Bhavesh Joshi Superhero

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vikramaditya Motwane
Written by	Vikramaditya Motwane Anurag Kashyap Abhay Koranne
Produced by	Eros International Reliance Entertainment Vikas Bahl Madhu Mantena Anurag Kashyap
Starring	Harshvardhan Kapoor Nishikant Kamat Priyanshu Painyuli Ashish Verma
Cinematography	Siddharth Diwan
Music by	Amit Trivedi
Production company	Phantom Films
Distributed by	Reliance Entertainment Eros International
Release date	1 June 2018 (2018-06-01) (India)[1]
Running time	153 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹21 crore[2]
Box office	₹4.75 crore[2]

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero is a 2018 Indian Hindi-language vigilante action thriller film^[3][4] directed by Vikramaditya Motwane under Phantom Films banner and co-written by Motwane along with Anurag Kashyap and Abhay Koranne.^[5][6] It stars Harshvardhan Kapoor in the lead role along with Priyanshu Painyuli, Ashish Verma and Nishikant Kamat in the supporting roles. The film revolves around a successful vigilante group that fades away with time but resurfaces when one of its members discovers the theft of water by a local politician and his henchmen. This was Nishikant Kamat's last film as actor before his death in 2020.

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero released theatrically on 1 June 2018. Later on, it was also screened at Neuchatel Film Festival.^[7] Despite receiving moderately positive reviews, the film was a box-office bomb grossing just ₹4.35 crore on a ₹21 crore budget.^[8][9]

Plot[]

Three young friends, Bhavesh (Priyanshu Painyuli), Siku (Harshvardhan Kapoor) and Rajat (Ashish Verma), come up with a YouTube channel Insaaf TV, creating an online show about Insaaf (justice) trying to expose to people some common wrongdoings and corruption which are rampant in the city. Initially, their show garners success, where they, wearing paper-bag masks, help to solve or confront some small scale corruptions in and around their neighborhood. Time soon flies; Siku and Rajat get jobs at the corporate sector after passing out from college. Their interest for Insaaf TV gradually fades out except for Bhavesh, who gets obsessed about eradicating corruption from society and continues with his vigilante acts despite a fall in their channel viewership. He receives an email from an elderly citizen about water problems existing in and around his locality and starts investigating the case. He discovers that the water pipes across the city meant for delivering water to the households have been fitted with extra pipes to siphon out water to water tankers which are then delivered to the various neighborhoods making people buy the same water which they were supposed to receive for free from the municipality. Bhavesh leaks this news to his channel, and this results in the water mafia Patil (Pratap Phad), responsible for this act, starting to look into the true identity of the masked man behind Insaaf TV.

In the meantime, despite providing all the proper documents and doing multiple follow ups with the local police station, Siku's police clearance for his VISA processing to move to the US doesn't get approved until he pays a bribe to the police officials to get the things done. Bhavesh becomes furious knowing this, and they get initially engaged in a verbal tiff. An angered Bhavesh tells that all the govt. officials and politicians are corrupt and should be eradicated to cleanse the society with Siku recording his dialogues on his phone. Bhavesh punches Siku, breaking his nose. An enraged Siku uploads the video on the Insaaf TV channel. Soon, Bhavesh is termed by the media as anti-national and unpatriotic. He is thrashed by the mob and then gets arrested, thereby revealing his identity to Patil, who warns him, but desperate to prove his innocence and uncover the truth to people, he sets out to gather evidence despite being injured. He gets caught in the process, and Patil mauls him to death. The police hand over his body to Siku for last rites claiming it to be an accident, and further warn him not to get involved into this. Blaming himself for Bhavesh's death, Siku tricks the police into believing that he has left for the US and takes refuge in an abandoned hotel which served as a safe house for their gang. He sets out covering his face in a mask and accidentally blows up Patil's pump house, where he used to fill the siphoned water to the water trailers. It is then revealed that Patil has backing from the local political leader Rana (Nishikanth Kamath).

Siku gets himself a new vigilante costume, buys a motorcycle, customizes it by fitting nitro cylinders and interrogates govt. officer Subhash Mhatre (Hrishikesh Joshi) who reveals that Bhavesh was killed by Patil as he was about to uncover his illegal water supply activities. A fight breaks out between him and Mhatre's men during the interrogation, and a nearly overpowered Siku is saved by Bhavesh's martial arts trainer. Siku posts his interrogation video in Insaaf TV and introduces himself as Bhavesh Joshi, still alive. He also starts learning martial arts and other combat techniques from the martial arts trainer. As the video goes viral, Patil gets arrested by the police. However, Mhatre gets killed soon, with police claiming it to be a suicide and that Mhatre has taken his own life out of guilt as he was forced to wrongly confess about Patil by Bhavesh. Patil is released due to a lack of evidence. Siku disguises himself and visits the dance bar where Patil comes every night. He plants a bug in Patil's VIP room and gets to know that he is planning to blow up the water pipes across the city to create an acute shortage of drinking water. However, police inspector Sunil Jadhav (Chinmay Mandlekar) discovers him in the bar, and after a long vehicular chase, a disguised Siku escapes, causing an enraged Patil to shoot a constable and forcing police to put the blame on Bhavesh.

Suspicious about who is behind Insaaf TV after Bhavesh's demise, Rajat starts to keep an eye on Siku's girlfriend, Sneha (Shreiyah Sabharwal) and discovers that he has not left India and has assumed the identity of Bhavesh Joshi. Siku arrives at the place targeted by Patil's men and fights them, later getting caught and unmasked in the process. They succeed in their mission to blow up the water pipes with an injured Siku watching in vain. Patil and Rana tell inspector Sunil to kill Siku and dump his body in water, thus putting the blame on Bhavesh Joshi for this terrorist act against Mumbai. Sunil hesitantly shoots Siku. Getting to know of the location from his secret hideout, Rajat follows Siku and captures everything on camera. Once Siku is thrown into the water, he rescues him and takes him to a hospital. However, Siku suggests him to let people think that he is dead, and so Rajat admits him to the hospital under a fake alias of Mohan. As Siku recovers, Mumbai suffers from the acute drinking water crisis. Rana meets the Chief Minister and tells him that he can arrange for water free of cost but instead should get the contracts of all future water related projects. Everyone gets drinking water for free, and both the CM and Rana become heroes in common people's eyes.

Rajat delivers the video of that night to Sunil Jadhav via a kid and forces him to open an investigation about the blast. As the true news spreads across the city, Bhavesh Joshi starts gaining support and protests start everywhere. At night, Siku infiltrates Rana's house and takes out all his security guards. Rana comes down from his bedroom and sees all his bodyguards are knocked out and encounters "Insaaf-Man" (Based on the Graphic novel written by Rajat) at the balcony.

In a mid-credits scene, Insaaf-Man (Siku)is seen telling a driver to reverse his car from a no-entry road.

Cast[]

• Harshvardhan Kapoor as Sikandar "Siku" Khanna
• Priyanshu Painyuli as Bhavesh Joshi
• Ashish Verma as Rajat
• Shreiyah Sabharwal as Sneha ^[10]
• Pratap Phad as Patil
• Pabitra Rabha as Thapa
• Chinmay Mandlekar as Sunil Jadhav (credited as Chinmayee Mandlekar)
• Nishikant Kamat as Rana ^[10]
• Hrishikesh Joshi as Subhash Mhatre

Special appearances[]

• Arjun Kapoor in the song "Chavanprash"
• Shibani Dandekar in the song "Chavanprash"
• Anusha Dandekar in the song "Chavanprash"
• Sharib Hashmi in the song "Chavanprash"

Production[]

Development[]

The film was officially announced sometime in April 2014. The title of the film was said to be Bhavesh Joshi.^[11]

Casting[]

The makers of the film initially decided on Imran Khan for the lead. The role then went to Sidharth Malhotra,^[11] but he was eventually replaced by Harshvardhan Kapoor due to frequent delays in the film's pre-production schedule.^[5]

Filming[]

The principal photography of the film commenced in July 2016. The film shooting ended on 30 May 2017^[5]

Music[]

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
Soundtrack album by Amit Trivedi
Released	23 May 2018 (2018-May-23)[12]
Recorded	2017-2018
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	16:22
Language	Hindi
Label	Eros Music
Amit Trivedi chronology
Raid (2018) Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (2018) Blackmail (2018)
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube

The music of the film was composed by Amit Trivedi while the lyrics were written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, Anurag Kashyap, Babu Haabi and Naezy. The first song of the film to be released was Hum Hain Insaaf which is sung by Babu Haabi and Naezy and was released on 12 May 2018. The second song of the film titled as Chavanprash featuring Arjun Kapoor, sung by Divya Kumar, Pragati Joshi and Arohi Mhatre, was re-released on 16 May 2018. The soundtrack of the film was released on 23 May 2018 by Eros Music.

Release[]

Official teaser trailer for the film was released on 18 April 2018.^[13] The official trailer was released on May 2.^[14] The film released theatrically on 1 June 2018. It was also officially selected for the 2018 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.^[15] The film made it to Netflix along with Vikramaditya Motwane's debut film, Udaan.

Reception[]

Critical response[]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero has an approval score of 45% based on 7 reviews with an average rating of 5.8 out of 10.^[16] Neil Soans of The Times of India praised the central theme of the film and the acting performances with a special mention for Priyanshu Painyuli and gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5.^[17] Raja Sen of NDTV said that the film has good intentions and is filled with praiseworthy acting performances but the screenplay lacks originality and is not strong enough to make the film an interesting watch.^[18] Rajeev Masand of News18 was impressed with the concept of the film, the acting performances and the music by Amit Trivedi but was critical of the poorly written script and gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5.^[19] Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times appreciated director Vikramaditya Motwane for making a film which is unlike any other super hero film made in India but criticized the film for its long length and poor editing and gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5.^[20] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 saying that the film has some good acting performances but suffers from poor editing and an inconsistent screenplay.^[21]

References[]

External links[]

• Bhavesh Joshi Superhero at IMDb
• Bhavesh Joshi Superhero at Bollywood Hungama