha first, disappointing Shyam. One day, Shyam bumps into another man named Rajesh Rathod, also known as Raju (Akshay Kumar), whom he misunderstands to be a pickpocket and pursues him. However, he later discovers the truth and the opposite occurs when Raju, in turn, misunderstands Shyam to be a pickpocket and pursues him as well. Raju has troubles dealing with his daydreams and the unfriendly people he is working for. He is unable to keep a job for not believing in hard work and aims to earn easy money. Raju deceives everyone, even his widowed mother, Savitri Devi (Sulabha Arya), who lives in an old age home and believes that her son is a successful engineer in Kolkata. Meanwhile, Shyam approaches the "Star Garage" owned by Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, also known as Babu (Paresh Rawal), a bespectacled near-sighted man, who owes a familial debt with many moneylenders and has hard time with all of them. Babu agrees to take Shyam in as his tenant by Shyam compromising on the amount of Babu's alcohol. However, he warns Shyam that he will have to share the room with another tenant. Unfortunately for Shyam, the other tenant is Raju, who has not paid Babu a single penny of rent in the last two years. As a result, the trio falls into hilarious situations that usually involve Raju instigating Shyam and deliberately trying to create chaos which Babu has to resolve.

One day, the trio is visited by Anuradha, who tries to persuade Shyam to sign the NOC, so that she could receive the job at the bank. Since Shyam refuses to do so, Raju agrees to help Anuradha and manages to trick him into inadvertently signing the documents. Nevertheless, Shyam discovers Raju's deception and that is when the rivalry between the two hits its peak. Shyam also threatens to sue both the bank and Anuradha, who eventually makes a deal to give Shyam the position in the bank in exchange for money, but Shyam is unable to arrange the money. Khadak Singh (Om Puri), an old friend of Shyam in Gurgaon, visits the trio's house demanding back his ₹35,000 which Shyam had borrowed from him earlier or else his sister's marriage will be cancelled. Khadak Singh orders Shyam to pay back the loan as soon as possible and declares that he will commit suicide if Shyam fails to do so. Shyam now decides to sacrifice the job at the bank and instead borrow ₹35,000 from Anuradha to return it to Khadak Singh. However, he learns that Anuradha is living with her mentally ill mother in abject poverty and has to still pay the rent to her landlord. She admits that she discovered Shyam's own financial situation being tough as her own, and that she did not have the heart to go through with her plan, so she gives him her resignation letter. In return, Shyam tears the resignation letter up, insisting that he could never live with himself, and that Anuradha should keep the position in the bank. Later, Shyam finds out that Raju has been deceiving his own mother as well and drunkenly confronts him. A hurt Raju reveals that he just wishes to please his mother and can deceive anyone in order to avoid breaking her heart, which melts the hearts of Shyam and Babu. At this point, the trio finally unites with each other after each one has shared his grief, and now decides to overcome all their unending financial problems together.

Soon, the lives of the trio take an unexpected turn when they receive a phone call on Babu's telephone from a crime lord named Kabira (Gulshan Grover), which is a wrong number actually meant for Devi Prasad (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), the owner of "Star Fisheries". The trio figures out that the wrong number is because of the misprint in the phone directory, which renders Star Garage's phone number as that of Star Fisheries and vice-versa. Babu realises why he has been constantly receiving phone calls from people wanting to speak to Devi Prasad since the past few days, which has been annoying him to no end. However, this time, Kabira, believing Shyam to be Devi Prasad on the phone, informs him that his granddaughter, Rinku, is kidnapped and demands a ransom of ₹10 lakhs. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Raju decides to play a game which will solve all their monetary problems. The game involves the trio calling Devi Prasad as the kidnapper and demanding double the ransom amount, so that they can obtain the other half themselves while satisfying the ransom demand to Kabira. Shyam and Babu initially hesitate to go through with the idea, but finally agree when Raju convinces them that even though it is wrong, this is a golden chance to earn money and also save the life of an innocent girl. As planned, Shyam calls the real Devi Prasad posing as Kabira and demands a double ransom of ₹20 lakhs. He also instructs Devi Prasad to meet them at the location chosen by Kabira for the exchange. Devi Prasad keeps the kidnapping of Rinku a secret from everyone, but his servant (Mushtaq Khan) discovers the truth and without Devi Prasad's knowledge, involves the police led by Inspector Prakash (Mukesh Khanna) to track down the kidnappers.

On their first attempt, the trio wears helmets as a disguise, but the plans of both them and Kabira end up in vain as the police arrive at the scene to arrest the trio. However, Devi Prasad prevents the police from _targeting the trio and allows them to escape, so that his granddaughter will remain safe and be handed over to him back. As a result, Kabira calls the trio again and doubles the ransom to ₹20 lakhs as a punishment for involving the police. Following their encounter with Kabira and the police, Shyam and Babu decide to give up the plan and tell Devi Prasad the truth about Kabira, but Raju eventually shames them back into helping him. The trio calls Devi Prasad again and demands a foolproof double ransom of ₹40 lakhs. They also instruct him to meet them in the underground parking of a stadium, which Kabira has now chosen for the exchange. Devi Prasad now decides to trick the police by sending his servant in his car to be followed by them alone. On their second attempt, the trio wears Zorro costumes in order to hide their identities and reaches the place at night. When they meet Devi Prasad, he refuses to give the money and demands to see his granddaughter first. However, this time, the trio admits that they are actually not the kidnappers, but just three men in over their heads, who will hand over Devi Prasad's granddaughter back to him. To further prove their sincerity, they unmask themselves, give Devi Prasad their names and state that if he still does not trust them, he can hand them over to the police, but Devi Prasad chooses to believe them and gives them the bag of cash.

The trio divides the money into half and attempts to give the ₹20 lakhs to Kabira's gang in order to get Rinku released. However, Kabira gets alerted when Rinku identifies Shyam as an imposter and not her grandfather. This leads to a huge combat involving the trio, Kabira's gang, the police and all the henchmen of Khadak Singh (who is infuriated by Shyam's delay in returning the money and makes his henchmen intervene the fight). In one of the hilarious scenes, Babu loses his eyeglasses and accidentally fires an AK-47 machine gun all over the ground. The police eventually arrest Kabira's gang and Khadak Singh's henchmen for their crimes, while the trio saves Rinku and reunites her with her grateful grandfather. Raju manages to collect both the bags containing ₹40 lakhs of cash in total, while Shyam and Babu return home happily. However, as Raju does not return home for several hours, they believe that he has betrayed them and escaped with the money. Enraged, Shyam and Babu call the police and confess their crime in the kidnapping in order to surrender themselves and Raju to them. No sooner than they hang up the telephone, a jubilant Raju shockingly enters the house with the money. He informs the dumbfounded Shyam and Babu that he had disappeared only to take his mother back with him from the old age home as welll as repay Shyam's debt to Khadak Singh for his sister's marriage. Raju also reveals that he had taken the bag of money because it contained the documents for his mother's discharge from the old age home.

As it is too late now, Shyam and Babu explain everything to Raju in regret, and he breaks down as in this world, all he really cares for is his mother, who will now see her son getting arrested and sent to prison. As expected, the police arrive at the scene and on seeing the bag of money, arrest the trio. Raju requests the police to take them out through the back door, so that his mother would be not able to see them. At the last moment, however, just as the police are about to close the door on the car, Devi Prasad appears to their rescue, stating that there has been a terrible misunderstanding and he is not holding them guilty. He convinces the police that the trio is actually innocent and that they risked their lives to rescue his granddaughter from the criminals. Not having any reason to hold them anymore, the police release the trio, who expresses gratitude to Devi Prasad for intervening on their behalf. Nevertheless, Devi Prasad insists that he should be expressing gratitude to them instead, and even allows the trio to keep the ₹40 lakhs for themselves as a reward from him for saving his granddaughter's life. Just then, the telephone in their house starts ringing again and the trio believes that it may be for Devi Prasad, but Devi Prasad tells them that the phone call is for them this time. The trio answers the phone call and suddenly becomes tensed, but it eventually turns out to be a prank call from Rinku shouting, "Kabira Speaking!". The film ends with the trio breaking into uncontrollable laughter.

Cast

• Akshay Kumar as Raju
• Suniel Shetty as Ghanshyam "Shyam"
• Paresh Rawal as Baburao Ganpatrao Apte "Babu Bhaiya"
• Tabu as Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar
• Asrani as Bank Manager
• Om Puri as Khadak Singh, Shyam's friend
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Devi Prasad
• Gulshan Grover as Kabira
• Razak Khan as Chhota Chetan, Kabira's close aide
• Kashmira Shah as Kabira's gang member
• Mukesh Khanna as Sub-Inspector Prakash
• Sulabha Arya as Savitri Devi, Raju's mother
• Ann Alexia Anra as Rinku, Devi Prasad's granddaughter
• Dinesh Hingoo as Chaman Jhinga
• Snehal Dabi as a man misjudging the bank manager at the bus stand as a pimp
• Mushtaq Khan as Devi Prasad's servant
• Sharad Sankla as bank peon
• Bhairavi Vaidya as Mrs Panikar, Anuradha's mother
• Kahkashan Patel in a special appearance in the song "Jab Bhi Koi Haseena"
• Rajeev Mehta as a laundry business owner and Raju's boss
• Namrata Shirodkar as Miss Jhinga, Chaman's daughter, special appearance in the song "Tun Tunak Tun"

Production

Hera Pheri was the first time that Priyadarshan worked with Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty. He had worked with Paresh Rawal in Doli Saja Ke Rakhna. It also marked the beginning of a long association between Priyadarshan and the three actors. Following Hera Pheri, Priyadarshan has made sure that either Kumar, Shetty, Rawal or a combination of the three actors would star in his films. The only exceptions are Dhol (2007), Billu (2009), Tezz (2012) and Rangrezz (2013).

Parts of the film were shot in Dubai and South Africa.

Music

Score

The film score was composed by Surinder Sodhi.

Songs

Hera Pheri
Soundtrack album by Anu Malik, Lalit Sen and Bally Sagoo
Released	2000
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Saregama

All lyrics are written by Sameer

Songs

No.	Title	Music	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Mujhse Milti Hai Ek Ladki Rozana" (Not used in the film)	Anu Malik	Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik	6:00
2.	"Jab Bhi Koi Haseena"	Anu Malik	K.K.	6:40
3.	"Main Ladki Pom Pom"	Anu Malik	Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Kavita Krishnamurthy	6:12
4.	"Denewala Jab Bhi Deta Deta Chhappar Phaad Ke"	Anu Malik	Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Vinod Rathod, Hariharan	6:50
5.	"Humba Leela"	Anu Malik	Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Vinod Rathod, Hariharan	7:58
6.	"Tun Tunak Tun"	Lalit Sen, Bally Sagoo	Richa Sharma, K.K. (in film)	7:06
7.	"Sun Zara" (Not used in the film)	Anu Malik	Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik	7:15
8.	"Tun Tunak Tun (Dance Mix)"	Lalit Sen	Richa Sharma	2:43
Total length:				50:44

Reception and legacy

The film did not open well upon release, but picked up later and became a box office success, grossing Rs. 24,25,00,000 in India. Much of the acclaim went to Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal for their comic timing and acting, the film is considered Kumar's foray into the comedy genre and critics have called Rawal as "Baburao" his best performance.

Aparajita Saha of Rediff stated "The movie belongs entirely to Paresh Rawal. Whatever laughter the film solicits is solely due to him. He has impeccable timing and a natural flair for comedy. Suniel Shetty's role and his performance is also too good." Indiainfo wrote, "Paresh Rawal is brilliant in the film. Akshay Kumar is better than Suniel Shetty and Namrata, in a song appearance, appears cold. On the whole, this film is mainly for the city audiences who can understand and appreciate subtle humour."

Alok Kumar of Planet Bollywood wrote, "All in all, Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri is a delight to watch for its performances, some songs, and an interesting storyline. Indian audiences would be doing Bollywood injustice if they accepted an inane film like Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge and rejected a thrilling and entertaining Hera Pheri. Hopefully, the film will click with the masses, and the trailer and songs, if not the stars, will pull audiences to the theatres. Namrata Shirodkar's number has already caught on strong in India. Let's see if in a dull year of flicks like Mela, Krodh, and Bulandi a good film like Hera Pheri can make an impact."

It has achieved a cult status among Indian audiences and is regarded as one of the best Hindi comedy films ever made. The dialogues of the film became widely famous throughout the years and are used popularly in Indian memes.

Awards and nominations

Awards	Category	Recipients and Nominees	Results
International Indian Film Academy Awards	Best Actor in a Comic Role	Paresh Rawal	Won
Filmfare Awards	Best Comedian	Paresh Rawal
Screen Awards	Best Comic Actor	Paresh Rawal
	Best Screenplay	Neeraj Vora
	Best Dialogue	Neeraj Vora
	Best Performance in a Comic Role	Om Puri	Nominated
	Best Story	Anand S. Vardhan
	Best Editing	N. Gopalakrishnan

Sequels

Main articles: Hera Pheri (film series), Phir Hera Pheri, and Hera Pheri 3

The film went onto launch a film franchise which includes Phir Hera Pheri, the sequel of this film released on 9 June 2006, which starred besides the main trio, Bipasha Basu, Rimi Sen and Johny Lever joined the cast. Hera Pheri 3, an upcoming sequel and the third in the series is currently in production.

External links

• Hera Pheri at IMDb
• Hera Pheri at Rotten Tomatoes