First weekend performance of latest release
'Humko Deewana Kar Gaye' was expected to arrive with a bang and consolidate its position for the rest of the week. Surprisingly nothing like that happened with theatres across the country showing a mixed response. The opening was between average and good but nothing extraordinary. Reviews from the trade and response from the audience too was mixed as the film didn't really have much new to offer. There was mush, good songs and a polished feel throughout but a routine treatment meant that only the lovers of conventional candy floss cinema fancied watching Akshay-Katrina romance. Introduction of Anil Kapoor in the film's promotion has added a zing that should prove to be beneficial. Early reports indicate that the film should be safe though a HIT tag seems to be elusive!
It would be surprising of 'Eight Shani' manages to enter in its 'eight' day at the theatres with the movie failing to get a proper release across the country. When compared to Karan Razdan's earlier two disasters 'Umar' and 'Souten - The Other Woman', the film got better reviews due to an interesting subject but that didn't really help the film gain mega bucks.
Last week's movies
Just like this week's 'Humko Deewana Kar Gaye', even last week's 'Shaadi Se Pehle' had flattered to deceive during it's pre-release period. After the end of week one, the collections told the tale as they read around 7.5 crore from the entire country. Expectedly Mumbai was the biggest contributor as the collections read around 1.5 crore while Delhi was way below par with only 70 lakhs. Normally for a film coming from a big banner and reasonable starcast, one would have expected Delhi to contribute at the least 1 crore! Still, since the occupancy has OK in the interiors, 'Shaadi Se Pehle' should end up as an average flick [at the most] and comfortably cross the 10 crore mark.
'Saawan - The Love Season' has been a 'drought season' for its investors who may have thought [rightly so] that Salman Khan's name was good enough to get them fortunes at the box office. Sadly nothing like that happened and producer/director Saawan Kumar has himself to blame for the way he has treated the subject. The movie has been a big letdown with only 2.5 crore at the end of first week. Quite poor! It was expected that the film will do well at least in the interiors but it was a sorry tale there too after the first weekend went by. Salman's jail episode didn't help the film either. The film should be off the theatres in a couple of weeks from now.
The mystery of 'Banaras - A Mystic Love Story' remained unsolved as there were hardly any who ventured into the theatres. After a dismal opening, the collections continued to be abysmal with only 0.5 crores coming at the end of the first week. Just like Urmila's last docudrama 'Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara', 'Banaras' too has met with a similar commercial fate and will fade away from the public memory soon. Pankaj Parashar delivers second disaster in a row after 'Ittefaq' [Manoj Bajpai, Isha Kopikar].
From the past
'Chand Ke Paar Chalo', 'Madhubaala', 'Ho Sakta Hai' and 'Naughty Boy' released on the same day and while each of them were poor shows all the way from day one, the only two releases that (barely) survived at the theatres in the second week were sleaze flicks 'Naughty Boy' and 'Madhubaala'. Still that doesn't mean that sex still sells because collections were still near to negligible. In the final run, each of the four flicks have sank without a trace.
As mentioned in the last week's column, 'Being Cyrus' is inching its way to the 4 crore mark as the total at the end of the third week reads 3.5 crores. Released selectively, the movie has done decently for itself with money still continuing to trickle in [though on the lower side] from the cities. With number of films releasing in last couple of weeks, things slowed down a bit for 'Malamaal Weekly' as it completed 5 weeks at the box office. There was around 50% fall in collections but still the film managed to add in 1 more crore. The film is now close to 24 crore mark and its the right time for the original DVD/VCD to be out soon! Ditto for 'Taxi No. 9211' that has now celebrated 50 days at the box office but took a massive fall in its 8th week with just around 10 lakhs coming in. The film should breathe its last in the theatres by coming agonizingly close but falling short of the 20 crore mark.
For the first time since the film's release, 'Rang De Basanti' garnered less than a crore as it fell around 50% in its 11th week. The film still enjoys a superhit status with the collections crossing the 50 crore landmark. Though the film should end its run in 4-5 weeks from now, Aamir Khan's presence will continue to be felt 'Fanaa' that comes in May end.
In the future
'Pyare Mohan' and 'Tom Dick and Harry', both being comic stories of physically handicapped men, were supposed to release on the same day i.e. 21st April. Surprisingly TDH, a better marketed product and more promising of the two, has backed out and is now coming two weeks later. This sets the stage clear for 'Pyare Mohan' that will be the sole release of the week now. Inspite of an Inder Kumar tag and decent starcast of Fardeen, Viveik, Esha, Amrita and Boman, the film has been under promoted while the response to the songs has been average too. Nevertheless the advantage of an open week coupled with Inder Kumar's HIT record over all these years should ensure that 'Pyaare Mohan' takes average to decent beginning at the least.
