Gumraah (2023 film)

Gumraah is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film   directed by Vardhan Ketkar and produced by T-Series Films and Murad Khetani's Cine1 Studios. The film stars Aditya Roy Kapur in a dual role along with Mrunal Thakur and Ronit Roy. It is a remake of the 2019 Tamil film Thadam. It revolves around a murder investigation which becomes complicated after the police discover two lookalike suspects.

Principal photography began in October 2021 on the occasion of Dussehra. The filming was wrapped up on 16 July 2022. The film was released in theatres on 7 April 2023. The film received mixed reviews with praise for the action sequences,  but underperformed commercially, becoming a box-office bomb.

Plot
In the opening scene, a man in a yellow raincoat breaks into a house, causing the resident to flee in fear. He and the man battle for hardly a moment before he kills him. Before leaving, the murderer is seen destroying any potential clues.

The victim is later revealed to be Akash Sardana the following morning. The inquiry is headed by Shivani Mathur, a young police officer who is perceptive enough to piece together what happened based on clues. Investigators were told by Akash's sister that he had taken 2 million from the family bank account, but no such money was found. A neighbour later tells that the killer was caught in one of his own selfies. Shivani's superior, ACP Dhiren Yadav, recognises Arjun Sehgal as the perpetrator and feels relieved to have his chance at revenge. To begin, he has Shivani look into Arjun's history from the perspective of the murder. The cops eventually arrest Arjun and provide him with evidence. He gives a flimsy alibi, and Yadav is relieved that the investigation may finally be closed.

But a constable takes into custody a man named Sooraj for drunken driving and disorderly conduct who looks strikingly similar to Arjun. Yadav talks to his attorney friend, who assures him that the situation is hopeless in court and that they will get bail without any trouble. He can only buy himself two extra days before they have to be presented in court. The authorities now have 48 hours to collect proof. Both Arjun and Sooraj show the same injuries.

Arjun, a brilliant engineer, is dating the lovely Janhvi a flashback. However, Sooraj is a minor criminal who, together with his friend Chaddi, makes a living by perpetrating cons. Sooraj is a criminal, but his legal acumen is on par with that of a top attorney. One of the mob bosses he conned kidnaps Chaddi and holds him for ransom, demanding 2 million as payment for the deception he perpetrated on Chaddi. Sooraj gambles away his last handful money but comes out empty-handed.

The DNA found at the crime scene matches both of them, revealing that Arjun and Sooraj are identical twins in the present day, but the evidence acquired by the police is usually deceiving. The two of them begin relating their tale. Their parents' marriage was falling apart, and their mother took to gambling, which ultimately leads to the couple's separation and eventual divorce. While Arjun did not have the same strong feelings for his mother as did Sooraj, the reverse was also true. Being an attorney, their father took away the kids and prevented his wife from seeing them; she grew depressed as a result and ended up dying by suicide. The brothers went in different directions since, and have refused to acknowledge each other's existence for long.

Shivani is confident that Sooraj is the perpetrator due to his criminal record and flimsy alibi. The old constable tells Shivani that Yadav is out for revenge on Arjun because, eight years ago, Arjun helped his daughter elope with her lover and Yadav tried to pull all the legal apparatus against Arjun, but his daughter testified in Arjun’s favour in court. Shivani and Yadav find themselves in a faceoff by concealing evidence from each other in order to secure a solid alibi for Arjun and Sooraj. Six months later, the court still is sure that one of them committed the crime, but they also can't condemn either of them because of their solid alibi.

A few weeks later, Shivani receives Janhvi's missing person case file. When Janhvi's friend does some digging, she finds out that Janhvi went to a class reunion just before she disappeared. Later that day, she gets a text from Janhvi saying that she and Arjun are no longer together and that she is getting married instead, to none other than Akash. Because she fabricated Arjun's alibi, she can no longer dispute that the crime was committed for financial gain.

After learning of Janhvi's messages, Arjun decided to confront Akash, as revealed by Arjun. After a brief altercation, Arjun coerces Akash into telling the truth about his connection to Janhvi. They were dating in college, but Akash tells him things didn't work out. He approached her at the reunion, but she avoided him. He then rapes her in his hotel room after spiking her drink. She overdoses on drugs and dies from sexual assault. Akash then pays 2 million to the police to drop the case. Arjun murders Akash out of rage and then flees the scene.

After hearing that Arjun had been arrested for murder, Sooraj told him that he had cleaned up the scene and planted evidence to divert the police's attention from himself. Sooraj assured him that Arjun would not be convicted because he had not committed the crime. Arjun gives Sooraj keys to the house he's been living in and they split up.

Development and casting
In 2019 following the release of Thadam there were rumours that a Hindi remake was in the works. On 4 March 2020 the film was officially announced as an untitled crime-thriller by Bhushan Kumar and Murad Khetani through social media, confirming that T-Series and Cine1 Studios are co-producing the film with debutant Vardhan Ketkar announced as director. Sidharth Malhotra was first announced as the lead alongside Mrunal Thakur. The filming was supposed to begin in mid-2020 with a release date of 20 November 2020, but it was postponed following the coronavirus outbreak in late March 2020. Later in January 2021, there were reports of Sidharth Malhotra walking out of the project due to unknown reasons and the project was put on a hold.

In July 2021 the makers announced the revival of the project with Aditya Roy Kapur as the new lead. Later in September 2021 Mrunal Thakur was also confirmed to be a part of the project. Vedika Pinto was selected to appear as the love interest opposite Aditya. Ronit Roy and Navneet Kaur Thind was also cast to play important roles in the film.

Filming
Filming began in October 2021 on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra. The second schedule began in May 2022 in Mumbai with Thakur joining the shoot alongside Ronit Roy. The team wrapped up the filming in July 2022.

Soundtrack
Mithoon, Vishal Mishra, Tanishk Bagchi and Abhijit Vaghani have composed songs for the film. First single titled "Soniye Ji" sung, composed, and written by Vishal Mishra was released on 14 March 2023. On 18 March 2023 another song titled "Ghar Nahi Jana" composed by Tanishk Bagchi and sung by Armaan Malik, Zahrah S Khan and Salma Agha was released. The third single title "Allah De Bande" was released on 31 March 2023 and the title track was released on 5 April 2023.

Release
The film was theatrically released on 7 April 2023. The digital rights were acquired by Netflix and the film started streaming on the platform as from 4 June 2023.

Critical reception
Dhaval Roy of The Times of India rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "An engaging plot, twists and turns and good storytelling make Gumraah worth a visit to the theatre". Rishil Jogani of Pinkvilla rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and termed the film "very enjoyable" with elements of a commercial thriller. Ganesh Aaglave of Firstpost rated the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote: "While the story with solid twists and turns looks exciting, the film lacked the gripping and pacey screenplay, which would have taken Gumraah to another level".

Box office
It flopped at the box office, opening worldwide at  ₹1.22 crore.Opening weekend was ₹5.93 crore.

, the film has grossed inr 98600000 in India and inr 8199999.999999999 overseas for a worldwide gross collection of inr 106800000.

The film underperformed commercially, becoming a box-office bomb.