Cirkus (film)

''Cirkus'' is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language period comedy film directed and produced by Rohit Shetty. The film is jointly produced by Rohit Shetty Productionz and T-Series. The film stars Ranveer Singh & Varun Sharma in dual roles alongside Pooja Hegde and Jacqueline Fernandez.

In this film, After finding two sets of identical twins on the doorstep of his orphanage, Dr. Roy Jamnadas mix-up them and gives up for adoption to the two different families in different cities. Years later, a comedy of errors ensues when one set of twins decides to visit the city where the other set of twins runs a circus and residents miss-identify them.

''Cirkus'' is based on William Shakespeare's play ''The Comedy of Errors''. Principal photography for the film began in November 2020 at Mumbai and also took place in Ooty.

''Cirkus'' was theatrically released on 23 December 2022, to the negative reviews from critics and audience.

Plot

Dr. Roy Jamnadas, who is working on the theory of nature vs nurture, separates two sets of identical twins he finds at the doorstep of the orphanage he runs and gives them up for adoption to two different families, based in two different cities. One pair is given to a couple in Ooty and the other pair to a couple in Bangalore, and both the couples name them Roy and Joy. Roy 1 and Joy 1's father runs a circus and after his death, they both take up the responsibility of running the circus. Roy 2 and Joy 2 grow up in a rich household. Roy 1 has a strange connection with electricity and electric currents do not affect him. He uses this ability to show tricks at the circus and becomes famously known as 'Electric Man'. Elsewhere, Roy 2 receives electric shocks whenever Roy 1 comes into contact with electricity.

Roy 1's wife, Mala, cannot conceive and wishes to adopt a child from the Jamnadas Orphanage, but Roy 1 is against the idea. Roy 2 is in love with Bindu but her father Rai Bahadur is sceptical about him as he had seen Roy 1 with Mala in Ooty and had mistaken him for Roy 2, thinking that he is cheating on Bindu. Roy 2 and Joy 2 come to Ooty to buy a tea estate and there is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding as people mistake them for the other pair of twins. Three robbers - Momo, Mango and Chikki are after them to rob their money. They back off when Roy 2 gives them electric shocks and their boss, Polson Bhai later comes to take revenge.

Roy 1 decides to gift a diamond necklace to Mala but the jeweler mistakenly gives it to Roy 2, creating further confusion. Moreover, Bindu's father is now convinced that Roy 2 is married to Mala. On hearing this, Bindu threatens to end her relationship with him, not knowing that Mala is actually Roy 1's wife. All the confusion is cleared when both the pairs of twins come face to face at the circus and Dr. Jamnadas reveals the truth to them and his real intention behind separating them. They all reconcile and Roy 1 and Mala finally adopt a child from the orphanage and Roy 2 and Bindu plan to get married soon.

Later, Five orphan boys - Gopal, Lakshman 1, Madhav, Lakshman 2 and Lucky come to stay at the orphanage (indicating '' Golmaal Again'' is this film's sequal).

Cast

* Ranveer Singh in a dual role as Roy and Roy aka Electric Man
* Varun Sharma in a dual role as Joy
* Pooja Hegde as Mala, Roy's wife
* Jacqueline Fernandez as Bindu, Roy's girlfriend
* Johnny Lever as Polson Dada
* Sanjay Mishra as Rai Bahadur, Bindu's father
* Siddhartha Jadhav as Momo
* Mukesh Tiwari as Daaku Bagheera
* Radhika Bangia as Lily
* Vrajesh Hirjee as Naag mani, a taxi driver
* Ashwini Kalsekar as Shakuntala Devi, Roy's mother
* Murali Sharma as Dr. Roy Jamnadas
* Tiku Talsania as Veljibhai, a jeweller
* Nikitin Dheer as Roy & Joy's father
* Vijay Patkar as Shankar
* Brijendra Kala as Yusuf
* Anil Charanjeett as Prem
* Uday Tikekar as Joy Jamnadas
* Sulabha Arya as Chachi
* Umakant Patil as Chikki
* Ashish Warang as Mango
* Deepika Padukone as Meenakshi (special appearance in song "Current Laga Re")

Production

Principal photography began on 17 November 2020 in Mumbai. Film production was halted during the final schedule in April 2021 as shootings were stopped in Mumbai, due to the second wave of COVID-19, and the final schedule resumed in Ooty around November 2021 and was completed within December 2021. Some patchwork also took place in July 2022. The entire filming for Cirkus was wrapped up on November 2022. The trailer of the film was released on 2 December 2022 worldwide.

Music

The score is composed by Devi Sri Prasad, Badshah and Lijo George-DJ Chetas. The first single titled "Current Laga Re" was released on 8 December 2022. The second single "Sun Zara", sung by Papon and Shreya Ghoshal released on 16 December 2022. The Third single "Aashiqui", sung by Badshah and Amrita Singh released on 21 December.

Release

''Cirkus'' was theatrically released on 23 December 2022. It was initially scheduled for 31 December 2021, during New Year, and then on 15 July 2022, but were unable due to production delays via COVID-19 pandemic. In May 2022, the new release date with first official poster was announced — 23 December 2022, thus eyeing Christmas Eve.

Reception

Box office

The film collected 6.50 crore in India on its opening day. As of now film has collected ₹33.51 crore worldwide.

Critical response

On the Rotten Tomatoes, ''Cirkus'' has a 0% score based on 9 reviews, with an average rating of 3.70/10.

Anupama Chopra of ''Film Companion'' said "''Cirkus'' is a mess. The writers did not do any work to differentiate Singh's and Sharma's double-role characters." Taran Adarsh of ''Bollywood Hungama'' gave the film 2 out 5 stars and wrote, it have "outdated story, don't have humour - entertainment, spark is missing but second half have some funny moment." Komal Nahta of ''Film information'' in his review, expressed that, "script of ''Cirkus'' is weak, it have lots of unnecessary characters, hardly any actor did up to the mark work, the characters in this film behaved weirdly, Pooja Hegde was average but Jacqueline Fernandez was barely average, Siddharth Jadhav was too loud as Moomo, Johny Lever was not very funny, his track looked forced, Rohit Shetty did lame direction, "''Cirkus'' is a poor fare". Talking on technical aspects he wrote, cinematography and additional cinematography was good but not outstanding, music by Badshah and DSP goes with the mood of the film, action scenes choreographed by Rohit Shetty might be better. ''Bollywood Hungama'' rated it with 2 out 5, "''Cirkus'' suffers from poor writing and forced humour, and appeals only in bits and pieces", It have forced humour and sets was bad.

''NDTV''s reviewer felt that, "''Cirkus'' have same drawback as other Bollywood films have nowadays, its seems that it have no respect for audience, ''Cirkus'' is abysmally bad film, it may remind audience '' Awara'' (1951) of Raj Kapoor', referring to its upbringing theme similar Awara. Ranveer Singh's both roles are insipid, this film's comic gags are pathetically unfunny, pointing on technical aspects he wrote that, its gaudy colour pallets made to appear film's real background like painted one. ''Maharashtra Times'' Abhishek Khude rated it by 2/5, wrote 'The atmosphere, background in this film looked fake, it have theme of '' Golmaal Again'' (2017), Singh did acting in his typical one tone, Shetty tried to generate humour by actor's wired body movements and tasteless dialogues, few scenes are humourous, probably kids will enjoy this picture. Shubra Gupta of ''The Indian Express'', rated it by 1.5/5, wrote 'Ranveer Singh-Rohit Shetty film is surprisingly blah', ''Cirkus'' have cliche. She saw similar elements which Rohit Shetty everytime insert in his films to create humour from his multiple editions of ''Golmaal'' onwards, this film have over-the-top hilarity - Shetty style, in most part of it humour gags does not landed, some places it gives lectures to audience.

The Hindu's reviewer Anuj Kumar, wrote in his review article that, Rohit Shetty used lots of Bollywood clichés such as ''Kali pahadi'', ''Rai Sahab'' but nothing created laughter, Jacqueline Fernandez- Puja Hegde looked like this film's glittering sets that shines a lot but add less worth, ''Cirkus'' is reckless ruckus in Ooty. Jadhav have prominent role, Fizzle generated when Lever appeared, he have 2-3 laugh moments the way Sanjay Mishra have in it. ''ABP News'' reviewer expressed that, Ranbir Singh, Varun Sharma's both characters are serious in this film and felt responsibility to generate humour was on Siddharth Jadhav- Sanjay Mishra, felt like supporting actors trying to do forced comedy, this film's plot is based on mistaken identity of two twin brother's set. ''The'' ''Quint's'' Pratiksha Mishra gave rating of 1.5 out of 5, wrote Cirkus's script is predictable, almost evey part of this film have done before, such as trio of thieves (you already saw them in ''Golmaal 3'' (2010) led by Pappi Bhai), the climax scene (similar to ''Phir Hera Pheri'') bring forth just a few instances this film have a lot of these . Johny Lever, Varun Sharma and Sanjay Mishra etc tried to make us laugh but writing is weak, it did not supported them. She criticized editing (due to slow motion scenes) and dialogues.

Calling the film predictable and unoriginal, Anna M. M. Vetticad of ''Firstpost'' wrote, "There's only so far that an actor’s innate talent, nostalgia and kitschy images can take a film. Soon enough, ''Cirkus'' blurs the line between imitation and tribute, until the fun completely ceases." In her 1.75/5-rated review, she added a note of praise towards Shetty's continued use of the Tamil language, stating “Ironically, Rohit Shetty’s much-lambasted comedies give us more authenticity in the use of language in southern Indian settings than most commercial Hindi cinema bothers with."

Vivek M.V. of ''Deccan Herald'' rated it by 1.5 out of 5 stars, wrote it is an ultra-boring film, opposite to its name it does not have any memorable circus acts, it have terrible jokes, gaudy colour tone which strain your eyes. "This is Rohit Shetty's worst film yet". ''Rediff'' reviewed this film and rated it 2 out of 5 stars, wrote it is a "boring" film, pointed out errors in performers : Varun Sharma did bad work, Pooja Hegde did expressionless acting, what was Jacqueline Fernandez and Sharma was doing in this film? But wrote Sanjay Mishra - Sidharth Jadhav hold the film together. Mishra also fall flat in 1st half but was better than it in later half. Ronak Kotecha of ''The Times of India'' gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and wrote, "Cirkus is a busy film filled with a battery of characters put together with a purpose to make us laugh, but is far from that. Entertaining the audience with slapstick comedy and drama is a tightrope that Rohit Shetty has successfully walked before but this time he seems to have tripped several times along the way."

Rating the film 2/5, ''India Today'' critic Tushar Joshi wrote, "The issue with Cirkus is that it feels outdated. Not because it’s set in the 60’s, but the formula is cliched. The VFX in some scenes looks amateurish and the music, unlike Shetty’s previous films, is a big downer. There is no harm in making a mindless comedy, but for it to work you need to have some solid writing to back your effort". He added, "In Cirkus, the writing is average and the only time the film picks tempo is when the supporting cast delivers. Jacqueline Fernandez and Pooja Hegde have very little to offer. Ranveer in dual roles gives his best, but he is let down by a weak script that doesn’t do justice to his efforts." Monika Rawal of ''Hindustan Times'' in her review said, Cirkus is an awaful film, it have no comedy, Rohit Shetty appears to stuck in days of '' Golmaal'' (2006), there are endless characters in it and everyone did overacting, Ranveer Singh tried to be funny but his jokes did not land, Pooja Hegde did bad acting and Jacqueline was like a prop in this film. Tina Das of ''ThePrint'' wrote that this film have confusing narrative and it is extremely boring, Cirkus have too many characters and it created chaos thus became unfunny, Rohit Shetty's this film is one of the worst film of this year along with ''Liger'' and '' Heropanti 2''.

See also

* List of films based around twins

References

External links

*

{{The Comedy of Errors

Films set in 1942
Films set in 1960
Films shot in Ooty
Films directed by Rohit Shetty
Films shot in Mumbai
2020s Hindi-language films
Films based on The Comedy of Errors
2022 comedy films
Indian slapstick comedy films
Twins in Indian films
Films about twins
Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
T-Series (company) films
Reliance Entertainment films