Sooryavanshi

Sooryavanshi is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language action drama film written and directed by Rohit Shetty in his writing debut and produced by Reliance Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Picturez, Dharma Productions and Cape of Good Films. Based on an original story by Shetty, it is the fourth instalment of the Cop Universe. The film stars Akshay Kumar in the titular role, with Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh returning as Singham and Simmba in cameo roles. Katrina Kaif, Jaaved Jaaferi, Vivan Bhatena, Niharica Raizada, Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Nikitin Dheer, Sikandar Kher, Abhimanyu Singh and Kumud Mishra appear in pivotial supporting roles. Kumar's character was announced towards the end of Simmba that served as a character introduction.

Sooryavanshi was initially locked to release on 24 March 2020, but was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic in India. After several delays, it finally released theatrically on 5 November 2021 coinciding with Diwali. Marking the penultimate collaboration to date between Shetty and Farhad Samji, the film received mixed reviews from critics and went on to become the highest grossing Hindi film of 2021 with a gross of ₹294 crore after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plot

During the 1993 Mumbai blasts, Veer "Surya" Sooryavanshi loses his parents, where he becomes motivated to become an IPS officer. Years later, Bilal Ahmed, the mastermind of the blasts escapes from India, seeks refuge with dreaded terrorist Omar Hafeez at Pakistani Administrated Kashmir in Pakistan as they begin planning more such attacks. Omar's sons Riyaaz Hafeez and Raza Hafeez return from London, quitting their studies, after hearing news of their eldest brother, an officer in the Pakistani Army, being killed by Indian Soldiers in the Kargil Conflict; in response, they formed a sleeper cell network consisting of 40 terrorists, who pose as Indians, aiming to conduct more bombings after the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Surya, who is now a Deputy Commissioner of Police and ATS chief, plans an operation in Jaisalmer and manages to arrest Riyaaz, who was hiding his identity as restaurant owner Rajbir Rathod.

Surya's senior officer, Joint CP Kabir Shroff, who was the only person able to fully solve the case, reveals that a full ton of RDX was brought to India, of which 400 kg were used during the 1993 bombings and the remnant 600 kg are still buried somewhere in the country. Surya plans to catch the sleeper cell's remaining members, while also trying to reconcile with his estranged wife Dr. Riya Gupta, with whom he separated with when his son gets shot while catching a wanted criminal, but to no avail. Surya comes across Maulana Kader Usmani, who is in fact a terrorist and Bilal's accomplice. Usmani meets Bilal, whose residence in Sawantwadi houses the wanted 600 kg of RDX. They remove the buried RDX and prepare for the next bombings. Bilal reaches Mumbai using a fake identity with the help of taxi driver John Mascarenhas, who leaves for Bangkok.

Surya catches Bilal, who confesses that he undertook the bombings as revenge for his family being killed in 1993 Riots and shoots himself to death. Omar Hafiz after learning of Bilal's death now sends his younger son Raza giving a Sri Lankan Passport to exact revenge of Bilal's Death and also finish unfinished business. Later, John is apprehended in Bangkok after a long chase between him and Surya, who learns that the bombs were being made by another member of the sleeper cell. Usmani and John are arrested; Surya plans to pretend to torture Usmani's daughters to make him confess. Usmani finally reveals that Riyaaz will meet him at his aide Rafique's residence. A suicidal bomb planted there kills Usmani, whose elder daughter helps in identifying the bombmaker Vivek a.k.a. Mukhtar Ansari who also the son of Omar Hafiz right hand, who is hiding in Shivgad. Surya sends Inspector Sangram "Simmba" Bhalerao to arrest him.

Simmba tells Surya that 7 bombs are to be planted at 7 locations in Mumbai. Riyaaz escapes with help of Raza and it is revealed that the ATS's headquarters would also be bombed. Surya and his team enlist NSG's and Indian Air Force Choppers help to safely extradite the bombs via helicopters and the bombings get botched. However, Riyaaz and his team use Riya as a suicide bomber to attack the ATS headquarters keeping Surya, Simmba and the other cops as hostages. Surya's friend DCP Bajirao Singham arrives and they defuse the bomb wrapped around Ria, while killing all the terrorists. They capture Mukhtar, Riyaaz and his younger brother Raza, with Singham warning Omar that he will take him out. Upon being cornered for arrest, the brothers taunt Singham, Simmba and Surya that they have been in India as sleeper cells for many years, carrying out several attacks in Mumbai, and that the police cannot harm them. Enraged, Singham, Simmba and Surya shoot them to death, thus bringing peace to Mumbai.

Cast

Production

Development

Sooryavanshi was announced in December 2018 through post-credit scenes of Simmba. The first look posters featuring Akshay Kumar were unveiled in March 2019. Unlike earlier entries in the series, Sooryavanshi is not based on any existing work, but is an original story. The scripting of the film began in Goa in 2019.

Casting

Akshay Kumar was finalised as the main lead and it was announced during end credits of Simmba, conceiving the idea for the "Cop Universe". Shetty stated, "In Simmba, Ajay Devgn made a special appearance in his Bajirao Singham avatar, while Ranveer Singh too played a cop. Now in Sooryavanshi, both Ranveer and Ajay will be making an appearance and it will not be surprising if they reprise their respective roles from Simmba and Singham". Jacqueline Fernandez was rumoured to be the female lead opposite Kumar in the film, however later in March 2019 it was confirmed that Katrina Kaif was finalised as the female lead.

Filming

Miscellaneous work of the film commenced in February 2019 in Mumbai, where the film's teaser was shot. Shetty began filming early in the morning and were done in a couple of hours before leaving for Goa to complete the scripting stages. Principal photography commenced in Mumbai on 6 May 2019 and was planned to be shot in Mumbai, Goa, Hyderabad and Thailand. In June 2019, the recreated version of 'Tip Tip Barsa Paani' was shot in Mumbai, where choreographer Farah Khan had choreographed the song. Another schedule was shot in Hyderabad, where it was a month long schedule and majority of action sequences were filmed. The second schedule took place in Bangkok. The shooting wrapped up on 30 November 2019 in Hyderabad. The film's last schedule wrapped in December 2019 in Mumbai.

Music

The music of the film is composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Lijo George – DJ Chetas and JAM8 while lyrics are written by Rashmi Virag, Shabbir Ahmed, Anand Bakshi, Tanishk Bagchi and Prem Dhawan. The album was released through T-Series on 7 November 2021.

Release

Theatrical

Initially announced as an Eid 2020 release, the film was rescheduled to 27 March 2020. Later, in February 2020, the makers decided to release it on 24 March 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in India caused it to be postponed. In June 2020, Reliance Entertainment confirmed that Sooryavanshi will finally hit cinemas on Diwali, that is 13 November 2020, but due to theatre guidelines owing to the continuity of pandemic, the film was again put on hold as stated by the makers. In October 2020, the release was postponed to a later date, possibly between January and March 2021. In February 2021, sources confirmed that makers of Sooryavanshi have fixed 2 April 2021 as its new release date but that again failed to get materialised, because of night curfew or partial lockdown impose in Maharashtra announced by its government. After a delay of more than one year, it was declared on 14 March 2021 that the film will finally release theatrically on 30 April 2021. As of April 2021, the release date of film had been postponed indefinitely due to rise in COVID-19 cases and lockdown in Maharashtra. On 15 October 2021, it was announced that it will be released theatrically on 5 November 2021, coinciding with Diwali.

Home media

The film's digital rights were purchased by Netflix for ₹100 crore (US$12 million), and was premiered on 3 December 2021.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 36% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10.

Archika Khurana from The Times of India gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Rohit Shetty has tactfully expanded his Cop Universe over the years – keeping the audience engaged and die-hard fans of the genre on the edge. After the Singham series (headlined by Ajay Devgn) and then Simbaa (starring Ranveer Singh), now storms in, Sooryavanshi (Akshay Kumar), amidst much fanfare, drama, and blaring theatrics. Sooryavanshi's character was subtly announced towards the end of Simmba. The film has all the elements, attitude, style, showmanship and heavy-duty star power expected of a Rohit Shetty offering."