Dhoom 2

Dhoom 2 ([ˈd̪ʱuːm],English: Blast 2, also abbreviated and known as D:2, D2and Dhoom 2: Back In Action) is a 2006 Indian action film directed bySanjay Gadhvi and produced by Aditya Chopra and Yash Chopra at an estimated budget of ₹350 million (US$5.2 million) under the Yash Raj Filmsbanner. It is the second in the Dhoom series. Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra star as buddy cops Jai Dixit and Ali, respectively. The duo attempt to capture Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan), a professional thief whose passion is to steal rare and valuable collectibles using high-technology gadgets. The film features Bipasha Basu and Aishwarya Rai in lead female roles. Dhoom 2 was shot primarily in India, Durban, and Rio de Janeiro, becoming the first major Hindi film to be shot in Brazil. The distributor, Yash Raj Films, promoted the film by forging associations with Pepe Jeans and Coca-Cola. It premiered on 24 November 2006 in India, where it received the widest release in Indian cinema history with over 1800 prints. It was dubbed simultaneously in Tamil as well as in Telugu. Singer Vijay Prakash dubbed for ACP Jai Dixit in Tamil.

Dhoom 2 was generally well received by critics and audiences; it was accepted well by children and adults. It became the highest-grossing Indian film of 2006,^[4] and was the highest-grossing Bollyw

at the time of its release. It is the seventh highest-grossing Bollywood film in overseas markets.^[5] After grossing over ₹1.5 billion (US$22 million), Dhoom 2was elevated to a "blockbuster" rating on Box Office India. It received an 80% approval rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics praised Dhoom 2for its exotic locales and elaborate action sequences. However, there was an appeal by the Mumbai city police commissioner to censor the fast-paced rash driving scenes due to fears that it would inspire Indian youths to ride their motorcycles rashly, resulting in an increase in the number of road accidents. A sequel titled Dhoom 3 was released on 20 December 2013, which also went on to become the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all time.

 

 

The world's oldest desert in Namibia; A solitary railway line & A royal family on a royal journey. Mr. A (Hrithik Roshan) sky-dives and lands on a train that is carrying the Queen. He steals her crown by disguising himself as the Queen, beats her guards easily and escapes. Newly promoted officer Ali (Uday Chopra) and Jai Dixit (Abhishek Bachchan) are introduced to Shonali Bose (Bipasha Basu), a special officer assigned to investigate Mr. A's case, who also happens to be a former classmate of Jai. After the initial investigation, Dixit analyses the underlying trend in Mr. A's heists. As per his analysis, a theft in one of two famous Mumbai city museums will follow.

However, Dixit realizes that the artifact in the museum he is guarding happens to be imperfect. He immediately flees to the other museum when a disguised Mr. A steals a rare diamond and escapes. In a televised challenge to the police, Mr. A announces that he will steal an ancient warrior sword. In response, Dixit, Bose and Khan enforce a strict vigil at the location housing the sword. At night, Mr. A meets his impersonator in the room that holds the sword. The police are alerted, but they manage to steal the sword and escape. The impersonator turns out to be Sunehri (Aishwarya Rai), a woman who idolises Mr. A, and after this they form an alliance.

In Rio de Janeiro, Mr. A and Sunehri plan their next heist. As Dixit's analysis has named Rio the location of Mr. A's next heist, Jai and Ali travel to the city. Meanwhile, the relationship between Mr. A and Sunehri evolves into romance. He unveils his real identity, Aryan, to her. However, he discovers that Sunehri is a spy working for Jai after seeing them together at a theatre and then a parade. Aryan forces Sunehri to play a game of Russian roulette. Sunehri cries and refuses to shoot Aryan because she loves him, but Aryan forces her. However, after six attempted shots from the gun, neither is injured because Aryan had not inserted a bullet into the gun. Sunehri admits she betrayed Aryan and that she loves him. Elsewhere in Rio de Janeiro, Ali develops strong affections towards Monali (Bipasha Basu), Shonali's twin sister. In their final heist, Aryan and Sunehri successfully steal some early Lydian coins while disguised as performing dwarfs. Sunehri indicates that she does not wish to remain allied with Jai, forcing Jai and Ali to go after them. After the chase, all of them end up on the top of a waterfall, where Sunehri is caught by Ali. Sunehri, despite conveying her feelings for Aryan, shoots him. Aryan falls from the waterfall, after which Jai allows Sunehri to go free.

After six months, it is revealed that Aryan had survived, and now has opened a restaurant in the Fiji islands with Sunehri. Jai meets Aryan and Sunehri at the restaurant and states that despite their crimes, he does not wish to imprison the couple. Aryan shows him where all the stolen artifacts can be found. Jai is aware of the couple's feelings towards each other, but warns them against returning to their life of crime. Jai later informs Ali that they should be heading back to India for their next case.

Cast[edit]

• Hrithik Roshan as Aryan / Mr. "A", a master thief living in disguise. He steals museum pieces such as the first man-made coins, a queen's crown, ancient sword and more. He only steals at selected museums to mark "A", the first letter of his name, on the map of the world.
• Abhishek Bachchan as ACP Jai Dixit, an Assistant Commissioner trying to find Mr. A. Jai is accompanied by inspector Ali and married to Sweety Dixit.
• Aishwarya Rai as Sunehri, another thief who was blackmailed by Jai Dixit to find out more about Mr. A, because she was a petty thief in Mumbai and was forced to help him or face jail time.
• Uday Chopra as Ali Akbar Fateh Khan, an assistant to Jai Dixit and an inspector.
• Bipasha Basu as Shonali Bose and Monali Bose, twins with different personalities. Shonali is a tough assistant commissioner, and an old friend of Jai, while Monali is a joyful girl living in Rio de Janeiro.
• Rimi Sen in a guest appearance as Sweety Dixit, Jai's wife. She is pregnant and is suspicious of Jai's friendship with Shonali.

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

The Dhoom series began with the release of Dhoom in 2004.^[6] The film became a commercial box office hit and received generally positive reviews from audiences,^[7][8] but not so much from critics.^[9] As a result, producer Yash Chopraannounced plans for a sequel, titled Dhoom 2: Back in Action.^[10][11] John Abraham, portrayer of Kabir Sharma, the villain of the predecessor, was eliminated from the sequel because Chopra did not want Dhoom 2 to repeat the stories featured in its predecessor. Instead, Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai were introduced into the franchise as the sequel's main villains.^[12]Aishwarya Rai's character was summarised as Catwoman, a female fictional comic book femme fatale or anti-hero .^[13] Rai stated, "All I can tell you is it would be nothing like anything you've seen me do before."^[12][13] Producer Aditya Chopra told Rai to lose weight after she gained it for her role in 2004's Bride & Prejudice.^[14] Yash Chopra stated, "But yes, the role does require Aishwarya to convey oodles of sensuality. She has asked for a couple of months to get into shape. We (at Yash Raj Films) are very clear about every character in every script and what's required of the actors. Before Dhoom, Esha Deol was specifically briefed about the look and the attitude she needed to cultivate. She readily agreed, and look at what Dhoom did to her career!"^[12] Roshan also lost twelve pounds of weight at Aditya Chopra's request.^[15] With the exception of Abraham and Esha Deol, all of the other main actors in Dhoom were hired again for Dhoom 2.

Filming[edit]

Dhoom 2 was filmed in Mumbai (India), Namibia, Durban (South Africa), and Rio de Janeiro, (Brazil),^[16][17] making it the firstBollywood movie to be shot in Brazil.^[14] In total, production lasted eighteen months and cost of ₹350 million(US$5.2 million).^[2] To ensure the sequel would be different from the original, which became famous for its brash motorcycle stunts, director Sanjay Gadhvi included very few motorcycles in Dhoom 2.^[18] Nonetheless, Roshan's role required him to perform several dangerous stunts involving activities such as roller-blading, sand boarding and snow boarding.^[19]

Dhoom 2 made extensive use of visual effects, which were filmed at Yash Raj Studios.^[14] While shooting at Yash Raj Studios, the film suffered from a flood that destroyed the studio sets and delayed production.^[14] Fight and action sequences were storyboarded before being shown to Gadhvi and Allan Amin, who would make changes. The scenes were then sketched, given "proper shot list[s]", and shared with Tata Elxsi, who oversaw the pre-visualization of the sequences.^[20]Several scenes were filmed with the use of green screen and computer-generated imagery.^[21] For example, the stunts Roshan's performed on a train in the Namib Desert used green screen; after Roshan recorded the stunts on a set, Gadhvi traveled to the desert to film the background.^[21] Other stunts were performed by stuntmen whose faces were later digitally exchanged with the actors'.

The bullet effects and Hrithik's gadgets and mechanical arm were also computer generated.^[21] The scene involving Abhishek Bachchan coming out of a lake using a jet ski was created using a green screen. The stunt came out at 90 degrees, but Sanjay Gandhvi wanted a 60 degrees jump.^[21] So, it was shot with a Super 35, and hence the angle could be changed.^[21] Gandhvi discussed the use of technology in an interview:

We've done animation and pre-visualization for all the action sequences in Dhoom 2 and that is very important in terms of planning, cost effectiveness and also it's a new way of preparing for shoot and the film specially which is as set on such a large canvas such as Dhoom 2. In Dhoom 1 we had all the action sequences broken down and written. In this movie we had very big action sequences so we had all the scenes storyboarded and they would be checked, double checked and triple checked by myself, Alan Amin and Adi and we would then rectify if needed and that would be our level of planning.^[21]

Soundtrack[edit]

Dhoom 2
Soundtrack album by Pritam
Released	19 October 2006
Recorded	YRF Studios, Spectral Harmony, 4D
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	Yash Raj Films

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
IndiaFM	[22]
Planet Bollywood	[23]

The soundtrack of Dhoom 2 was recorded at YRF Studios. The music was composed by Pritam with background score by Salim-Sulaiman. The lyrics were penned by Sameer except "Dhoom Again" by Asif Ali Beg and "Crazy Kiya Re — Remix" was remixed by Bunty Rajput.^[24] Although most of the song's lyrics are primarily written in Hindi with some English, "Dhoom Again" is almost entirely in English.^[22] The soundtrack pulled average reviews from critics but higher praise from the public.^[23] It became the best selling Bollywood soundtrack of the year.^[25]

Dhoom 2: The Official Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Crazy Kiya Re"	Sunidhi Chauhan	04:54
2.	"Touch Me"	KK, Alisha Chinoy	05:17
3.	"My Name Is Ali"	Sonu Nigam, Bipasha Basu	04:34
4.	"Dil Laga Na"	Sukhbir, Soham Chakraborty, Jolly Mukherjee, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Suzanne D'Mello	05:04
5.	"Dhoom Again"	Vishal Dadlani,Dominique Cerejo	05:02
6.	"Crazy Kiya Re — Remix"	Sunidhi Chauhan	03:57

Release[edit]

Dhoom 2 was released on 24 November 2006 in India, where it received the widest release in Indian cinema history at the time with over 1800 prints, including 250 digital copies. Some locations raised ticket prices for the film.^[2]

It was promoted with several tie-ins. Coca-Cola promoted the film as "Coke Uthale, Dhoom Machale".^[2] India's video game producing company FXLabs developed a game based on the film.^[26] Pepe Jeans sold Dhoom 2-related garments, including shirts, jeans, bandannas, caps, and metal accessories.^[27] Chetan Shah, the country head of Pepe Jeans London, stated: "Pepe Jeans is tremendously excited to be associated with the most awaited movie of the year Dhoom:2. The incredible starcast of Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu and Uday Chopra and the exciting and explosive content of the movie encapsulates everything that the Pepe Jeans brand stands for- young, cool, trendy, hip, fashionable and innovative.^[27]

Box office[edit]

In India, Dhoom 2 broke several box-office records, mainly those for opening day and opening weekend grosses, including a first week of ₹66 million (US$990,000) in Mumbai and ₹179 million (US$2.7 million) for all of India.^[28] In Mumbai, distributors received a profit of ₹94 million (US$1.4 million) on the first week's business.^[29] Box Office India awarded it a "blockbuster" rating after the film netted ₹803 million (US$12 million) in India^[30] and grossed ₹1.5 billion (US$22 million) worldwide^[31][32] on a budget of ₹350 million (US$5.2 million).^[2] It is currently the 13th highest-grossing film in India (unadjusted for inflation).^[33]

Dhoom 2 grossed US$979,000 in North America in 63 theatres over its three-day opening weekend ($1.3 million over four days), becoming the third largest opening weekend for a Bollywood film in North America.^[34] Overall, it was the seventeenth ranked film at the American box office.^[34] Box Office Mojo reports it earned a total of $2,643,586 inside the United States and a total of $29,752,841 in other countries, including India.^[32] In Dubai, it achieved the highest first day opening for a Bollywood film.^[29]

Dhoom 2 ranked sixth among opening weekends for international films at the United Kingdom box office with a gross (average per screen) of £8,151.^[35][36] At the Australian box office, it had the twelfth highest opening and collected approximately A$176,462.^[36][37] It grossed approximately NZ $51,453 on five screens in New Zealand.^[36][38] Dhoom 2 is estimated to have grossed US$8,750,000 total in the overseas markets.^[5]

Reception[edit]

India[edit]

In India, the film received mostly positive reviews from critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave 4.5 out of 5 stars, reporting "On the whole, Dhoom 2 is a winner all the way. For Yash Raj, who've not only produced but also distributed the film, Dhoom 2 should emerge as one of the biggest hits of their career."^[39] Rajesh Karkera of Rediff gave it three and a half stars out of five, calling it "A complete roller-coaster ride which left me completely enthralled and exhausted. Sure, there are faults when you stop to think rationally. But that does not stop you from being dazzled by the film."^[40] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave it a three star rating, saying that Dhoom 2 is without doubt better than its predecessor, and that Hrithik Roshan is the heart and soul of the film.^[41] Vijay Venkataramanan of Planet Bollywood

 

 

International[edit]

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported 83% of six critics were positive and gave it a "fresh" certificate.^[43] Varietycommented, "Loaded with enough attitude, Bollywood starpower and buff bodies to stop a speeding train, Dhoom 2 has been doing humongous biz since its November 24 worldwide opening, and provides adequate proof that Yash Raj Films is good for more than just family-oriented comedy-dramas."^[44]

Rachel Saltz of The New York Times reviewed, "The pleasure principle is palpable in the giddy, slick Dhoom 2, a satisfying example of the new, thoroughly modern Bollywood. It may represent the newfangled Bollywood, but old-fashioned star power is what animates and elevates it above its occasional narrative flaws and longueurs."^[45] Film Journal International‍ '​s Ethan Alter said, "Dhoom 2 has all of the benefits of a big-budget Bollywood production: big-name stars, exotic locales, well-produced musical numbers and elaborate (by Bollywood standards, anyway) action sequences. It makes no lasting contributions to world cinema, but if two-and-a-half hours of disposable entertainment are all you're after, you could do far worse."^[46] L.A. Weekly‍ '​s David Chute stated the film was, "A movie meal as satisfying as this one can make you feel that nothing else matters."^[43] Jaspreet Pandohar of the BBC gave it a two-star rating, writing "By roping in acclaimed action director Alan Amin to take care of the thrills and spills, you'd expect Gadhvi to have spent time crafting out a sophisticated storyline instead of simply sending his cast on a cat-and-mouse chase around the globe. It's only Roshan's charismatic performance as the criminal mastermind, and the sizzling chemistry he shares with Rai's sassy cohort, that rescues this adventure from becoming an elongated tourism commercial."^[47] Manish Gajjar, Bollywood Correspondent for BBC Shropshire said, "With its high-powered action sequences matching Hollywood standards, Dhoom 2 is a winner all the way at the box office!"^[48]

Controversies[edit]

This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article'sneutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (October 2015)

The city of Mumbai's police commissioner called for censoring of the fast-paced rash driving scenes in the film due to fears that it would inspire Indian youths to ride their motorcycles rashly, resulting in an increase in the number of road accidents.^[49] Unlike the original, the robberies depicted in Dhoom 2 were not inspired by any real-life crimes.^[50] Dhoom 2, however, inspired the robbery of a man by his nephew, who wore clothing similar to Hrithik's in the film while committing the crime.^[51]

Accolades[edit]

Dhoom 2 was nominated for several awards that year, but only picked up a few of the major ones. At the Filmfare Awards,Hrithik Roshan won the Best Actor, out of five total nominations for the film.^[52] At the International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA), the film won for Best Makeup and the Best Costume Design.^[53] At the Stardust Awards, Aishwarya Rai wonStar of the Year – Female and director Sanjay Gadhvi won the Hottest Young Film Maker title.^[54]

At the 2007 MTV India Style Awards, however, Dhoom 2 swept nearly all of the movie awards, winning the following:^[55]

• Most Stylish Film: Dhoom 2
• Most Stylish Actor – Male: Hrithik Roshan
• Most Stylish Actor – Female: Aishwarya Rai
• Most Stylish New Look: Hrithik Roshan
• Most Stylish Body: Hrithik Roshan
• Most Stylish Couple: Hrithik Roshan & Aishwarya Rai
• Most Stylish Song in A Film: Shiamak Davar (choreographer)
• Most Stylish Bollywood Designer: Anaita Shroff Adajania

Home media[edit]

Dhoom 2 was released in DVD format on February 2007. It was distributed by Yash Raj Films in all regions as a two-disc set and for region 1 as a single-disc set.^[56][57] It was released on Blu-ray in December 2009.^[58]

The film is also noteworthy because its soundtrack is the first in Indian cinema to be released in DVD-Audio in addition to other audio formats.^[59] The tracks have been mixed in London in 5.1 Surround Sound and audiophiles can choose the format from the audio menu.^[59] Four bonus tracks from other films are included, and the lyrics of all 10 tracks can be viewed on-screen while the music is playing, enabling karaoke sing-along.^[60]

References[edit]