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Toofaan
Official release poster
Directed by	Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Written by	Anjum Rajabali Vijay Maurya Farhan Akhtar
Produced by	Ritesh Sidhwani Farhan Akhtar Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Starring	Farhan Akhtar Paresh Rawal Mrunal Thakur Hussain Dalal Supriya Pathak Mohan Agashe
Narrated by	Vijay Raaz
Cinematography	Jay Pinak Oza
Edited by	Meghna Manchanda Sen
Music by	Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Dub Sharma Samuel-Akanksha Daniel Lozinski
Production companies	Excel Entertainment ROMP Pictures
Distributed by	Amazon Prime Video
Release date	16 July 2021 (2021-07-16)
Running time	162 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Toofaan (transl. Storm) is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language sports drama film directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. It stars Farhan Akhtar, Paresh Rawal, Mrunal Thakur and Hussain Dalal. In the film, Aziz Ali is an orphaned extortionist in Dongri who beats up shopkeepers for money. He later picks up boxing and trains in the sport, earning the titular moniker on his road to fame until his downfall and subsequent redemption.

Toofaan premiered on 16 July 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.

Plot

Aziz Ali (Farhan Akhtar) is an orphaned extortionist in Dongri who beats up shopkeepers for money. He gets into a fight and goes to a hospital, where the doctor, Ananya Prabhu (Mrunal Thakur) criticizes him for being an extortionist and orders him out. One day, at a local boxing school, Ali comes across a video of Muhammad Ali and decides to start boxing.

He goes to Coach Narayan "Nana" Prabhu's (Paresh Rawal) boxing school but is defeated in a match because of his lack of technique. Nana is Ananya's father. When Ali visits the hospital again, Ananya is kinder when she learns that he was taking care of and buying gifts for orphaned children, but is shocked upon seeing him rough up a person on the street. She confronts him and asks if he wants to be a boxer or a gangster.

Ali decides to go back to Nana's boxing school after quitting his lifestyle as an extortionist and begins training. Eventually, he earns his boxing license, and starts winning matches, and is dubbed "Toofaan" by Nana. He falls in love with Ananya, and Nana angrily beats him upon finding, believing that Aziz is conning his daughter, due to Aziz, who is a Muslim, being in a relationship with a Hindu. Nana also disowns Ananya and throws her out of his house. Aziz and Ananya start looking for a home but find it difficult to due to their religious differences. The only house that they can stay in requires Aziz to return to his gangster lifestyle for his old boss, which he refuses. Instead, Ananya decides to stay in a women's hostel.

At his next boxing match, Aziz is offered a large sum of money to lose, which he does, but is later caught, and receives a five-year ban. After reconciling with Ananya, they marry, and sometime later, have a child, whom they name Myra. However, Nana stops speaking to Ananya, and does not want anything to do with his grandchild. 5 years later, Aziz is an unfit father to Myra who receives his reinstatement boxing letter, but trashes it as he does not want to return to boxing. After informing Ananya, she goes behind his back and gets his new boxing license.

On the way back, at a train station, a stampede occurs and Ananya dies. Wanting to fulfill Ananya's dream, Aziz returns to boxing and gets back in shape. Meanwhile, Nana begins to spend more time with Myra after Ananya's death. Aziz gets back in shape and wins a few matches, but in one match, the judge, Darmesh Patil (Darshan Kumar), who happens to be a former state champion whom Aziz earlier defeated, bribes the referee, causing Aziz to loose. His opponent performed a series of illegal punches, which the referee did not call out.

Nana visits Patil and secretly records him explaining what had happened. Patil is later fired from the boxing federation and Aziz is reinstated. In the final, Aziz is facing Prithvi Singh (Gaganpreet Sharma), who is known for sending his opponents to hospital before the second round can begin. Aziz starts losing, but Nana comes back to coach him and motivates him to fight for Ananya.

During the Credits, Aziz wins.

Cast

• Farhan Akhtar as Boxer Aziz "Ajju" Ali
• Paresh Rawal as Narayan "Nana" Prabhu, Aziz Ali's coach and father-in-law
• Mrunal Thakur as Dr. Ananya Prabhu Ali, Aziz Ali's wife and Nana's daughter
• Hussain Dalal as Munna
• Supriya Pathak as Sister D'Souza
• Mohan Agashe as Bala Kaka
• Milind Pathak as Inspector Ramakant Shinde
• Imran Rashid as Mohsin
• Deven Khote as Merchant Sir
• Arhan Chowdary as Parvez
• Jatin Sapru as Commentator 1 at State Championship
• RJ Anmol as Commentator 2 at State Championship
• Akashdeep Sabir as Nirbhay Mallick
• Gauri Phulka as Myra Sumati Aziz Ali / Tuk Tuk
• Sahil Patel as Postman Shankar Sayaji Thakur
• Gaganpreet Sharma as Boxer Prithvi Singh

Special appearances

• Darshan Kumar as Dharmesh Patil
• Vijay Raaz as Jaffar Bhai
• Sonali Kulkarni as Sumati Prabhu, Nana's wife, Ananya's mother and Aziz Ali's mother-in-law
• Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra as IBF Secretary Anup Verma
• Salvier Dmello as Nana's Boxer at Club

Production

Filming commenced in Dongri on 26 August 2019 and was completed in March 2020. Darshan Kumar who plays the role of boxer Dharmesh Patil was trained by Hollywood actor Will Smith's trainer Darrell Foster. Boxer Neeraj Goyat, who is himself a professional boxer trained Farhan Akhtar for his role and also acted in the movie.

Release

Earlier the movie screening was announced to be released on 2 October 2020, which coincided with Gandhi Jayanti. However, it got advanced to 18 September 2020, which later on was indefinitely delayed due to COVID-19 pandemic in India. On March 10, 2021 Amazon Prime Video announced that the film would be released on their platform on May 21, but was later postponed after India faced a massive 2nd wave of COVID-19. Finally, the film premiered on 16 July 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.

Reception

Upon release, Toofaan received mixed reviews from the film critics, who praised Akhtar's performance but criticized the screenplay and the predictable plot of the film. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 50% based on 16 reviews and an average rating of 5.6/10.

Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express gave Toofan a rating of 3.5/5 and wrote, "Toofaan is your underprivileged-underdog-to-boxing-champion tale whose arc is utterly predictable, but what makes this film such an enjoyable watch is the way it has been written and performed. You know exactly where it will go, but the journey pops with smart feints and jabs, and ends with a satisfying punch". Gautaman Bhaskaran from News 18 wrote "Farhan Akhtar is exceptional first as the Dongri 'Dada' and later as a mellowed lover, but unfortunately, the film clutters its canvas with too many issues". Anna M. M. Vetticad from the Firstpost gave Toofan a rating of 2.75/5 and described the film as "A promising – and long – tale of boxing, Islamophobia and love fizzles out in its third hour".

Soundtrack

The music for the film is composed by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Dub Sharma, Samuel–Akanksha and Daniel Lozinski while the lyrics are written by Javed Akhtar, D'Evil and Manoj Kumar Nath.

References

1. "TOOFAN: Farhan Akhtar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra kick-start the shoot on Janmashtami". Bollywood Hungama. 25 August 2019. Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
2. ^ "Farhan Akhtar starrer Toofan to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on July 16". Bollywood Hungama. 16 June 2021. Archived from the original on 16 June 2021. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
3. Desk, India com Entertainment (16 July 2021). "Toofan Leaked Online, Full HD Available For Free Download Online on Tamilrockers And Other Torrent Sites". India News, Breaking News | India.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
4. "'The calm before the storm': Farhan Akhtar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Toofan begins shooting". Times Now. 25 August 2019. Archived from the original on 25 August 2019. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
5. "Darshan Kumaar on Boxing Face-off With Farhan Akhtar in Toofan: I Felt Dazed, Couldn't Open My Mouth". News18. 17 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
6. "Boxer Neeraj Goyat: Farhan Akhtar has gone extreme limits to do justice to 'Toofan'". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
7. "Toofan first look: Farhan Akhtar transforms into champion boxer for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's sports drama". Firstpost. 30 September 2019. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
8. "Farhan Akhtar starrer Toofaan set to release on Amazon Prime Video on May 21 postponed amid COVID-19 crisis". Bollywood Hungama. 3 May 2021. Archived from the original on 3 May 2021. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
9. "Toofaan review: Farhan Akhtar starrer gets mixed response, some calling it "inspirational" while others "predictable"". 16 July 2021. Archived from the original on 16 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
10. "Toofaan Movie Reviews - Critics". 17 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
11. "Toofaan movie review: Shah Rukh Khan reviews Farhan Akhtar's film; Twitter gives its verdict". International Business Times. 17 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
12. "TOOFAAN (2021)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 21 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
13. "Toofaan movie review: Farhan Akhtar movie pops with smart jabs, ends with a satisfying punch". The Indian Express. 17 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
14. "Toofan Movie Review: Farhan Akhtar is Exceptional As Boxer Aziz Ali But The Film is Not". News18. 16 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
15. "Toofaan movie review: A promising – and long – tale of boxing, Islamophobia and love fizzles out in its third hour". Firstpost. 16 July 2021. Archived from the original on 18 July 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
16. "Toofaan – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Jiosaavn. 2 July 2021. Archived from the original on 5 July 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.

External links

• Toofaan at IMDb
• Toofaan at Bollywood Hungama

• 2021 films
• 2020s Hindi-language films
• Indian boxing films
• Indian sports drama films
• 2021 drama films
• 2020s sports drama films
• Amazon Prime Video original films
• Indian interfaith romance films
• Films set in Mumbai
• Films shot in Mumbai
• Indian gangster films