Race (2008 film)

Race is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Abbas–Mustan and produced by the banner Tips Music Films. It is the first installment of the Race film series and stars Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Katrina Kaif and Bipasha Basu in lead roles. The story is loosely based on the 1998 Hollywood film Goodbye Lover and explores themes of sibling rivalry, betrayal and passion. The supporting cast of Race includes Dalip Tahil, Sameera Reddy and Johnny Lever.

Race
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAbbas-Mustan
Produced byRamesh S. Taurani
Kumar S. Taurani
Written byJitendra Parmar
Anurag Prapanna
(Dialogue)
Screenplay byShiraz Ahmed
Story byShiraz Ahmed
StarringSaif Ali Khan
Akshaye Khanna
Katrina Kaif
Bipasha Basu
Anil Kapoor
Sameera Reddy
Music bySongs:
Pritam
Background Score:
Salim-Sulaiman
CinematographyRavi Yadav
Edited byHussain A. Burmawala
Production
company
Tips Music Films
Distributed byUTV Motion Pictures
Release date
  • 21 March 2008 (2008-03-21)
Running time
148 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹46 crore[1]
Box officeest.₹103.45 crore[2]

Race was filmed in Durban and Dubai on a budget of ₹46 crore. With a runtime of 148 minutes, it premiered worldwide on 21 March 2008, receiving positive to mixed reviews from critics. Race emerged a major box-office success, grossing a total of ₹103.45 crore worldwide,[3] and it was one of the year's highest-grossing Bollywood films.[4] It was dubbed into Tamil as Panthayam and Telugu as Race Telugu, and went on to spawn two sequels—Race 2 in 2013 and Race 3 in 2018, though the latter was a reboot.

Plot

A voice-over by RD (Anil Kapoor) introduces the four main characters: Ranvir Singh "Ronny" (Saif Ali Khan) who runs a successful business he inherited from his father. His younger brother Rajiv Singh (Akshaye Khanna) who mooches off of Ronny and is an alcoholic. Ronny is dating an upcoming model Sonia (Bipasha Basu), while his personal assistant Sophia (Katrina Kaif) appears to be secretly in love with him. Ronny is also involved in an intense competition with a rival horse-owner Kabir (Dalip Tahil). The film opens with a murder plot involving a car accident which Ronny narrowly survives. When Ronny loses money in a race because his jockey had been bribed by Kabir, Ronny plants a bomb in the jockey's car and kills him, showing Ronny to be a ruthless businessman. Later, Ronny also destroys Kabir when the latter offers him money to buy his business, which is in debt.

In a drunken stupor, Rajiv confesses to Ronny that he likes Sonia and that he would quit drinking if he could spend his life with a woman like her. Ronny immediately stops dating Sonia so that Rajiv can have her. Rajiv and Sonia begin dating and appear happy until, in a twist, Rajiv reveals he knows of Sonia's shady past and has a plan to use Sonia to his advantage. Rajiv reveals that his father had secured identical life-insurance policies for huge sums on each of the sons. He explains that he wants to kill Ronny in what would appear to be an accident and inherit $100 million in insurance payments and wants Sonia to play along. Sonia agrees to help in exchange for $20 million. They pretend to get married and Rajiv ignores Sonia in this fake-marriage while continuing to play an alcoholic. As per his instructions, Sonia seduces Ronny who confesses he loved her all along. Rajiv reveals the rest of his plan: to threaten to commit suicide in response to Sonia and Ronny's affair by leaping off a tall building, have Ronny appear on the terrace, and get Sonia to push Ronny off. However, it turns out Ronny was aware of the plan all along as Sonia had been keeping him updated, having always been in league with him. They then plan to apparently kill Rajiv, using his own plan against him.

Things go according to plan but Sonia double-crosses Ronny and pushes him off, saying she loved him, but the money was more important. Inspector RD appears at this point to investigate the death, accompanied by his idiotic assistant Mini (Sameera Reddy). Upon his arrival, he immediately suspects foul play in the death. During his investigation, Ronny's assistant Sophia reveals that she was married to Ronny and produces a legitimate marriage certificate. Sonia is shocked that their plan has been thwarted as Sophia is now the heir to the insurance money. In another twist, Sophia was in on the plan all along and is Rajiv's secret collaborator. Rajiv plans to bump off Sonia after he and Sophia get the insurance money. However, RD figures out during his investigation that Sophia and Rajiv had faked her marriage with Ranvir and that he had been tricked into signing the marriage certificate. RD confronts Rajiv about this and agrees to remain silent about it in exchange for $25 million.

Rajiv hires the same hitman who had attempted to murder Ronny at the beginning to kill Sonia, revealing that he had been behind the first murder attempt, too. Sonia is lured into following Rajiv and Sophia to a parking lot where the hitman attacks her. Just as the hitman is about to kill her, Ronny reappears and rescues her, killing the hitman in the process.

Later, when Rajiv and Sophia plan to celebrate, Ronny appears and confronts them. He explains that he had overheard Rajiv discussing the failed murder attempt with the hitman and had been playing along the whole time so he could get the insurance money from his own fake-death along with the insurance money from killing Rajiv. Discovering that Rajiv's hatred towards him as a half brother was his main reason for doing this, he allows Rajiv one last chance to win by agreeing to a car race. Ranvir shows up to the race in a sports car, whilst Rajiv doesn't. When Rajiv protests, he switches cars with Ranvir. This turns out to be a trick as Rajiv had tampered with the brakes on his own car. Ronny, in turn, lies to Rajiv, claiming he had planted a bomb in his car, similar to the one that killed the jockey, and that it would be detonated if Rajiv ever slowed down below 100  mp/h. This causes Rajiv to crash into a petroleum tank, killing him and Sophia, who had been riding with him. Ronny narrowly escapes death himself. Ronny then says that there was no bomb in the car and that Rajiv had "killed himself".

In the end, Ronny collects the insurance money from Rajiv and Sophia's death, along with the money from his own fake-death. Upon fleeing the city, he is stopped by Inspector RD, who had been in on the plan, too, and had helped Ronny fake his death and get the insurance money. Inspector RD takes his $25 million, only to find a bomb in the bag along with the money. The bomb does not detonate, and Ronny reveals that it was a mere precaution to see if RD would try to betray him and take all the money. Ranvir rewards RD for his relative honesty by allowing him to live, and the two drive off in opposite directions while RD hopes to never meet him again.

Cast

Main cast

Recurring cast

Soundtrack
Race
Soundtrack album by
Pritam
Released
  • 1 March 2008 (2008-03-01)
Recorded2008
GenreFeature Film Soundtrack
Length1:08:59
LanguageHindi
LabelTips Music
DirectorAbbas-Mustan
ProducerPritam
Pritam chronology
Mukhbiir
(2008)		 Race
(2008)		 Jannat
(2008)

The soundtrack of Race was released by Tips Music on March 1, 2008.[5] Composed by Pritam with lyrics by Sameer, Race had 7 original songs, 9 remixes and an instrumental theme. The song "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" was recorded after the release of the soundtrack, replacing the original song "Mujh Pe Toh Jadoo" in the film. Tips then re-distributed the soundtrack, adding "Khwab Dekhe (Sexy Lady)" after the release of the film.

Track listing
No.TitleSinger(s)Length
1."Zara Zara Touch Me"Monali Thakur04:25
2."Pehli Nazar Mein"Atif Aslam, Clinton Cerejo05:10
3."Khwab Dekhe"Pritam, Neeraj Shridhar, Monali Thakur04:37
4."Race Saanson Ki"Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar04:44
5."Race Is On My Mind"Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar04:54
6."Mujh Pe Toh Jadoo"Sunidhi Chauhan, Apache Indian, Taz04:36
7."Dekho Nashe Mein"Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Shaan04:17
8."Race Theme"Instrumental02:12
9."Pehli Nazar Mein" (Club Mix)Atif Aslam04:08
10."Pehli Nazar Mein" (Lounge Mix)Atif Aslam04:22
11."Zara Zara Touch Me" (Asain RnB Mix)Monali Thakur03:55
12."Zara Zara Touch Me" (Remix)Monali Thakur04:46
13."Dekho Nashe Mein" (Asain RnB Mix)Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Shaan04:19
14."Dekho Nashe Mein" (Latin Fiesta Mix)Sunidhi Chauhan, KK, Shaan04:05
15."Mujh Pe To Jadoo" (Remix)Sunidhi Chauhan, Apache Indian, Taz04:20
16."Race Is On My Mind" (Remix)Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar04:26
17."Race Saanson Ki" (Remix)Sunidhi Chauhan, Neeraj Shridhar04:27
Total length:1:08:59

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Bollywood Hungama[6]
Planet Bollywood[7]
Planet Bollywood[8]

Race got favourable reviews with the song "Pehli Nazar Mein" sung by Atif Aslam as the biggest hit of the album along with "Zara Zara Touch Me".[9] Aakash Gandhi Noted "Pritam gives us a fairly solid soundtrack, reminiscent of a lot of his 2006 works. However, he doesn't quite live up to the expectations he'd set for himself last year. Although, one thing is for sure - he always manages to come up with at least one really great composition in each of his outings. This time it's Pehli Nazar Mein." while Atta Khan wrote "the soundtrack of Race turns out to be a typical Pritam offering for a bigger profile movie; a few solid tracks that will make the intended impact on screen (especially for the promos) and could well elevate sales for the soundtrack as well. But in all other respects it is unspectacular, unoriginal and uninspiring and apart from 'Pehli Nazar Mein' and a few nice remixes by DJ Suketu, provides little scope for repeated listening". According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 17,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's fifth highest-selling.[10]

Plagiarism allegations

According to a Network 18 report, "Pehli Nazar Mein" and "Zara Zara Touch Me" were directly copied from the Korean song "Sa Rang Haeo" of korean series Sassy Girl and Leehom Wang's "Deep Within a Bamboo Grove".[11] Sony BMG Taiwan has issued a legal letter to Tips Industries claiming damages for the song "Zara Zara Touch Me".[12][13]

Release

Critical reception

Race opened to mixed response from critics. Raja Sen gave the film 1.5 out of 5 stars, saying it was a "carnival of twists".[14] However, Taran Adarsh gave the film 4 out of 5 stars, stating that "Race is a superb entertainer all the way", and that it "has not just style, but a lot of substance too".[15]

Box office

Race went on to become the fourth biggest Bollywood film of 2008 behind Ghajini, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Singh Is Kinng in terms of gross.[4] The film opened with a total of ₹356 million (US$5.0 million) in India, ₹900,000 in the United Kingdom and ₹840,000 in the United States. It netted ₹620 million in India,[16] before collecting $5 million from overseas. Race had grossed ₹158 million (US$2.2 million) in its opening weekend,[17] before collecting a worldwide gross of ₹1.06 billion.[18]

Awards and Nominations
Award Category Recipients and Nomninees Results
Producers Guild Film Awards Best Actress Bipasha Basu Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Katrina Kaif
Best Music Director Pritam
International Indian Film Academy Awards Best Villain Akshaye Khanna Won
Best Sound Recording Leslie Fernandes
Best Movie Ramesh S. Taurani, Kumar S. Taurani, Tips Films Pvt. Ltd. Nominated
Best Actress Bipasha Basu
Best Comedian Anil Kapoor
Best Music Director Pritam
Best Lyricist Sameer Anjaan for "Pehli Nazar Mein"
Best Male Playback Singer Atif Aslam for "Pehli Nazar Mein"
Best Female Playback Singer Monali Thakur for "Zara Zara Touch Me"
Filmfare Awards Best Music Director Pritam Nominated
Screen Awards Best Villain Akshaye Khanna Won

Sequel
Main article: Race 2

The original production team had announced plans to make a sequel called Race 2. Saif Ali Khan and Anil Kapoor returned to reprise their roles while John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel were new additions to the cast. Bipasha Basu was the only other returning member and appeared in a cameo role as Sonia.[19][20][21] The filming for Race 2 started on 5 October 2011.[22] It was released on 25 January 2013, and was another success, grossing over ₹1 billion (US$14 million) domestically.[23]

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References
  1. "Race - Movie - Box Office India". Box Office India.
  2. "Race - Movie - Box Office India". Box Office India.
  3. "Race - Movie - Box Office India". Box Office India.
  4. "Top Earners 2008". Box Office India.
  5. "Race (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Pritam on iTunes". iTunes. Retrieved 7 April 2016.
  6. "Race Music Review By Joginder Tuteja". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  7. "Race – Music Review by: Atta Khan". Planet Bollywood. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  8. "Race – Music Review by: Aakash Gandhi". Planet Bollywood. Retrieved 27 June 2011.
  9. Joginder Tuteja. "Race Music Review by Joginder Tuteja". entertainment.oneindia.in.
  10. "Music Hits 2000–2009 (Figures in Units)". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 24 June 2010.
  11. Sobhan, Usha. "Plagiarism: Chord that strings Pritam's music". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
  12. "Pritam or Plagiarism". interstellaroverdrive.
  13. "Pritam in trouble for copying Race song". Entertainment.OneIndia.in.
  14. Raja Sen. "Too many twists spoil this Race". Rediff.com.
  15. Taran Adarsh. "Race Movie Review By Taran Adarsh". bollywoodhungama.com.
  16. "All Time Grossers". Box Office India. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  17. http://www.boxofficeindia.com/overdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5347&nCat=
  18. "Top All Time Worldwide Grossers". Box office India. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
  19. "Sonakshi in Race 2". calcuttatube.com.
  20. Adarsh, Taran (22 February 2011). "'Race 2' ready to take-off". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  21. Joshi, Tushar (11 August 2011). "Ameesha Patel in Race 2". The Times of India. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  22. "Ameesha Patel signed opposite Anil Kapoor in Race 2". Bollywood Hungama. 11 August 2011. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  23. http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/432932/20130208/race-2-box-office-collection-saif-starrer.htm
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