''Mirzya'' () is a 2016 Indian

romantic fantasy Romantic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy fiction, describing a fantasy story using many of the elements and conventions of the chivalric romance genre. One of the key features of romantic fantasy involves the focus on relationships, social, ...

film directed by

Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (born 7 July 1963) is an Indian film director, occasional actor and screenwriter. He is best known for writing and directing ''Rang De Basanti'' (2006) and ''Bhaag Milkha Bhaag'' (2013). He is the writer and director of ...

. Produced by Cinestaan Film Company and Mehra under his ROM Pictures, it stars

Harshvardhan Kapoor Harshvardhan Kapoor (; credited since 2022 as Harshvarrdhan Kapoor; born 9 November 1990) is an Indian actor and film producer. He is the son of actor Anil Kapoor. Early life Harsh was born in Mumbai on 9 November 1990, the only son of actor ...

and

Saiyami Kher Saiyami Kher is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi and Telugu films. She made her acting debut with the Telugu film '' Rey'' (2015) and her Hindi film debut with '' Mirzya'' (2016), for which she received Stardust Award for Supersta ...

in lead roles along with Anuj Choudhry,

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada,English, Punjabi and one Telugu film, as well as independent and art films and also starred ...

Art Malik Athar ul-Haque Malik (born 13 November 1952), known professionally as Art Malik, is a Pakistani-born British actor who achieved international fame in the 1980s through his starring and subsidiary roles in assorted British and Merchant Ivory tel ...

K. K. Raina K. K. Raina is an Indian film, television and theatre character actor and award-winning script writer, who is best known for his roles as ''Juror #8'' in the 1986 film ''Ek Ruka Hua Faisla'', a remake of 12 Angry Men, and Byomkesh Bakshi's asso ...

, and

Anjali Patil Anjali Patil is an Indian actress and film director who works in multiple languages. She has earned rave reviews for her work in ''Delhi in a Day'', '' Chakravyuh'', '' Newton'' and Sri Lankan film '' With You Without You''. She received the ...

in supporting roles. The basic premise of the film is inspired by the Punjabi folklore of

Mirza Sahiban ''Mirza Sahiban'' ( pa, ਮਿਰਜ਼ਾ ਸਾਹਿਬਾਂ, , ') is one of the four popular tragic romances of the Punjab. The other three are ''Heer Ranjha'', ''Sohni Mahiwal'' and ''Sassi Punnun''. There are five other popular folklor ...

. ''Mirzya'' was released in India on 7 October 2016. The film received mixed critical reception and was a

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

, grossing 13.5 million against a budget of 45 million.

Plot

''Mirzya'' tells the tale of a pair of lovebirds who were never meant to be together. Mohnish (

) is a horse groomsman who reconnects with his childhood friend Suchitra (

), a soon to be princess. Mohnish and Suchitra are inseparable friends and classmates in high school in

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

. One day, the schoolmaster canes Suchi for not doing her homework. Mohnish cannot bear the sight of her being hurt, and later shoots the teacher with a gun he stole from Suchi's father, a policeman. As a result, he is sent to a juvenile correction facility, and Suchitra's father sends her away to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

for higher studies. Mohnish escapes the correction home. Years later, Suchitra returns to India and is now getting engaged to Prince Karan. She wants to learn riding, and Karan instructs the stable-hand, Aadil, to teach her. Suchitra gets a feeling of

deja vu Deja or Dejah may refer to: * Deja News, an archive of messages posted to Usenet discussion groups and its successor ''deja.com'' * Andreas Deja (born 1957), German animator * Dejah Mulipola (born 1998), American softball player * Dejah Thoris, a ...

and eventually discovers that Aadil is her childhood friend, Mohnish. The two of them kiss and reconcile. They become inseparable again, and Suchi tells Aadil to confess to her father that he is ready to seek due punishment for the murder he committed in his childhood. However, when Aadil tries to tell Suchi's father that he wants to make amends for his wrongdoing and wishes to marry Suchi, her unforgiving father and Karan hatch a plot to get rid of him. Karan attempts to shoot him, and although injured, Aadil doesn't die. Unable to find Aadil anymore, Suchi agrees to marry Karan. On the wedding day, Aadil's friend, a Muslim girl, comes to Suchi's rescue. She ensures Suchi and Aadil escape on his bike, and the lovers elope. They share a few moments of love and freedom on their desert ride. However, when the bike runs out of petrol, they are chased down by the police, Suchi's father, and Prince Karan. Aadil's friend slits her wrists and dies because she knows that if she gets caught, she will have to reveal her friends' whereabouts. Just as they reach the Rajasthan border, Aadil is shot; Suchi swallows poison and they die in one another's arms.

Cast

as Mohnish/Aadil *

as Suchitra * Anuj Choudhry as Karan *

as Zeenat *

as Suchitra's father *

as Karan's father *

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed by

Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy () is an Indian musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa. They have composed music for over 50 soundtracks across five languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and English. Amongst t ...

. There are 15 tracks in the album, including 6 short songs on the character of Mirzya, composed by

Daler Mehndi Daler Singh (born 18 August 1967), better known as Daler Mehndi, is an Indian singer, songwriter, author, and record producer. He has helped to make Bhangra popular worldwide, as well as Indian pop music independent of Bollywood music. He is be ...

, with all lyrics written by

Gulzar Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 18 August 1934), known professionally as Gulzar, is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this ...

Reception

Box office

The film grossed during its first week run and performed poorly at the box office.

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American 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, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 55% based on 11 reviews, and an average rating of 5/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 52 out of 100, based on 4 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

''s Guy Lodge said, "Star-crossed lovers do as star-crossed lovers must in this bright, ambitious but incompletely conceived Bollywood spectacle." Meena Iyer of ''

Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English language, 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, t ...

'' gave the film a 3/5 rating, praised the performance of leads Harshvardhan and Saiyami, and called the film "A broad, brash Bollywood romance, juggling

Punjabi folklore Punjabi folklore, more particularly its folksongs, is said to be the autobiography of its people. Folklore is the body of expressive culture, including tales, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so ...

with more contemporary

Shakespearean William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

allusions in its two-tiered narrative". ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...

'' gave the film 3.5/5 rating and stated, "Impressive performance by Harshvardhan Kapoor & Saiyami Kher, but a one-time watch."

Accolades

References

External links

* {{Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra 2016 films 2010s romantic fantasy films 2010s Hindi-language films Indian romantic fantasy films Films scored by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy Films set in Rajasthan Films based on Indian folklore Films with screenplays by Gulzar Films directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra