Notebook (2019 film)

Notebook
Theatrical release poster
Directed byNitin Kakkar
Written byDialogues:
Payal Ashar
Sharib Hashmi
Screenplay byDarab Farooqui
Based onThe Teacher's Diary
by Nithiwat Tharathorn
Produced bySalman Khan
Murad Khetani
Ashwin Varde
StarringZaheer Iqbal
Pranutan Bahl
CinematographyManoj Kumar Khatoi
Edited bySachindra Vats
Music byVishal Mishra
Production
companies
Salman Khan Films
Cine1 Studios
Distributed bySalman Khan Films
Release date
  • 29 March 2019 (2019-03-29)[1]
Running time
112 minutes[2]
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Budget₹15 crore[3]
Box officeest. ₹3.72 crores[4]

Notebook is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language romantic drama film produced by Salman Khan under Salman Khan Films and Murad Khetani and Ashwin Varde under Cine1 Studios and directed by Nitin Kakkar. A remake of the 2014 Thai film The Teacher's Diary, it stars debutantes Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl, daughter of actor Mohnish Bahl, in the lead roles,[5] and tells the story of a young retired army officer who joins his father's school as a teacher to save it from closure, and falls in love with the previous teacher after reading through her memorabilia left behind in the drawers.[6] The film was released on 29 March 2019 and received mixed response from critics with praises for leads performances.[7][8][9]

Plot

Captain Kabir Kaul, a young retired army officer, decides to teach in his late father's school, the Wular Public School as the school will be closed if there is no teacher to teach. At the school, he finds a diary left behind in the desk drawer by the previous teacher, Firdaus Quadri. Children start coming to school after learning that a new teacher has arrived. However, they disobey Kabir, leading him to think that he cannot teach, but after reading Firdaus's diary, he gains confidence and decides to try.

Kabir's girlfriend breaks up with him and is having an affair with a new man, as she believes that Kabir is now unfit to marry her because he has left the army. He is heartbroken but takes solace in the schoolchildren and Firdaus's diary, writing comments in it. He learns about Imran, one of the schoolchildren, whose father, Yakub, wants him to help in the household rather than attending school. Using help from the diary, Kabir succeeds in bringing Imran back to school. He decides to burn Firdaus's diary after learning she is getting married, but retrieves it in a fit of epiphany.

On her wedding day, Firdaus finds out that her fiancé was cheating on her and that the other woman is carrying his child. She calls off the marriage and returns to Wular Public School. The children are overjoyed to have her back, though Kabir is gone. She finds her diary in the same drawer she had left it in a year before and reads Kabir's comments. He had written that he was in love with the writer and had learned valuable lessons from her diary. Curious, Firdaus asks the principal about Kabir the same way he had asked about her. The principal tells her that he has gone to take a teaching course.

One day, Firdaus confronts Yakub, who wants to take Imran back. Imran sees Kabir and runs to him, saying he doesn't want to leave the school. Yakub threatens Kabir with a gun and punches Kabir. Imran, realizing that Yakub might kill Kabir, takes the gun to shoot his father. Kabir stops him. Yakub realizes his mistake and slowly lowers the gun. At the end, it is shown that Firdaus sent the children back home so that she can talk and spend time with Kabir with whom she has fallen in love.

Cast

  • Zaheer Iqbal as Captain (Retd.) Kabir Kaul
  • Pranutan Bahl as Firdaus Quadri
  • Farhana Bhat as Dolly
  • Mir Sarwar as Yakub
  • Mozim Bhatt as Junaid
  • Mir Mehrooz as Imran
  • Mir Zayaan as Tariq
  • Baba Hatim as Waqar
  • Adiba Bhatt as saniya Mir
  • Soliha Maqbool as Shama
  • Kosar Chandpuri as Young Yakub
  • Saniya Mir as Pregnant girl
  • Mallik Mushtaq as Junaid's father
  • Saroj Sharma as Junaid's mother
  • Ahmed as Young Kabir

Marketing and release

Salman Khan unveiled the first poster of film on Valentine's Day.[10] A special screening of the film was held for Bollywood stars and family on 28 March 2019.[11] The makers chose not to release the film in Pakistan due to the 2019 Pulwama attack.[12] The film was made available as VOD on Amazon Prime Video in June 2019.[13]

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film had scored 22% based on nine reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10.[9] Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in writes, "Notebook has an unremarkable lead pair, an underwhelming dull love story in which the actors don't share the screen for nearly the entire duration of the narrative, some of the most ravishing views of Kashmir yet, a bunch of adorable children and a soundtrack with a few good tunes."[14] Rachit Gupta of The Times of India rated the film with three stars out of five and says, "Notebook is an easy watch where you can appreciate the humour, drama and romance. But the film leaves you wanting for more. Perhaps with more creativity in writing, this young romantic saga could have achieved more."[7] Writing for Daily News and Analysis Meena Iyer finds nothing wrong with the film but wished, "it hadn't been so antiseptic." She rates the film with three stars out of five.[8]

Jyoti Sharma Bawa of Hindustan Times rates the film with two and half stars out of five and praises the cinematographer Manoj Kumar Khatoi. She opines that the cinematographer has ensured that every frame is bursting with beauty and The visual portrayal would stay with the viewers long after they forget the sub-par love story.[15] Charu Thakur of India Today gives two and half stars out of five and concludes the review as, "If you are looking for some old-world romance this weekend, Notebook is definitely a recommended watch for you."[16] Bollywood Hungama while rating it with three stars out of five they feel that the film would appeal only to multiplex audience. They sum up review by saying, "On the whole, NOTEBOOK boasts of exemplary performances by the debutants and is beautifully shot while stressing on the importance of education."[17]

Soundtrack

Notebook
Soundtrack album by
Vishal Mishra
Released8 March 2019[18]
Recorded2018
GenreFeature film soundtrack
Length26:53
LanguageHindi
LabelT-Series
External audio
audio icon Audio Jukebox on YouTube
Vishal Mishra chronology
5 Weddings
(2018) 		Notebook
(2019) 		Kabir Singh
(2019)

The music and background score of the film is composed by Vishal Mishra while the lyrics are penned by Manoj Muntashir, Kaushal Kishore, Akshay Tripathi, Abhayendra Kumar Upadhyay and Vishal Mishra. The song "Bhumro" is a recreation of the original song from the film Mission Kashmir. "Main tare" was originally sung by Atif Aslam but then removed by Salman Khan. Atif Aslam version was unofficially released on YouTube.

Track listing
No.TitleLyricsSinger(s)Length
1."Nai Lagda"Akshay TripathiVishal Mishra, Asees Kaur4:47
2."Laila"Abhayendra Kumar Upadhyay, Vishal MishraDhvani Bhanushali4:05
3."Bhumro"Kaushal KishoreKamaal Khan, Vishal Mishra3:21
4."Safar"Kaushal KishoreMohit Chauhan5:47
5."Notebook Epilogue" Vishal Mishra4:16
6."Main Taare"Manoj MuntashirSalman Khan4:37
7."Main Taare"Manoj MuntashirAtif Aslam4:37
Total length:26:53

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Recipient Result Ref.
2019 Screen Awards Best Female Debut Pranutan Bahl Nominated [19]
2020 Filmfare Awards Best Female Debut Nominated [20]

See also

References

  1. ^ "'The most beautiful love story', Salman Khan's Notebook to release on March 29, 2019". Times Now. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Notebook 2019 | British Board of Film Classification". Bbfc.co.uk. 22 March 2019.
  3. ^ "Day 1 Box Office Prediction of Junglee and Notebook". Jagran. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  4. ^ "Notebook Box Office". Bollywood Hungama. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
  5. ^ "New beginning for Salman Khan protegés Pranutan, Zaheer Iqbal". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  6. ^ "Is Salman Khan's Notebook inspired by Thai film The Teacher's Diary?". Times Now News. Retrieved 26 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b Gupta, Rachit (28 March 2019). "Notebook Movie Review". Times Of India. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  8. ^ a b Iyer, Meera (28 March 2019). "'Notebook' Review: Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl show promise". DNA India. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  9. ^ a b "Notebook". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
  10. ^ "Notebook poster: Salman Khan introduces Nutan's granddaughter Pranutan, Zaheer Iqbal". Hindustan Times. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  11. ^ "Notebook' special screening: Salman Khan and family along with Bollywood stars grace the movie premiere". Times of India. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  12. ^ "Pulwama aftermath: Salman Khan's 'Notebook', 'Satellite Shankar' and Shahid Kapoor's 'Kabir Singh' to NOT release in Pakistan". Free Press Journal. 24 February 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  13. ^ "Notebook". Amazon. June 2019. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  14. ^ Ramnath, Nandini. "'Notebook' movie review: Forget the romance and look out the window". Scroll.in.
  15. ^ Sharma Bawa, Jyoti (29 March 2019). "Notebook movie review: Kashmir is the real attraction of Zaheer Iqbal, Pranutan Bahl film". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  16. ^ Thakur, Charu. "Notebook Movie Review: Salman Khan launches Zaheer Iqbal and Pranutan Bahl in a stunning romance". India Today. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  17. ^ "Notebook Review". Bollywood Hungama. News Network. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  18. ^ "Notebook – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Jio Saavn. 8 March 2019.
  19. ^ "26th Star Screen Awards | 2019 : Full show and winners". Disney+ Hotstar. Retrieved 16 November 2021.
  20. ^ "Presenting the winners of the 65th Amazon Filmfare Awards 2020". Filmfare. 6 November 2021. Archived from the original on 16 February 2020.

External links