Will Vidya work her magic?

Hours before the film releases and a day before the reviews appear, here’s what you can expect from this week’s release(s)…

Hours before the film releases and a day before the reviews appear, here’s what you can expect from this week’s release(s)…

Director
Sujoy Ghosh (last directed Aladin in 2009)
Even though he had Amitabh Bachchan and Sabu Cyril working with him, Ghosh botched Bollywood’s take on Aladin. It was a
commercial failure made in a reported budget of Rs 70 crore.

Vidya-Balan-bagged-the-best-actress-award-for-The-Dirty-Picture

Music
Vishal-Shekhar
Unlike a lot of their other work, the upbeat duo has mixed rustic instruments with techno beats that will go in accordance to the storyline.

Controversies/stunts
Frequent sightings of a very pregnant Vidya Balan hanging out of local buses created some chaos. But traffic jams usually mean successful
marketing campaigns...

Marketing/hype
The actor, with her fake belly, walked into TV show sets, newspaper offices, radio stations and out on the roads asking around for her missing husband.

Our assessment
It’ll probably earn Vidya another ‘great performance’ title for her woman-oriented role. But since the director’s last film was a tremendous flop, while the actor’s previous could have financed a few Bentleys, it just may slip. Kolkata, however, does look great in the film and needs no art direction. As for how we think it’ll do, let’s just say we’re waiting to be surprised.

—Compiled by Serena Menon

For the final verdict, look out for Anupama Chopra’s review tomorrow in the Watch & Listen page of Hindustan Times’ Do!section.