Jai Ho

About the film

Jai Ho (transl. Let there be Victory) is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language political action drama film directed by Sohail Khan, who also produced the film under the banner Sohail Khan Productions and co-produced by Sunil Lulla under Eros International, which distributed the film. It is an official remake of the Telugu film Stalin, which is also inspired by the American-drama film Pay It Forward. The film stars Salman Khan, Tabu, Daisy Shah, Danny Denzongpa, Sana Khan and Aditya Pancholi, while Suniel Shetty and Genelia D'Souza make cameo appearances.

Jai Ho was released on 24 January 2014, during the Republic Day weekend, and received mixed reviews from critics. It became a commercial success grossing ₹195 crore (US$20 million) at the box office, becoming the sixth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 2014.

Plot

Jai Agnihotri, a short-tempered INA Major, gets suspended after he ignores orders from his superiors by rescuing a group of children from terrorists. After this incident, Jai moves in with his mother and sister, Geeta. One day, Jai is unable to help Suman, a physically disabled girl, take an examination, while her brother is stuck in a traffic jam. A depressed Suman commits suicide. Jai gets disturbed by the incident, where he creates a help-three-people concept, which would encourage citizens to help each other and would foster kindness and a sense of community among the citizens. Each day, citizens are to help three people and these three people will in turn help three more people and so on.

On one occasion for one of his daily good deeds, Jai loses his temper and beats a rich man as he had injured a child beggar. In an act of revenge, the rich man calls some henchmen to kidnap Geeta and her friend Rinky. Jai saves Geeta and Rinky, but injures one of the captors in the process, who happens to be the henchman of MLA Patil, the son-in-law of Home Minister Dashrath Singh, who gets enraged about Jai injuring Patil's henchmen who is actually Manik. Dashrath tells Patil to avenge this injury by kidnapping Jai's nephew Kabir, but Jai kills Patil in the process. Meanwhile, CM Ashok Pradhan learns about Jai's help-three-people concept after his own life is saved by a schoolgirl. Ashok intervenes in the dispute between Dashrath and Jai in order to end their fight, but Dashrath does not appreciate it and attempts to kill Ashok.

However, Jai manages to save Ashok and admits him to the hospital. Dashrath, a journalist, spreads rumours that Jai attempted to assassinate Ashok. Meanwhile, Dashrath's son, Vijayant Singh, along with his henchmen, attacks Jai. In the ensuing confrontation, Jai kills Vijayant, along with the corrupt police officers Inspectors Dilip Kadam and Imran Siddiqui, with the assistance of SI Abhay Rajput. Jai suffers severe injuries after being stabbed by Patil's widow, Kavita. Tragically, Kavita is also stabbed and dies at the hands of Vijayant. A rickshaw driver, Babban, and Jai's former colleague, Arjun Kaul, team up to help Jai reach the hospital. While Jai is there, Ashok recovers and reveals Dashrath's involvement in the attempted murder. An enraged crowd beats Dashrath nearly to death upon hearing the truth. Jai eventually recovers and emerges from the hospital, where he finds thousands of people awaiting him. Jai thanks them all for embracing his vision of help.

Production

In late 2012, Sohail Khan announced had planned to remake the Telugu film Stalin starring Chiranjeevi Konidela and Trisha Krishnan. Khan originally titled the film Mental, but by the time the it was released, it had been re-titled as Jai Ho.

Shooting for the film was set to begin 27 February 2013 but was postponed until late March. There were rumors that the film would be released in 3D, but Sohail Khan was cited stating, "First, let me complete my film in the normal format. Then I'll take a call".

Marketing

Salman Khan unveiled the first look poster of Jai Ho on 6 December 2013. The poster consisted of images of thousands of fans digitally merged to create one portrait of Khan. Khan's fans designed this poster. The makers unveiled the film's official teaser on 13 December 2013. The official trailer of the film was released on 3 January 2014.

Music

Sajid–Wajid, Amaal Mallik and Devi Sri Prasad composed the nine-song soundtrack album for Jai Ho, in which Malik had contributed three tracks and Prasad had contributed one track, while the former composed 5 tracks. Sajid, Irfan Kamal, Danish Sabri, Sameer Anjaan, Kausar Munir, Shabbir Ahmed, Armaan Malik, and Devi Sri Prasad wrote the lyrics for all the songs in the album. The full soundtrack album was released on 24 December 2013.

Reception

India Today gave Jai Ho a 3 out of 5 and commented that it was a rip off of Ek Tha Tiger with mindless action. Anupama Chopra gave the movie a 2.5 out of 5, stating, Jai Ho was more of a cartoon than a film.

Raja Sen of Rediff gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and said, Khan, Bollywood's real-life answer to Derek Zoolander, does his thing like only he can. And the crowd responds. Sitting in a single-screen theatre, the air was filled with shrill, thrilled whistles as soon as the censor certificate hit the screen. The first glimpse of Khan – via braceleted wrist – had the crowd in paroxysms." Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave 2 stars out of 5, commenting "To be honest, very little stays with you when you leave the cinema, aside from the unpleasant aftertaste that comes from being shamelessly manipulated."

Key details