What's Your Raashee? (lit. 'What's Your Zodiac Sign?') is a 2009 Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker and produced by Ronnie Screwvala and Sunita A. Gowariker. Based on the Gujarati novel Kimball Ravenswood by the playwright and novelist Madhu Rye, the film stars Harman Baweja and Priyanka Chopra, with Darshan Jariwala and Dilip Joshi in supporting roles, and follows the story of Yogesh Patel (Baweja), a Gujarati NRI, who must marry in ten days to save his brother from harm; Yogesh agrees to meet twelve potential brides (all played by Chopra), one from each zodiac sign. Gowariker had always aspired to make a romantic comedy and was inspired to adapt Rye's novel into a feature film after watching a play based on the same source material. Later, he bought the rights and co-wrote the screenplay with playwright Naushil Mehta. In the process, several plot changes were made for the cinematic adaptation, notably the similarity between the twelve girls, and the ending. Since Gowariker was against using prosthetics to create the twelve characters, Chopra worked on her body language and her voice to make them distinct. Principal photography was extensively done at sixty-seven locations across Mumbai, and partly in Baroda and Chicago. The soundtrack, consisting of thirteen songs, each representing an astrological sign and one compilation, was composed by newcomer Sohail Sen replacing Gowariker's frequent collaborator A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Javed Akhtar. The film's master copy was stolen from Adlabs before its release, and a few days later was recovered by the police, who found and seized several pirated copies of the film created from the master copy. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and was released on 25 September 2009. With a box office gross ₹17 crore, it was unsuccessful and received mixed reviews, with criticism for its over three-and-a-half-hour run time and its screenplay. However, the film garnered acclaim for its soundtrack and Chopra's performance, which received a nomination for the Screen Award for Best Actress. She also became the first actress in history to portray twelve roles in one film, a feat considered for inclusion in the Guinness World Records.
Plot Deep within a quaint rural village, an elderly man receives a card in the mail from his youngest grandson, Yogesh Patel (Harman Baweja). Over in Mumbai, Yogesh's family consults an astrologer to learn if their eldest son, Jitendra "Jitu" Patel (Dilip Joshi), a debtor, will go to jail, and also gives him Yogesh's birthdate to learn his future. They are astonished to hear that Yogesh will inherit a fortune if he is married on the 20th of that month; the phone rings, and the family is overjoyed to hear that Yogesh's grandfather has made him his sole heir. Yogesh is successful and lives in Chicago. He gets a text message from Jitu that his father Bharat (Anjan Srivastav) had a heart attack, and rushes to Mumbai. When he arrives, Yogesh learns that Jitu had lied to him about Bharat, but that Jitu owes a rich man 25 million rupees for gambling debts; if Yogesh does not marry on the 20th of the month, Jitu will go to jail. At first Yogesh is adamant he will not marry, but Jitu tells him that he also borrowed 15 million rupees from a mob boss; his parents are unaware of this. Yogesh is annoyed, but agrees to marry after the gangster threatens them. Yogesh's uncle, Devu (Darshan Jariwala), subsequently posts a matrimonial ad with Yogesh's photo, and 176 girls reply. Yogesh decides that he will meet one girl from each zodiac sign. Meanwhile, Devu's wife Kanta asks Bharat to hire a detective – she suspects that Devu is cheating on her. When Bharat learns that the astrologer is also a detective, he hires him. The detective identifies Devu's mistress as a woman named Anila Kamdar. After Yogesh has met most of the girls, one of them, Sanjana, asks to talk to him privately. She says to him that a boy has agreed to marry her, but she is reluctant. She asks Yogesh to give her time to decide what to do about her boyfriend. He agrees, telling her about his problems with Jitu. Sanjana, touched that Yogesh will help her despite his own problems, hugs him. Devu walks in, and thinks he has interrupted them; Sanjana chases him, trying to explain. Tailing Devu, the detective is unaware that he had been with Anila at a hotel and sees him with Sanjana. Sanjana shows Devu a picture; when he says something supposedly demeaning, she becomes angry and tries to leave. Devu stops her, holding her while she cries before they leave in his car. The detective convinces Yogesh and his father that Devu is having an affair with Sanjana. Anila then comes downstairs, looking for Devu. Yogesh shows her the photos, telling her that Devu and Sanjana went to Khandala, a hill station near Mumbai. The detective tells Kanta this story, and they find Devu at a hotel with Sanjana. Devu thinks Yogesh betrayed him, and Yogesh thinks Devu is having an affair with Sanjana. After seeing the last girl, Yogesh's mother Shakuntala beseeches him to choose with his heart instead of his mind. Yogesh sees all of the girls in a dream, and in the morning decides who he will marry. He goes to Rajni's office because she offered a 50-million-rupee dowry, and is relieved to discover that she is marrying someone else. Yogesh goes to Devu's house to tell him he wants to marry Vishakha, but Devu calls her and rejects her. He says there is no need for Yogesh to marry her; he knows about Jitu's debt, and says he will choose Yogesh's bride himself. Yogesh is impatient, but Devu keeps the bride a secret. When she enters, Yogesh cannot tell who she is. When the ceremony ends, Devu welcomes the father of the bride: Sanjana's father. Yogesh is stunned when his grandfather brings the money to pay Jitu's debts. He asks Devu how he arranged the marriage; Devu explains that when Sanjana followed him and showed him a picture of her boyfriend, he remembered seeing the boyfriend kissing another woman in Khandala. He brought Sanjana to a hotel in Khandala to confront her boyfriend. Sanjana told him she would marry Yogesh, having realised that she loves him. The film ends with the marriage attendants asking Sanjana's astrological sign. Sanjana asks Yogesh what her raashee is, to which he says he does not know, and smiles.
Cast and characters
Cast The cast is listed below:
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
