''Laal Rang'' () is a 2016 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

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

crime drama film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as drama or gangster film, but al ...

directed by Syed Ahmad Afzal and produced by Nitika Thakur and Krian Media. Randeep Hooda,

Akshay Oberoi Akshay Oberoi (born 1 January 1985) is an American actor of Indian descent, who works in Hindi films. After making his acting debut as a child in the 2002 comedy-drama '' American Chai'', Oberoi played his first leading role in Rajshri Product ...

and Piaa Bajpai star in the lead roles. Set in

Haryana Haryana () is a States and union territories of India, state located in the northern part of India. It was carved out after the linguistic reorganisation of Punjab, India, Punjab on 1 November 1966. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with les ...

, the film depicts the theft of blood from

blood banks A blood bank is a center where blood gathered as a result of blood donation is stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a department of a hospital usually within a clinical pathology labor ...

and how the lives of two friends involved in the trade get affected. The film was released on 22 April 2016. It received mixed reviews, with praise for the story, performances and production values but criticism towards the slow screenplay.

Plot

Rajesh, a youngster, is in love with fellow student Poonam. Rajesh meets Shankar, the owner of an illegal blood bank. Shankar has recently had his heart broken by a Punjabi girl called Rashi, whom he still misses. Though initially, Rajesh is not aware of Shankar's illegal trades, he likes it the instant he learns about it and becomes involved in earning quick money to impress Poonam. Slowly, as the business kicks off, Rajesh starts showing off his money to Poonam. The cops, who have a hint of this business, are also closing in on the illegal activity. Shankar confesses his crime and is arrested, saving Rajesh and Poonam's relationship. Five years later, Shankar is released from prison, and he reunites with Rajesh and Poonam. The couple has a son that they have named after Shankar.

Cast

* Randeep Hooda as Shankar Singh Malik *

as Rajesh Dhiman * Rajniesh Duggall as SP Gajraj Singh * Pia Bajpai as Poonam Sharma * Meenakshi Dixit as Raashi * Shreya Narayan as Neelam *Rajendra Sethi as Pushpendra *

Ashutosh Kaushik Ashutosh Kaushik (born 1981 or 1982) is an Indian actor and reality TV participant. Kaushik was the winner of '' MTV Hero Honda Roadies 5.0'' in 2007 and the 2nd season of '' Bigg Boss'' in 2008. Later he was also seen in '' MTV Roadies 8''. ...

as Vishnu *Priya Gupta as Sunita *Jaihind Kumar as Harnaam *Abhimanue Arun as Suraj aka Draculla *Kumar Saurabh as Shani Baba *Rehan Kidwai as Dr. Sabharwal *Sanjay Dumroo as Mithuniya *Kulvinder Baksshish as Naresh *Pall Singh as Prakash *Atul Chouthmal as Sub Inspector Swaraj *Pushkar Anand as Prahlad

Production

The film was largely filmed in and around

Karnal Karnal () is a city located in the state of Haryana, India and is the administrative headquarters of Karnal District. The city is well connected as it lies on National Highway 01, in the south of the city lies the cities of Panipat and Sonipa ...

Release

Critical reception

Mohar Basu of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' gave it 2 stars out of 5, wrote that film is half-baked and unconvincing. Despite the grit, it never becomes a riveting film. Rohit Vats of ''

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English language, English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media Limited, an entity controlled by the Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia, the daughter o ...

'' gave it 3 stars out of 5, wrote that movie has a shade grey and is much more high voltage than an ordinary thriller. Shubhra Gupta of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' gave it 1.5 stars out of 5, quoted that film is meant to be based on two `real life’ incidents, but it doesn't tell us which. Anna MM Vetticad of ''

Firstpost Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions. The Network 18 group was originally owned by Raghav Bahl. In January 2012, the gro ...

'' criticized that title is hot but film is not. Namrata Thakker of ''

Rediff.com Rediff.com, stylized as rediff.com, is an Indian news, information, entertainment, and shopping website. Founded by Ajit Balakrishnan in 1996, it was the first Indian website to become a mainstream news media organization. It is headquartered i ...

'' praised actor and criticized film by giving it 2.5 stars out of 5.

Saibal Chatterjee Saibal Chatterjee is an Indian film critic, editor and documentary screenwriter. He was a columnist at ''BBC News'', ''Business Standard'', ''Hindustan Times'' and '' The Financial Express''. He has also written for ''The Telegraph'', ''The Tim ...

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. It was founded in 1984 by economist Prannoy Roy and journalist Radhika Roy. NDTV began as a production house for news segments, ...

said that the characters aren't insignificant.

Music

The music for ''Laal Rang'' was composed by Shiraz Uppal, Vipin Patwa & Mathias Duplessy. The

music rights Music licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Music licensing is intended to ensure that the owners of copyrights on musical works are compensated for certain uses of their work. A purchaser has limited rights to use the work without a ...

of the film were acquired by T-Series.

Box office

According to ''

Box Office India Box Office India is an Indian film website dedicated to tracking, reporting, and analyzing the financial performance of films released in the Hindi entertainment industry. Established in 2003, Box Office India has become a prominent source of ...

'', movie collected 2.68

crore Crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes the quantity ten million (107) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. In many international contexts, the decimal quantity is formatted as 10,000,000, but when used in the context of the India ...

in its lifetime on a budget of 10 crores.

Sequel

''Laal Rang 2: Khoon Chusva'', a sequel to the film by director Afzal was announced in 2023.

References

External links

* * {{Bollywood Hungama title, 5878050 2010s Hindi-language films Films scored by Vipin Patwa 2016 crime drama films 2016 crime thriller films 2016 black comedy films 2016 films Indian crime drama films Indian crime thriller films Indian black comedy films Films set in Haryana Films about organised crime in India Films about friendship