The film starts with Krishna Verma [Vidya Balan] trying to convince her husband, Vidyadhar Verma [Adil Hussain], a local ganglord, that he should surrender, as out of the three cases registered against him, two dont have any witnesses and the third only has a maximum prison sentence of 4 years. He agrees but is soon killed in a gas explosion. Two criminals Iftikhar [Naseeruddin Shah] and Razzak Hussain aka Babban [Arshad Warsi] botch up a job and escape from the clutches of their boss Mushtaq [Salman Shahid], who wants to bury them alive. They land up in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to seek refuge in the house of Vidyadhar Verma. Instead they meet his widow Krishna, who gives them shelter and tries to seduce both of them in order to achieve her own secret goal.

See also

*Bollywood films of 2010

Soundtrack

| Last album = Kaminey[2009] | This album = Ishqiya[2010] | Next album = TBD }} The music of the film is composed by Vishal Bhardwaj and the lyrics are penned by Gulzar. The music was released on 1 January 2010. The reception to the music has been positive with Dil To Bachcha Hai and Ibn-E-Batuta being instant chartbusters. The track Badi Dheere Jali, based on an Indian classical Raaga "Lalat" and the ghazal Ab Mujhe Koi are sung by Rekha Bhardwaj. Her rusty voice perfectly suits the songs.

Box office

= In just three days, the gross box office collections of the film in India crossed Rs. 15 crore on 522 screens. Friday morning shows opened with 40-60 percent in key areas like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune , Bangalore and evening settled down to 65-70 percent with average occupancy cultivating first day gross box office of Rs. 3.85 crore, with glowing reviews ranging from 3-4 star ratings and strong word-of-mouth from audience, Saturday showed an impressive jump of 25-30 percent and settled down to Rs. 5 Crore, Sunday showed further jump of 30 percent compared to Friday and 8-10 percent compared to Saturday, garnered further Rs. 5.40 crore cultivating to cumulative an astounding opening gross weekend collection of more than Rs. 14 crore at the box office. After five weeks Ishqiya grossed Rs. 22,05,00,000 and was declared an average performer by the box office.

Critical reception

= The film opened to an extremely positive critical and commercial response. Accolades were received for the performances by the three central characters, like Anupama Chopra, the NDTV movie critic said, "Ishqiya would have faltered if the performances had not matched the writing but all three leads are absolutely terrific.", while giving the movie 4.5 stars out of 5 . Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN while giving the film 3.5 on a 5-star rating, called it, "a delicious little film that teeters dangerously between saucy comedy and suspenseful noir....the film sparkles for its inspired writing and uncompromised direction.". Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, "Ishqiya could have been an average film had it not been for the screenplay.". The Indiatimes review also gave 3.5 stars out of 5. Taran Adarsh of bollywood hungama while giving the film 4 on a 5 star rating scale, said "You cant help but fall in ishq with Ishqiya. Tired of sherbat? Try this spicy jaljeera for a change!".

Tracklist

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Track #	Song	Singer[s]	Duration
1	Dil To Bachcha Hai	Rahat Fateh Ali Khan	5:36
2	Ibn-E-Batuta	Sukhwinder Singh, Mika Singh	3:40
3	Ab Mujhe Koi	Rekha Bhardwaj	5:43
4	Badi Dheere Jali	Rekha Bhardwaj	7:04
5	Dil To Bachcha Hai [Remix]	Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Clinton Cerejo [English Lyrics by Ajinkya Iyer]	4:02
6	Ibn-E-Batuta [Nucleya Remix]	Sukhwinder Singh, Mika Singh	4:21
7	Ibn-E-Batuta [Remix]	Sukhwinder Singh, Mika Singh	4:14

Cast and characters

* Naseeruddin Shah as Khalujan/Khalu/Iftikhar. 51-year-old Khalujan is a pure romantic at heart. He is a bit of an odd cookie in the world of crime. Sure, he has a sharp mind and body and has been toughened up over the years living in the world of guns and gangsters; yet, he is very emotional and tender at the core. He wants to go back to his village and wants to settle down in a quiet, peaceful country life existence. Only, life had other plans for him. Love happens to him. Krishna happens to him. * Arshad Warsi as Razzak Hussain aka Babban. 32-year-old Babban is in more ways than one, the antithesis of the kind of man his uncle is. If Khalujan is all heart and soul, Babban is all flesh and blood. He is hot-blooded, lustful and scoffs at the idea of true romantic love. Babban is cynical, indifferent to finer things in life and tough as nails. Through the course of the film, Babban discovers what it is to love and to be betrayed. It makes the dormant softer side of him come alive. Perhaps for the first time in his life, Babban cares, for Krishna. * Vidya Balan as Krishna Verma. 30 years old, femme fatale, small-town girl, mysterious woman and forgotten widow; Krishna is a bundle of contradictions. She was seen as a woman madly in love, as an object of desire, as a vision of purity and engaging herself in a lustful bout with another man. * Salman Shahid as Mushtaq Bhai * Anupama Kumar as Manju Kakkad * Gauri Malla as Mamta [Nepali actress] * Adil Hussain as Vidyadhar Verma * Rajesh Sharma as Kamalkant Kakkad aka K.K. * Alok Kumar as Nandu * Anisa Bano * Gauri Mala * Jai Singh