Shivaay
Shivaay is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed and produced by Ajay Devgn under his banner Ajay Devgn FFilms. The story and screenplay are written by Sandeep Shrivastava and the film features Ajay Devgn in the lead titular role along with debutante actresses Sayyeshaa, Abigail Eames and Erika Kaar in lead roles. Mithoon composed the film's score and soundtrack. British band The Vamps and composer Jasleen Royal also contributed to the music. "Shivaay" was released on 28 October 2016 on the Diwali weekend. It was commercially successful, and ran for more than 50 days at  the box office. It won the 64th National Film Award for Best Special Effects in 2017. It was screened at the 2017 Shanghai International Film Festival on 17 June 2017. Plot. Shivaay (Ajay Devgn) is a skilled mountaineer who makes a living by providing treks and climbing expeditions to tourists. One day he meets Olga (Erika Kaar) and saves her from an avalanche. They eventually fall in love. Olga becomes pregnant but doesn't want the child. Shivaay begs her to give him the child, after which he will not stop her. Nine years later, Shivaay leads a happy life  with his mute daughter Gaura (Abigail Eames) until she discovers that Olga is still alive and in Bulgaria. Gaura insists Shivaay be taken to Bulgaria, and despite his old sorrows, Shivaay finally agrees to take her to Bulgaria, where he saves one young child from child traffickers. Shivaay seeks the Indian embassy's help in tracing Olga and is assigned to Anu (Sayyesha Saigal). The traffickers, led by the baron Ustinov and his right-hand man, the unseen Changez, come after Shivaay and kidnap Gaura. Shivaay chases the van, destroying various cars but loses the van and is arrested by  the Bulgarian police, charged with murder and trafficking. While in the police van, Shivaay imagines the officers in the van to be the same masked traffickers, attacks them, throwing out every single officer. The van accidentally falls off a dam, and the police think that Shivaay is dead. But Shivaay escapes by jumping from the van due to his skills and survives. Shivaay brings one of the saved prostitutes from a brothel to Anu's home to help her out. Anu, who misunderstood Shivaay earlier, agrees to help him. Olga, having now seen television coverage of Shivaay, meets him and  joins him. They seek Wahab (Vir Das) help to recover CCTV footage Shivaay's various chases. Ivanovich, Ustinov's henchman, is beaten badly when he arrives there, after which he reveals Ustinov's location, where Shivaay discovers that Gaura has been taken away to be sold into the flesh trade. Shivaay chases after the transport van carrying his daughter off to Romania. A prolonged and vicious fight ensues as Changez, now revealed to be Captain Nikolai of the Bulgarian Police, attacks Shivaay but gets killed by the latter. Gaura is reunited with Olga, who is now married to a wealthy  Bulgarian and can provide Gaura with every comfort. Shivaay doesn't want to lose Gaura, but, seeing as Olga now beseeches him, he heavy-heartedly leaves for the airport, where Gaura arrives &, requesting not to leave her, runs into his arms. Production. The shooting of the film started in November 2014, with the majority shot in Mussoorie, Bulgaria and Hyderabad. Release. "Shivaay" released on 28 October 2016. It released internationally in 60 countries including Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, and Chile. However, the film was not released in Pakistan. The film's runtime was later reduced by 19 minutes , and the new trimmed version was released in cinemas. Piracy issue. On 27 October 2016, "The Indian Express" published that self-proclaimed film critic Kamaal R Khan had uploaded the opening sequence of the film on Twitter, which he shot in a theater in Dubai. Devgn, the producer, was quoted saying that he would take legal action against Khan. Reception. Critical reception. "Bollywood Hungama" gave Shivaay 3.5/5 stars. ""Shivaay" is a perfect emotional thriller that scores high on the account of its breathtaking visuals, amazing action and a high octane performance". "Dainik Jagran" rated the film 3.5/5, describing it as  full of emotion and action. "The Times of India" gave the film 3/5, praising the cinematography but criticizing the 3-hour runtime which was later trimmed. "Mumbai Mirror" also rated the film 3/5, stating that the film "scores fairly on most accounts." Bollywood Life rated the film 3/5, writing "Ajay Devgn's directorial is all about its stunning visuals and breath taking action scenes." BookMyShow reviewed the film and called the film a "perfect Diwali gift you can give yourself and your family this (Diwali) weekend." Rajeev Masand for News 18 gave the film 2 stars out of 5 and  wrote, "What Ajay Devgan the star deserved, was a sharper director and a better script. In the end, there's little else to Shivaay than the eye-watering locations (both in the Himalayas and in Bulgaria), and occasionally poignant moments between Devgan and the little girl who plays his daughter. Everything else is noise. Way too much noise." Writing for "The Hindu", Namrata Joshi commented that the movie moves too slow, and "turns out almost three hours long with just a wisp of a story." Anna MM Vetticad of Firstpost described it as a heavy-handed, over-stretched film. Rating  the film 1.5 stars out of 5, Ananya Bhattacharya of IndiaToday.in praised the cinematography but criticized the writing. Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave the film 1 out 5, calling it an "absolute catastrophe". Shubhra Gupta of "Indian Express" wrote in a 1 out of 5-star review, "The only thing your eye can rest on is the spectacular scenery. The rest is a bloated star vehicle." Box office. The four-week worldwide grossing of film was between and . India. "Shivaay" was released alongside Karan Johar's romantic drama "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil" and collected 102.4 million from India on its  opening day, which was less than "Ae Dil Hai Mushkil"s 13.30 crore domestic first day. "Shivaay" grossed more than 1.39 billion. Overseas. The film collected from North America (USA and Canada), from UK, from Australia, from New Zealand and from Malaysia. Soundtrack. "Shivaay"s soundtrack was composed by Mithoon with a guest vocal appearance by the British pop-rock band The Vamps. The lyrics were penned by Sayeed Quadri and Sandeep Shrivastava. On 11 September 2016 the title track, "Bolo Har Har Har", was released, sung by Mithoon, Mohit Chauhan, Sukhwinder Singh, Badshah, Megha Sriram Dalton, and Anugrah. The second song , "Darkhaast", was released on 22 September 2016, and featured vocals by Arijit Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan. All music rights of "Shivaay" were acquired by T-Series. Awards. Vinay Kumar Mishra Game. An official game based on this film has been released by Zapak Mobile Games Pvt. Ltd, for Android mobile phone users.