Phillauri

About the film

Phillauri is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language fantasy-comedy film directed by Anshai Lal and produced by Fox Star Studios with Anushka Sharma and her brother Karnesh Ssharma under their banner of Clean Slate Filmz. Director Navdeep Singh and writer Sudip Sharma are associated with the film as creative producers. The film stars Anushka Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh, Suraj Sharma and Mehreen Pirzada (in her Hindi debut) in the lead roles. The film's first official poster was released on 3 February 2017. The film was released on 24 March 2017. It performed averagely at the box office.

Plot

A young man, Kanan, returns to India from Canada to marry his long-term girlfriend Anu, but learns that he is a Manglik (born under an unlucky star) and has to marry a tree before marrying her. He reluctantly marries the tree, which is duly chopped down after the completion of the ceremony. As a result, from that day onward, he is haunted by the spirit of a woman named Shashi, who lived in the tree and hence claims to now be 'married' to him.

The story of Phillauri and Shashi is slowly revealed via the latter's flashbacks. Back in an unspecified time period, Shashi is a bright young woman who never fails to read the works of a poet named Phillauri that are regularly published in a local weekly. Everyone in the village of Phillaur thinks that the poems are written by the singer Roop Lal 'Phillauri', who is the heartthrob of the village. However, Roop Lal notices that Shashi, unlike all the other village girls, never comes to hear him sing. When he confronts her and tells her that he is the Phillauri who writes the poetry by narrating one of his famous poems to her, he is shocked when Shashi slaps and insults him. She asks him to use his talent – of being able to connect with the common man through his songs – for something important (especially when the struggle for independence is on) and not for frivolous matters. From that day onwards, Roop Lal is a changed man, dedicating his life to knowing and understanding the poetry of Phillauri (which it is clear now that he is not the author of) and spreading its message via his beautiful singing to others.

On one particular night, while Roop Lal is alone at home singing one of Phillauri's poems, Shashi comes to him and reveals that she is the one who writes poetry under the pseudonym of 'Phillauri' (which she can't do openly, being a woman). Subsequently, love blossoms between the two (the poet and the singer who translates her poetry to song and spreads its message far and wide), but Shashi's elder brother (a reputed doctor of the village who brought her up) eventually learns about the affair and intervenes. Roop Lal confronts Shashi's brother and admits to having been an alcohol-addicted good-for-nothing who still is not worthy of her, but tells him that he (Roop Lal) is going to Amritsar to record all the songs written by Shashi and will eventually return and ask for her hand in marriage.

Production

Principal photography of the film commenced in April 2016. The shooting of the film went on floors after the Punjabi festival of Vaisakhi 2016. First day of the shoot was on 19 April 2016.

Soundtrack

The music of the film is composed by Shashwat Sachdev with Jasleen Royal as a guest composer while the lyrics have been penned by Anvita Dutt Guptan, Aditya Sharma, Neeraj Rajawat and Shellee. Sameer Uddin has composed the background score. The music rights are acquired by T-Series. The first song "Dum Dum" was released on 16 February 2017. The soundtrack was released on 6 March 2017.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews. On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, Phillauri has an approval score of 40% based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 6.1 out of 10.

Nihit Bhave of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 and said that, "The idea is superbly original, culturally on point and has great potential. The problem is, you only get what you see in the trailer." Sweta Kausal of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 saying that, "There is nothing extraordinary about Phillauri. It is a light-hearted, average love story." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that, "The film is a lively, lighthearted drama enlivened with some fine cinematic touches." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express criticized the film for being too slow saying that, "The pacing is not just languid, it is positively slow, and it allows scenes to go on for much longer than they should." and gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5. Rajeev Masand of News18 praised the performances of actors Suraj Sharma, Diljit Dosanjh and Anushka Sharma but criticized the long length of the film and gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that, " Phillauri isn’t a consistently smooth ride. It’s uneven and bumpy and unforgivably slow in portions. But a lot of it works and some of it flies."

Key details