Hera Pheri (2000 film)

The plot revolves around an eccentric trio, consisting of a comically hilarious but kind-hearted garage owner named Baburao Ganpatrao Apte, fondly called as Babu Bhaiya (Paresh Rawal), a crafty and cunning loafer named Rajveer Srivastav a.k.a. Raju (Akshay Kumar), and a simple and struggling pauper named Ghanshyam “Shyam” Bhatia (Sunil Shetty), who find themselves trapped in crazy shenanigans including hilarious bits from Baburao himself.

The film begins with Shyam searching for a job at a bank, which he finds is given to a girl named Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar (Tabu), even though Shyam's father died in the bank due to a fire. The manager (Asrani) tells Shyam that despite knowing the truth, he is unable to do anything further. Shyam walks off in a huff and accidentally bumps into Raju. Shyam mistakes Raju for a pickpocket and begins to chase him. Raju eventually gets away clean. Raju has his own troubles, dealing with his daydreams and unfriendly and disappointed people he is working for. He doesn't seem to keep a job alive and thus faces many problems.

Shyam then approaches a garage owner by the name of Baburao Ganpatrao Apte and manages to get a room on rent by compromising on the amount for Baburao's alcohol. Unbeknownst to him, Raju is staying in the same house on rent, which he hasn't paid for the last two years. The trio fall into hilarious situations that usually involve Raju instigating Shyam and purposefully trying to create a ruckus that Baburao, fondly called as Babu Bhaiyya, has to resolve. During one such fight, Anuradha intervenes and tries Shyam to sign the Non-Objection Certificate, so that she could have the job at the bank. When Shyam refuses, Raju makes a plot to make him sign the papers. Shyam eventually finds out that Raju made him sign the papers and that is when the rivalry between the two commences. An old friend of Shyam's, Khadak Singh (Om Puri), comes to Shyam's place asking to return his money so that he can marry off his sister and afford the dowry.

Shyam finds out that Raju has been deceiving his mother by posing as an engineer and creates an uncomfortable situation for Raju as he calls his mother fake while being inebriated. Raju retaliates, saying he wants to see his dying mother happy and nothing else. Anuradha prepares a job resignation meanwhile and gives it to Shyam, who in return tears it up because of her mentally ailing mother and the debts to be paid to the debtors.

Their life takes an unexpected turn when they get a call from Kabeera (Gulshan Grover) which is a wrong number actually meant for the owner of Star Fisheries, Mr Devi Prasad (Kulbhushan Kharbanda). The wrong number is because of the misprint in the phone directory, which renders Star Fisheries' number as Star Garage's and vice versa. (Thus this irritates Baburao a lot due to this problem). Kabeera, a terrorist cum kidnapper, thinking that it is Devi Prasad, tells him that his granddaughter Rinku is kidnapped and asks for a ransom. Raju overhears the entire conversation going between Kabeera and Shyam and decides to play a game.

The game involves Shyam calling Devi Prasad posing as the kidnappers and asking for double the ransom amount. This will make their monetary problems disappear. Shyam and Baburao initially repel the idea and try to go the faithful way. But Raju, in turn, convinces them that even though wrong, this is a golden chance to earn money. Both relent and phone the real Devi Prasad and ask for double ransom. On their first attempt they wear helmets as a disguise, but their attempt gets foiled, by the police (called secretly by Devi Prasad's servant (Mushtaq Khan)) and Kabeera informs them that the ransom has been doubled. They phone Devi Prasad again. This time they ask for a foolproof double ransom.

On their second attempt, they wear Zorro costumes to hide their identities. However, they reveal their true identities to Devi Prasad to win his confidence and try to save Rinku from the kidnappers. But she recognizes Shyam as an imposter and Kabeera gets alerted. A huge fight involving the police, Kabeera's gang members and Khadak Singh's men, infuriated by the delay in returning the money, takes place. Rinku is saved by the three and returned to Devi Prasad. Baburao and Shyam go home happily intending to find Raju with the money, but they find him missing. They think he has cheated them and call the police to confess the crime. But Raju is found to be gone to return the money of the debtors. The police arrive and seeing the money, the trio is arrested.

In the end, Devi Prasad comes to the trio's rescue and convinces the police that it was all a misunderstanding and saves the three and they go home, richer than ever. The film ends with the trio picking up the call getting shocked and then laugh heartily as the call was from Devi Prasad's granddaughter Rinku.

• Akshay Kumar as Rajveer “Raju” Srivastav
• Suniel Shetty as Ghanshyam “Shyam” Bhatia
• Paresh Rawal as Baburao Ganpatrao Apte (Babu Bhaiya)
• Tabu as Anuradha Shivshankar Panikar
• Gulshan Grover as Kabira Manja
• Razak Khan as Kabira's Gang Member
• Dinesh Hingoo as Chaman Jhinga
• Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Devi Prasad
• Om Puri as Khadak Singh
• Asrani as Bank Manager
• Kashmira Shah as Kabira's Gang Member
• Namrata Shirodkar as Miss Jhinga, Chaman Jhinga's daughter, special Appearance in song "Tun Tunak Tun"
• Mukesh Khanna as Police Commissioner Prakash
• Sulabha Arya as Raju's mother
• Ann Alexia Anra (Baby Anne) as Rinku
• Snehal Dabi as Man misjudging Asrani as a "Dalaal" (pimp) at bus stop.
• Mushtaq Khan as Devi Prasad's Servant
• Bhairavi Vaidya as Anuradha's Mom
• Kahkashan Patel in a special appearance in song "Jab Bhi Koi Haseena"
• Rajeev Mehta as Laundry Business Owner

Hera Pheri was the first film that Priyadarshan had worked with Akshay Kumar and Sunil 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, Billu, Tezz and Rangrezz. Parts of the film were shot in Dubai, and Hera Pheri 3 will also be shot there.[7]

Sanjay Dutt was originally signed for Sunil Shetty's role but left the film due to attending on court.

Karishma Kapoor was first signed to play Tabu's role but opted out

Ajay Devgn was offered Sunil's role but he wanted to play Akshay Kumar's role and later opted out

The film was originally titled "Raftaar" and it was going to be an out and out action movie

Steven Seagal was signed to do a cameo appearance. It was when it had Akshay, Sanjay, Paresh and Karishma

The film did not open well upon release, but picked up later and became a box office success,[9] grossing Rs. 17,25,00,000 in India.[10] Much of the acclaim went to Paresh Rawal for his comic timing and acting, with critics calling it "one of his best performances ever". 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. Sunil Shetty's role and his performance is also too good."[11] Alok Kumar of Planet Bollywood praised the movie saying "Priyadarshan's Hera Pheri is a delight to watch for its performances, some songs, and an interesting story line".[12]

It has achieved a cult status among Indian audiences[13] and is regarded as one of the best Hindi comedy films ever made.[9] The dialogue, "Rakh! Rakh teri maa ki rakh!" (Hang the phone! Hang the phone, goddammit!) said by Baburao Apte (Paresh Rawal) became widely famous and is used popularly in Indian memes.

• Hera Pheri on IMDb
• Hera Pheri at Rotten Tomatoes
• Hera Pheri at AllMovie