Ishaqzaade (2012)

A love story of a passion ignited by hatred. Of two people. Born to hate. Destined to love.

Director:

Habib Faisal

Writers:

Aditya Chopra (story), Habib Faisal

Stars:

Arjun Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Gauhar Khan

9 wins & 14 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Arjun Kapoor	...	Parma Chauhan
Parineeti Chopra	...	Zoya Qureshi
Gauhar Khan	...	Chand Baby
Anil Rastogi	...	Surya Chauhan
Ratan Singh	...	Aftab Qureshi (as Ratan Rathore)
Natasha Rastogi	...	Amma - Parma's Mother
Charu Rastogi	...	Ammi - Zoya's Mother
Shashank Khaitan	...	Dharma Chauhan
Ankit Kakar	...	Karma Chauhan
Abdullah Osman	...	Chandu
Akash Bathija	...	Bikram
Aftab Khan	...	Shadaab Qureshi (as Aftab Ahmed Khan)
Jafarpal Dhillon	...	Sohraab Qureshi
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Meeta Bandhu	...	Mrs. Kanti Lala
Pravin Chandra

Storyline

Rising from the ashes of hooliganism and small town wars, comes a passionate love story ignited by hatred. A story of two people who were born to hate but destined to love. One kingdom. One throne. Two wild animals. One totally unpredictable and the other - ferocious. A battle, deafened by the sounds of hate, revenge, bullets and deceit. A story about two fiery bloods played by Arjun Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra, and their fight for power and supremacy. A love story brewing in a small town - burning with hatred.

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Plot Keywords:

clan | village | violence | love | hooliganism | 

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Taglines:

Born to Hate... Destined to Love

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Yash Raj Films [India]

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

11 May 2012 (India)

Also Known As:

Born to Hate... Destined to Love

Filming Locations:

Uttar Pradesh, India

Box Office

Budget:

INR 220,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Yash Raj Films

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was a joke on set that Habib Faisal's favorite on the set was Pradeep, who was playing Banwra, an accompanist in Chand Baby's entourage. Whenever he was in frame with Arjun, Parineeti or Gauahar, Habib would first brief him, and then the rest. Also on the dinner table, Habib would be constantly talking about Banwra. Arjun would jokingly act very upset about this.

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Connections

Referenced in Bhoothnath Returns (2014)

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Soundtracks

Chokra Jawaan
Director: Habib Faisal
Music: Amit Trivedi
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
Singer: Vishal Dadlani and Sunidhi Chauhan

User Reviews

Parineeti scores once again but the narrative mostly remains plastic.

Post his National Award winning directorial debut DO DOONI CHAAR, I was pretty much excited to see writer-director Habib Faisal's second venture ISHAQZAADEY. The well designed posters with the grungy look and its promos having guns all over, raised the expectations further along with Parineeti playing the lead.

However, the film came out to be just fine but nothing hugely exceptional going against my big expectations. It can easily be called a violent love story made on a fast moving script with sharp twists coming in its both halves to keep you engaged. But at the same time, its not a perfect take as all the elements in it collectively do not hit you hard with a 100% force. The first half of the film is thoroughly enjoyable as the various characters are introduced in the small town background entertainingly and one feels like watching a winner all the way. But post intermission the narration dips at many places leading to some weak sequences and a 'could be better' climax from the talented director.

Made around the subject of 'Honor Killings' (Hindu-Muslim Issue), ISHAQZAADEY is undoubtedly better than many other big films of 2012 featuring the saleable stars. But as far as perfection is concerned, it disappointed me majorly due to the confusing characterizations of its lead actors. Firstly the bindaas girl, who is daring enough to go and buy her own revolver illegally, who is bold enough to lead the election campaign for her father and who can even slap the grandson of the opposition leader. The same girl forgives & surrenders herself completely to the same boy so easily, just like that and plays being a big fool which strongly goes again her bold, tom-boy image. Secondly the rough guy who simply behaves like a no-emotion man when his own mother gets killed in front of his eyes and he weirdly takes it in a very strange, cool manner. The third are his close friends, who act like two born cowards and at once go against their own friend, the moment he decides to be a rebel. With such loosely written characters the film fails to sink in deep in the viewer's heart and one never feels moved emotionally while watching it.

Still, the intelligent part of the script is that it moves at such a pace which doesn't allow you to think about these weak chracterisations. Moreover with a violent (but lengthy) climax it ends like an attempt to create awareness around a social evil putting you onto a different track altogether. So the writer director very smartly covers up everything and one feels like having watched a fine film while walking out of the theater.

Frankly, I found the emotional touch missing in ISHAQZAADEY, both in the love as well as in the family relationship angle. The lead pair does show a great chemistry in their intimate scenes but I didn't feel like watching an intense and passionate love story as a whole with feeling or depth. In other words, it all keeps on happening on the screen pretty fast without any real touch of hearts interacting with each other. To be honest, the narrative completely gave me the feeling of watching some well crafted plastic flowers with fine beauty & colour but no fragrance of their own. In fact there were only two scenes in the entire film where I felt the emotions coming out perfectly. One where the couple is running away from the girl's house after their Idd visit and Parineeti's father is blindly firing on them in anger. And second when Gauhar Khan is seeing them off with her moist eyes.

Performances wise it's once again a Parineeti movie all the way after LADIES VS RICKY BEHL. The girl remains immensely likable from the first frame to the last with her next door persona and a fantastic bindaas style of acting. In her second film only, she goes pretty bold too in her on-screen kisses and is a real treat to watch particularly in the first half. Arjun Kapoor as the other Ishqzaada makes an impressive debut with a careless kind of attitude. He fairly manages to leave a mark with his cunning smile and rough looks. But the boy still needs to work hard in order to shine more brightly. And he can surely better himself working on some valuable tips coming from his mentor Salman Khan and uncle Anil Kapoor available to him as his family elders.

Interestingly in his current get up he does remind you of the young Abhishek Bachhan too in few scenes. Apart from the Ishq couple, the supporting cast is fine but Gauhar Khan comes out as the sole winner here, giving a loving performance supported by a well choreographed dance number. Perhaps she has now become one of the favourites of Yash Chopra group after ROCKET SINGH.

In the technical department, Cinematography deserves a special mention, shooting on the actual locations and giving the same rustic feel to the project as shown in its posters. The action (especially the Chase Scenes) and the background score go hand in hand providing the much needed energy to the project and so does the well worked upon soundtrack from Amit Trivedi. I particularly loved the spirited title track "Ishaqzaadey" and "Pareshan" which has also been shot lovingly by the director in a great mood. However for "Jhalla Wallah" song, Amit takes a clear inspiration from Sai Zahoor's "Saiyaan, Allah" track sung in the original Coke Studio version of Pakistan, which was also featured in the recently released "West Is West".

In all ISHAQZAADEY becomes watchable mainly because of Parineeti and some good music alone. But being a film written and directed by Habib Faisal, it cannot be rated as a hugely satisfactory venture, vaguely made on the theme of honor killings.