Sanak

Sanak
Official release poster
Directed by	Kanishk Varma
Written by	Ashish Prakash Verma
Produced by	Vipul Amrutlal Shah Aashin A. Shah
Starring	Vidyut Jammwal Rukmini Maitra Neha Dhupia Chandan Roy Sanyal
Cinematography	Pratik Deora
Edited by	Sanjay Sharma
Music by	Score: Saurabh Bhalerao Songs: Chirrantan Bhatt Jeet Gannguli
Production companies	Zee Studios Sunshine Pictures
Distributed by	Disney+ Hotstar
Release date	15 October 2021 (2021-10-15)
Running time	117 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Sanak (transl. Madness)^[1] is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language action-thriller film directed by Kanishk Varma and produced by Zee Studios and Sunshine Pictures. The film features Vidyut Jammwal, Rukmini Maitra, Neha Dhupia and Chandan Roy Sanyal in the lead roles.^[2][3] The film premiered on 15 October 2021 on Disney+ Hotstar^[4] (India and other countries) and on Hulu in the United States. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, realistic action sequences and stunts performed by Jammwal, but criticized the storyline.

Plot[]

Vivaan Ahuja, a skilled MMA trainer, and his wife Anshika Maitra, celebrate their third anniversary camping. But it comes to a halt as Anshika gets a heart attack. Vivaan takes Anshika to the hospital where he learns from the doctor that Anshika's heart can stop at any time and that a operation is required. Vivaan pays for the operation and the doctors start operating on Anshika right away. A few days later, the doctor informs Vivaan that the operation is done and that Anshika can go back home. Vivaan goes to the hospital to take her back home. Meanwhile, a terrorist group led by Saju Solanki plan an attack on the hospital to retrieve illegal arms dealer Ajay Pal Singh, the group's leader, who is responsible for the deaths of 18 Indian army soldiers due to his supply of faulty weapons to them, and was moved to the hospital after his pacemaker was tampered with when he was in the prison hospital. The group attacks the hospital and captures a bunch of hostages including Anshika on the ninth floor, where Ajay is being treated under anaesthesia. ACP Jayati Bhargav and a team of police officers are tasked to free the hostages. Vivaan, who is in the basement, is oblivious to the invasion, but gets attacked by one of the terrorists. He gets injured during the fight but manages to stab the terrorist killing him. He takes the black pouch belonging to the terrorist, containing a walkie talkie and a remote detonator, which is evidence to the crimes of the terrorist group. He also takes the terrorist's gun as self protection.

Vivaan meets a hospital guard named Riyaz Ahmed Motlekar and a child named Zubin, and befriends both of them. Jayati tries to enter the hospital but is surprised to find her daughter Aanya strapped to a bomb. Saju blackmails Jayati saying that he will activate the bomb unless she supplies a helicopter and a bus to them. She agrees, but secretly plans to surprise-attack them. Vivaan plans to attack the CCTV room first so that Saju can't see him coming. He overhears the conversation between Saju and Jayati on the walkie talkie, but suddenly gets attacked by one of the terrorists. With the help of Zubin, he kills the terrorist. The bodies of both the terrorists are found and Saju orders three of the terrorists to kill the intruder. His plan to escape gets postponed, however, as Ajay is under general anaesthesia. Saju finds out that the intruder is Vivaan, who, in a parallel track, contacts Jayati to inform her about Saju, but the call disconnects. The three terrorists assigned to kill Vivaan briefly subdue him but Vivaan fights and kills all three of them.

Saju tells the surviving terrorists that whoever brings Vivaan to him will get an extra share of 15%. Three of the terrorists attack Vivaan. They are evenly matched until another terrorist comes and accidentally blows up the room they are fighting in. Vivaan manages to escape the explosion. He sees some babies in a room which is quickly catching on fire. He and one of the nurse rescue the babies. When he is about to rescue the last baby, one of the terrorists who survived the explosion attacks him, and he faints, exhausted, but manages to regain his strength, kills the terrorist and saves the baby. Later, he reunites with Riyaz and Zubin, taking control of the CCTV room. With the CCTV room now under their control, Vivaan kills one of the terrorists who was holding a few hostages in the basement, and frees the hostages. Saju, realizing that Vivaan may be related to one of the hostages, checks with the hostages on the ninth floor to discover his identity. Vivaan calls Jayati once again and tells her that she can enter the hospital without worrying about the CCTV cameras. Although unable to figure out who Vivaan might be related to, despite a brief confrontation with Anshika, he decides to kill a nurse while in conversation with Vivaan to force the mouths of the other hostages open. Ajay is retrieved and Saju plans their escape. Vivaan figures out that the remote detonator can activate Ajay's peacemaker from a distance, allowing him to manipulate it, and he threatens to activate the peacemaker and kill Ajay; though he initially bluffs to Saju that he already saved his relative, Saju, however, figures it out.

Jayati gets ready to enter the hospital. Left with no other option, Vivaan decides to kill Saju face to face, but eventually concludes in a moment of epiphany during a conversation with Riyaz that Saju was bluffing the police - he wasn't intent on escaping through the bus and helicopter previously demanded, but rather through the laundry room on the sixth floor, which is under consutruction, to the first floor through a rope; he additionally planned to blow up the stairs and the elevator after reaching the sixth floor anyway, in order to erase evidence of the attack by killing the hostages in a collateral damage move. He relays this to Jayati, who decides to play by his information, trusting him. She, along with her team, enters the hospital and frees Aanya, with the two sharing a tearful reunion. Vivaan reaches the sixth floor while Anshika and the hostages on the ninth floor are directed to the sixth floor by Saju's accomplice Raman. Vivaan kills him to free the hostages just as Saju arrives; in a fit of rage, Saju thrashes Vivaan badly while Anshika bats off a hospital attendant who was in cahoots with the terrorists and held her at gunpoint. Saju is eventually killed after the falling elevator collpases on him, and Ajay, who is retrieved by Jayati, is shot to death with 18 bullets by her, avenging the deaths in the Army. Vivaan is reunited with Anshika, as Jayati thanks Vivaan for his help. Vivaan and Anshika go home.

Cast[]

• Vidyut Jammwal as Vivaan Ahuja
• Rukmini Maitra as Anshika Maitra, Vivaan's wife
• Neha Dhupia as ACP Jayati Bhargav
• Chandan Roy Sanyal as Captain Saju Solanki
• Chandan Roy as Riyaz Ahmed Motlekar
• Kiran Karmarkar as Ajay Pal Singh
• Sunil Kumar Palwal as Raman
• Daniele Balconi as Yuri
• Ivy Haralson as Taira
• Alois Knapps as Maksym
• Du Tran Au as Chad
• Harminder Singh Alag as Zubin
• Adrija Sinha as Aanya Bhargav, ACP Jayanti's daughter
• Neha Pednekar as Anuradha
• Tanguy Guinchard as Gunnar
• Sefa Demirbus as Jesper
• Felix Fukoyoshi as Andy
• Dimitri Vujicic as KP
• Shreyal Shetty as Pasha
• Sanjay Kulkarni as Police Officer Godbole
• Karthikesh as Parma
• Asif Ali Beg as Dr. Pajwani
• Arjun Ramesh as Aditya
• Sudhanva Deshpande as Dr. Sinha
• Karan Verma aa Raghav Chaturvedi
• Anand Alkunte as Inspector Rakesh Jadhav

Production[]

The principal photography of the film began in January 2021.^[5][6]

Reception[]

Critical response[]

Sanak received mixed reviews from critics and audiences. According to the online database website IMDb, the film currently has a rating of 7.0/10, based on 8 critic reviews and 180 user reviews.

Bollywood Hungama gave the film a rating of 2.5 stars out of 5 and wrote, "Vidyut Jammwal starrer Sanak rests on Vidyut Jammwal's presence and the novel and exciting action scenes." Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote, "I get it. The Vidyut Jammwal film is purely a vehicle for action. But can't the narrative gluing the action sequences together have a little more depth and sparkle?" ^[7] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave Sanak a rating of 1 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Sanak should have been a non-stop ride. But, it is more like a stroll in the park, devoid of any spark".^[8] Archika Khurana of The Times of India gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and said: "Overall, Vidyut Jammwal's slick kicks, punches and backflips raise the stakes of this action-packed drama."^[9] Udita Jhunjhunwala of Firstpost gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Sanak over-emphasizes the action, leaving the story and the emotional core under-developed."^[10] Shubham Kulkarni, from Koimoi gave 2.5 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Vidyut Jammwal is the biggest reason to watch Sanak, but cannot be the only attention-grabbing point of the feature length film.^[11]

Soundtrack[]

The film's music was composed by Chirantan Bhatt and Jeet Gannguli while lyrics written by Sameer Anjaan, Manoj Yadav and Rashmi Virag.

The song "O Yaara Dil Lagana" is a remake of the song of same name from the 1996 film Agni Sakshi sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy, composed by Nadeem–Shravan and written by Sameer Anjaan.^[13]

References[]

External links[]

• Sanak at IMDb