Knock Out is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Mani Shankar. The film stars Sanjay Dutt, Irrfan Khan and Kangana Ranaut, and is an unauthorized remake of Phone Booth. In October 2010, the Bombay High Court ordered the film's producers to pay a portion of their revenues to 20th Century Fox, who own the rights to Phone Booth. Released on 15 October 2010, the film was a commercial failure.[2]

Knock Out
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMani Shankar
Written byMani Shankar
Produced bySohail Maklai
StarringSanjay Dutt
Irfan Khan
Kangana Ranaut
Gulshan Grover
Rukhsar Rehman
Sushant Singh
Abdullah Jaidi
CinematographyNatarajan Subramaniam
Edited byBunty Nagi
Chandan Arora
Music byGourov Dasgupta
Vishal Dadlani (lyrics)
Panchhi Jalonvi (lyrics)
Shellee (lyrics)
Distributed bySohail Maklai Entertainment Pvt Ltd
Aap Entertainment Limited
Release date
  • 15 October 2010 (2010-10-15)
Running time
116 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box office62 million (US$740,000)

Plot

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Bachubhai (Irrfan Khan) has come to a phone booth to make a call. He is interrupted by a man who interrupts him again. Bachubhai tells him to stop interrupting. While moving out of the phone booth after the call, the phone rings. Bachubhai picks up the call only to get surprised by an unknown caller who ensures that Bachubhai does not leave the phone booth until his motive of calling is achieved. Another man interrupts, who is shot dead by that unknown person from a faraway building. After seeing the incident, the police, the public, and the news reporter, Nidhi Srivastav (Kangana Ranaut), arrive. Everyone is seeing everything, as Bachubhai has been told to do what the person on the phone call says or he will shoot him. Later, police officer Sushant Singh is transferred, and another encounter specialist has been called. Meanwhile, Bachubhai, who is working for a corrupt politician who has 320 billion black money, has been told to transfer the money on a government account to give back the money to the public. Bachubhai does everything as the phone caller says. At the end of the movie, the money has been transferred to the public account, and it is revealed that Veer Vijay Singh (Sanjay Dutt) is a Chief of Investigation Bureau. Bachubhai, after transferring the money, nothing happens to him.

Cast

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Controversy

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The film was initially rumored to be a remake of the American film Phone Booth, which the producer Sohail Maklai denied.[3] 20th Century Studios filed a complaint against the makers of Knock Out before the film's release. The Bombay High Court had initially passed an injunction against the film's release after watching both the films. However, the producers were allowed to release the film on appeal, and deposited INR 1.5 crore to the court.

The matter was reheard in March 2013, with the court decreeing the case and awarding INR 1.25 crore to Fox, further telling the producers of Phone Booth to not exploit their film in any manner whatsoever from 5 March 2013 onwards.[4]

Reception

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Nikhat Kazmi of The Times of India gave the film 3 stars out of 5 stars, noting "all the action transpiring around the phone booth" to be the only similarity with Phone Booth.[5] Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, similarly pointing out that "what follows after a point bears no resemblance to that film (Phone Booth)", and also found it similar to A Wednesday in spite of their different storylines. He praised the focused plot and the finale, while criticizing the film's occasional repetitiveness.[6] Patcy N. from Rediff.com gave the film 1.5 stars out of 5, praising Irrfan Khan's performance, while criticizing the climax and the overall execution.[7]

Soundtrack

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The film's music was given by Gourov Dasgupta, with a background score by Atul Raninga and Sanjay Wandrekar. The soundtrack has five original tunes, one remix, and an alternate version of one song.[8]

# Song Singers Lyrics Music Director
1. "Knock Out" Title track Vishal Dadlani Panchhi Jalonvi Gourav Dasgupta
2. "Khushnuma Sa" Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
3. "Hungama" Sunidhi Chauhan
4. "Maula" KK
5. "Khushnuma Sa Woh" Krishna Beura Shelle
6. "Hungama" (Remix) Sunidhi Chauhan Panchhi Jalonvi
7. "Gangubai Pe Aai Jawani" Sumitra Iyer, Sanjeev-Darshan Sameer Sanjeev-Darshan

References

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  1. ^ "Knock Out". British Board of Film Classification.
  2. ^ "Knock Out - Movie". Box Office India.
  3. ^ "Is Bollywood's Knockout based on Phone Booth?". India Today. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
  4. ^ "In landmark judgement, Knock Out makers lose copyright infringement case". NDTV. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  5. ^ "Knock Out". Times of India. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
  6. ^ "Knock Out Movie Review". Bollywood Hungama. 15 October 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  7. ^ "Review: Knocked Out of its wits!". Rediff.com. Retrieved 15 October 2010.
  8. ^ "Knock Out Music Review and online listening link". Music Aloud. 30 September 2010. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
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