''Main aur Charles'' () is a 2015

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 ...

crime 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 (film and television), dr ...

written and directed by

Prawaal Raman Prawaal Raman is an Indian film director and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. He has written and directed films like '' Darna Mana Hai'' (2003), '' Gayab'' (2004), '' Darna Zaroori hai'' (2006), '' 404'' (2011) and '' Main Aur C ...

and produced by Cynozure Networkz. The film is a fictitious thriller inspired by true events; it is told from the perspective of the Indian cop, Amod Kanth, who handled the case of the Indian Origin French

serial killer A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separat ...

Charles Sobhraj Charles Sobhraj (born Hotchand Bhawnani Gurmukh Sobhraj; 6 April 1944) is a French serial killer, fraudster, and thief whose victims were mainly Western tourists travelling on the hippie trail of South Asia during the 1970s. He was known as the ...

who was known as the bikini killer. The film opened on 30 October 2015 to positive reviews across India. However, it was a

box office flop A box-office bomb is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the combined production budget, marketing, and distribution costs exceed the revenue after release has te ...

, grossing against a budget. The film stars Randeep Hooda,

Richa Chadda Richa Chadha (born 18 December 1986) is an Indian actress who works in Hindi cinema. She made her acting debut with a small role in the comedy film ''Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!'' (2008). Chadha's breakthrough came in 2012 with the crime film ''Gangs ...

Adil Hussain Khandkar Mohammad Adil Hussain (; born 5 October 1963) is an Indian actor who is known for his work in several Indian independent and mainstream film productions, as well as international cinema, in films such as '' The Reluctant Fundamentali ...

Tisca Chopra Tisca Chopra (born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress, author and film producer who has appeared in over 45 feature films, predominantly in Hindi language. '' Taare Zameen Par'', her best known feature film, was India's official entry to th ...

, and

Alexx O'Nell Alexander Leonard O'Neill (born 26 July 1980) is an American actor and musician who works in Indian films. He is best known for his roles in the films '' L2: Empuraan'', '' Ae Watan Mere Watan'', '' Khufiya'', '' Golondaaj'', '' Roohi'', '' Aarya ...

in lead roles. Through the narrative, we see a series of crimes committed by Charles and the story of each of his victims, who fell for his charisma but were betrayed by his serpentine nature. The man not just escaped several high security jails but also manipulated the legal system. In the title, ''Main aur Charles'', the word 'Main' means 'me' and stands for the character of Amod Kanth. The film was warmly accepted in the trade for its impeccable direction, casting and background score. Apart from these technicalities, the film has satisfied critics creatively with fine performances by Hooda, Chadha and Hussain.

Cast

* Randeep Hooda - Hatchand Bhaonani Gurumukh Charles Sobhraj / Zubin Pratap * Richa Chaddha - Mira Sharma (Charles's girl friend) *

- Amod Kanth *

- Richard Thomas * Lucky Morani - Dr. Ashima Mehra (criminal psychologist) * Mandana Karimi - Liz (Charles's girl friend) * Shaanti - Princess Malvika * Dijana Dejanovic - Charles's Lawyer *

Vipin Sharma Vipin Kumar Sharma is an Indian actor, editor and filmmaker. He is best known for his acting roles in ''Taare Zameen Par'', ''Gangs of Wasseypur'', ''Kick'', ''Paatal Lok'' and '' Monkey Man''. Early life Sharma spent his early childhood in a ...

- Satender Kumar (Jailor) *

- Reena (Amod Kanths' wife) * Kanika Kapoor - Special appearance as bar singer * Anastasia Fullfina - Andrea (Charles's girl friend) *

Nandu Madhav Nandu Madhav is an Indian actor known for his works in Marathi cinema and theatre. He is known for his title role in Paresh Mokashi's ''Harishchandrachi Factory'' which won the Best Feature Film in Marathi award in the 56th National Film Awar ...

- Inspector Sudhakar Zhende * Saurabh Sarkar- Bajrangi Babu * Sandeep Punia - Satpal Punia * Satyakam Gupta - Rajan Ahuja * Shanu Dev - Mr.Joshi (Investigating Officer) * Abhiskek Diwan - Hemant * Judge - M.L CHAUHAN(IAS)

Production

The film was shot in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

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 ...

Pattaya Pattaya is a city in Eastern Thailand, the second-largest city in Chonburi province and the List of municipalities in Thailand, eighth-largest city in Thailand. It is on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about southeast of Bangkok, and h ...

, and

Udaipur Udaipur (Hindi: , ) (ISO 15919: ''Udayapura'') is a city in the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, about south of the state capital Jaipur. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Udaipur district. It is the historic capital of t ...

Soundtrack

The music for ''Main Aur Charles'' is composed by Vipin Patwa, Aditya Trivedi, Bally Grunge and Sanjeev–Darshan. The full audio album was released on 15 October 2015. 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 ...

are acquired by T-Series. The song 'Jab Chaaye mera jaadoo' is originally from the movie Lootmaar (1980).

Reception

Shubhra Gupta Shubhra Gupta is an Indian film critic who writes for ''The Indian Express''. She received the Ramnath Goenka Award for Best Writing on Cinema in 2012. She was a member of the Central Board of Film Certification from 2012 to 2015. She is the au ...

for ''

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 ...

'' rated 1 star out of 5 and wrote "The film should have been riveting. But it comes off as a slapdash, confused collage of scenes involving the famous jail break in which the real life Sobhraj broke free with several prisoners: it was the kind of astoundingly brazen 'kaand' whose reverberations were felt in the system for a long time." Sweta Kaushal for ''

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 ...

'' wrote "The film does not just fail, it crashes miserably." Nandini Ramnath for '' Scroll.in'' wrote "The brazen fun that Charles and his cohorts are having is contrasted with the routine police work by Adil Hussain's overly loud and morally outraged cop. Hussain's outrage at Charles seems to be the result of envy." On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 33% based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 5/10. Rachit Gupta for ''

Filmfare ''Filmfare'' is an Indian English-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of India's most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, ...

'' wrote "Main Aur Charles is also a period film. But most of it takes place on beaches in Goa, courtrooms and jails. Locations that haven't really changed in the past 30 odd years. So the only place that you actually get to see a simulated sense of the ‘70s and ‘80s is the fashion."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 4024944 2015 films Films scored by Vipin Patwa Indian erotic thriller films 2010s Hindi-language films Films shot in Bangkok Films shot in Goa 2010s avant-garde and experimental films Films shot in Madhya Pradesh Fictional portrayals of the Goa Police Films shot in Thailand 2015 crime drama films Indian avant-garde and experimental films Films shot in Delhi Films shot in Mumbai Indian crime drama films Biographical films about serial killers Biographical films about fraudsters Cultural depictions of French people Cultural depictions of serial killers Cultural depictions of fraudsters Films directed by Prawaal Raman