''Deshdrohi'' ( Traitor) is a 2008 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

action thriller film The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...

directed by Jagdish A. Sharma. It was scripted and produced by

KRK Krk (; ; ; ; archaic German: ''Vegl'', ; ) is a Croatian island in the northern Adriatic Sea, located near Rijeka in the Bay of Kvarner and part of Primorje-Gorski Kotar county. Krk is tied with Cres as the largest Adriatic island, depending o ...

, who also appeared in the lead role alongside Manoj Tiwari,

Hrishitaa Bhatt Hrishitaa Bhatt (born 10 May 1981), also spelled as Hrishita Bhat, is an Indian actress and model. She debuted in the film ''Asoka (2001 film), Asoka'' (2001) opposite Shah Rukh Khan, but it was ''Haasil (film), Haasil'' (2003) that brought her f ...

, Gracy Singh and

Zulfi Syed Zulfi Syed also known as Zulfikar Syed is an Indian model and actor. Syed Zulfi is a former winner of '' Gladrags Manhunt Contest''. He was a contestant in ''Bigg Boss''. Biography Syed was first noticed when he won ''Gladrags Manhunt'' contest ...

. Released on 14 November 2008, it was subject to negative reviews from critics, and is considered as one of the worst Bollywood films.

Plot

The themes of the film consist of politics, prostitution, pimping, and corruption. At the start of the film, a man named Raja Yadav ( Kamaal Rashid Khan) arrives in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

from

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

searching for a watchman's job after leaving his father and neighbour, Neha, both behind in his village in Uttar Pradesh. In Mumbai, Raja meets Shekhar, a gangster, who works as a watchman, and Sonia, who works for a drug dealer named Baba Kadam. At one point, Raja helps Sonia escape from an attack by a group working for another drug dealer called Rajan Nayak, Baba Kadam's rival. The two eventually fall in love. After realising that living in Mumbai is difficult for North Indians, Raja petitions Shrivastav, a North Indian politician who exploits common people for his political career, for help. The drug mafia of Mumbai city is assisted by politicians, and the media want to reveal the corruption prevalent in the city. Due to his involvement, Raja is marked for death by Rajan Nayak, who contracts a police inspector to kill both him and Sonia. However, he fails and is killed. The police pursue Raja and Sonia, who are also hiding from Rajan Nayak. Raja attempts to obtain help from Shrivastav to no avail, and even Sonia's boss, Baba Kadam, abandons the pair. Pushed to the limit, Raja resolves to kill all involved, in which he is helped by Inspector Rohit Raghav, the new husband of Raja's village sweetheart.

Cast

* Kamaal Rashid Khan as Raja Yadav * Gracy Singh as Sonia Patil * Aman Verma as Minister Shrivastav *

as Neha Rohit Raghav (dubbed by

Mona Ghosh Shetty Mona Ghosh Shetty is an Indian dubbing (filmmaking), dubbing actor and dubbing director. She has dubbed in Hindi language, Hindi, Bengali language, Bengali, English, Marathi language, Marathi, and Urdu language, Urdu language projects. Persona ...

) * Manoj Tiwari as Shekhar *

Kader Khan Kader Khan (22 October 1937 – 31 December 2018) was an Indian actor, screenwriter and film producer. As an actor, he appeared in over 300 Bollywood films after his debut in the 1973 film '' Daag'', starring Rajesh Khanna, as a prosecuting l ...

as Abdul Bhai *

Mukesh Tiwari Mukesh Tiwari is an Indian actor, who has worked predominantly in Bollywood and few Tamil, Punjabi, Kannada and Telugu films. He is known for playing negative and comic side roles. He graduated from National School of Drama National Scho ...

as Rajan Naik, a corrupt politician *

as Inspector Rohit Raghav *

Ranjeet Ranjeet (born as Gopal Bedi; 12 September 1942) is an Indian actor and film director. He has mostly played villain roles in over 200 Hindi films. He has also played a positive character in the TV series '' Aisa Des Hai Mera''. He has also ...

as Raja's father *

Avtar Gill Avtar Gill (born 14 May 1950) is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the De ...

as Raja's grandfather * Aryan Vaid in cameo appearance in a song * Yashpal Sharma as Baba Kadam *

Raza Murad Raza Murad (born 23 November 1950) is an Indian actor who primarily appears in Hindi films. He has acted in over 250 Hindi films and has also appeared in Bhojpuri, Punjabi and other languages and on Hindi television. Early life He is the so ...

as Chief Minister of Maharashtra * Kim Sharma as Herself *

Nirmal Pandey Nirmal Pandey (10 August 1962 – 18 February 2010) was an Indian Bollywood actor who was known for his roles of Vikram Mallah in Shekhar Kapur's '' Bandit Queen'' (1994), and Dajjal in television series ''Hatim''. He portrayed a transvestite ...

as Deputy Chief Minister Nagesh Kulkarni *

Shiva Rindani Shiva Rindani (born Mukesh Rindani) is an Indian actor who appeared in Bollywood, Hindi films - mostly - in either villainous roles or in comic roles. He has appeared in more than 100 films. His latest film was ''Deshdrohi'' in 2008, and ''H ...

as Encounter specialist Rajesh Sharma *

Arun Bakshi Arun Bakshi is an Indian film and television actor and also a singer. He has acted as a character actor in over 100 Hindi films, and as a playback singer has also sung 298 songs. He has also worked in Punjabi and Bhojpuri cinema. He also playe ...

as Shrivastav's P.A. * Anil Nagrath as Deshmukh, the informer * Kim Sharma in a special appearance * Rosa Catalano in a special appearance

Music

Soundtrack was composed by Nikhil-Vinay. *Ye Ishq Gunah - Shaan *Tu Jaan Se - Zubeen garg, Shweta Pandit *Mera Vaada Raha - Udit Narayan, Mahalakshmi Iyer *Ye Ishq Gunah (female) - Khushboo Jain *Bewaja Yun - Sukhwinder Singh, Khushboo Jain *Mere Halaat - Zubeen Garg *Tujhe Dekhoon To - Shaan, Shweta Pandit *Hum Karke Pyar - Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal

Controversy

There were accusations that the movie was attempting to profit off of the 2008 attacks on Uttar Pradeshi and Bihari migrants in Maharashtra. The head of the Mumbai office of the

Central Board of Film Certification The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is a statutory Motion picture content rating system, film-certification body in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of ...

opined that the movie has scenes that were derogatory to a particular community.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (translation: Maharashtra Reformation Army; MNS) is a Regionalist Indian organisation based in the state of Maharashtra and operates on the ideology of Hindutva and Marathi Manus. It was founded on 9 March 2006 ...

expressed their protests against the movie. The Mumbai police served a notice for a special screening to find any objectionable content that might trigger unrest. Due to the protests and problems with exhibitors, the release date of the movie was postponed by a week from the original date of 7 November. The movie was released on 14 November, except in

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

, where it was banned by the state government for 60 days under the Bombay Cinema Regulation Act. The producers of the film petitioned the

Bombay High Court The High Court of Bombay is the High courts of India, high court of the States and union territories of India, states of Maharashtra and Goa in India, and the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu. It is seated primarily ...

to lift the ban on the movie. After a two-month ban it was released on 23 January 2009 in

Reviews

The film has a 1.2 rating on IMDb and received negative reviews overall.

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 1158700 2008 films 2000s Hindi-language films 2008 action thriller films Indian action thriller films 2008 directorial debut films Films scored by Nikhil-Vinay Films about race and ethnicity Fictional portrayals of the Maharashtra Police Films about politicians Indian political thriller films Film censorship in India Censored films Race-related controversies in film Works subject to a lawsuit Indian gangster films Films about the illegal drug trade Films set in Mumbai Films set in Uttar Pradesh Films shot in Mumbai Films shot in Uttar Pradesh 2008 controversies