Rating-****/*****
Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is a 2014 Indian action thriller film written and directed by A.R. Murugadoss, and produced by Vipul Shah. It features Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead roles, along with Govinda in a supporting role. It is a remake of the 2012 Tamil film Thuppakki which was also directed by A. R. Murugadoss.[1][2] The film was released on 6 June 2014. Based on initial receipts, Box Office India projects that it will be one of the highest grossing films of the year.[3]
Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty is a 2014 Indian action thriller film written and directed by A.R. Murugadoss, and produced by Vipul Shah. It features Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha in the lead roles, along with Govinda in a supporting role. It is a remake of the 2012 Tamil film Thuppakki which was also directed by A. R. Murugadoss.[1][2] The film was released on 6 June 2014. Based on initial receipts, Box Office India projects that it will be one of the highest grossing films of the year.[3]
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Music
4.1 Track listings
5 Critical reception
6 Box office
7 References
8 External links
Plot[edit]
Viraat (Akshay Kumar), Captain in D.I.A., a wing of Indian Army, returns to his home in Mumbai on a holiday. On his arrival, his parents rushes him to meet Saiba (Sonakshi Sinha), who they wanted him to marry. But Virat rejects her with an excuse that she is old fashioned and not his type. On the contrary, Saiba is a professional boxer, and is completely modern in her outlook. Virat notices her in a boxing match and falls for her instantly.
One day, while traveling in a bus with his friend sub-inspector Mukund (Sumeet Raghavan), Virat witnesses a bomb explosion killing innocent people. Virat manages to capture the man who planted the bomb but he escapes from the hospital with the help of a police officer. Virat kidnaps the terrorist again and also forces the corrupt police officer (Gireesh Sahedev) to commit suicide. He later discovers that a terrorist group has planned, serial blasts in Mumbai in a couple of days with the help of 12 sleeper cells. Along with his fellow Army officers and Mukund, Virat manages to track these bombers and kills them before they could trigger the bombs.
When the leader of these sleeper cells (Freddy Daruwala) finds out about the team of officers involved in the failure of the terrorist attack, he begins to target their families by kidnapping someone close to them. When Virat realizes the plan, he substitutes one of the girl to be kidnapped, with his younger sister Priti. Using his pet dog and his sister's dupatta, he manages to reach the terrorist's hideout. He eliminates all the terrorists and rescues all the victims including his sister, who was about to be killed after Virat's bluff was exposed. Virat also captures Asif Ali (Dipendra Sharma), who was the leader of the group but later kills him on realizing that Asif is just the second-in-command of the sleeper cells.
When this attack fails, the terrorist leader decides to target Virat himself. He kills one of the army officer and forces Virat to surrender. Virat decides to sacrifice his life and plans a suicide attack by instructing Mukund and his fellow officers to follow him via tracking chip inserted in his arm and plant a bomb at the terrorist's hideout. Virat then drives to a port in various cars, as told by the leader and ends up on a ship full of terrorists. To his surprise, Virat finds out that the cars he was asked to drive had bombs in them, which will frame him and his team as terrorists and also their plans to recruit sleeper cells in Indian Army with the help of Joint Defense Secretary of India — Mr. Alvin D'souza (Zakir Hussain), who is also member of this terrorist group. Virat had a one on one fight with the leader and escapes on a boat before the ship explodes, also later killing the leader. The film ends with Virat forcing Alvin D'souza to commit suicide and later returning back to border along with his team.
Cast[edit]
Akshay Kumar as Virat Bakshi, Captain in D.I.A., a wing of Indian Army.[4]
Sonakshi Sinha as Saiba, a boxer.[5]
Sumeet Raghavan as Mukund Deshmukh, Virat's friend also an Sub Inspector, Mumbai Police.
Freddy Daruwala as the leader of the sleeper cells.[6]
Govinda as Pratap, Virat Bakshi's Senior Commanding Officer (Cameo Appearance).
Zakir Hussain as Alvin D'souza.
Gireesh Sahedev[4] as ACP Ashok Gaikwad (cameo)
Dipendra Sharma as Asif Ali
Maroof Raza in special appearance.
Production[edit]
The film's production commenced in 2013 with the working title of Pistol under the banner of Hari Om Entertainment and Sunshine Pictures. The soundtrack is composed by Pritam Chakraborty and the stunt coordinator of the film is Greg Powell.[7]
The production budget of Holiday is around INR30 crore (US$5.0 million) approx without Akshay Kumar remuneration and Print and Advertising.[8] According to director A. R. Murugadoss, Akshay's role is that of an Army officer for which Akshay lost some weight to fit in the role and to look 12 years younger from his real biological age. Kumar also sported a crew-cut hairstyle for his role.[9] Whilst Sonakshi will play a role of boxer and Virat (Kumar's) love interest Saiba.[5] Model and debutant Freddy Daruwala will play the main antagonist pitted against Kumar.[6]
The film was originally scheduled for a release in early May 2014, which would have clashed with the release of Action Jackson.[10] Both films later announced release dates of 6 June.[11][12]
Music
Pritam collaborated with A. R. Murugadoss for the soundtrack of the film. The lyrics were written by Irshad Kamil.
Track listings
No. Title Singer(s) Length
1. "Tu Hi To Hai" Benny Dayal 4:15
2. "Aaj Dil Shayrana" Arijit Singh 4:25
3. "Blame the Night" Arijit Singh, Aditi Singh Sharma, Piyush Kapoor 4:38
4. "Palang Tod Ke" Mika Singh, Ritu Pathak 3:46
5. "Tu hi To Hai" (film version) Kunal Ganjawala 3:55
6. "Ashq Na Ho" Arijit Singh 5:53
7. "Palang Tod Ke" Mika Singh, Ritu Pathak 4:10
Critical reception
Critic Subhash K. Jha gave the film 4.5 stars out of 5 and states that It has all the trappings of a superlative masala entertainer, plus a thought provoking message on the uneasy relationship between the army and civilians.[13] Taran Adarsh gave 4 stars out of 5 and states that it is a slick action-thriller that keeps you engrossed, enthralled and captivated all through, thanks to its fascinating premise and a watertight, razor-sharp screenplay.[14]