Welcome is an Indian 2007 Hindi-language comedy film co-written and directed by Anees Bazmee. It stars Feroz Khan, Anil Kapoor, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal, and Mallika Sherawat in prominent roles. Sunil Shetty and Malaika Arora feature in special appearances. The film marked the last screen appearance of Feroz Khan who died in 2009.
Budgeted at which includes making and marketing costs, Welcome was distributed by UTV Motion Pictures. It was theatrically released worldwide on 21 December 2007, coinciding with the Christmas festival. The film received mostly mixed to positive reviews from critics leading to stiff competition with Aamir Khan's Taare Zameen Par. Nevertheless, Welcome was a major commercial success and went on to become the second highest grossing hindi film of the year with global revenues of .
The film is the first instalment of the Welcome series and spawned a sequel, Welcome Back in 2015 that also became a commercial success. According to The Hindu, the film's climax scene is a rip-off from the 1990 Tamil film Michael Madana Kama Rajan.
Plot
Dr. Dayal Ghungroo lives with his son-like nephew Rajiv Saini, an auctioneer who is his late sister Chitra's son. Don Uday Shetty wants his half-sister Sanjana married but all attempts fail due to his criminal background. Rajiv is smitten by her. Uday and his best friend, Sagar "Majnu Bhai" Pandey, want their marriage. But after learning they are mobsters, Dayal flees to South Africa with his family. Majnu and Sanjana arrive there. She and Rajiv meet again and fall in love.
Uday and Majnu force Dayal to take the alliance, and invite powerful underworld Don RDX. Dayal sends his sister-in-law Ishika for breaking the alliance, who succeeds by falsely claiming to be Rajiv's childhood betrothed. Dayal reveals that Rajiv's criminal father harassed and tortured Chitra, who told Dayal to keep Rajiv away from crime. He says he'll agree only if Uday and Majnu give up their common crime life.
Rajiv and Sanjana do this by reawakening Uday's love for acting and encouraging Majnu's passion for painting. With these things keeping them busy, Uday and Majnu have no time for crime anymore.
Rajiv's actions anger Lucky, who attempts to shoot Rajiv. Sanjana gets hold of the gun and fires a shot that hits Lucky, causing him to go unconscious. RDX is informed of Lucky's death and comes to attend the cremation. However Lucky, who is still alive, escapes, trying to show his father that he's alive, but fails. RDX sets the pile of wood on fire, believing he is cremating his son's body. However Lucky, who had been hiding under the wood, jumps out upon realizing the wood is on fire, and the truth is revealed to RDX. Rajiv, Dayal, his wife Payal, Ishika, Uday, Majnu, Sanjana, Uday and Majnu's men, and Uday's Lawyer are captured by RDX and brought to a cabin set next to a cliff. The frightened group is forced to play Passing the Parcel (Hot Potato) with a globe but the one who ends up with the globe must jump off the cliff. When Rajiv refuses to pass the globe to Sanjana, Lucky angrily yanks it out of his hands, just as the music stops. Now that his son has the globe, RDX figures the only way he can maintain his image is by killing everyone. Before he can, several government brokers sneak up and cut the footings of the cabin, causing the house to start falling over the cliff, with everyone trapped inside. However, the cabin is suspended by only one column.
