First weekend performance of latest release
It was an interesting Friday for Bollywood as two movies belonging to completely different schools of film making released simultaneously. While Karan Razdan's 'Souten' was a social affair with little dose of sleazy element, 'Being Cyrus' by debutant Homi Adjania was the first ever of its kinds by an Indian film maker [yes, first ever] and heralded the arrival of a new era that boasts of an alternative screenplay and narration. No brownie points for guessing which movie was better acclaimed critically! While 'Being Cyrus' was the second movie after 'Rang De Basanti' that opened to consistently positive reviews across all major publications and websites, 'Souten' was at maximum a time pass affair that failed to impress many.
Box office wise, 'Being Cyrus' had a better response though not phenomenal, as it is trying to create a space for itself in the multiplexes. Positive word of mouth and some better post-release publicity may help the movie sail it through the safety mark. Nevertheless Saif Ali Khan enjoys his good run as a critically acclaimed actor who seems to be doing nothing wrong whether as a criminal [Ek Haseena Tha], a cool dude [Salaam Namaste] or a period urban man [Parineeta]. 'Souten' has opened to a below average to poor response and its only chances of survival are at the small cities and towns in the long run.
Last week's movies
'Umar' is now the biggest flop ever for the otherwise highly talented Jimmy Shergill as it opened to a disastrous response all over. Released with limited prints at select cities, the collections were simply poor as the final tally after the first week merely read around 15 lakhs. Simply not acceptable by any standards. Audience just didn't venture into the theatres to see the flick while scathing reviews didn't help the cause either. Ironically the 'umar' of 'Umar' at the box office would be quite short and it should be a week's time before it completely fades away from the scene.
'Banana Brothers' registered never-heard-before collections in last few years as it collected just a few thousands at a few screens where it was released. In the last week's column we had mentioned that it would be miracle if all India collections read even 10 lakhs at the end of first week! Well, the miracle didn't really happened as the film didn't even garner 10% of what the miraculous collections would have been!
From the past
At the end of second week, the verdict for 'Malamaal Weekly' is loud and clear. It can easily enjoy the super hit status now after continuing to be stable across the country. There were further 6 crores added to the 10 crore first week total, hence bringing its fortune close to 16 crores. With the way movie is gaining patronage all around and no competition in sight for 2 more weeks, the movie should easily turn into a 23-25 crore success. No wonder the makers are publicizing the 5 star rating from the audience, clearly targeting the critics who failed to read the movie's potential, both at an individual and the group level and gave it a thumbs down on the day of the release.
'Jigyaasa' is an experience Hrishita Bhatt may want to forget in a hurry as it has turned out to be a supreme disaster. The film has breathed its last with 2 week collections worth 13 lakhs odd. 'Teesri Aankh' has barely managed to touch the 5 crore mark but that must be it for this Sunny Deol flick that doesn't have much chance even in the satellite/DVD circuits. Milan Luthria's 'Taxi No. 9211' is still going along well on road as it maintains good collections even in the 4th week. City of Mumbai in particular is having a great time for movie buffs with as many as three movies doing exceptionally well there - Malamaal Weekly, Taxi No. 9211 and Rang De Basanti! The collections of 'Taxi No. 9211' now stand pretty close to the 18 crore mark.
'Aksar' has completed 50 days at the theatres and while Emraan Hashmi looks forward to 'Gangster', Dino Morea's stocks too are also high as he moves on to 'Tom Dick and Harry' with approximately 9 crore 'Aksar' behind him! 'Rang De Basanti' hardly budges from the stable position it has been enjoying for last few weeks and adds on another 1.5 crore in its 8th week. With a 47.5 crore total to boast and 2 clear weeks sans any new release ahead, a 50 crore total does look like a good possibility. The film has dislodged Kaho Na Pyaar Hai from the 4th position in the list of biggest grossers of the current decade and is all set to come to the 3rd place by going ahead of Koi Mil Gaya's total of 49 crores!
In the future
This Friday should be an uneventful outing for Bollywood with films like 'Chand Ke Paar Chalo', 'Madhubaala' and 'Naughty Boy' [probable] arriving together. Incidentally all the three films have a woman as a prime protagonist. While 'Chand Ke Paar Chalo' appears to be a 60s-70s love story cum drama starring Preeti Jhangiani in the lead, both 'Naughty Boy' and 'Madhubaala' give an impression of sleaze films in the garb of a comedy and social respectively. It won't come as a surprise if the three films fail to do much at the box office, though 'Naughty Boy' may just hold a slight edge by garnering better collections amongst the three.
