Hera Pheri (2000 film)

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Hera Pheri
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Priyadarshan
Written by	Neeraj Vora (screenplay and dialogues) Anand Vardhan (adapted story)
Based on	Ramji Rao Speaking by Siddique-Lal
Produced by	A. G. Nadiadwala
Starring	Akshay Kumar Suniel Shetty Paresh Rawal Tabu
Cinematography	Jeeva
Edited by	N. Gopalakrishnan
Music by	Songs: Anu Malik Guest Composers: Lalit Sen Bally Sagoo Background Score: Surinder Sodhi
Production company	A. G. Films
Release date	31 March 2000 (2000-03-31)
Running time	138 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹7.5 crore[2]
Box office	₹21.4 crore[3]

Hera Pheri (transl. Foul Play) is a 2000 Indian Hindi-language heist comedy drama film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Neeraj Vora, starring Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Tabu, Om Puri and Gulshan Grover.^[4] The film is a remake of 1989 Malayalam film Ramji Rao Speaking which itself was inspired by the 1971 American TV movie See The Man Run.^[5][6][7] It is the first instalment of the Hera Pheri franchise. The plot revolves around two tenants, Raju and Shyam, and their landlord, Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, who are in desperate need of money. They chance upon a ransom call through a cross-connection and hatch a plan to claim the ransom for themselves.

The film was released on 31 March 2000. It opened to mixed reviews, some of whom applauded the performances of Kumar and Rawal particularly. The film is considered Kumar's foray into the comedy genre.^[8] However, the film achieved moderate success, grossing ₹21.4 crore at the box office against a budget of ₹7.5 crore. It spawned a sequel, Phir Hera Pheri, released in 2006.

Over the years, the film has evolved into a cult classic,^[9][10][8] and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian comedy films ever made.^[11] The film is noted for its authenticity and depiction of economic problem of lower middle class families in India, situational comedy, dialogues, performances of the lead trio Kumar, Rawal and Shetty. It was voted the best Bollywood comedy film of all time in an online poll conducted by The Indian Express in 2014.^[12] It was remade in Telugu as Dhanalakshmi, I Love You in 2002 by Siva Nageswara Rao.

The film begins with Ghanshyam (Suniel Shetty), also known as Shyam, arriving in Mumbai from Gurgaon seeking a job at the private bank where his late father, Sundarlal, worked earlier. Apparently, Sundarlal died in a fire accident at the bank, so Shyam should receive his job according to the company's rules. However, the bank manager (Asrani) informs Shyam that another person, Shivshankar Panikar, died two minutes after Sundarlal in the accident. Shivshankar's daughter, Anuradha (Tabu), has also applied for the job, and since Shivshankar was senior to Sundarlal, the choice should be given to Anuradha first, disappointing Shyam. One day, Shyam bumps into another man, Raju (Akshay Kumar), whom he misunderstands for a pickpocket and pursues him. However, he later discovers the truth and the opposite occurs when Raju, in turn, misunderstands Shyam for a pickpocket and pursues him too. Raju has troubles dealing with his daydreams and all his jobs are thus short-lived. He does not believe in hard work and aims to earn easy money. Raju deceives everyone, even his widowed mother, Savitri Devi (Sulabha Arya), who resides in an old age home in Mumbai and believes her son to have been a successful engineer in Kolkata. Meanwhile, Shyam approaches the "Star Garage" owned by Baburao Ganpatrao Apte (Paresh Rawal), a bespectacled near-sighted man, who owes a familial debt with many moneylenders and has hard time dealing with all of them. Baburao agrees to take Shyam in as his tenant by Shyam compromising only on the amount of Baburao's alcohol. However, he warns Shyam that he will have to share the room with another tenant. Unfortunately for Shyam, the second tenant is Raju, who has not paid a single penny of rent to Baburao in the last 2 years. As a result, the trio falls into hilarious situations that usually involve Raju verbally harassing Shyam and deliberately trying to create chaos which all Baburao miserably has to resolve.

One day, the trio is visited by Anuradha, who tries to persuade Shyam to sign the NOC, so that she could receive the job at the bank. Since Shyam refuses to do so, Raju agrees to help Anuradha and manages to trick him into inadvertently signing the documents. Nevertheless, Shyam discovers Raju's deception and that is when the rivalry between them both hits its peak. Shyam also threatens to sue both the bank manager and Anuradha, who eventually agrees to give him the position in the bank in exchange for ₹50,000, but Shyam refuses to do so. Khadak Singh (Om Puri), an old friend of Shyam in Gurgaon, visits the trio demanding back the ₹35,000 Shyam had borrowed from him earlier, or else the marriage of Khadak Singh's younger sister, Banno, will be cancelled. Khadak Singh orders Shyam to repay the loan as soon as possible, and declares that he will commit suicide if Shyam fails to do so. Shyam now decides to give up the job at the bank and borrow ₹35,000 from Anuradha instead in order to repay his debt to Khadak Singh. However, he learns that Anuradha is living with her mentally ill mother (Bhairavi Vaidya) in abject poverty and still has to pay the rent to her landlord. She admits that she discovered Shyam's own financial situation being tough as her own, and that she had no heart to go through with her plan, so she has decided to resign from her job at the bank. In return, Shyam tears Anuradha's resignation letter up, insisting that he could never live with himself, and that she should keep the position in the bank. Later, Shyam discovers that Raju has been deceiving his own mother as well and drunkenly confronts him, also stating that his mother can be fake. As a result, a hurt Raju breaks down in tears and admits that his mother is real, and that he can go to any extent in order to avoid breaking her heart, which melts the hearts of both Shyam and Baburao. At this point, the trio finally unites with each other after each one having shared his grief, and now decides to overcome all their unending financial problems together.

The lives of the trio take an unexpected turn when they receive a phone call on Baburao's telephone from a ruthless crime lord, Kabira (Gulshan Grover), and his female gang member, Radha (Kashmira Shah). The phone call is actually a wrong number meant for Devi Prasad (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), the wealthy owner of "Star Fisheries", and trio figures out that this is because of a misprint in the phone directory, which presents Star Garage's phone number as Star Fisheries' and vice-versa. Baburao realises why he has been constantly receiving wrong numbers from people wishing to speak to Devi Prasad since the past few days, which has been annoying him to no end. However, this time, Kabira, believing Devi Prasad to be on the phone, informs that Devi Prasad's granddaughter, Rinku, has been kidnapped by his gang and demands a ransom of ₹10 lakhs. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Raju decides to play a game which will solve all their monetary problems. The game involves the trio calling the real Devi Prasad as the kidnappers and doubling the ransom amount, so that they can obtain the other half themselves while satisfying the ransom demand to Kabira's gang. Shyam and Baburao initially hesitate to go through with the idea, but finally agree when Raju convinces them that even though this is wrong, it is a golden chance to earn easy money as well as save the life of an innocent girl. As planned, Shyam calls Devi Prasad posing as Kabira and demands double the ransom of ₹20 lakhs. He also instructs Devi Prasad to meet them at the same location Kabira has chosen for the exchange. Devi Prasad keeps the kidnapping of Rinku a secret from everyone, but his servant (Mushtaq Khan) discovers the truth and without Devi Prasad's knowledge, involves the police led by Inspector Prakash (Mukesh Khanna) to track down the kidnappers.

On their first attempt, the trio wears helmets as a disguise, but the plans of both them and Kabira's gang end up in vain as the police arrive at the scene to target the trio. However, Devi Prasad prevents the police from arresting the trio and allows them to escape, so that his granddaughter will remain safe and will be handed over to him back. As a result, Kabira and Radha call the trio again and double the initial ransom to ₹20 lakhs as a punishment for involving the police. Following their encounter with Kabira's gang and the police, Shyam and Baburao decide to give up the plan and reveal Devi Prasad the truth about Kabira, but Raju eventually shames them back into helping him. The trio calls Devi Prasad again and demands a foolproof double ransom of ₹40 lakhs. They also instruct him to meet them in the underground parking of a stadium, which Kabira has now chosen for the exchange. This time, Devi Prasad plans to trick the police by sending his servant in his car by himself to be pursued by them. On their second attempt, the trio wears Zorro costumes in order to hide their identities and arrives at the place at night. When they meet Devi Prasad, he refuses to hand over the money and demands to see his granddaughter first. As a result, the trio is forced to admit that they are actually not the kidnappers, but just three men in over their heads, who will hand over Devi Prasad's granddaughter back to him. In order to further prove their sincerity, they unmask themselves, reveal their names to Devi Prasad, and state that if he still refuses to believe them, he can hand them over to the police, but instead, Devi Prasad chooses to believe the trio and hands them over the bag of ₹40 lakhs of cash.

From the obtained bag, the trio divides the money into half and attempts to give one of the ₹20 lakhs to Kabira's gang in order to get Rinku released. However, Kabira gets alerted when Rinku identifies Shyam as an imposter and not her grandfather during the exchange. This leads to a huge combat involving the trio, Kabira's gang, the police, and the henchmen of Khadak Singh (who is infuriated by Shyam's delay in returning the money and makes his henchmen intervene the fight). During the fight, Baburao temporarily loses his spectacles and accidentally fires a machine gun of AK-47 all over the ground in public. The police eventually arrest Kabira, Radha, all their remaining gang members, and Khadak Singh's henchmen for their crimes. Elsewhere, the trio successfully saves Rinku and reunites her with her grateful grandfather. Raju manages to collect both the bags containing ₹40 lakhs of cash in total, and mysteriously disappears in the trio's rented car with the money, while Shyam and Baburao return home happily waiting for Raju to return. However, as Raju does not return home for several hours, they call at the old age home of his mother, only to learn that Raju has already taken her back with him several hours prior. As a result, Shyam and Baburao believe Raju to have betrayed them and escaped with the money and his mother. Enraged, they call at the police station and confess their involvement in Rinku's kidnapping in order to surrender themselves and the supposedly escaped Raju to the police.

In the moments immediately after Shyam and Baburao hang up the telephone, an ecstatic Raju returns home with the money, leaving them both dumbfounded. He informs them that he had taken the bag of cash with him only to repay Shyam's debt of ₹35,000 to Khadak Singh for his sister's successful marriage, and because the bag contained the documents for his mother's discharge from the old age home too. As it is too late now, a remorseful Shyam and Baburao explain their earlier misunderstanding to Raju, who breaks down in tears as in this world, all he really cares for is his mother, who will now see her son getting arrested and sent to prison. As expected, the police arrive at the scene and on finding the bag of cash, arrest the trio. They request the police to take them out through the back door, so that they would not be visible to Raju's mother, who is sleeping in the car. At the last moment, however, just as the police are about to close the door on the car, Devi Prasad arrives at the scene, stating that there has been a terrible misunderstanding and that he is not holding the trio guilty. He convinces the police that they are actually innocent, and that they risked their lives to save his granddaughter from the criminals. Having no reason to hold them anymore, the police release the trio, who expresses gratitude to Devi Prasad for intervening on their behalf. Nevertheless, Devi Prasad insists that he should be expressing gratitude to them instead, as well as allowing the trio to keep the money of ₹39.65 lakhs for themselves as a reward from him for saving his granddaughter's life. Just then, the telephone in their house rings again and the trio believes it may be for Devi Prasad, but he informs them that it is for them this time. The trio answers the phone call and suddenly becomes tensed, but it eventually turns out to be a prank call from Rinku, who shouts, "Kabira Speaking!", imitating Kabira's catchphrase when his phone call is answered. The film ends with the trio breaking into uncontrollable laughter.

• Akshay Kumar as Raju
• Suniel Shetty as Ghanshyam "Shyam"
• Paresh Rawal as Baburao Ganpatrao Apte "Babu Bhaiya"
• Tabu as Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar
• Asrani as Bank Manager
• Om Puri as Khadak Singh, Shyam's friend
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Devi Prasad
• Gulshan Grover as Kabira
• Razak Khan as Chhota Chetan, Kabira's close aide
• Kashmira Shah as Kabira's gang member
• Mukesh Khanna as Sub-Inspector Prakash
• Sulabha Arya as Savitri Devi, Raju's mother
• Ann Alexia Anra as Rinku, Devi Prasad's granddaughter
• Dinesh Hingoo as Chaman Jhinga
• Snehal Dabi as a man misjudging the bank manager at the bus stand as a pimp
• Mushtaq Khan as Devi Prasad's servant
• Sharad Sankla as bank peon
• Bhairavi Vaidya as Mrs Panikar, Anuradha's mother
• Kahkashan Patel in a special appearance in the song "Jab Bhi Koi Haseena"
• Rajeev Mehta as a laundry business owner and Raju's boss
• Namrata Shirodkar as Miss Jhinga, Chaman's daughter, special appearance in the song "Tun Tunak Tun"

Hera Pheri was the first time that Priyadarshan worked with Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty. He had worked with Paresh Rawal in Doli Saja Ke Rakhna. It also marked the beginning of a long association between Priyadarshan and the three actors. Following Hera Pheri, Priyadarshan has made sure that either Kumar, Shetty, Rawal or a combination of the three actors would star in his films. The only exceptions are Dhol (2007), Billu (2009), Tezz (2012) and Rangrezz (2013).

Parts of the film were shot in Dubai and South Africa.^[13]

The film score was composed by Surinder Sodhi.

The film did not open well upon release, but picked up later and became a box office success,^[11] grossing Rs. 24,25,00,000 in India.^[15] Much of the acclaim went to Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal for their comic timing and acting, the film is considered Kumar's foray into the comedy genre and critics have called Rawal as "Baburao" his best performance.^[8]

Aparajita Saha of Rediff stated "The movie belongs entirely to Paresh Rawal. Whatever laughter the film solicits is solely due to him. He has impeccable timing and a natural flair for comedy. Suniel Shetty's role and his performance is also too good."^[16] Indiainfo wrote, "Paresh Rawal is brilliant in the film. Akshay Kumar is better than Suniel Shetty and Namrata, in a song appearance, appears cold. On the whole, this film is mainly for the city audiences who can understand and appreciate subtle humour."^[17]

Alok Kumar of Planet Bollywood wrote, "All in all, Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri is a delight to watch for its performances, some songs, and an interesting storyline. Indian audiences would be doing Bollywood injustice if they accepted an inane film like Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge and rejected a thrilling and entertaining Hera Pheri. Hopefully, the film will click with the masses, and the trailer and songs, if not the stars, will pull audiences to the theatres. Namrata Shirodkar's number has already caught on strong in India. Let's see if in a dull year of flicks like Mela, Krodh, and Bulandi a good film like Hera Pheri can make an impact."^[18]

It has achieved a cult status among Indian audiences and is regarded as one of the best Hindi comedy films ever made.^[10][11] The dialogues of the film became widely famous throughout the years and are used popularly in Indian memes.^[19][20][21]

The film went onto launch a film franchise which includes Phir Hera Pheri, the sequel of this film released on 9 June 2006, which starred besides the main trio, Bipasha Basu, Rimi Sen and Johny Lever joined the cast. Hera Pheri 3, an upcoming sequel and the third in the series is currently in production.

• Hera Pheri at IMDb
• Hera Pheri at Rotten Tomatoes