Wanted

About the film

Wanted is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Prabhu Deva (who was the director of the remake of Tamil film Pokkiri (2007). Produced by Boney Kapoor. The film is a remake of Telugu film Pokiri (2006), stars Salman Khan, alongside Prakash Raj, Ayesha Takia, Vinod Khanna, Mahesh Manjrekar with Arvind Swamy, Govinda and Anil Kapoor making special appearances. The soundtrack was composed by Sajid–Wajid, while the musical score was handled by Salim–Sulaiman. The cinematography and editing were handled by Nirav Shah and Sethu Sriram and Dilip Deo, respectively.

The film was shot primarily in Mumbai, with songs filmed in Australia and other foreign countries.

Plot

In Mumbai, two rival gangs headed by Gani Bhai, a Dubai-based crime boss, and Datta Pawle commit extortion, contract, and coercion to take control of the city's land mafia. The newly-appointed Commissioner of Police Ashraf Taufiq Khan starts busting down crimes in the city.

Radhe, a money-minded rogue living with his friends in Mumbai, thrashes Gani Bhai's henchmen Genghis, as Pawle assigned Radhe a contract to thrash Genghis. Later, Radhe joins Gani Bhai's gang for monetary reasons. Radhe falls in love with Jahnvi, an aerobics teacher who lives with her widowed mother, Lakshmi, and younger brother Ballu. Sonu Gates, a software engineer, lives above Jahnvi's house and frequently tries to convince Jahnvi to marry him. Daulat Talpade, a corrupt Senior Inspector and Gani Bhai's informer, lusts for Jahnvi and is determined to make her his mistress despite Jahnvi's objections.

Radhe's first assignment with Gani Bhai's gang is to eliminate Pawle's gang member, but the police arrive at the spot. Radhe engages the cops long enough for the others to finish the task and flee, where he also helps Jahnvi escape from Talpade. Jahnvi is impressed and befriends Radhe, where soon love blossoms between the two. When Jahnvi tries to express her feelings to Radhe, they are attacked by members of Pawle's gang, whom Radhe finishes off. Jahnvi is shocked to learn that Radhe is a gangster with no qualms about killing people. Later, Talpade arranges for some thugs to pretend to assault Jahnvi in order to force Jahnvi to accept Talpade's demands, since no family would accept her as their daughter-in-law. Radhe learns about this and thrashes Talpade secretly. Gani Bhai arrives from Dubai, kills Pawle, and meets Radhe to discuss the killing of a minister by blowing up a school. Radhe disagrees with the plan as it would involve killing innocents.

Production

Asin and Ileana D'Cruz were approached for the role of Janhvi, but they rejected the offer, and the role went to Ayesha Takia. Nana Patekar was offered the role of Gani Bhai, but due to his busy schedule, the role went to Prakash Raj, who was seen in the original remake. In a recent 'Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 11' episode, Boney Kapoor revealed how his third pitch convinced Salman Khan to do Wanted. After two failed attempts, Boney urged Salman to watch the film, leading to its iconic success. The parts of the film were shot in Greek Islands of Rodos, Santorini, and Paros.

Music

The music of the film was given by Sajid–Wajid. The album received mixed to negative reviews from critics, with some songs seeing a positive response. The songs "Jalwa", "Love Me Love Me", and "Le Le Maza Le" became a huge hit among the audiences.

Reception

Wanted received positive reviews from critics.

Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave 4/5 stars and wrote "With this film, the knuckle-crushing action flick roars back in an improved avtaar." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 4/5 stars and wrote "Wanted is a full on masala film, which takes you back to those days when popular cinema reigned supreme, when the sole motive of the film-maker was to entertain." Indicine gave 3/5 stars, calling it "watchable for Salman Khan" and the "best out and out action flick of Bollywood." Raja Sen of Rediff gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Wanted is a modern-day rarity, a actioner that really doesn't spend any time trying to class up its tackiness or pretend to make sense. Khan might be having fun, but the fact a film like Wanted underscores is how badly Bollywood needs a breed of younger leading men."

Nominated: IIFA Award for Best Movie – Boney Kapoor

Legacy

Wanted's success kick-started Salman Khan's career as an action hero and boosted his super-stardom. This film started Khan's tradition of releasing his films on the occasion of Eid. His dialogue from the film "Ek bar joh maine commitment kar di uske baad toh main khud ki bhi nahi sunta" (transl. Once I have made a commitment, I won't listen to myself) became one of his most iconic dialogues. This film also started the trend of Khan going shirtless in his climax fight scenes, which includes films like Dabangg, Bodyguard and Ready.

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