General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Yeh Saali Zindagi (ये साली जिंदगी)

Yeh Saali Zindagi (ये साली जिंदगी; also known in English as This Damn Life) is a 2011 Hindi-language crime thriller directed by Sudhir Mishra, in which two gangsters find their love lives entangled with their criminal dealings after a kidnapping goes wrong.¹^•² It was released in India on 4 February 2011, runs 2 hours 10 minutes, and stars Irrfan Khan, Chitrangda Singh, Arunoday Singh, and Aditi Rao Hydari.¹

Key fact	Detail
Release	4 February 2011 (India), Hindi language, 2h 10m runtime¹
Director and writers	Sudhir Mishra; screenplay by Mishra and Manu Rishi Chadha³
Principal cast	Irrfan Khan (Arun), Chitrangda Singh (Priti), Arunoday Singh (Kuldeep), Aditi Rao Hydari (Shanti), Saurabh Shukla (Mehta)⁴
Producer	Prakash Jha; production companies Cineraas Productions, Mystic Movies, and Prakash Jha Productions³
Music	Nishat Khan (score), Abhishek Ray (title track), lyrics by Swanand Kirkire³^•⁵
Budget and earnings	Budget about Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore); India net total Rs 121 million (Rs 12.10 crore)⁶^•⁷
Original title	Dil Dar-Ba-Dar, changed before release¹

Spoilers

Plot

Arun (Irrfan Khan), a cunning chartered accountant, has long proved valuable to his corrupt employer Mehta (Saurabh Shukla) thanks to his skill at juggling and inflating the firm's books.⁸ He loves Priti (Chitrangda Singh), a nightclub singer, but Priti loves Shyam (Vipul Gupta), who is soon to marry a powerful minister's daughter.⁹

The second strand follows small-time gangster Kuldeep (Arunoday Singh), who oscillates between passionate encounters with his estranged wife Shanti (Aditi Rao Hydari) and double-edged dealings with gangster brothers Bade (Yashpal Sharma) and Chhote (Prashant Narayanan).¹⁰ After Bade falls out of favor with the Member of Parliament Verma, he is jailed without trial, and his brother Chhote and others conspire to secure his release by kidnapping Verma's prospective son-in-law, Shyam Singhania.¹¹ Things do not go as planned: Priti is abducted along with Shyam, and Arun, to save the woman he loves, must first save the man she loves.¹¹^•⁹ A corrupt cop, Inspector Satbir (Sushant Singh), completes the ensemble of crooks trying to hoodwink one another.¹⁰

Production

Mishra wrote the film with the main cast in mind, saying that Irrfan, Chitrangada, and Arunoday Singh were the first people who came to his mind as he wrote.¹² He described the finished script as "a quirky, funny romance that unfolded like a thriller," different from his earlier socio-political films such as Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Dharavi, and *Chameli.¹³^•⁸ The film was made on a budget of about Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore) and produced by Prakash Jha.⁶

Shooting took place across Delhi, from Karol Bagh, Chandni Chowk, and Old Delhi to Noida, Gurgaon, and even the Haryana border, with one song filmed inside Chandni Chowk.¹⁴ Mishra credited the February fog with lending the film "a whole new dimension."¹³ The film was previously titled Dil Dar-Ba-Dar, and its release was postponed because Irrfan Khan had two releases in October 2010.¹⁵

Music

Sitarist Nishat Khan composed the score, making his Bollywood debut with the film, and Swanand Kirkire wrote the lyrics.⁶ The title track was a late addition: composer-singer Abhishek Ray wrote it after the film and soundtrack were complete, composing the melody while walking the streets of Pokhra in Nepal with Irrfan Khan, and it incorporates three significant lines from the screenplay.¹⁶ Chitrangda Singh turned singer for the first time to render the title track with Ray; the soundtrack was released by T-Series.⁵

Reception

Critical response was divided. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave it 1.5 out of 5, calling it "a sore disappointment, mining the director's familiar territory to little effect."¹⁷ The Times of India gave 3.5 out of 5, praising the script's twists and the ensemble performances.¹⁰ Komal Nahta on Koimoi rated the film one star for business, calling it "for the classes only, but the language used is for the masses."¹⁸ Ajit Duara in Open magazine called it a disappointment whose cross-cutting lent pace without clarifying plot or creating empathy for characters.¹⁹ On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a Tomatometer of 80% from one review.²

At the Indian box office the film opened at Rs 11.5 million (Rs 1.15 crore), reached Rs 75 million (Rs 7.50 crore) by the end of week one, and finished with a total net collection of Rs 121 million (Rs 12.10 crore).⁷ IMDb lists a worldwide gross of $2,011,887 against an estimated budget of Rs 100,000,000.¹ The film is not currently available on any streaming service.⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026