David

About the film

David is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language crime drama film directed by Bejoy Nambiar, starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vikram, and Vinay Virmani in the titlular role, alongside Tabu, Monica Dogra, Lara Dutta and Isha Sharvani. An altered version with the same title David featuring a slightly different cast was simultaneously shot in Tamil. The plot revolves around the lives of three different men named David, who are about to take a step which is going to change their lives forever. Both the Hindi and Tamil versions were released on 1 February 2013.

Plot

The story revolves around the lives of three Davids in three different parts of the world in three different eras.

London, 1975: 30-year-old David (Neil Nitin Mukesh) works for Iqbal Ghani, a dreaded Mafia don who controls London's Muslim community through his illegal activities. David is Ghani's protege who is poised to take over the empire one day as Ghani's son is a spoilt brat. David is in love with Ghani's ward, Noor and promises to marry her. Things take a turn when two undercover RAW agents come to London to expose Ghani's ties to religious extremists in India. While trying to take David down, the agents reveal to him that his mother was Ghani's mistress and Ghani might have killed his father to be with her. David's loyalty towards his master is tested even more when Noor is forcefully married off to Ghani's son to hide the fact that he is gay even though she is pregnant with David's son. When the RAW agents finally manage to get close to Ghani, they assassinate not only him but David as well to keep their mission a secret from the British authorities.

Mumbai, 1999: 19-year-old David (Vinay Virmani) is an amateur guitarist born into a family of lower-middle class Christians. He is a happy-go-lucky teenager who dreams of becoming a professional musician and sending his sisters off to Dubai to pursue their dreams. Their father, Noel, a Protestant priest rallies the locals to do charity work for those in need. A Hindu fanatic politician, Malati Tai, finds out about this and makes it appear as if David's father is converting poor people to Christianity in return for money. She attacks David's colony with the help of gangsters and humiliates Noel by blackening his face in front of the media. Traumatised by this, the priest starts to lose his mind. An angry David is then easily persuaded by a political activist to assassinate Malati at a rally to seek vengeance. However, the plan is foiled when an unknown gunman fails to assassinate Malati and instead kills the police officer standing next to her.

Production

Bejoy Nambiar announced in December 2011 that he would make a Hindi film titled David, a gangster-comedy, and signed on Vikram to play a protagonist in the film. The pair had previously worked together in Mani Ratnam's Raavan and Raavanan, in which Nambiar had been an assistant director. It was revealed that the film would simultaneously show tracks of three people named David: Vikram's story takes place in Goa, while the two other stories happen in Mumbai and London and that they occur at different periods. Three cinematographer, R. Rathnavelu, P. S. Vinod and Sanu Varghese were recruited to shoot the respective segments. Sanjeev Lamba of Reliance, the film's producer, noted that the film had undergone changes and would be made a bilingual in Hindi and Tamil.

Vivek Oberoi was also recruited to play a titular character in the film. However, Oberoi opted out of the project after finding out that the film would be a bilingual, and the team considered Farhan Akhtar before replacing him with Neil Nitin Mukesh. Neil Nitin Mukesh was asked to sport a complete retro-gangster look, and grow a hefty moustache for his role in the film. Neil's portions in the film would be shot in London. Canadian-Indian actor Vinay Virmani would play the third character called David in the film. In January 2012, the producers signed Tabu and Isha Sharvani to play lead female roles in the film, with reports that Isha would be paired opposite Vikram.

Scenes involving Vikram were filmed first out of the three segments and were canned in locations which were meant to show a Goan backdrop. The team thus shot scenes featuring Vikram and Isha Sharvani in Alleppey, Kerala in late February 2012, before moving to Kuttanad. Mangalore beach was designed to replicate the beaches of Goa and a song featuring Remo Fernandes was also shot in February. Ratnavelu revealed that scenes were also canned in Kapu, Karnataka disguising Goa and that Vikram finished his portions for the film by March 2012. Nishan, a Mumbai-based actor who had appeared in Malayalam language films, was also selected to play a role in the segment, while actress Rubi Chakravarti was also recruited to play Vikram's mother in the film after Bejoy Nambiar approached for a role written with her in mind. Prahlad Kakkar, a noted ad-maker, was convinced by Nambiar to make his debut in film by appearing in the role of a priest and consequently shot his scenes in Mangalore.

Music

The soundtrack of David consists of 15 tracks composed by eight various artists, including Prashant Pillai and Mikey McCleary, who had worked on Nambiar's Shaitan, too, and independent bands Bramfatura, Maatibaani and Modern Mafia. Tamil film composer Anirudh Ravichander of "Why This Kolaveri Di" fame, also contributed one song, making his Bollywood debut. The song "Yun Hi Re", which is the Hindi version of "Kanave Kanave" which is composed by Anirudh Ravichander was released as a single on 10 December 2012. A new version of the famous traditional Qawwali number "Dama Dam Mast Qalandar" was released on 17 December 2012.

Key details