Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty

About the film

Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, starring Akshay Kumar as an army officer. It also stars Sonakshi Sinha, Freddy Daruwala, Sumeet Raghavan and Govinda in a special appearance. It is an official remake of Murugadoss' own 2012 Tamil film Thuppakki (2012) and follows an Indian Army officer who arrives in Mumbai on vacation and sets out to hunt down the terrorist leader of a sleeper cell network and deactivate the sleeper cells operating under his command.

Kumar revealed that the story of Holiday was signed by his production company Hari Om Entertainment after listening to the first action sequence of the film by Murugadoss even before the script was fully written. He let Murugadoss make the film in Tamil as Thuppakki due to date issues, and later announced its remake. Production commenced in 2013 with the initial working title Pistol under the banner of Hari Om Entertainment and Sunshine Pictures.

Plot

Virat Bakshi, a Captain in DIA, a secret wing of Indian Army, returns to his home in Mumbai on a 40-day holiday. On his arrival, his parents rush him to meet Saiba Thapar, who they wanted him to marry. But Virat rejects her with an excuse that she is old fashioned and not his type. On the contrary, Saiba is a professional boxer, and is completely modern in her outlook. Virat notices her in a boxing match and falls in love with her instantly.

One day, while travelling in a bus with his friend, Sub-Inspector Mukund "Makiya" Deshmukh, Virat, while chasing a man who he regards with suspicion when he tries to flee the scene of a check going on after a passenger reports his wallet as stolen, witnesses a bomb explosion killing innocent people. Virat manages to capture the man, Ajmal Lateef, who he realizes is a terrorist and has planted the bomb, but he escapes from the hospital with the help of a police mole. Virat kidnaps Ajmal again, interrogates him to ascertain the name of the police mole and also forces the police mole, corrupt ACP Ashok Gaikwad to commit suicide. He later discovers while examining contents in Ajmal's bag that a terrorist group has planned serial blasts in Mumbai to be executed in a couple of days with the help of 12 sleeper agents, including Ajmal himself. Virat remembers that on the day when the bombs are going to be planted, there is a wedding where his team member Joel is tying the knot, and all his Army officer friends are going to assemble. Along with his fellow Army officers and Mukund, Virat manages to track these bombers, Ajmal included, and kills them before they could trigger the bombs.

When the leader of these sleeper cells, whose brother, Afsar Ali, was also one of the sleeper bombers, finds out about the team of officers involved in the failure of the terrorist attack, he goes to Joel's house and kills his family and finds an album which has photos of team officers. He targets one officer's female relative from each team and kidnaps them. When Virat realises the plan, he substitutes one of the girls to be kidnapped, with his younger sister Preeti. Using his pet dog Rocky and his sister Preeti's dupatta, he manages to reach the terrorists' hideout. He eliminates all the terrorists and rescues all the victims, including Preeti, who was about to be killed after Virat's bluff was exposed. Virat also captures Asif Ali, who was the leader of the group but later kills him on realising that Asif is just the second-in-command of the sleeper cells.

Production

The film's production commenced in 2013 with the working title of Pistol under the banner of Cape Of Good Films and Sunshine Pictures. The songs are composed by Pritam Chakraborty, while the background score is composed by Prasad Sashte. The stunt coordinator of the film is Greg Powell.

The production budget of Holiday is around ₹300 million (US$3.1 million) without Akshay Kumar remuneration, print and advertising costs. According to the director A. R. Murugadoss, Akshay's role is that of an Army officer for which Akshay lost some weight to fit in the role and to look 12 years younger from his real biological age. Kumar also sported a crew-cut hairstyle for his role. Whilst Sonakshi will play the role of boxer and Virat (Kumar's) love interest Saiba. Model and debutant Freddy Daruwala will play the main antagonist pitted against Kumar.

The film was originally scheduled for a release in early May 2014, which would have clashed with the release of Action Jackson. However, Action Jackson was pushed to December 2014.

Soundtrack

The film's soundtrack album composed by Pritam, was released on 12 May 2014. The songs were released on 2 June 2014. The lyrics were written by Irshad Kamil for the songs featured in the film. Sukumar Dutta wrote the lyrics for the Song "Palang tod". Prasad Sashte composed the background score of the film. A reprise version of the song "Ashq Na Ho" was released on 17 March 2016. The reprise version was sung by singer Asees Kaur.

Reception

The film has received positive reviews from the critics. ABP News similarly rated it 4.5/5, calling it a "fast-paced, exhilarating roller coaster ride" Taran Adarsh gave 4/5 and states that it is a slick action-thriller that keeps you engrossed, enthralled and captivated all through, thanks to its fascinating premise and a watertight, razor-sharp screenplay.

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