Crook (film)

Crook
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mohit Suri
Produced by Mukesh Bhatt
Starring Emraan Hashmi
Neha Sharma
Arjan Bajwa
Dane Merrick
Music by (Songs)
Pritam
Babbu Maan
(Score)
Raju Singh
Distributed by Vishesh Films
Release date
  • 8 October 2010 (2010-10-08)
Running time
 121 minutes
Country India
Language Hindi
Budget ₹175 million (US$2.4 million)
Box office ₹124 million (US$1.7 million)[1]

Crook is a 2010 Indian action-thriller film popularly known by the title of It's Good to be Bad!. The film stars Emraan Hashmi, Neha Sharma and Arjan Bajwa in the lead. It is directed by Mohit Suri and produced by Mukesh Bhatt. It was released on 8 October 2010.[2] Mostly shot in Australia and South Africa, the film is based on the controversy regarding the allegedly racial attacks on Indian students in Australia between 2007 and 2010.[3][4]

Plot

The film starts with Jai Dixit (Emraan Hashmi), a youngster who sells unlicensed DVDs. One day, his uncle Joseph (Gulshan Grover) catches him and this changes his personality completely, he changes his name to Suraj Bhardwaj and his uncle sends him to Australia. At the airport, he meets Romi Latti, a teenager who got a scholarship to a University College. He also meets Suhani (Neha Sharma), a young girl who has come to pick Romi up. Suraj gets attracted to Suhani, and therefore he pretends to be Romi and leaves with Suhani. When Suhani finds out that he is not the real Romi, Suraj makes a run for it. Suraj then stays with Goldie (Mashhoor Amrohi), a responsible adult living with his brothers. While Suraj is at a grocery store, on phone with his uncle Joseph, he finds that Australians are attacking the shopkeeper because he is a Muslim, so Suraj finds a gun and comes out. He has the Australians on the gunpoint as the police come. Suraj remembers that his uncle told him not to get in any type of trouble with the police, so Suraj runs away. Suraj hides in Nicole's car, although he finds out Nicole is the younger sister of the Attackers. Nicole works in a strip club named 'Duke's Club'. Suraj and Suhani had a dispute due to which he gets intimate with Nicole in a club while she wears a short red top and seduces him erotically. They two kiss and make love passionately. Nicole proposes Jai and he reciprocates, due to being aroused. But later, when Suraj has to pick between Suhani and Nicole, he picks Suhani and takes the duty to be Suhani's brother, Samarth's (Arjan Bajwa) driver. When Samarth's car breaks down, Suraj has to get help, but instead he tells Romi to go and fix his car so Suhani and Suraj can have a beautiful night together. But when they are about to kiss, Samarth shows up, and concepts that Romi has been badly beaten up by Australians on the highway and Romi and Samarth are about to protests against the Australians. When Samarth is attacked, he loses his temper and kidnaps Nicole, when Suraj goes to save Nicole, it turns out that Samarth is planning to murder Nicole and blame the murder on Suraj. When Suraj comes to know about Samarth's plan, Samarth beats Suraj and tells him that he is doing all this because his sister Sheena (Smiley Suri) was also murdered by the Australians once(Actually Sheena was in love with an Australian and she became pregnant with his child, which infuriated Samarth and he decides to abort the child, despite knowing the fact that she will die because of it, due to the abortion she ends up dead). But when he accidentally shoots Suraj, Romi comes up behind him with a shovel and hits it on Samarth's head and he dies. The film ends with Suraj being felicitated in front of the media with Suhani by his side as Uncle Joseph gets touched after seeing the news in Mumbai

Cast

Soundtrack

Crook
Soundtrack album Crook: Its Good To Be Bad by Pritam
Released August 31, 2010 (2010-08-31)[5]
Recorded 2010
Genre Soundtrack
Language Hindi
Label Sony
Director Mohit Suri
Producer Mukesh Bhatt
Pritam chronology
Hello Darling
(2010)		 Crook
(2010)		 Aakrosh
(2010)

The songs were composed by Pritam and [6] the Lyrics were penned by Kumaar. The Song, Challa was based on the song 'Australian Challa By Babbal Rai.[7] All the songs were very popular on release, with the songs Challa, Mere Bina and Tujhi Mein topping the charts everywhere. The Film's Background score was composed by Raju Singh.

Track listing

No.TitlePerformer(s)Length
1."Challa"Babbu Mann, Suzanne D'Mello3:45
2."Mere Bina"Nikhil D'Souza4:50
3."Kya"Neeraj Shridhar, Dominique Cerejo3:50
4."Tujhi Mein"KK5:00
5."Tujhko Jo Paaya"KK3:05
6."Challa (Remix)"Babbu Mann, Suzanne D'Mello4:25
7."Mere Bina (Unplugged)"Mohit Chauhan4:50
8."Tujhi Mein (Reprise)"KK4:40

Reception

Atta Khan from planet Bollywood rated the album 7/10 and said "The music of Crook is another rendezvous to Pritam's rock annals and the first album to do that since last year’s awesome Tum Mile. But it's a much shorter album with only four original songs and only two of these being rock anthems so it doesn't quite match Tum Mile's soundtrack for depth, quality and consistency. However whilst "Challa" and "Kya" will not be missed, "Mere Bina" and "Tujhi Mein" are a MUST listen for fans and you know who you are. Furthermore, the remixes at Tracks 5-8 are simply superb! So forget about the prospects of Crook as a film- when you have music that sounds this enjoyable you can only call this (Bhatt/Pritam) collaboration special and we await their next soundtrack with baited [sic] breath. And yes, Pritam has satisfied once again."[8] NDTV India quoted, "Music composer Pritam Chakraborty, who is a favourite of the Bhatt camp, brings forth another likeable soundtrack in forthcoming film Crook. Even though the compositions fall under his signature style and not much experimentation is involved, the tracks do have the potential of getting noticed."[9]

Critical reception

India

Reception of the film in India has been mixed. The critics praised the story and music but criticized the execution. However, many of them praised the erotic scenes between Emraan Hashmi and Shella Allen. The scenes have become quite popular as well. One critic writes praises the music, writing: "this along with its already popular songs makes Crook a full on entertainment package that should not be missed when it releases all over on 8 October".[10] Movie critic Taran Adarsh, criticized the film as a "half-hearted effort", but praises Mohit Suri's handling of the subject during the second hour of the film.[11] Another critic praised the film for presenting "an altogether different approach to the situation and (the director) takes both the sides and speaks in favour of Indians and as well as the Australians.[12]

Among negative reviews, a critic at India Today complained that the film racially vilifies Australians as:

Also that "it is badly directed and doesn't even have that one redeeming feature of all"[13]

A critic at Rediff.com complained of a weak script and story line.[14] A reviewer at bollyspice.com said that the film was "too insensitive" and "superficial".[15]

Australia

One media outlet in Australia voiced concern about the film, repeating Indian newspaper reviews that Crook portrayed Australia as "A country of ex-convicts. A country where they sleep with each other without marrying. A country where they don't take care of their families. Yes that's the sort of venom that's spewed against the Australians in Crook."[16]

Among Australia's local Indian population, Gautam Gupta, spokesman for the Federation of Indian Students criticised the piece, saying: "They have performed their research so badly, it's shocking." He also complained that, far from helping the situation, that the film could help inflame tensions.[17]

Director Mohit Suri responded to these charges, rejecting the claims of bias. The Hindustan Times quoted Suri saying:

Responding to allegations that the film is "poorly researched", Suri says, "I have just made a film. At 28, don’t expect me to have a cure to racism worldwide. I have just expressed my opinion."[18]

Suri also complained that during the production of the film:

Awards and nominations

6th Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards[20]

Nominated

  • Apsara Award for Best Music - Pritam
  • Apsara Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role - Arjan Bajwa

References

  1. ↑ "Box Office". Bollywood Hungama.
  2. ↑ "Emraan Hashmi's Crook to release Oct 8". WorldSnap. Archived from the original on 12 September 2010.
  3. ↑ "Shooting for anti-racial film 'Crook' begins in Oz". Express India.
  4. ↑ ""Crook is based on racial discrimination" - Mohit Suri". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 8 October 2010.
  5. ↑ "Crook (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)". iTunes.
  6. ↑ "Crook (Album Details)". Indicine. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "I'm happy to get my credit now: Babbal". The Times of India. Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  8. ↑ "Crook - Music Review". Planet Bollywood. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  9. ↑ "Music Review: Crook". NDTV Movies. Retrieved 12 September 2010.
  10. ↑ http://www.glamsham.com/movies/scoops/10/sep/22-crook-its-good-to-be-bad-is-not-just-about-action-091004.asp
  11. ↑ Crook: Movie Review by Taran Adarsh
  12. ↑ ‘Crook- It’s Good To Be Bad’ Movie Review
  13. ↑ http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/115753/Cinema/film-review-crook.html
  14. ↑ http://movies.rediff.com/report/2010/oct/08/review-crook.htm
  15. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 November 2010. Retrieved 11 November 2010.
  16. ↑ http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/bollywood-film-paints-australians-as-violent-racists/story-e6freuy9-1225938649634
  17. ↑ Firkin, Katherine; Bradshaw, Finn (15 October 2010). "Bollywood blockbuster paints Melbourne as racist". Herald Sun.
  18. 1 2 Crook panned by Oz media
  19. ↑ Of Dark Narratives
  20. ↑ "Apsara Award 2011 Nominations". Pinkvilla. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
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