Hello Charlie

Hello Charlie is an Indian Hindi-language comedy film written and directed by Pankaj Saraswat and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the Excel Entertainment banner. The film stars Jackie Shroff, Aadar Jain and debutante Shhloka Pandit with Elnaaz Norouzi and Rajpal Yadav in supporting roles. The film was released on 9 April 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.
Plot.
M. D. Makwana is a wanted fraudster who must escape from Mumbai after duping banks of a lot of money, for which his model girlfriend suggests disguising him as a caged gorilla so that he would be undiscovered, while at the same time, Toto, a real gorilla escapes from a crashed plane and is also declared wanted.
Chirag "Charlie" Rastogi is a young man who has been unsuccessful in whatever ventures he has partaken. Later, he is assigned the job of escorting a gorilla to a circus by the model, little realizing that it is Makwana in disguise. Along the way, a series of adventures follows as Chirag finds himself confused between both Toto and Makwana, while a female circus acrobat-cum-dancer tags along even as a forest ranger and a veterinary doctor are on the hunt for Toto.
Production.
The principal photography of the film started in mid-July 2020 during the pandemic. Actor Aadar Jain announced the wrap of the film schedule on 26 September 2020.
Soundtrack.
The film's music was composed by Tanishk Bagchi, Gourov Dasgupta, Kanika Kapoor, Rishi Rich, Kiranee and Don D Marley and the lyrics are written by Vayu, Kumaar and Shellee, while John Stewart Eduri composed the background score.
Release.
The film was released on 9 April 2021 on Amazon Prime Video.
Reception.
Anupama Chopra of Film Companion wrote, "As I watched the truly terrible Hello Charlie, I wondered: How does a film like this get made? Did writer-director Pankaj Saraswat sit in the swanky Excel Entertainment office and actually narrate a story in which Jackie Shroff spends most of his time disguised as a gorilla? And what compelled producers Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, the powerhouses who started their careers with Dil Chahta Hai, to say yes." 