Raksha Bandhan

About the film

Raksha Bandhan (lit. 'Raksha Bandhan'; transl. The bond of protection) is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language family comedy-drama film directed by Aanand L. Rai and written by Himanshu Sharma and Kanika Dhillon. A remake of the 2005 Bengali film Dadar Adesh, the film stars Akshay Kumar, Bhumi Pednekar, Sadia Khateeb, Sahil Mehta, Sahejmeen Kaur, Smrithi Srikanth and Deepika Khanna.

The film was theatrically released on 11 August 2022, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan and Independence Day. It received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, but emerged as a box office failure.

Plot

In Old Delhi, Lala Kedarnath, the eldest and only brother of four sisters named Gayatri, Durga, Laxmi, and Saraswati, runs a chaat shop named Premlata Chat Bhandar, which was started by his grandfather and is now managed by him along with his loyal helper, Gaffar. Lala promises his frail mother on her deathbed that he will only marry after fulfilling his responsibility of settling his sisters into suitable homes. Lala's relentless efforts to arrange marriages for his sisters while upholding his family values go in vain, as he faces difficulties in finding suitable grooms due to Laxmi's dark complexion, Durga's weight, and Saraswati's masculine behaviour. At the same time, Lala's commitment to his sisters becomes a major obstacle to his relationship with his childhood love, Sapna.

Understanding the importance of Lala's vow, Sapna decides to wait until he achieves his goal. However, her father, Harishankar, constantly pressures her to get married. Some time later, Lala manages to arrange ₹18 lakh (US$19,000) for Gayatri's dowry, and Gayatri gets married. After the wedding, it is revealed that Lala is not their biological brother and that their mother had adopted him long ago after his real mother died near the temple. Lala arranges money for Durga and Laxmi's weddings by selling one of his kidneys, but things do not go as planned. Gayatri's husband and in-laws demand more dowry, but she says nothing to Lala because she does not want to cause him further stress. Gayatri eventually commits suicide by drinking poison. Lala realises the curse of the dowry system and vows to make his remaining three sisters capable enough to choose their own husbands and marry without dowry.

Lala breaks all ties with Sapna and asks her to marry the man chosen by her father. However, on Sapna's wedding day, Harishankar realises that she is still in love with Lala and asks her to call off the marriage. Sapna breaks the alliance and decides to wait for Lala; her fiancé, Swapnil, later falls in love with Laxmi and marries her 12 years later. Durga completes her graduation and becomes an advocate, eventually having Gayatri's husband imprisoned on dowry charges. She later marries one of her classmates. Saraswati becomes a police officer and marries her colleague. In the end, Lala marries Sapna at the age of 60 after fulfilling his mother's wish.

Production

The film was officially announced on 3 August 2020 to mark the occasion of Raksha Bandhan. Akshay Kumar stated that it is the quickest film he has signed in his career, and dedicated the film to his sister Alka Hiranandani who also serves as co-producer. Originally this film was scheduled to release on 13 December 2021.

Principal photography for the film commenced on 23 January 2021. In April 2021, K.U Mohanan replaced Anshuman Mahaley as a Cinematographer due to scheduling conflicts. First schedule ended in July 2021 at Mumbai. The film was wrapped up in Delhi in December 2021.

Music

The songs were composed by Himesh Reshammiya while film score was composed and produced by Ishaan Chhabra. Irshad Kamil has written the lyrics.

The first song of the album "Tere Sath Hoon Main", sung by Nihal Tauro was released on 29 June 2022.

The second song "Kangan Ruby", sung by Reshammiya himself was released on 6 July 2022. The third song titled "Done Kar Do", sung by Navraj Hans was released on 18 July 2022 and it was the first song from an Indian film to have an international release, being launched in the UK. The fourth song "Dhaagon Se Baandhaa", sung by Shreya Ghoshal and Arijit Singh was released on 28 July 2022.

Marketing

The cast of Raksha Bandhan was on a promotional spree, visiting different cities across India, ahead of its release. The team, including Akshay Kumar, Aanand L Rai, Sadia Khateeb, Smrithi Srikanth, Sahejmeen Kaur and Deepika Khanna, visited Dubai, Pune, Indore and Hyderabad. On 7 August 2022, the team of Raksha Bandhan film visited Hyderabad to attend a press conference at a multiplex. Akshay took his on-screen sisters to the famous MG Road at Durga Gold and Silver (Durga Jewellers), for some pearl shopping and continued the tradition of gifting.

Controversy

Right wing Hindu nationalists started a Twitter campaign to boycott the film, the campaign was against the film's screenwriter Kanika Dhillon for her old allegedly anti-Hindu tweets with offensive references to gomutra and tweets where she had mocked the Modi government; these Tweets were later deleted.

Release

The film was theatrically released on 11 August 2022, coinciding with Raksha Bandhan and Independence Day.

The digital streaming rights of the film were acquired by ZEE5. The film digitally was released on ZEE5 from 5 October 2022.

Key details