Halla Bol (Raise Your Voice) is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Rajkumar Santoshi. Halla Bol stars Ajay Devgn and Vidya Balan in pivotal roles and a number of celebrities from the Hindi and other film industries appear as themselves. Produced by Samee Siddiqui, the film's score and soundtrack were composed by Sukhwinder Singh, while Natty Subramaniam and Steven Bernard were the cinematographer and editor respectively. It was released on 11 January 2008. The film was remade with an adapted story in Bengali in 2010 named Pratidwandi.
The film touches upon the Jessica Lall murder case, Aamir Khan's involvement with the Narmada Bachao Andolan, the Right to Information Act, and public participation in fighting corruption. It also references the theatre group Jan Natya Manch, whose leader, theatre activist Safdar Hashmi, was killed by political rivals while performing a street play by the same name, Halla Bol!, in 1989.
Contents
Plot
Ashfaque (Ajay Devgn) is a small-town boy aspiring to be a film star in the Hindi film industry. He joins a street theatre group run by a reformed dacoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur), who uses street theatre as a medium to bring about an awakening in the masses. Ashfaque struggles to give a creative vent to the actor in him in order to realise his dreams. Ashfaque's determined struggle pays off and he gets a break in films. He gets a new screen name – Sameer Khan. He moves up the success ladder in a very short time.
Soon, he becomes Sameer Khan the superstar. Amidst all the adulation and applause, he slowly loses his own identity. He forgets his real self and imbibes all characteristics of the various roles played by him on screen. Corruption overtakes his entire system, alienating him from all loved ones, including his wife Sneha (Vidya Balan).
Cast
Ajay Devgn as Ashfaaq Khan / Sameer
Vidya Balan as Sneha Khan
Pankaj Kapur as Sidhu
Darshan Jariwala as Ganpatrao Gaekwad
Sanjay Mishra as Sameer's manager
Abhay Bhargava
Anupam Shyam
Aanjjan Srivastav as Amanullah Khan
Sulbha Arya as Nazma Khan
Iqbal Dosani as a Police Commissioner
Rahul Kanawat as Ranveer
Deepak Pandit as Police Inspector Rathod
Arun Behll as a Reporter
Sitaram Panchal
Rushita Singh
Mukesh Tiwari
Special appearances
Prabhu Chawla as himself
Lekh Tandon as himself
Tusshar Kapoor as himself
Sana Khan as herself
Jackie Shroff as himself
Ruby Bhatia as herself
Sayali Bhagat in the song "Is Pal Ki Soch"
Pahlaj Nihalani as himself
Kareena Kapoor as herself
Neeraj Vora as himself
Amjad Sabri as himself at Dargah
Special appearances at the award ceremony (in order of appearance):
Casting
Priyanka Chopra was the original choice for the lead actress role. However, she opted out of the film to work on another film that too was to be directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi, London Dreams (2009) although she was replaced by Asin Thottumkal in that film. Raj Kumar Santhoshi left that film and Priyanka Chopra was removed from London Dreams.
Soundtrack
The film's music was composed by Singer and Composer Sukhwinder Singh.
"Jab Tak Hai Dum" – Sukhwinder Singh
"Shabad Gurbani" – Sukhwinder Singh
"Is Pal Ki Soch" – Harshdeep Kaur
"More Haji Piya" – Amjad Farid Sabri
"Barsan Lagi" – Sneha Pant
"Halla Bol Theme" – Instrumental