Cast :	Sushant Singh, Rajat Kapoor, Kartikadevi Rane, Mandeep
Director :	Jaideep Varma
Producer :	Big Pictures and Handmade Films
Genre :	Comedy
Release Date :	19-9-2008

Synopsis

Raj an aggressive sub-broker in a prosperous broking firm and Abha a marketing professional are a couple in their early-thirties. They move into a new 2-bedroom flat in a Mumbai suburb expecting peace and quiet. Life is sweet as their promising careers now seem to be nicely complemented by domestic stability.

Cracks start appearing in their ideal existence when Raj who is light sleeper is disturbed by noises at nights. They wake him several times in the nights (Abha is undisturbed though). Finally one night, Raj goes down to investigate and discovers that it is the night watchman blowing the whistle periodically in the night to scare thieves away. Raj scolds the watchman and forbids him from making any further noise but the secretary Janardan insists on the whistling continuing in lieu of the building security. Raj tries to garner support from fellow-residents but to no avail.

An issue that starts out lightly and amusingly trivial begins to escalate to take the shape of a serious problem for Raj. He begins to slowly go to pieces. Not being able to sleep at night begins to take a serious toll on him, both professionally and personally. At work, he becomes edgy and his usual smart sense of judgment suffers. At home, he becomes obsessed with any loud noises in the environment. His disgust at being unable to solve a seemingly simple problem such as this begins to drive him crazy. Moreover, to his great irritation, no-one really sympathises with his problem – not Abha, not Dev – his friend at work, not any of the neighbours. It annoys Raj immensely, because he genuinely believes that this nightly noise-making is an illogical, uncivilized act (there is also a hint that it is Raj's conscience that's not allowing him to sleep, rather than the whistling, but it is deliberately left ambiguous).

"Hulla" is story of a simple annoyance affecting a person's life and bringing about dramatic unexpected change that brings the real character and emotions of the Raj and the people surrounding him, to the fore.

This energetic bittersweet comedy (more accurately perhaps - drama with a sense of humour) turns a contemporary eye on something that is taken too much for granted in Indian cities, especially Mumbai – private space. It’s about the clash between a stockbroker who is not allowed to sleep at night and a small-time trader who won’t let him (as the secretary of the building society they live in). This seemingly trivial, even laughable, problem eventually snowballs into disasters for both of them and their families, while unspooling the attitudes of people around them.

Outline

Raj and Abha, a couple in their early-thirties, move into their new 2-bedroom flat in a Mumbai suburb. They are both very happy as only new home-owners can be in Mumbai. Since the flat is in a residential complex away from the bustle of the city and the main road, they both expect peace and quiet. Raj is an aggressive sub-broker in a prosperous broking firm where he is considered a star. Abha is a marketing professional who is doing well in her job. They have no children. Their promising careers now seem to be nicely complemented by domestic stability.

However, every night Raj is disturbed by strange screechy noises. They wake him several times in the nights (Abha is undisturbed though). Finally one night, Raj discovers that it is the nightwatchman blowing the whistle periodically to scare thieves away. The nightwatchman – Matthew, refers Raj to Janardhan, the new secretary of the building society, who has passed these orders to enhance security.

Raj appeals to Janardhan the next day, but meets a brick wall. Janardhan refuses to stop the whistling as according to him the safety of the community is much more important than the comfort of one individual. A society meeting is called and the whistling is replaced by the banging of the stick. But this is still loud enough to disturb Raj, so his problem continues.

Janardhan is a small time businessman and his nagging wife constantly reminds him of his failure to make it big and life passing them by. On being appointed secretary of the society, Janardhan overcompensates for his mid-life crisis by overzealously passing orders.

The tussle between Raj and Janardhan takes on serious proportions and significantly alters both their lives. The nightly disturbances lead to a domino effect which completely destroys Raj’s judgement, composure, professional and personal life. His bid to salvage the situation and get his own back at Janardhan lead to a sequence of events involving Raj, Janardhan and the nightwatchman Matthew which eventually end with their lives get extraordinarily realigned at the end despite the innocuous beginnings.

Other Cast & Crew

Chandrachood Karnik, Vrajesh Hirjee, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Dinesh Thakkerr, Balaji Deshpande, Sushil Parashar, Nasser Abdullah, Datta Sonawane, Jayant Gadekar, Raja Hudda, Sonamuni Jayant, Vaibhav Mathur, Aanshika Srivastava, Smita Oak, Anil Bhagwat, Bhagyashree Desai, Shailesh
Special Appearance: Darshan Jariwala, Ravi Jhankal
Executive Producer: Cartwheel Features
Music: Indian Ocean
Cinematography: Paramvir Singh
Sound: Vivek
Editor: Nimish Gaur
Art Director: Alok Haldar
Associate Director: Nimish Gaur
Assistant Directors: Sumit Kilam, Shriya Ghate, Ruchi Srivastav, Swapnil Gandhi
Assistant Editor: Khushboo Raj
Asst. Cinematographer: Dhiren Shukla
Location Sound: Santosh Kumar
Make-up: Arif Sheik
Production: Gurudas Pai, Hanumanta Yalka
Casting: Joginder Singh