Namastey London

***Namastey London*** (transl. Greetings London) is a 2007 Indian romantic comedy-drama film directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif. It also stars Rishi Kapoor, Javed Sheikh, Upen Patel and Clive Standen in supporting roles. The movie is originally based on a true life story of Akshay Kumar's friend. Riteish Deshmukh has a cameo role in the film. Critics have noted similarities between the film and the 1970 Manoj Kumar-directed *Purab Aur Paschim*, though the director denied it being a remake. The film became a box-office success upon release and also earned Kumar a Filmfare Award for Best Actor

## *Namastey London*

### Music by

Songs: Himesh ReshammiyaBackground score: Salim-Sulaiman

### Box Office

₹714 million

nomination.

## Plot

Indian-born Manmohan Malhotra (Rishi Kapoor) re-located to London, England, established himself, returned to India, married Bebo (Nina Wadia), and after four years got a visa for her so that she could live with him. Shortly thereafter, she gave birth to Jasmeet (Katrina Kaif). Manmohan was always embarrassed by Bebo as she was fat and could not speak English. As a result, he always left her out of important occasions, while he socialised. Bebo did not want Jasmeet to end up like her, so she got her educated in an English school, encouraged her to mingle with British friends, and Jasmeet was transformed into Jazz – a beautiful young woman, modern in looks, talk, habits, and heart.

Her father had set her to meet a young lad, Bobby Bedi (Ritesh Deshmukh), though the date turns out to be a disaster and Bobby rejects her. Manmohan thinks that it is impossible to get him an Indian son-in-law, although his British Pakistani friend, Parvez Khan (Javed Sheikh), is in a similar situation with his son, Imran (Upen Patel), who has a blonde girlfriend, Susan (Tiffany Mulheron). Manmohan takes his family for a tour in India and forces Jasmeet to marry Arjun Singh (Akshay Kumar) who does not know how to speak English.

On their return to London, Jasmeet announces that she will marry Charlie Brown (Clive Standen), who is well educated and has good friends and connections, even with Prince Charles. She refuses to recognise her marriage to Arjun as there is no legal proof of the wedding. When Jasmeet is introduced to the friends of the Brown family, she is subjected to considerable abuse (snake charmers, Indian rope tricks, tandoori chicken) as well as a quote from Winston Churchill: 'When we leave India, the country will be in the hands of goons'. Arjun then tells the gentleman about the achievements of India which includes about the derivation of English words from Sanskrit like 'Father', 'Brother' , 'Trignometry' and 'Geometry'. During this period, Jazz becomes close with Arjun who still supports her. Charlie Brown then has a rugby match against the Indians and Arjun, with the Indians emerging triumphant and Brown is verbally abusive towards the Indians. Imran is then asked by Susan's parents to leave Islam, become a Christian, change his name to Emmanuel or Ian, as well as provide written proof that his family is not associated with terrorists. The film ends on a happy note when Imran decides not to be a Christian and Susan is accepted by Imran's family; Jazz realises that Arjun lied to her about not knowing English and runs away from her wedding to Charlie Brown, and goes with Arjun back to India where they are seen riding Arjun's motorcycle. While they are on the motorcycle Arjun reveals that all along he knew how to speak English, and that he had already dropped the clue when he got offended at Charlie's uncle's derogatory comments on India. He adds that he lied because he was still an Indian at heart.

## Cast

* Akshay Kumar as Arjun Ballu Singh
* Katrina Kaif as Jasmeet Malhotra Singh (Jazz)
* Rishi Kapoor as Manmohan Malhotra
* Nina Wadia as Bebo Malhotra
* Clive Standen as Charles Brown (Charlie)
* Upen Patel as Imran Khan
* Javed Sheikh as Parvez Khan (Imran's father)
* Tiffany Mulheron as Susan
* Riteish Deshmukh as Bobby Bedi (guest appearance)
* Gurpreet Ghuggi as the taxi driver (special appearance)
* Vir Das as prospective groom no. 1
* Kunal Kumar as prospective groom no. 2
* Manpreet Banga as prospective groom no. 3
* Prince Charles as himself (special appearance)

## Casting

Priyanka Chopra was the original choice for the role of Jasmeet Malhotra Singh (Jazz). However, Salman Khan asked the lead actor and his friend Akshay Kumar to replace Priyanka Chopra with his then-girlfriend Katrina Kaif at the last moment.

## Release

### Reception

The reviews of the film were generally positive. Taran Adarsh of indiafm.com wrote, "*Namastey London* is addictive stuff. You watch it once, you wanna watch it again." Akshay Kumar received almost unanimous praise for his portrayal of Arjun Singh, with a critic saying "Kumar certainly leaves his mark throughout the flick. One of the coolest performances of the star." Adarsh said "One of his finest performances so far, Namastey London also marks the coming of age of an actor who was often dubbed as an action hero or a funster. Akshay not only wins the heart of Katrina on screen, he's sure to win the hearts of millions of moviegoers with a terrific portrayal in this film." On Katrina Kaif's performance he wrote, "she handles the complex part with remarkable ease. The pretty lass is only getting better with every film." Despite the generally favourable reviews, Prachi Singh of Moviewalah panned the film, with a verdict of 2 out of 5 stars

### Box office

*Namastey London* opened to a good response and mainly picked up momentum after the second and third day of its release, a major reason being India's exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup. The film did extremely well in the northern parts of India, especially in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh. It also did well in Mumbai and in the first week of its release collected ₹73,575,657. The film was also received well in other parts of the country. The success of the film ended a long spell of box office failures since the release of *Salaam-e-Ishq: A Tribute to Love* in January 2007. The film went on to gross ₹714,102,500 worldwide, making it one of the top hits of 2007.

The film was also successful overseas. It debuted at number 9 on the UK charts and similarly debuted within the top 20 in the United States and Australian charts. The film collected £238,841 in the first week of its release. As of 27 July 2007, the movie grossed an estimated $15,273,747 in five territories, which included the United States ($4,149,772), Australia ($197,148), India ($17,267,662), Malaysia ($15,285), and the United Kingdom ($9,021,900).

## Soundtrack

The soundtrack album was released on 27 January 2007 and received good reviews. The songs were composed by Himesh Reshammiya. Salim-Sulaiman composed the film score. The song "Chakna Chakna" and its remix version were penned by Sameer, all other songs were penned by Javed Akhtar.

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## Remake and Sequel

The film was unofficially remade in Bengali as *Paran Jai Jaliya Re* starring Dev and Subhashree Ganguly. The Kolkata High Court in December 2009 banned the screening of the film for plagiarism after a petition was filed by the film's producers.

In March 2011, Shah had announced a sequel, *Namaste England*. Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha were initially signed to play the leads in the sequel. *Namaste England* was released in October 2018 with Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor in lead roles.

## Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namastey\_London