Notebook (2019 film)

Notebook is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced by Salman Khan under Salman Khan Films and Murad Khetani and Ashwin Varde under Cine1 Studios and directed by Nitin Kakkar. A remake of the 2014 Thai film The Teacher's Diary, it stars debutantes Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl, daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl, in the lead roles,[5] and tells the story of a young retired army officer who joins his father's school as a teacher to save it from closure, and falls in love with the previous teacher after reading through her memorabilia left behind in the drawers.[6] The film was released on 29 March 2019 and received mixed response from critics.[7][8][9] Commercially, the film could not perform well.

Notebook
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nitin Kakkar
Produced by	Salman Khan Murad Khetani Ashwin Varde
Written by	Screenplay: Darab Farooqui Dialogues: Payal Ashar Sharib Hashmi
Based on	The Teacher's Diary by Nithiwat Tharathorn
Starring	Zaheer Iqbal Pranutan Bahl
Music by	Vishal Mishra
Cinematography	Manoj Kumar Khatoi
Edited by	Sachindra Vats
Production company	Salman Khan Films Cine1 Studios
Release date	29 March 2019 (2019-03-29)[1]
Running time	112 minutes[2]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹15 crore[3]
Box office	est. ₹73.72 crore[4]

Plot

Captain Kabir Kaul, a young retired army officer, decides to teach in his late father's school, the Wular Public School as the school will be closed if there is no teacher to teach. At the school, he finds a diary left behind in the desk drawer by the previous teacher, Firdaus Quadri. Children start coming to school after learning that a new teacher has arrived. However, they disobey Kabir, leading him to think that he cannot teach, but after reading Firdaus's diary, he gains confidence and decides to try.

Kabir experiences a breakup with his girlfriend, who is having an affair and believes that Kabir is now unfit to marry her as he has left the army. He is heartbroken but takes solace in the schoolchildren and Firdaus's diary, writing comments in it. He learns about Imran, one of the schoolchildren, whose father, Yakub, wants him to help in the household rather than attending school. Using help from the diary, Kabir succeeds in bringing Imran back to school. He decides to burn Firdaus's diary after learning she is getting married, but retrieves it in a fit of epiphany.

On her wedding day, Firdaus finds out that her fiance was cheating on her and the other woman is carrying his child. She calls off the marriage and returns to Wular Public School. The children are overjoyed to have her back though Kabir is gone. She finds her diary in the same drawer she had left it in a year before and reads Kabir's comments. He had written that he was in love with the writer and had learned valuable lessons from her diary. Curious, Firdaus asks the principal about Kabir the same way he had asked about her. The principal tells her that he has gone to take a teaching course.

One day, Firdaus confronts Yakub, who wants to take Imran back. Imran sees Kabir and runs to him, saying he doesn't want to leave the school. Yakub threatens Kabir with a gun and Imran, realizing Yakub might kill Kabir, takes the gun to shoot his father. Kabir stops him, asking him not to do so. Yakub realizes his mistake and lets go of the matter. At the end, it is shown that Firdaus sent the children back home so that she can talk and spend time with Kabir with whom she has fallen in love and got married recently.

Cast

• Zaheer Iqbal as Captain (retd) Kabir Kaul
• Pranutan Bahl as Firdaus Quadri/Firdaus Kabir Kaul
• Farhana Bhat as Dolly
• Mir Sarwar as Yakub
• Mozim Bhatt as Junaid
• Mir Mehrooz as Imran
• Mir Zayaan as Tariq
• Baba Hatim as Waqar
• Adiba Bhatt as Dua
• Soliha Maqbool as Shama
• Kosar Chandpuri as Young Yakub
• Saniya Mir as Pregnant girl
• Mallik Mushtaq as Junaid's father
• Saroj Sharma as Junaid's mother
• Ahmed as Young Kabir

Marketing and release

Salman Khan unveiled the first poster of film on Valentine's Day.[10] The official trailer of the film was released on 22 February 2019.[11] A special screening of the film was held for Bollywood stars and family on 28 March 2019.[12] The makers chose not to release the film in Pakistan due to the 2019 Pulwama attack.[13]

Home video

The film was made available as VOD on Prime Video in June 2019.[14]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had scored 25% based on 8 reviews with an average rating of 4.6/10.[9] Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in writes, “Notebook has an unremarkable lead pair, an underwhelming dull love story in which the actors don’t share the screen for nearly the entire duration of the narrative, some of the most ravishing views of Kashmir yet, a bunch of adorable children and a soundtrack with a few good tunes.”[15] Rachit Gupta of The Times of India rated the film with three stars out of five and says, "Notebook is an easy watch where you can appreciate the humour, drama and romance. But the film leaves you wanting for more. Perhaps with more creativity in writing, this young romantic saga could have achieved more."[7] Writing for DNA Meena Iyer finds nothing wrong with the film but wished, "it hadn’t been so antiseptic." She rates the film with three stars out of five.[8] Jyoti Sharma Bawa of Hindustan Times rates the film with two and half stars out of five and praises the cinematographer Manoj Kumar Khatoi. She opines that the cinematographer has ensured that every frame is bursting with beauty and The visual portrayal would stay with the viewers long after they forget the sub-par love story.[16] Charu Thakur of India Today gives two and half stars out of five and concludes the review as, "If you are looking for some old-world romance this weekend, Notebook is definitely a recommended watch for you."[17] Bollywood Hungama while rating it with three stars out of five they feel that the film would appeal only to multiplex audience. They sum up review by saying, "On the whole, NOTEBOOK boasts of exemplary performances by the debutants and is beautifully shot while stressing on the importance of education."[18]

Soundtrack

Notebook
Soundtrack album by Vishal Mishra
Released	8 March 2019 [19]
Recorded	2018
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Length	26:53
Language	Hindi
Label	T-Series
External audio Audio Jukebox on YouTube
Vishal Mishra chronology
5 Weddings (2018) Notebook (2019) Kabir Singh (2019)

The music and background score of the film is composed by Vishal Mishra while the lyrics are penned by Manoj Muntashir, Kaushal Kishore, Akshay Tripathi, Abhendra Upadhyay and Vishal Mishra. The song "Bhumro" is a recreation of "Bhumro" from the film "Mission Kashmir".

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Nai Lagda"	Akshay Tripathi	Vishal Mishra, Asees Kaur	4:47
2.	"Laila"	Abhendra Upadhyay, Vishal Mishra	Dhvani Bhanushali	4:05
3.	"Bhumro"	Dinanath Nadim Kaushal Kishore	Kamaal Khan, Vishal Mishra	3:21
4.	"Safar"	Kaushal Kishore	Mohit Chauhan	5:47
5.	"Notebook Epilogue"		Vishal Mishra	4:16
6.	"Main Taare"	Manoj Muntashir	Salman Khan	4:37
Total length:				26:53

References

1. "'The most beautiful love story', Salman Khan's Notebook to release on March 29, 2019". Times Now. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
2. "Notebook 2019 | British Board of Film Classification". Bbfc.co.uk. 22 March 2019.
3. "Day 1 Box Office Prediction of Junglee and Notebook". Jagran. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
4. "Notebook Box Office". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
5. "New beginning for Salman Khan protegés Pranutan, Zaheer Iqbal". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
6. "Is Salman Khan's Notebook inspired by Thai film The Teacher's Diary?". Times Now News. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
7. Gupta, Rachit (28 March 2019). "Notebook Movie Review". Times Of India. Times Of India. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
8. Iyer, Meera (28 March 2019). "'Notebook' Review: Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl show promise". DNA India. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
9. "NOTEBOOK". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
10. "Notebook poster: Salman Khan introduces Nutan's granddaughter Pranutan, Zaheer Iqbal". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
11. "Notebook - Official Trailer - Pranutan Bahl -Zaheer Iqbal - Nitink Kakar". YouTube.
12. "Notebook' special screening: Salman Khan and family along with Bollywood stars grace the movie premiere". Times of India. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
13. "Pulwama aftermath: Salman Khan's 'Notebook', 'Satellite Shankar' and Shahid Kapoor's 'Kabir Singh' to NOT release in Pakistan". Free Press Journal. 24 February 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
14. "Notebook". Amazon. June 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
15. Ramnath, Nandini. "'Notebook' movie review: Forget the romance and look out the window". Scroll.in.
16. Sharma Bawa, Jyoti. "Notebook movie review: Kashmir is the real attraction of Zaheer Iqbal, Pranutan Bahl film". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
17. Thakur, Charu. "Notebook Movie Review: Salman Khan launches Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl in a stunning romance". India Today. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
18. "Notebook Review". Bollywood Hungama. News Network. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
19. "Notebook - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Jio Saavn.

External links

• Notebook on IMDb
• Notebook at Bollywood Hungama
• Notebook at Rotten Tomatoes