India's Most Wanted (film)

India's Most Wanted is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, and starring Arjun Kapoor. The film is about tracking a terrorist in a secret mission and arresting him without firing bullets. India's Most Wanted is inspired by the arrest of proscribed organisation Indian Mujahideen (IM) terrorist Yasin Bhatkal, also referred to as India's Osama Bin Laden, in January 2018 by Delhi Police.

Principal photography of the film began in May 2018 and wrapped up in November 2018. The soundtrack was composed by Amit Trivedi, with lyrics written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, and released under the banner Saregama. The film was theatrically released in India on 24 May 2019.

Cast

 * Arjun Kapoor as Prabhat
 * Amrita Puri as Priyanka Rao
 * Rajesh Sharma as Rajesh Singh
 * Prashanth Alexander as Pillai
 * Shantilal Mukherjee as Shaumik Biswas
 * Devendra Mishra as Javed
 * Gaurav Mishra as Amit
 * Aasif Khan as Bittu
 * Bajrangbali Singh as Ravi
 * Pravin Singh Sisodia as Manish
 * Rajiv Kachroo as Dev
 * Sudev Nair as Yusuf
 * Jitendra Shastri as Informant

Production
The film was announced in May 2018. After the success of Raid, Gupta confirmed that he was working on two scripts. Among them one is a detective crime thriller. Arjun Kapoor was the only choice for the leading role.

Principal photography
Principal photography of the film began in May 2018. The shooting of India's Most Wanted took place in many places in Bihar like Gol Ghar, Kali Ghat (NIT Ghat), Kargil Chowk (near Gandhi Maidan) and Bahadurpur Housing Colony. Some portions of the film was shot in Nepal. Principal photography ended in November 2018.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was composed by Amit Trivedi, with lyrics written by Amitabh Bhattacharya, and released under the banner Saregama.

Marketing and release
The teaser poster of the film was released on 15 April 2019. Another teaser poster of the film was released on 16 April 2019. The official teaser of the film was premiered on 16 April 2019 by Fox Star Studios on YouTube. The official trailer of the film was premiered on 2 May 2019 by Fox Star Studios on YouTube. Rajkumar Gupta confirms removal of controversial religious references in India’s Most Wanted.

The film has been certified with runtime of 123 mins by British Board of Film Classification and released on 24 May 2019.

Critical reception
Rahul Gangwani reviewing for Filmfare rates the film with three stars out of five. He praised cinematography of the film for aerial shots, but feels that film was using more of national fervour and lacked craft. He terms the film as 'part-predictable and part-thrilling' fare. Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today also praised cinematography of Dudley for Nepal shots and gave two and half stars out of five. She feels that the film suffers from a sluggish pace, but lives up to promise of telling the story of the nameless and faceless heroes. Shubhra Gupta writing for The Indian Express gives two stars out of five. Terming it as 'a placid spy thriller', Gupta praised Arjun Kapoor for giving earnest performance. Priyanka Sinha Jha of News18 rates the film with three stars out of five, and opines that the film has a good story, but it is not fully mined. She concludes, "It is more likely to make it to your stay-at-home-and-watch list." Meena Iyer of Daily News and Analysis concurring with Jha, says "the intention can be lauded, but definitely not the execution." And, she also gives three stars out of five. Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in feels that the manhunt film is overheated, undercooked and doesn't have enough substance to justify its flourishes. Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India rates the film with three and half stars out of five, and says, "India’s Most Wanted is an earnest ode to the unsung heroes of our country — a story that deserves to be heard." Raja Sen of the Hindustan Times feels that this intelligence film is not bright and says, "...well-meaning thriller too restrained to be memorable." He rates it with two stars out of five.