''Prince - It's Showtime!'' (simply Prince) is a 2010 Indian
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
-language
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
action thriller film
Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...
directed by Kookie Gulati. Co-produced by
Kumar S. Taurani
Tips Industries Limited is an Indian music record label and film production, film promotion, and film distribution company in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Kumar S. Taurani and Ramesh S. Taurani in 1975. Its distributors serve m ...
and
Ramesh S. Taurani
Tips Industries Limited is an Indian music record label and film production, film promotion, and film distribution company in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Kumar S. Taurani and Ramesh S. Taurani in 1975. Its distributors serve mo ...
under the banner of
Tips Industries
Tips Industries Limited is an Indian music record label and film production, film promotion, and film distribution company in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It was founded by Kumar S. Taurani and Ramesh S. Taurani in 1975. Its distributors serve ...
, the film stars
Vivek Oberoi
Vivek Anand Oberoi (born 3 September 1976) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Hindi cinema, in addition to working in few Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil films.
Early life
Vivek Oberoi was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, to a Punjab ...
as the titular amnesiac thief who races against time to find an antique coin and becomes surrounded by several people wanting the coin, including three women claiming to be his only girlfriend.
The film co-stars
Aruna Shields
Aruna Shields is a British actress, filmmaker and therapist. She debuted with the 2010 Indian film ''Prince'' starring Vivek Oberoi.
Career
Shields, while at a theatrical workshop, was spotted by an acting agent. According to Google zeitgeist, i ...
,
Nandana Sen
Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh ...
,
Neeru Bajwa
Neeru Bajwa (born 26 August 1975) is a Canadian actress, director and producer who has mainly worked in Punjabi and Hindi films. She started her career in 1998 with Dev Anand's Bollywood film '' Main Solah Baras Ki'' and then moved on to work ...
and
Sanjay Kapoor
Sanjay Surinder Kapoor (born 17 October 1965) is an Indian actor and film producer. He works in Hindi cinema, Indian television and web series. He is a member of the Surinder Kapoor family. Kapoor is the founder and director of Sanjay Kapoor ...
. The dialogues were written by
Mayur Puri
Mayur Puri is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist, actor and film-maker working in Mumbai. He has written songs, screenplays and dialogue for several movies, including'' Om Shanti Om'' (2007) starring Shah Rukh Khan, Shahrukh Khan directed by Farah K ...
. The songs were composed by
Sachin Gupta
Sachin Gupta (born 9 March 1978) is an Indian film producer, writer and director. He produces films under Chilsag Motion Pictures and is also an artistic director of Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company. He made his writing and directorial debut w ...
, with the lyrics penned by
Sameer
Samir (variantly spelled Sameer) is a male name found commonly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. In Arabic, Samir () means holy, jovial, loyal or charming. In Albanian, it translates literally as “so good” but the connotation is clo ...
. The
background score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to e ...
was composed by
Sandeep Shirodkar
Sandeep Shirodkar is an Indian film score composer, music director and record producer. He has also worked as an arranger of songs for other composers.
He has composed background scores for notable films like ''Dabangg'', '' Bodyguard'', ''Onc ...
.
Along with its dubbed versions in Tamil and Telugu, the film was released theatrically on 9 April 2010.
Plot
Prince is a sharp and intelligent burglar, but when he wakes up one morning, he finds that he does not remember anything about his past. He goes to a club and meets a girl who claims to be his girlfriend, Maya. The next day, he meets a second girl who claims to be his girlfriend named Maya. She also claims that they work for the police and are after a man named Sarang. She reveals that they must find a special coin and give it to Sarang, after which the cops will arrest him. This coin has a chip in it that can go into one's mind and change one's thoughts completely.
They find the coin inside Prince's shoe and give it to Sarang. Prince finds out that the second "Maya" is really a woman named Serena who works for Sarang. His servant P.K. works for Sarang along with her. The coin is revealed to be a fake. Just as Prince is trapped, the real Maya, who is, in fact his girlfriend, saves him and tells him the actual story. The chip was put inside Prince so that he could work for Sarang. The two began running away. The chip made Prince's brain like a computer, so that once he woke up from sleep, he would forget everything.
Prince and Maya meet Sarang Chinea, who tells them a
side effect
In medicine, a side effect is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequence ...
: every morning when Prince wakes up, his brain crashes, which results in a lot of pain. He has only six days to live as a result. This particular day was the last day. Prince and Maya find the coin, which can save Prince, and Serena goes after them, leading to a high-profile chase. Prince manages to keep the coin safe but faints. A mysterious car arrives, pulls him in, and flees. Shortly after, Maya gets a phone call, saying she must come to a certain location if she wants Prince alive. The caller is a friend of Prince's named Mike. It is revealed that the first Maya that Prince had met at the club, is actually named Priya. Then Maya calls the police.
Priya takes the coin and runs away with it, but Mike tells Maya that he has the real coin; the one Priya fled with is a fake. While they are fixing an unconscious Prince, Priya returns, begging to be saved, but gets shot by Sarang and his gang. Prince awakes from his deep sleep. Sarang and his gang escape, but Prince puts a
tracking device
A tracking system, also known as a locating system, is used for the observing of persons or objects on the move and supplying a timely ordered sequence of location data for further processing. It is important to be aware of human tracking, fur ...
on Sarang. They track him down, and Prince and Sarang engage in a brief fight. Prince ultimately gets the coin, and Sarang falls off a
waterfall
A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf.
Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...
to his death. While Prince and Maya are looking forward to a happily-ever-after, in a
twist ending
Twist may refer to:
In arts and entertainment Film, television, and stage
* ''Twist'' (2003 film), a 2003 independent film loosely based on Charles Dickens's novel ''Oliver Twist''
* ''Twist'' (2021 film), a 2021 modern rendition of ''Olive ...
, Serena's eyes open, implying that she is still alive.
Cast
*
Vivek Oberoi
Vivek Anand Oberoi (born 3 September 1976) is an Indian actor who mainly works in Hindi cinema, in addition to working in few Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Tamil films.
Early life
Vivek Oberoi was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, to a Punjab ...
as Prince
*
Aruna Shields
Aruna Shields is a British actress, filmmaker and therapist. She debuted with the 2010 Indian film ''Prince'' starring Vivek Oberoi.
Career
Shields, while at a theatrical workshop, was spotted by an acting agent. According to Google zeitgeist, i ...
as Maya
*
Nandana Sen
Nandana Dev Sen (19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh ...
as Serena/Maya
*
Neeru Bajwa
Neeru Bajwa (born 26 August 1975) is a Canadian actress, director and producer who has mainly worked in Punjabi and Hindi films. She started her career in 1998 with Dev Anand's Bollywood film '' Main Solah Baras Ki'' and then moved on to work ...
as Priya/Maya
* Isaiah as Sarang Sanghvi
*
Sanjay Kapoor
Sanjay Surinder Kapoor (born 17 October 1965) is an Indian actor and film producer. He works in Hindi cinema, Indian television and web series. He is a member of the Surinder Kapoor family. Kapoor is the founder and director of Sanjay Kapoor ...
as CBI Officer Ali Khan
*
Dalip Tahil
Dalip Tahil (born as Dalip Tahilramani; 30 October 1952) is an Indian film, television and theatre actor. He studied at Sherwood College in Nainital, India. After attending Aligarh Muslim University for a year, he graduated from St. Xavier's Co ...
as Colonel Khanna
*
Amit Behl
Amit Behl is an Indian theatre, television and film actor. Behl began his career in 1994 with a role in India's first daily soap opera '' Shanti''. He later went on to do almost 100 TV serials in Hindi, English, Marathi, Punjabi and Urdu. He ha ...
as Tony (Bartender)
* Akhilesh Sharma as IT Engineer
* Manish Anand as Mike
*
Mohit Chauhan
Mohit Chauhan (born 11 March 1966) is an Indian playback singer, known for his work in Hindi films. He was a part of the Silk Route band. Chauhan has received two Filmfare Award for Best Male Playback Singer and three Zee Cine Award For Best ...
as Agent Roy
*
Mayur Puri
Mayur Puri is an Indian screenwriter, lyricist, actor and film-maker working in Mumbai. He has written songs, screenplays and dialogue for several movies, including'' Om Shanti Om'' (2007) starring Shah Rukh Khan, Shahrukh Khan directed by Farah K ...
as P.K. (Prince's Servant)
*
Rajesh Khattar
Rajesh Khattar (born 24 September 1966) is an Indian actor, voice artist and screenwriter from Bollywood. He was married to Neelima Azeem and is the father of actor Ishaan Khattar and step father of Shahid Kapoor.
Personal life
Khattar was bo ...
as Sherry
* Dhiraj Regmi as C.I.D. Officer Kai
* Mantu Kumar as Computer Operator
Box office
India
In its opening weekend, the film netted about INR 110 million (Rs. 110 million). It did well in few places and moderately at places primarily having single screens. Overall, the performance at the single screens (70–75%) was far better than its performance in the multiplexes (50–60%).
Overseas
Overseas, ''Prince'' performed badly at countries such as the US, UK and Australia. In comparison to ''
My Name Is Khan
''My Name Is Khan'', is a 2010 social drama film directed by Karan Johar and written by Shibani Bathija and lyricist Niranjan Iyengar. It was produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Gauri Khan under their production companies, Dharma Productions and ...
'' (February 12, 2010), ''
3 Idiots
''3 Idiots'' (stylized as ''3 idiots'') is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, edited and directed by Rajkumar Hirani, co-written by Abhijat Joshi and produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Adapted loosely from Cheta ...
'' (December 25, 2009) and ''
Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na'' (July 4, 2008). ''Prince'' performed and is likely to gross much money from overseas markets.
''Prince'' opened in the US in 54 screens and fetched US$89,047 in its opening weekend; it debuted at #36 at the US box office making US$6,000,000.
Critical reception
Taran Adarsh of
Bollywood Hungama
Bollywood Hungama (lit. "Bollywood Madness" in Hindi), previously known as IndiaFM (or IndiaFM.com), is a Bollywood entertainment website, owned by Hungama Digital Media Entertainment, which acquired the website in 2000.
The website provides ...
rated it 3 out of 5, saying "Prince has all merits to strike a chord with the youth", praising Vivek Oberoi's 'bravura' performance, the film's 'Hollywood style' look and action sequences, as well as the music. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL India gave 3 out of 5, saying, "once you are willing to let go off your beliefs and logic – like you really can't jump off a cliff on your bike and remain unscratched – you would like the film."
On the other hand, Omar Qureshi of
Zoom
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
rated ''Prince'' 2.5 out of 5, saying, "The film is over the top and unrealistic." ''Indiatimes.com'' rated it 2 out of 5 stars saying, "The film has taken the audience for granted, which shows us gadgets hard to believe and futuristic and that such futuristic shows should be limited to Hollywood.". Subhash K. Jha gave 2 out of 5 stars, and said, "''Prince'' wears its super-cool shirt with the slogan 'Come Watch Me' with a little bit too much aggression. But if you love popcorn crunching adventure stories watch Vivek Oberoi play the hero from the hemisphere of hijinks." He praised Oberoi's acting and the action sequences, saying that "To his credit, Oberoi carries off the ceaseless stint with the stunt with arresting aplomb
..he expertly-executed stunts frequently see our hero jumping down high-rise buildings in breathtaking leaps of fate, with the camera pulling back in respectful awe."
Soundtrack
The original songs of ''Prince'' are composed by
Sachin Gupta
Sachin Gupta (born 9 March 1978) is an Indian film producer, writer and director. He produces films under Chilsag Motion Pictures and is also an artistic director of Chilsag Chillies Theatre Company. He made his writing and directorial debut w ...
and background score by
Sandeep Shirodkar
Sandeep Shirodkar is an Indian film score composer, music director and record producer. He has also worked as an arranger of songs for other composers.
He has composed background scores for notable films like ''Dabangg'', '' Bodyguard'', ''Onc ...
. The lyrics are written by
Sameer
Samir (variantly spelled Sameer) is a male name found commonly in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. In Arabic, Samir () means holy, jovial, loyal or charming. In Albanian, it translates literally as “so good” but the connotation is clo ...
. The audio comprises six original songs, one instrumental and nine types of
remix
A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...
es by
DJ Suketu
Suketu Radia, also known as DJ Suketu (born 19 November 1976) is an Indian DJ, music producer and content creator. Since the release of his critically acclaimed tracks -'Bin Tere Sanam'
featuring Aks. The singles of the soundtrack are "O Mere Khuda," "Tere Liye", and "Kaun Hoon Main".
"Tere Liye" appears in as many as four versions in the soundtrack. The last (the unplugged version) is sung by the composer Gupta.
Ankit Ojha of ''Planet Bollywood'', stated in his music review, that "This album is destined to remain on the charts for a very long time, just like Tips' 3 last musical hits including ''
Race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
'' (March 21, 2008), ''
Kismat Konnection
''Kismat Konnection'' (''Fate Connection'') is an Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Aziz Mirza who previously directed films including ''Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman'' (1992), '' Yes Boss'' (1997), ''Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani'' ...
'' (July 18, 2008) and ''
Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
''Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani'' () is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. The film stars Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif. Upon release, it was a critical and commercial success grossing worldwide, bec ...
'' (November 6, 2009) did." He rated the music 8 stars out of 10.
Prince – Music Review by Ankit Ojha – Planet Bollywood
/ref>
Track listing
References
External links
Prince – Official Website
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prince
2010s Hindi-language films
2010s chase films
2010 science fiction action films
2010 films
Indian science fiction action films
Indian chase films
Films about robbery
Fiction about memory
Films shot in South Africa
Films set in South Africa