The film focuses on the transferred IRS officer Amay Patnaik (Ajay Devgn) to Lucknow as Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, who lives happily with his wife Malini (Ileana D'Cruz). One day, he receives an anonymous tip about the black money hoarded by (Member of Parliament) Rameshwar Singh(Saurabh Shukla), the don of Sitagarh, who has evaded paying the income tax for a very long time. So, Amay and his team plan heavily and head over to Sitagarh. There he faces hostility from Rameshwar's family but he keeps up his honest attitude. He searches every nook and corner of the house with his team to find black money, but to no avail. After a few hours, when all hope is lost, he receives an anonymous letter revealing to him the location of the money in the house, along with a map. So, Amay and his team break down the walls, ceilings, staircases and old storerooms (with the help of the map) to find assets worth crores. MP Rameshwar, not willing to accept defeat, goads Amay into letting him leave the house. He meets the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, but the CM refuses any aid as the IT department is under the Central government's control and the raid is legal. The central finance minister is forced to call to Amay, but is rebuffed. A relentless Rameshwar meets several MPs politicians, senior officers and even tries to meet the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi herself, but to no avail. He rallies his political support and threatens to topple the state cabinet unless the Prime Minister agrees to meet him. When the raid proceeds for the 3rd night, the PM and Rameshwar meet. PM Indira Gandhi calls Amay, and tells him to look for other legal options. Amay agrees, as long as she provides a signed order through fax to stop the raid, effectively negating the request. The PM is disheartened as a written order pressurizing to stop the raid may gain media's voice and the Government may be disreputed and hence sends Rameshwar away. Frustrated, Rameshwar tries to attack Malini, which she escapes narrowly. On hearing this, Amay becomes furious but controls his anger. Finally, on the 4th day at noon, Rameshwar's henchmen come to kill Amay and his team. After a long struggle, a nearly defeated Amay is saved in time by special police forces sent by the PM. Rameshwar is arrested but upon asking about the identity of Amay's informer, the latter refuses to disclose it as per the rules. Later, it is revealed that it is Rameshwar's youngest daughter-in-law was the informer as she and her lover wanted revenge on him for marrying her forcefully to his impotent son. Rameshwar is left wondering about the informer's identity in prison while Amay gets transferred to some other place, with a hope for a bright future.

Development

In August 2017, Raj Kumar Gupta made an official announcement about Ajay Devgn and Ileana D'Cruz being a part of his next film titled Raid. More than 40 theatre actors of Lucknow were selected to play various characters in the film.

Filming

The principal photography of Raid took place in Lucknow and Raebareli, and commenced in September 2017.^[17]

The film is loosely based on what is purported to be the longest-running Income Tax raid in history. On July 16, 1981, IT officials led by IT Commissioner of Lucknow, Sharda Prashad Pandey, raided the house of a businessman, and Congress MLA and a former member of the Rajya Sabha, Sardar Inder Singh in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. They recovered undeclared assets worth Rs 1.6 crores in cash and gold. The raid reportedly took 18 hours and had 45 people took to counting of notes.^[18][19][20]

The music of the film is composed by Tanishk Bagchi and Amit Trivedi while lyrics are penned by Manoj Muntashir and Indraneel. The first song of the film "Sanu Ek Pal Chain" which is sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan was released on 12 February 2018. The second track of the film titled as "Nit Khair Manga" which is also sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan released on 20 February 2018. The album was released on 1 March 2018 by T-Series.

Box office

The film earned INR 10.04 crore^[22] on its first day and by the end of its first weekend the film had made a collection of ?41.01 crore.^[23]

Critical reception

The film received generally positive reviews from critics.^[9] On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 71% based on 7 reviews with an average rating of 5.8/10.^[24]

Rachit Gupta of Times of India found the screenplay of the film and Saurabh Shukla's acting performance to be impressive but criticized the songs which he felt were unnecessary and only acted as a distraction. Rachit gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5.^[25] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 saying "Devgn's brooding presence" made the film riveting.^[26] However, in a 1.5 out of 5 star review, The Indian Express called the movie "overlong and tepid".^[27] In 4 out of 5 star review for Bollywood Hungama, Taran Adarsh wrote that the film is a nail-biting thriller which "is smart, engaging, gripping and entertaining".^[28] Sweta Kausal of Hindustan Times praised t