Joker (2012 film)

Joker is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language science fiction comedy film directed by Shirish Kunder and also his second directorial venture after Jaan-E-Mann.[5] The film stars Akshay Kumar opposite Sonakshi Sinha in lead roles. This was the second film in which Sinha paired opposite Kumar after Rowdy Rathore (2012). The film released worldwide on 31 August 2012, and received mixed to negative response upon release. The film was declared a "Disaster" at box office.[1][6][7] The trailer of the film revealed on 11 July 2012, and also in cinemas along with Cocktail.[8]

Joker
Theatrical release poster
Directed byShirish Kunder
Produced by
Written byShirish Kunder
Starring
Music by
CinematographySudeep Chatterjee
Edited byShirish Kunder
Production
company
  • Three's Company
  • Cape of Good Films
Distributed byUTV Motion Pictures
Release date
  • 31 August 2012 (2012-08-31)[1]
Running time
103 minutes[2]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹470 million (US$6.6 million)
Box office₹200 million (US$2.8 million)(domestic net)[3][4]

Plot

Agastya (Akshay Kumar) is a scientist, working on the development of a communication system, to communicate with aliens. But Agastya loses the faith of his seniors and is allotted with a deadline of one month to conclude his project with some substantial results.

In the meantime Agastya is informed by his girlfriend Diva (Sonakshi Sinha) about his father's illness. On hearing this they both reach his native village Paglapur, whose colourful inhabitants include a man who speaks in gibberish, another who thinks he is a lamp post and everyone else who think that the World War II is still going on.

Soon after reaching there, Agastya finds that he was called on a false pretext of illness by his father.

On getting apprised about truth, Agastya decides to move back to US, but after hearing the plight of the inhabitants of Paglapur, due to the brushing aside of the village by the government because of its being absent from the demarcated map of India, he makes his mind to come out with some solution for the problem.

As the story proceeds, Agastya comes up with a quaint idea pertaining to the crop circle and arrival of aliens in his village, to fetch a recognition for his otherwise isolated village undergoing a plight of neglect ever since the independence.

With frames moving ahead, Agastya along with other villagers creates crop circle in Paglapur and spreads rumour about arrival of aliens in the village. And from there, amid tremendous media hype, takes over some hilarious sequences knitted around UFO and fictitious man made aliens.

In the end, the whole joke about the fake aliens is found out and at the end of the movie real aliens come and give the village the gift of oil.

Cast

Production

Development

Shirish Kunder had the project in development for several years before finding financial backing and hit films, and had to negotiate for use of the specific title which Kunder stated is important to the script itself.[11] The film is being produced by Farah Khan, Shirish Kunder, and Akshay Kumar under the banner of Three's Company and Hari Om Entertainment.[12] The film was shot in 3D using 3D cameras, however in June 2012, it was announced that the film was no longer in 3D any more, since Ra.One and Don 2 have taken the goals, if Joker flopped it would be a loss on the whole crew, therefore the film will only be released in 2D format.[5] According to director, Shirish Kunder, "It is an underdog story about how individuals make it big in life and in the process, get help from aliens from a fictional planet".[13] Shreyas Talpade will play Akshay's brother in the film.[14] Female lead opposite to Shreyas will be played by Minisha Lamba,[15] who will enact the role of an innocent TV reporter.[16] Sonakshi will also perform an item number in the film.[12] American actor Alexx ONell was also signed to play a role in the film.[9]

Filming

The first schedule of shooting was initially slated to take place in Ludhiana, however the location was changed to Chandigarh.[17] The shooting began on 14 February 2011 in Chandigarh.[18][19][20] The crew finished the 19-day schedule on 12 March 2011, finishing 40% of the production work.[21] The second schedule started on 17 May 2011 in Mumbai[18] and concluded in June 2011.[22] The film is now slated to release on 31 August 2012. The theatrical trailer was released on UTV Motion Pictures' YouTube channel on 11 July 2012 only online. Whilst it released worldwide on television on 13 July 2012, and also in cinemas along with Cocktail.

Casting

Shrish Kunder wanted to cast Asin Thottumkal as the female lead but, she was not able to adjust the dates for the film so, producers cast Sonakshi Sinha opposite Akshay Kumar. Shreyas Talpade and Minisha Lamba were later cast in pivotal roles.

Reception

Joker received negative reviews from critics. The film currently has a 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on 16 reviews, review aggregate site desimartini.com gave the film the verdict, "Apart from an interesting concept and a handful of funny moments, Joker is drag and doesn't work as a comedy or as a sci-fi caper. Skip it!" The site's average audience rating is 2/5.[23] Independent Bollywood gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and said "A Funny and weird entertainer with message".[24] Soumyadipta Banerjee of In.com gave 0.5 out of 5 stars and said "Not only that the aliens are weird, the whole movie seems be in some weird planet after a point of time".[25] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTVMovies.com gave the film 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Joker is a crude joke of a film that will leave you in tears unless you have a stomach strong enough to digest such unmitigated junk."[26] Film critic Taran Adarsh also gave it 1 out of 5 stars and labelled it as a complete "disaster" and a "joke of a film".[27]

Music
Joker
Soundtrack album by
G. V. Prakash Kumar
Released27 July 2012 (2012-07-27)
Recorded2011
GenreFilm soundtrack
LanguageHindi
LabelSony Music India
ProducerG. V. Prakash Kumar

All songs featured in the film except one, are composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, nephew of noted composer, A. R. Rahman.[28] The song Jugnu Banke Tu sung by Udit Narayan was highly appreciated among all songs. Udit also received Kalakar Award for best male playback singer for this song[29] The song titled I Want Fakth You from Joker was leaked online on 1 July 2012, which has been composed by Gaurav Dagaonkar. The song has been acclaimed by the audience, however the song is actually named Kaafirana and will be released under that title worldwide and also on the soundtrack.[30]

All lyrics are written by Shirish Kunder.

Track list
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Kafirana" (Composed by Gaurav Dagaonkar)Sunidhi Chauhan , Adarsh Shinde5:00
2."Jugnu"Udit Narayan4:10
3."Sing Raja"Daler Mehndi, Sonu Kakkar3:50
4."Yeh Joker"Sonu Nigam & Shweta Pandit4:40
5."Tears of Joker"Instrumental3:20
6."Alien Arrival"Instrumental2:48

Audio review

Music Aloud said: "He may or may not have composed the tunes for the controversy-ridden soundtrack of Jaanemann, but when GV Prakash Kumar actually got to do a credited debut in Bollywood, it turned out to be a rather uninventive one" and rated it 5/10.[31] Score Magazine, gave it 2 out of 5 stars stating, "You know something is wrong with an album when the instrumental tracks immensely outshine the vocal tracks. I must mention that each of the songs has a strong underlying melody but gross injustice is done to them by Shirish Kunder's lyrics."[32]

Awards and Nominations
Award Category Recipient Nominated Work Result
Kalakar Awards Best Playback Singer Udit Narayan For song "Jugnu Banke Tu" Won
  • Negative Awards and Nominations:
Award Category Recipient/Nominated Work Result Notes
Ghanta Awards Worst Actress Sonakshi Sinha Won Also for Rowdy Rathore, Dabangg 2 and Son of Sardaar
Ghanta Awards Worst Supporting Actress Minnisha Lamba Nominated Won by Sonam Kapoor for Players
Ghanta Awards WTF was that Actual aliens showing up in the film Nominated Won by Jab Tak Hai Jaan for A love quadrangle with Jesus and Raaz 3D for A ghost using a landline to call up Bipasha with information
Golden Kela Awards Worst Actress Sonakshi Sinha Won Also for Rowdy Rathore, Dabangg 2 and Son of Sardaar
Golden Kela Awards Worst Film Shirish Kunder Won For being one of the worst films ever made...anywhere

References
  1. "Joker release date confirmed, to arrive on 14th September, 2012". 29 October 2011. Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  2. "Joker (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
  3. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=4873&nCat=
  4. "Joker Second Day Business". bosofficeindia.com. 2 September 2012.
  5. "Akshay's 'Joker' will be first full-fledged 3D film". The Indian Express. 27 October 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  6. "'Joker' trailer to release with 'Cocktail'". mid-day.com. 9 July 2012.
  7. "Akki's back in the game". Deccan Chronicle. 19 September 2012. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 19 September 2012.name="swingerjack">"Worst movie of 2013". IMDb. 1 September 2012.
  8. "Indian Cinema gets on 3D Bandwagon: After Sohan Roy's DAM 999, Farah Khan's JOKER to be the 2nd Bollywood 3D Movie". Washington Bangla Radio. 28 October 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2011.
  9. "Alexx O'Nell in Shirish Kunder's 'Joker'". The Times of India. Indo-Asian News Service. 12 April 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  10. "Meet JOKER's 'Majnu Tangewala'!". Yahoo! News. 28 January 2012. Retrieved 16 February 2016.
  11. "Akshay Kumar in Shirish Kunder's Joker". Sawf News. 15 August 2010. Archived from the original on 18 August 2010. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
  12. "Sonakshi To Do Item Number in Joker". NDTV. Press Trust of India. 10 February 2011. Archived from the original on 14 July 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  13. "I don't get Farah's cinema: Shirish Kunder". 17 March 2011. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011.
  14. "Shreyas to play Akshay's brother in 'Joker'". CNN-IBN. Indo-Asian News Service. 10 January 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  15. Tuteja, Joginder (2 February 2011). "Minissha Lamba joins Joker". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  16. "Minissha to play innocent TV reporter in Joker". 21 March 2011. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2011.
  17. "Shirish to begin shooting for Joker in Chandigarh". IBN Live. Press Trust of India. 31 January 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  18. "Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha's Joker Second Schedule Starts in May". Sawf News. Archived from the original on 13 May 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  19. "Shirish Kunder to begin shooting Joker from 12 February". Business of Cinema. 11 January 2011. Archived from the original on 24 March 2012. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  20. "Are you ready for this Joker?". Rediff. 2 February 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  21. Singh, Manisha Pradhan (15 March 2011). "Akshay Kumar & Sonakshi Sinha starrer Joker 40% complete". Business of Cinema. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
  22. Aikara, Anita (10 June 2011). "Star Diary". The Indian Express. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  23. "Joker reviews". desimartini. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  24. "Joker Movie Review". Independent Bollywood. Archived from the original on 4 September 2012. Retrieved 2 September 2012.
  25. "Joker is just weird!". In.com. Retrieved 14 September 2012.
  26. "Saibal Chatterjee's review of Joker". NDTVMovies.com. Archived from the original on 2 September 2012. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
  27. Adarsh, Taran. "Joker (2012) Hindi Movie Critic Review". Bollywood Hungama.
  28. "Rahman's protege and nephew Prakash to compose for Joker". Oneindia.in. 7 February 2011. Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 1 March 2011.
  29. "WATCH: Akshay Kumar in Jugnu from Joker". Archived from the original on 12 March 2014.
  30. "GV Prakash goes to Bollywood". Behind Woods. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  31. "Joker – Music Review". Music Aloud. 31 July 2012. Retrieved 1 August 2012.
  32. "Music Review – Joker".
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