Trade espresso: Saara hall khaali hai

The dull wave continues at the ticket counters. The audience is certainly not in the mood to throng the cinema halls yet, reports Vajir Singh.

The dull wave continues at the ticket counters. The audience is certainly not in the mood to throng the cinema
halls yet.

HT Image

Yet five films were released on Friday:

Dil Kabaddi, Maharathi, Meerabai Not Out, Gumnaam and Oh, My God!! Of these, all except Maharathi, were directed by first-timers.

Anil Senior’s Dil Kabaddi, despite its star cast, flopped miserably. The film opened with just 15 to 25 per cent collections in the multiplexes. The scenario was equally dil-breaking at the singleplexes.

Expectations were high from Maharathi directed by Shivam Nair, since it has a stalwart cast including Naseeruddin Shah, Paresh Rawal, Boman Irani and Om Puri. At the Mumbai multiplexes, there was a slight ripple of interest but elsewhere, this adaptation of a Gujarati play was a commercial no-no.

The Chandrakant Kulkarni-directed Meerabai Not Out has taken its while to get to the screens. It scored a duck. Saurabh Srivastava’s Oh, My God!! needed divine intervention to make it at the box-office, which it didn’t get. Neeraj Pathak’s Gumnaam went gum.

Some hope
Dibakar Banerjee’s Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! registered marginally better collections after its first weekend, especially in the north.

The ticket sales were somewhat more encouraging in Delhi and cities in the Punjab. In Mumbai, too, the collections improved. The second weekend collections are expected to be better. Lucklessly, Onir’s Sorry Bhai! tanked, big time.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi:Surinder Sahni — a simple, clean-hearted man working for Punjab Power finds love in the flamboyant, fun-loving Taani. Opposites attract! Aditya Chopra returns to direction after eight years. Should that be mmm or hmmm?

The Day The World Stood Still:A remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic about a humanoid alien who lands on Earth,
accompanied by a robot and a warning to world leaders to stop their continued aggression. Scott Derrickson directs.