Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu(2012)

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (Hindi: एक मैं और एक तू, English: One me and one you) is an Indian romantic comedy film written and directed by debutant Shakun Batra.^[3] The film, produced by Karan Johar under his banner of Dharma Productions, stars Imran Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Ram Kapoor, Boman Irani and Ratna Pathak Shah were seen in supporting roles.^[4] Originally slated to release during the fall of 2011, the film eventually released on February 10, 2012. Upon release, the film was greeted with positive reviews and was an economic success at the domestic and international box office.

Plot

This section requires expansion.

Rahul Kapoor (Imran Khan) is on his way to become a copy of his parents when he suddenly loses his job as an architect in Vegas. Afraid that he has let his parents down, Rahul decides to hide the truth from his parents and find another job. By a twist of fate, he meets Riana Braganza (Kareena Kapoor), a quick-witted hairstylist, who is everything he isn't. A series of events lead them to meet on Christmas Eve over a few drinks. Following this night of debauchery, they wake up to discover that they've gotten married. Now, Rahul has more than just his job loss to hide from his parents. They both decide to get it annulled as soon as possible and get an appointment from the court in ten days. Over the next ten days, they have their share of arguments, moments and laughs that results in an unlikely friendship.

Towards the end, Riana and Rahul fly back to India, where amidst reflecting on their childhood past, Rahul attempts to kiss Riana, but Riana deflects. Rahul takes the rejection personally and amidst a family dinner, erupts in anger and divulges the complete truth to his parents and their business partners. As Rahul rushes back to Riana to express his apologize for his behavior, Riana explains that she never intended him to fall in love with her while Rahul argues that her actions led him to believe that she had equal feelings for him. After a night of reflection and thought, both decide to maintain their friendship.

The film ends with both returning back to Las Vegas, finalizing their annulment and moving on with their lives, while remaining good friends, with Rahul still hoping to convert his friendship into love.

Cast

• Imran Khan as Rahul Kapoor
• Kareena Kapoor as Riana Braganza
• Boman Irani as Rahul's father
• Ratna Pathak Shah as Rahul's mother
• Ram Kapoor as friend of Rahul's father
• Samarah Lewis
• Nikhil Kapoor
• Zenobia Shroff
• Manasi Scott
• Mukul Chaddha
• Avantika Malik (Special appearance)

Production

Development

Pre-production work on the film began in July 2010 when Karan Johar announced his plans of making a new project with debutant Shakun Batra.^[6] As principal photography began in Las Vegas, Nevada, media sources began to speculate that it was an adaptation of the 2008 American romantic comedy film, What Happens in Vegas. Johar, however, quickly went to deny these reports, claiming that if he wanted to re-make the film, he would have bought the rights to it.^[7] Originally referred to as Short Term Shaadi, the film's title and first look was launched by Johar in August 2011 via the social networking site of Twitter.^[3] According to him, "Short Term Shaadi was just a working title that attached itself to this film through the making. Neither [the] director nor [I] were happy with it from the start."^[3]

Casting and filming

Following the success of their previous collaboration I Hate Luv Storys (2010), Khan was signed on by Johar to play the film's male protagonist.^[6] In an attempt to sign on an actress who had never worked with Khan before, Kapoor was confirmed to play the female lead several days later.^[6] Principal photography commenced in November 2010 in Las Vegas after Khan had completed working on his other project^[8] and later continued in Los Angeles.^[9] After completing the film's first schedule, the crew later shifted to shoot in Pataudi, the Indian state of Haryana.^[10]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, released by T-Series on 26 December 2011, featured music composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics penned by Amitabh Bhattacharya.^[11]

Tracklist
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu"	Benny Dayal, Anushka Manchanda, Shefali Alvares	4:22
2.	"Gubbare Gubbare"	Amit Trivedi, Shilpa Rao, Nikhil D'Souza	4:31
3.	"Aunty Ji"	Ash King	4:34
4.	"Aahatein"	Karthik, Shilpa Rao	4:27
5.	"Kar Chalna Shuru Tu"	Vishal Dadlani, Shilpa Rao	4:56
6.	"Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (Remix)"	Benny Dayal, Anushka Manchanda, Shefali Alvares	4:08
7.	"Aahatein (Remix)"	Shekhar Ravjiani, Shilpa Rao	3:37

Release

The film released worldwide on February 10, 2012, coinciding with Valentine's Day celebrations. Upon release, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu mostly received positive reviews. According to review aggregator Review Gang, professional critics have given the film an average rating of 70%.

Critical reception

The movie met with positive critical reception. According to review aggregator Review Gang, professional critics have given the film a rating of 7 out of 10.^[13] Avijit Ghosh of The Times of India gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said that, "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is the sweetest heartbreak that Bollywood has conjured in a long, long time."^[14] Taran Adarsh of Bollywood hungama gave the film 4 out of 5 stars saying, "This take on love is refined, smart, lively and thoroughly pleasing thanks to its characters, conversations and the inherent humor".^[15] Piyali Dasgupta of NDTV gave 4 out of 5 stars and quoted "I'll play on the film's USP for this review and keep it short and crisp. No extra lines. But, just like you need to read this, you need to go and watch the film."^[16] DNA India highly recommended the film and too gave 4 stars out of 5 concluding, "All in all, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is a delightful film that keeps getting better along the way, and ends fabulously. Clocking under two hours, the film is a breezy watch that will leave you with a smile."^[17] MiD DAY gave 3.5 stars out of 5, concluding "The climax is brave, unpredictable and real. Go watch! Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is a small packet of joy."^[18] India Today too gave 3.5 stars out of 5 saying, "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is a gentle little film, where even the regulation song with Americans dancing to Bollywood music in the middle of Vegas don't look so bad."^[19]

Daily Bhaskar gave the film three out of five stars, and concluded saying, "Overall, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is a typical popcorn entertainment with super-amazing climax which puts it in a different league altogether."^[20] Sukanya Verma for Rediff.com too gave the film 3 stars out of 5, and commented that Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is neither on the epic side like Dharma Productions' great, grand ancestors nor weighed down by an overload of pop culture references of those that define the genre.^[21] Komal Nahta for Koimoi.com too gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, saying Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is an entertaining and enjoyable fare for the city audience.^[22] Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said "Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu is a narrative that unfolds mainly through dialogue, and the lighter moments come at you as the odd couple gets to know each other. The humor hits the mark many times and falls flat occasionally, but the movie doesn’t grate because the characters aren’t trying too hard to be cute."^[23] The Economic Times gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5, and said "It's perfect in whatever it offers. But what it offers is quite average in volume."^[24] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 2.5 stars out of 5 sand said "The film passes by pleasantly enough past all its expected roadsigns, providing a smile and an occasional chuckle but making you wish for more newness".^[25]

On the contrary, Kunal Guha of Yahoo! gave 2 stars out of 5, saying "this film doesn’t subscribe to every cliché associated with this auspicious day for getting Main and Tu to become Hum."^[26]

Box office

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu had a decent opening at the box office. The film opened well in multiplexes in North India, while other areas had an average opening at multiplexes.^[27] On its first day, the film grossed about 5.25 crore (US$1.05 million) nett, with major collections coming from Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Punjab and Mysore.^[28] It collected 7.25 crore (US$1.45 million) nett on Saturday, while 8.50 crore (US$1.7 million) on Sunday, hence totaling its first weekend collection around 21 crore (US$4.19 million).^[29]

The film on Monday grossed around 2.50 crore (US$498,750) nett, with 50% drop in collection as compared to first day.^[30] On Tuesday, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu had a huge jump on collections as it grossing around 4.50 crore (US$0.9 million) nett, owing to the Valentine's Day.^[31] At the end of its first week, the film earned a total of 30.75 crore (US$6.13 million).^[5] The movie added 7.50 crore (US$1.5 million) and 1.50 crore (US$299,250) during its second and third week respectively, taking its total to around 40 crore (US$7.98 million) nett.^[32] It was declared an 'above average' grosser by BoxOfficeIndia.com.^[33]

The film also had a decent opening at the international Box Office. In UK box office, in its opening weekend the film has collected £ 2,42,177 [Rs. 1.88 crores] 53 screens. The film has fared even better in the United States box-office, collecting $6,37,100 from 111 screens on its opening weekend.

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