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198 Responses to “Murder 3, Special 26 (ongoing), the rest of the box office”
Murder 3 Average Opening Jayantabhai Ki Love Story Dull
Friday 15th February 2013 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Murder 3 took an average opening of around 30% with collections being below the mark at many places. The film has a wide release which can help to put up a respectable day one total if the film can improve a bit through the day. The collections in mass belts are likely to be better than the metros. The occupancies are much lower than Murder 2 which released in 2011.
Jayantabhai Ki Love Story saw a very dull opening with opening collections in the 5-10% range. The film will find it tough going from such a low level.
Special 26 on its 8th day is better in the big cities but collections outside big cities have seen a huge drop.
I don’t think the HIndi version is released in US anywhere..I watched it in TAMIL with sub-titles (although I always wanted to stay away from the Tamil version) when I heard KH had agreed to make the cuts..I think that’s all we can catch in the US..
Thank you Ann jo, I guess will wait for the Hindi DVD to come out then..
speaking of which, they still have not come out with the Hindi DVD of Makhkhi !!!!!
Makkhi as well as the subtitled version of Eega is available in a single video on YouTube in case you are interested watching it this way. Of course the best way was to see it on the big screen simply because some of the sequences are even better than Robot
I do not know about Makkhi but the official subtitled Blu-ray DVD of Eega is out. In any case this is much better than watching the dubbed Hindi version Makkhi
QT has your traits Satyam Sir, He likes to write essays/pieces on films and not particularly criticizing them. He mentions that while writing these essays he comes up with the story/idea for his next film that he just picks up and starts writing from the idea that are born while writing the essays. Do you have such stories to tell? Do share.
A few days ago, at a dinner conversation, I was asked: “How come there’s been no ‘world cinema’ from the Tamil film industry?” The person asking this question – let’s call him M – wasn’t exactly a long-time follower of Tamil cinema (he said he’s seen only two really great films in Tamil, Pushpak and Michael Madana Kama Rajan), so he couldn’t place the names when I mentioned a bunch of people like Mahendran and Rudraiah, along with films like Aval Appadithaan and Udhiri Pookkal. Or for that matter, more recently, films like Virumaandi (with its shades of Rashomon) and Aaranya Kaandam (with its cheeky blending of noir and pop culture). M said, “But why hasn’t anyone heard of them.” And I said, “Of course people have heard of them. Ask any regular Tamil-movie watcher.” And M said, “I’m taking about outside Tamil Nadu. Why aren’t these filmmakers known the way Adoor is, or Kasaravalli is?”
[You make many of the right points as always. ‘World cinema’ in any case is not as neutral a term as people think. Much like a global film festival structure always involves certain choices, decisions etc at various ideological levels. But also the category of the ‘global’ that always seems to confer a certain prestige on the recipient (and his or her work) and is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘universal’ is itself dependent on various political histories and so forth. For instance Shakespeare or Mozart aren’t the ultimate global artists simply because they’re ‘great’ but because they benefited from the histories of colonialism whereas the comparable Japanese talent never had the same chance until recently when Japan was re-invented by contact with the West. All of these questions are very complicated at every end of the equation but once again, and in a nutshell, there is no ‘neutral’ category of the global which somehow all works can equally access and then become successful or not based on their intrinsic merits.
The other question that must be asked is: why should a film become globally known at all? This already suggests a somewhat colonial impulse (or within India one that often finds itself answering to a North India or ‘Hindi’ hegemony). In other words unless the film is counter-signed by a film festival of note or by ‘Bollywood’ or what have you it can never be considered worthwhile in the most absolute ways. However one judges Mohanlal’s skills (and I find them supreme) these cannot be dependent on how well-known he is in India or how many films of his are ‘visible’ anywhere on a film festival circuit. The history of an art form is always deeply intertwined with its political contexts. The latter is a pragmatic truth which cannot be confused with the absolute value of the work. The caveat one must consider is that even the ‘aesthetic’ reception is often framed by these political choices. But this should be a reason to interrogate these things even more rigorously and not simply succumb to them. For instance Kurosawa often engages in a very commercial brand of cinema (this is of course not to argue against the stunning nature of his achievements at a variety of levels). But it is one authorized by the global festival circuit. A comparable filmmaker from India (who doesn’t have to be of the same pre-eminence but just somehow who offers in a rough sense the same combination of cinematic choices) would never be celebrated in the same way within India because the endorsement of this global paradigm would have been absent.
So a lot of these things depend on contingency. Adoor as a matter of fact is poorly known outside India relative to his merits. Yes there have been retrospectives of his work in certan major cities but there is absolute gulf between knowledge of his cinema and Ray’s (even right after Pathar Panchali). Why is it that Ray Indian portrait acquired so much currency so instantly whereas Adoor’s hasn’t? Once again the answer lies in the very same questions.
Unfortunately the problem with otherwise significant cinematic voices like Kashyap is that they end up too easily endorsing this very global structure. Or ‘Tamil cinema’ too often becomes simply fodder in a polemical battle with ‘Bollywood’. The latter is certainly a worthwhile goal on its own (it’s one I engage in rather regularly as well!) and there is certainly much of value that becomes more noticeable because of a film festival appearance (here one could write an essay on the ‘out of festival’ economy at the same that is largely for ‘home’ consumption or one that satisfies the same sort of ‘desire’ in the ‘native’ country) but there is something problematic about subscribing rather easily to the global hegemony in these matters. One does not have to stop attending festivals or stop sending one’s films to them but one can subvert things greatly in other ways. I have never come across a ‘hot shot’ Bombay director (in any sense of the word) who has so much as mentioned Adoor. I have never come across conversations where Ray or Ghatak (or whoever) are more than passing references. These directors are simply not invested in these figures the way they are in the same Hollywood-foreign film axis as authorized by the ‘global cinema’ censors. And there is something troubling about this for more reasons than one.]
Why Malayalam cinema speaks in English-
It’s really funny — all the five Malayalam films released in Kerala today have English titles: Celluloid, Cowboy, Houseful, Black Butterfly and Breaking News!
To add– inspite of numerous ‘objections’, I have to confess that I had to check it again yesterday
Saw first half and then had to move onto other ‘pursuits’ ….
Saturday 16th February 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Special 26 grossed around 2-2.25 crore nett on its 8th day. The drop is 60-65% from day one which is reasonable. The total after eight days is around the 40 crore nett mark for the film.
The poor performance of Murder 3 and Jayantabhai Ki Love Story will ensure the film shows huge growth on Saturday. The film should comfortably cross 10 crore nett for its second weekend. The film is doing best in delhi NCR and Mysore.
The lifetime business of the film should cross 60 crore nett with an outside chance of 65 crore nett if it can hold in the third and fourth weeks of its run.
the film is fine in terms of trending at least going by present-day standards. But it started rather low and never got that big jump and it’s clearly not the OMG kind of trending pattern either. BOI have the above numbers, Taran’s is higher. But either way this is a far lower total than one would expect for Akshay. Even accounting for the fact that this isn’t his typical film it also isn’t some crazily risky subject! It’s still a very accessible, mainstream deal that if anything might have done more than this with an actor with greater credibility for the subject. But the remarkable thing here is the extent to which Taran and co have been calling it a success without qualification! Not that I’m surprised but at every turn the dishonesty is blatant. Of course I’m pleased with whatever Special 26 has done and would have liked it to do a lot more. But that doesn’t mean one should stop assessing things honestly. Talaash despite not trending well, specially by Aamir’s lofty standards got to 90 crores or more, Barfi did a 100. So Special 26 is somehow a trickier subject than both of those films?!
This puts a lot of other grosses in perspective: consider the hysteria and nastiness that accompanied many of (eg) Abhishek’s grosses, or even a Talaash; Dum Maaro Dum, a pretty grim film by Hindi film industry standards, got to 35 crores two-and-a-half years ago, and this in the teeth of some pretty tough reviews. And Talaash’s gross is of course of a whole different order of magnitude than Special 26, especially given the sort of film it is…
By the way, none of this is a knock on any film — more an acknowledgment of the audience reality in Bollywood. Frankly, 60-65 crores for a film like Special 26 is actually fairly creditable, especially given Akshay is playing against type.
not to mention that Abhishek had hit rock bottom at the box office by the time this film released. This is a point I’ve been making for years. It’s not that easy to get a big success doing different. With Talaash my larger point was that I have not seen for 15 years or more a film that really questions the self-image of multiplex audiences become a big success. There just isn’t an example. There are all sorts of examples at all levels of filmmaking beginning with Khakee. And so a lot of times when people celebrate the ‘different’ what they’re really looking for is an ideologically suspect product that can be ‘consumed’ more easily than many others. So with Talaash the point isn’t that it’s dark. It definitely is so but it is so in certain ways. Because it did get a very significant initial but it didn’t sustain this pace. This point is often a mystery to those who think of cinema in terms of abstractions. There are many kinds of ‘different’ films but they’re not all the same. There is a world of difference between Guru and Raavan and banalities like ‘the former is a better film’ or that ‘the latter didn’t have a good script’ or whatever don’t even begin to get to the heart of the problem.
Of course the other problem here is that leaving aside the ‘ideological’ issues for too long Bollywood audiences have been weaned on this ‘luxury cinema’ diet. Essentially cinema fulfills just about every reason from the date film to the family night out with the meals delivered to your seat or whatever to the ‘taking the client to a game’ equivalent. All of this and actually ‘experiencing’ an authentic film is not an item on anyone’s list. So even leaving aside specific ideological choices people are mostly interested in watching films in a very passive way. Something all of us like to do from time to time (though I discovered the ‘hard way’ the other day that I evidently couldn’t be passive enough for the latest die hard installment!) but not necessarily as a principle. In Bollywood essentially junk cinema shot in designer fashion has replaced any notion of worthwhile cinema. There are exceptions at the very niche end of the equation but these are films very few people check out in a theater and not that many check out even at home. There is a bit of space for the Kahani kind of deal, the except that audiences celebrate and which then allows them to indulge in the usual stuff without guilt.
In some ways even this criticism is beside the point. The Bombay film industry is just dead. It’s become something else altogether in its mainstream varieties. So even bemoaning this state of affairs is a bit anachronistic because that assumes a ‘normal’ industry. What Bollywood makes and celebrates is really Bang Bang! Not that I’m picking on this one film but it is a classic symptom of everything that’s wrong. And when you see people here comparing this film with more serious ventures or using a logic that ends with the pornographic (‘hey even Bang Bang isn’t easy to do, it requires a certain kind of star and skill set and so on’ well so does porn!). Clearly De Niro cannot do Die hard the way Bruce Willis can but it’s a fallacy to think that these are somehow comparable skill sets with each star having a different kind! The reason I point this out is that when this is the level of bankruptcy informing both ends of the equation one can’t reasonably expect great cinema! There is never an important art form or even entertainment form that comes out of the desert! Yes the production system of contemporary Bollywood allows people like Kashyap to do their own thing and this is obviously a plus. But the industry very successful ghettoizes these efforts. The fond hope that one might have had for a while that these smaller efforts would inform larger ones has also not materialized. Because you have either small films or somewhat niche efforts (whether it’s Kahani or Rohan Sippy or whoever) that enjoy more visibility because of stars, not because they’re necessarily bigger films in other ways and often the audience interest in them confirms this fact. And the ultimate ‘proof’ here is that you see the most retrograde kind of masala prospering at the moment. It’s not just Southern masala but its most retrograde variety.
Bollywood is an industry that must largely be ignored at this point (if one has any interest in superior entertainment) except on the odd day. Unless one has specific and perfectly understandable cultural reasons for wishing to keep the engagement alive.
That’s a fantastic comment. But Kashyap for one is trying to come out of this ghetto by going mainstream without compromising on the quality- GoW was an example of this and his Bombay Velvet will be in the same vein(Mumbai Fables is a must read BTW). And by doing a smaller edgier film like Ugly in between he is mixing it up very well
Also I am not sure if you know abt this (Saket had put up the links) but many important critics and websites in the West have GoW in their best of the year list (IMDB too has this recognised). I think after a very long time an Indian film has been praised so much all over the world. Kashyap was also part of the Sundance jury this year. So irrespective of what one thinks of the film (I, for one, thought the 1st part was one of the best Indian films in the last decade. Infact for me it just well short of being a masterpiece. Sadly I did not like the 2nd part. Overall as a double I will probably prefer RC to this), I think we should all be happy that an Indian film has found a lot of acclaim worldwide
I am not sure what those critics saw. As I said earlier it is not a bad movie and probably better one to come from Bollywood. But if you start comparing with West the bar is high. Recently saw two indie movies “Robot and Frank” or “Perk of beings a wallflower” and I can safely say they were far executed better.
ps – Even “kites” has in general had good reviews in west. I normal filter from critics’ language. I think even poor movies get good reviews in west because You just can not say the movie is bad when you have so many people watching them.
But to add to this I think the Western reception of Kashyap is tied up with the problems (as I see it) of contemporary Bollywood. Or put differently as long as this sort of film can be made and as long as it can get favorable attention in the global’ media circuit and/or at film festivals Bollywood can keep congratulating itself and keep indulging in the Khiladi 786 kind of deal. In other words this latter is the ‘norm’ while the Kashyap deal is the ghettoized supplement that is necessary in these other ways.
As an overall project, and even as I have liked most of his films at some level or the other I have a considerably dimmer view on Kashyap’s project (not just Kashyap’s.. I could substitute him with Bannerjee and some others too.. not because I am somehow confusing the obvious distinctions). Not least because there are essential contradictions in his project that he hasn’t sorted out. At the level of a more institutional criticism I left this comment on twitter some days ago:
Kashyap was one of my primary targets. I’ve never seen a director of his ilk (or any other) become such a one-man plugging industry for his films. From any and every review and tweet that’s positive on his film to any and every bit of attention that his film gets globally any and everything is tweeted. My long comment above responds to this.
Leaving this aside I’d say that his films even when they’re worthwhile don’t often live up to his polemical instincts. That’s they’re interesting cannot be denied, whether they’re important is far more questionable. Much as his more rooted Bollywood attempts often rely on the very same multiplex registers (which is why they’re celebrated by the same!). Or his polemical goals despite his ambitions ultimately seem to be about shocking the very multiplex classes that he otherwise professes to have no interest in. His ideal viewer in many ways is far less the kind who fanatically celebrates him on twitter and far more the one who’s probably offended by the candid conversations on sex or the ‘bad words’ and so on. Kashyap primarily likes to shock. The problem with this instinct is that if it isn’t kept in check it can often mar one’s cinema and keep one in that ‘infantile’ state for very long. In this sense Kashyap has never quite lived upto the Black Friday promise. Almost all his other films have been ‘screw you’ messages to this bourgeois audience. which is fine as far as it goes but great cinema needs something more than just the polemical stance.
Now this doesn’t mean he’s not better than most others in his industry even at his end of the equation but that’s a low bar!
I do agree with the gist of your comment but would like to debate with you on this specific point-
“Kashyap primarily likes to shock”
I must say that I completely disagree with this. I do not think Kashyap uses sex and foul language to ‘shock’- they very much belong to the ‘world’ of his films and the milieu he is representing. And if Kashyap is accused of this charge so should be Tarantino (he is as being a proponent of foul language and violence as any other filmmaker in this world). Btw I must also add that even Scorsese has used this kind of language where it was not ‘always’ needed IMO. And our very Bharadwaj did the same in Omkara- and IMO it’s not done to bring out the authenticity of the native but to also used to present ‘a new world’ in the native itself- for example I am quite familiar with the local places of Bihar but I still thought the ‘world of GoW’ was a new one- the ‘hyper-real’ effect here was intended. Btw in the same manner i feel the mild toilet-humour in 3I was not forced- i did not like it but i also did not have a problem with it
Before Django I often had a somewhat similar charge against Tarantino as well. I doubted the value of his entire project. Not to say that Kashyap is like Tarantino. My problem with Kashyap is that his worlds often become reducible to this anti-bourgeois prism (as he frames it). It is not his intention that is the problem here but the fact (on my terms) that the interrogation isn’t profound enough once one gets past its shock value. Again haven’t seen GoW yet.
and let me add to this larger point in this way — that there is a certain kind of cinema which is always parasitic on what it constantly deconstructs. It never quite acquires the ‘independence’ to function fully as a fiction on its own. In other words a film like GoW (haven’t seen it but know enough of/about it..) or some of Tarantino’s older films (not all.. and not that his mode is the same as Kashyap’s) are not quite able to pull off the Leone trick (though Tarantino in my view finally does it in Django) of what for want of a better term I’ll call ‘belated modernism’. When Joyce writes his mock-Odyssey in Ulysses all the ironic references to the latter and in fact this entire schema is a sort of red herring. It does impart a level of meaning to the work but it is not what the work is actually about. Ulysses is very much a ‘contemporary’ (with reference to its present) work that offers a compelling sense of something new having emerged. Part of the work involves a similar critical framework where from the Odyssey to older English novels entire histories are accounted for in mock fashion. Not as a simple exercise in brilliance however because this critique very much connects with the larger project of the novel which is to set forth how and why those older modes of fictional transcendence are no longer available. In a newer reality the Austen view of the world (for instance) is not satisfactory enough to organize this newer experience. Something is needed and Ulysses (along with many other works in literature and elsewhere) tries to formulate a response.
Similarly at a more popular level Leone does the very same. The best example here is Once Upon a Time in the West (though Leone was always on this path and this late film is the culmination of his concerns in many ways). Every other scene or sequence here references a canonical moment or shot from the history of the Western. However Leone’s work isn’t an archive for the same. The true focus of the work is the waning of the entire Western genre and even more profoundly the waning of a certain cinematic transcendence. There are specific American angles that can be read into all of this (the Western being the pastoral genre of American culture) but at any rate Leone is not simply playing a game of referencing Shane or whatever.
With pre-Django Tarantino and with Kashyap (again not only him, I am using his name as a signature or as a ‘symptom’.. of course I’ve also done the same for contemporary masala cinema in the past) I do not see this other side. Too often the ironic references seem to be everything. All of this constitutes a cinema that can be very compelling on its own but it doesn’t necessarily offer a newer world. It is simply happy to keep deconstructing the old. Whether this ‘old’ is a masala tradition or alternately a Scorsese-inspired brand of realism. I like the two Kill Bill films a lot, specially the first one, but I am unsure what the ultimate meaning of this work is beyond the obvious. Once again the Scorsese example is instructive. He too responds to the loss of transcendence in every which way — from the cinematic (the romance of the old gangster/noir films) to the societal and so on. There is a new formulation that emerges in his cinema. However he is not content to just downsize the epic history of the genre. He creates a more materialist version of the same where transcendence is skillfully concealed. All of this would take too long to unpack but suffice it to say for now that his later more epic films (Casino, GONY, Aviator) don’t seem surprising at all in this sense. and so those who equate his more flinty worlds with a more documentary notion of realism miss this point. Scorsese is never less than a romantic. This is one possible response. Leone’s is a different one. It’s instructive to compare his Once upon a Time in America with Scorsese’s works. Leone keeps the twilight moment forever suspended. One keeps revisiting the ‘waning’, one never quite exits it (incidentally I have a very great taste for this ‘autumnal’ tone everywhere in the arts). Scorsese on the other hand snaps out of it as a condition for his cinema to emerge and then figures out how a different sort of transcendence might nonetheless be possible. And of course there are other choices. I am just using these examples here. But on a Hindi front note how RGV starts off downsizing commercial cinema and introduces his own brand of realism while later on he himself reverts to the more epic by way of an exaggerated operatic stylization. So in RGV there is a thinking of the problem whether it’s manifested by way of Shiva or Satya or the Sarkar films or the Rakta Charitra double.
The question is whether GoW does this or if it remains at the Tarantino level? My hunch, having read a lot of informed opinion on the film, is that it’s the latter. Once upon a time there were B movies (whether Samurai send-offs in Japan or various exploitation genres in the US) that were similarly parasitic on mainstream genres. They didn’t have to be anything more than this. But more ambitious works that strive to present a new world or a new fiction have to do more than this of necessity. For instance whatever you can get out of Kill Bill is something you can already derive from Leone or Lady Snowblood or what have you. What remains once you account for this is relatively little. Beyond of course the stylistic virtuosity.
There r some ‘double standards’ bein used here
For the same sins, satyam was defending/glorifying QT!
Obviously QT is much more successful prominent maker (maybe superior) than kashyap!
But u cannot diss kashyap for the abuses, violence while continuing to defend QT for the same! Infact finding all sorts of novel designs in QTs violent obscenities!
I repeat—
The ‘minor’ who inserted a metal rod into the girl in that Delhi incident IS an advanced ‘continuum’ of the spectrum of ‘tastes’ that QT has been cultivating and many ‘pseudo intellectuals’ have been praising to the skies whilst being oblivious to the ‘numbing down of their own default reactions’ of disgust to obviously extreme violence/Torture!
Time to rethink…
I’m going to try and un-mangle some of the language here and offer some clarity since you either don’t know what”double standard” means or you’ve decided to pretend there is one here. Satyam never argued that it’s the violence and language that make Django a great or very interesting movie. His criticism against Kashyap’s films, likewise isn’t that they’re too profane and violent. It’s that they’re not terribly deep movies and they rely on these profane gestures to paper over the lack of true subversion or novelty. Changing what the debate is about doesn’t make your manufactured points (to the extent that one thinks you have a point; I don’t) any more valid.
Thanx for the attempt to ‘unmangle’ things here. ‘Satyam’ here doesn’t mean Satyam himself but a certain cohort who ‘look upto certain personalities’ and become their devout apologists!
Sometimes a bigger point needs a certain ‘visible’ aspect to be highlighted to drive the point home. Though it appears to be presented in this simplistic way, use of violence in a porn-like fashion is not the main/only point, just a symptom of a bigger ‘syndrome’.
Wherein it is decided beforehand whether to diss completely or defend completely something–sometimes these black-n-white ‘all or none’ positions are difficult to maintain.
For eg–if ANY one sees only positive in mani /QT & only/mostly negative about kashyap–it just can NOT be a correct position since it doesn’t pass the ‘sniff test’!
Let’s assume that this WAS a ‘manufactured point’. Lemme frame it differently of the framing is the problem.
It’s a problem in ‘tone’
I have also LOVED django unchained & DO admire QTs craft.
I see a film twice v v few times!! But that won’t /shouldn’t force me to defend against certain things I feel there IS a problem with.
Anyone who loves Rohan sippys work for eg –I don’t have problems with at all. But then employing somewhat impossible, standards of finding loopholes in a far superior kashyap –that’s what the problem is
Finally –one doesn’t have to agree with ones choices. But of those ‘choices’ seem predetermined decisions than those having passed the ‘unbiased analytical’ test –is wherein eyebrows are raised 🙂
“‘Satyam’ here doesn’t mean Satyam himself but a certain cohort who ‘look upto certain personalities’ and become their devout apologists! ”
Oh I didn’t realize that’s how we were doing discussions now, cool. In that case, I just want ‘Rajen’ to know that ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what he’s talking about more often than not on this forum, and that ‘Rajen’ should stop misusing words like apologists when it’s clear ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what these words mean.
LOL,GF!
My sense is hardly any one reads this drivel and oft repeated ‘points’. But, you are right, there is no point except to get in peoples faces in pursuit of badly needed attention!
“In that case, I just want ‘Rajen’ to know that ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what he’s talking about more often than not on this forum, and that ‘Rajen’ should stop misusing words like apologists when it’s clear ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what these words mean.”
Uve again proved the point.
U are getting ‘distracted’ by non-issues by Satyam or rajen and missing the CENTRAL premise here .
But anyhow –one can only take the horse to the well…
Ps: it was actually someone else who had issues about kashyaps use of MC/BC Words whilst the same person didn’t hae a problem with the SAME BIGGER issue with QT…
Im not naming the person since u may then latch onto that name rather than the point–
Though I’m not really alleging that u are ‘clutching @ straws’ here–but it’s not too different 🙂
***Ps: it was actually someone else who had issues about kashyaps use of MC/BC Words whilst the same person didn’t hae a problem with the SAME BIGGER issue with QT…
Im not naming the person since u may then latch onto that name rather than the point***
That was ME. As with Utkal, you have chosen NOT to read the whole thing and understand the context..but that’s ok..it would be helpful to you if you read WHAT I say about ‘imitating’ Hollywood..it might also open your eyes that I have hit out at Aamir Khan —yes, the same guy I praised for making TALAASH– for making/supporting a trash movie called DELHI BELLY in a quest to sound ‘cool’ ..so please think twice the next time you try to accuse the ‘cohorts’ on this blog..
“I praised for making TALAASH– for making/supporting a trash movie called DELHI BELLY in a quest to sound ‘cool’ ”
That’s a good point Ann jo–I agree with that one..cheers
Ps: yeah–I admit to not reading stuff properly …
But those points are not ‘accusations’ just ‘innocent observations’ lol
Will catch up with this later
Ps2: reminds me of the ultra crap ‘blow job’ reference in Delhi belly-as if it was a ‘revolutionary’ deal -oh wait–someone will now call us all ‘perverts’ ha
Gud nite
These numbers are based on BOI’s first day, first weekend & first week numbers, by the way. They are on the lower side, but because everyone seems to follow them, I’ve used them as the source.
I think Talaash a lot of credit (deservedly) for not being a very accessible film for the mainstream audience and yet getting to a good gross. But if a there’s a film deserving even more credit than Talaash than it’s GoW-1. It is a far less audience-friendly film and yet it got a very a healthy B.O. number- to mind the success story of last year
Part 2 didn’t do that well though, suggesting (to me) that a fairly high percentage of people who saw the first film didn’t care for it (everybody I know who liked the first film saw the second)…
GoW-1 did very well for the kind of film it was. It did 26-27 crores if I’m not mistaken. Maybe a bit more. But this outcome isn’t as remarkable as it might seem in another sense. Dev D some years before this did about 17-18 crores. What’s essentially happening is that there is a niche audience for these films that gets maximized for the right one. But the audience isn’t growing for this. Also GoW2 did far less than 1. Even out of the gate. And so ironically even though Kashyap goes on and on about Nawazuddun Siddiqui and everyone seems to agree on the performance this was the part far less people so theatrically. The question then becomes: why didn’t just the people who had showed up for the first part do so for the second? because even in the initial phase it wasn’t really keeping pace with the first one. The point I’m trying to make is that even within this niche audience there was an unstated sense of ‘one is enough’! And the larger point is that it is just hard to get these films to work beyond a point. This gets to my old D6 point. I compared it to Dev D once. The film did double the gross of Dev D. why? Because it was pitched as a more mainstream film, it had the works from the director to the star to Rahman and so on. But this wasn’t really a mainstream subject in any sense. With those factors the film could get enough of an initial to double the Dev D gross. But it of course wasn’t for a general audience. And this becomes problematic in another sense. A niche audience is far more open to certain kinds of cinema. Even when they don’t like a film they don’t go crazy over it. A general audience though gets intensely negative for the obvious reasons. And so the Dev D audience is really the one intended to watch it in the first place and the WOM is fine on a good day and on a bad day it still doesn’t affect anything because a general audience wasn’t going to show up in the first place. So you’re talking a really small subset when there is negative WOM within that same niche. On the other hand D6 has a more general negative WOM.
Again the reason I get into all of this is that for many years now I’ve seen this ceiling on certain kinds of cinema. Not odd in itself. This is true in every industry. But the difference is that films are often marketed and released the wrong way in Bollywood. In Hollywood even movies with very major stars get limited releases when the subject is not seen to be for a universal audience. Similarly at the other end Shanghai was seen as a box office disappointment. Again the film did no worse than Dev D. But the director got rather high profile in the meantime, the media started going crazy over him etc.. all of this didn’t really have anything to do with the kind of cinema he was making. Guzaarish was seen as a massive flop. Admittedly it didn’t even get an initial (Hrithik doesn’t really have the credibility for this sort of deal.. the audience doesn’t wish to see him this way) but this wasn’t Barfi. These sorts of films are hard to pull off in any situation. Once again the same sort of gross holds. Except that when it’s niche it seems adequate, when a major star is in it it doesn’t. Yes, an initial would have got it some more crores but wouldn’t have changed the box office outcome dramatically.
All of this is connected to GoW-1. One can’t really compare the box office story here with that of Talaash. The latter was released as a mainstream film and grossed like one. It’s very hard to do with the kind of genre it was. GoW-1 did very well, even leaving aside the fact that GoW-2 didn’t repeat this story, GoW-1 was successful in the Dev D sort of way. Admittedly Dev D is still a safer genre for that niche audience than GoW-1 but if you ask me I think GoW-1 benefited greatly from a certain sort of media attention and buzz. I’m not sure it’s target audience liked the film as much as the same did Dev D. Which probably explains the lesser interest in GoW-2 even in the initial phase. Otherwise the whole film is really building up towards the Nawazuddin Siddiqui character. Kashyap talked about this incessantly and yet when the release date came the very audience that came out for the first part clearly didn’t show up for the second one. And this wasn’t a sequel even but clearly the same film! So even though the gross on GoW1 is impressive the story here might be more complicated than this.
Yes, but we cannot forget the fact that ETT released just a week after GoW-2. And films like these which are finally dependent on trending and WoM really need atleast 2 weeks of unchallenged run
Talaash according to taran adarsh didnt trend well.Special 26 is going to dopuble its opening week.Why are you quoting total gross here.Talk about trending.
Official poster of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s upcoming Hollywood directorial venture “Broken Horses”-
Details-
Set in the shadows of the US-Mexico border gang wars and starring Vincent D’Onofrio (Men In Black) along with Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) and Chris Marquette (Alpha Dog), Broken Horses is an epic thriller about the bonds of brotherhood, the laws of loyalty and the futility of violence.
The films is being directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra who has also penned the script and screenplay alongwith Abhijat Joshi (3 Idiots).
Principal photography on the film commenced on 10th October 2012 and was completed on 14th December 2012. Shoot locations were situated in and around the Los Angeles area.
The Broken Horses team includes Oscar nominated Tom Stern (The Hunger Games, Changeling, Million Dollar Baby) as Director of Photography, Toby Corbett (Crossing Over, Bad Lieutenant) as Production Designer, Emmy nominated Mary Vogt (Men In Black 3, Batman Returns) as Costume Designer and is being edited by Todd E. Miller (The Expendables 2, The Mechanic) along with Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
Genre Action/Drama
Principal Cast Vincent D’Onofrio, Anton Yelchin, Chris Marquette, Maria Velverde, Sean Patrick Flanery, Thomas Jane
Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Subhash Dhar, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman
Talaash collected 2.25 on its 8th day(Talaash was released on 2700 Screens while Special26 was released on 1600 Screens)……
does that mean Akshay kumar in this Genre is a bigger Reliable actor than Aamir khan in the same genre..???
Saurabh can u tell me how Special26 belongs to more favourable genre than Talaash ??
i accept u liked Talaash more but don’t say things just to defend Talaash..!!
Just because Special26 has a more commercial star doesn’t make it more Favourable genre…….
let me recollect….what did Talaash had—-
2 most commercial heroines of their Times, one of them playing a Prostitute.
Movie involving more masala elements like Ghost Angle…
Movie having Aamir khan coming back after 3 years ….
Movie having lots of Scenes involving the unseen (Lucrative) world of Mumbai….
Aamir khan fighting with his Emotions on one side while trying to deal with his Attraction towards Kareena…
Murder mystry …
if all these Things don’t make a movie Favourable(i m also not saying Special26 is also not Favourable in its genre though it is less as compared to Talaash) in its GENRE then no one can ever be..!!
and also tell me how a more Commercial movie like Special26 get released on 1600 Screens while a less Commercial movie like Talaash get released on 2700 Screens even more than Housefull 2 which released on 2600 Screens or may be Son of Sardar which released on 2000 Screens????
Rani is not commercial anymore and Kareena had a serious role.
Ghost angle was not exploited the usual way with candles and white saree and mirror scene.
Showing the redlight areas without the required sleazy item numbers and other paraphernalia.
Aamir acted in Dhobighat also in between.
Opening in 2700 screens or 2000 screens is the same as Special 26 and ABCD.
Special 26 got rave reviews and it was supported by BOI in an unparalleled way till now. The drops for Talaash elicited negative remarks from them while the drops for Special 26 so far got very encouraging remarks.
yes above article shows how BOI is supporting Special26..!!
2. “Opening in 2700 screens or 2000 screens is the same as Special 26 and ABCD.”
so opening on 2700 screens is same as 1600 screens…ok…that’s new to me….
or is it that S26+ ABCD=2600 Screens(if so can i add ABCD collections to S26 ??)
3. “Kareena had a serious role.”
yup Kareena saying 4 times to Aamir’s character that kya sab pyar ho gaya kya mujhse
or
all those flirty lines to Aamir by kareena made her role Serious.I think u watched some different movie.
moreover her role was more Sensuous n Sensitive rather than Serious..!!
4. “Showing the redlight areas without the required sleazy item numbers and other paraphernalia.”
ok so Special26 had a escort dancing while the fake CBI raided the ministers house..!!
5. ” The drops for Talaash elicited negative remarks from them while the drops for Special 26 so far got very encouraging remarks.”
yes a drop from (Talaash)1st day 11 cr to 8th day 2.25 cr is same as (Special26) 6 cr(1st day) to 2.25 cr(8th day)..!!
“Ghost angle was not exploited the usual way with candles and white saree and mirror scene.”
then what was all those candles used by Rani’s neighbour to call the spirit of Her son……and instead of sarees they used western clothes when kareena rescued Aamir underwater out of nowhere isn’t it modern version of Ghost appearing in saree in Mirror out of nowhere ??
Maybe only the 3 Khans get negative and positive comments most of the time.
Special 25 has Manoj Bajpai who got most of the comments as usual. I agree it is a bit unfair for Akshay.
I have nothing against Akshay but I want a level playing field at BOI.
More Screens only help big hyped up films get a bigger initial but once the initial euphoria dies down screen count does not matter so whatever the film collects on its 8th day or in a long run only has do with the WOM than anything else. Now no one expected Special 26 to open like RR or Hf2 but it could have done 8-9 cr on its opening day and then some growth over the weekend would have taken it to 33-35 cr weekend and lifetime around 75-80 cr would be a good result but now it will end in the TZP/CDI range. On Talaash i know it didn’t trend well u said it collected 2.25 cr on its 8th day but u don’t remember a major Akshay film K786 released the same day and it also released on 2700 screens but still couldn’t match Talaash’s initial.
ok….so in case of Special26 it had ABCD on 1000 screens in 1st week and Murder3 on 1400 Screens and JBKLS on 800 Screens in its 2nd week
do ur maths and u will know whether Talaash released on 2700 screens will have more advantage in 2nd week or Special26 released with 1600 Screens will have more advantage in its 2nd week(despite other releases in both cases)..!!
Haven’t /won’t see special 26– so can’t comment
But this Kareena being a ‘serious role’ in talaash is LOL
A prostitute with not only heart but also grey matter & an edgy profile
Besides a better wardrobe than her usual roles hahaha
“3. “Kareena had a serious role.”
yup Kareena saying 4 times to Aamir’s character that kya sab pyar ho gaya kya mujhse
or
all those flirty lines to Aamir by kareena made her role Serious.I think u watched some different movie.
moreover her role was more Sensuous n Sensitive rather than Serious..!!”
A flirty ‘trying to be sensuous’ prostitute Kareena –well…
To those who find some ‘deeper’ design in that –welcum
Epitome of ‘serious’ cinema!
Check out this Kareena prostitute dialogue —“kya sab pyar ho gaya kya mujhse” 🙂
Also–
Seems murder3 is getting murdered @ the box office..
Who are these girls!?
& seems hooda couldn’t keep it up (@ the box office)…
Ps: even ‘porn’ isn’t that easy
Thnx Sanjana..I want to check this out..Hope I get this in DVD in store nearby :)…The entire Karnataka went through very testing phase when Dr Raj was kidnapped..Miss Dr Raj…..Suresh Oberio plays his role 🙂
New Delhi: In an unprecedented bid to block material critical of controversial business school Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), the Indian government has ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent access to more than 70 URLs, provoking a storm of protest online and from the publications affected.
The directive was issued on the basis of an order from a court in Gwalior, said Gulshan Rai, director general of CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team-India). The order, signed by Subodh Saxena of the department of telecommunications (DoT), was issued on Thursday and was reported earlier on Friday by the MediaNama website.
Interestingly, the URLs listed include a University Grants Commission (UGC) notification saying that IIPM is not a university and “does not have the right of conferring or granting degrees as specified by UGC”.
A.K. Dogra, director (administration) at UGC, said he was “not aware of the development and it is news to me”.
UGC chairperson Ved Prakash and secretary Akhilesh Gupta could not be reached on their mobile phones, nor did they respond to text messages at the time of going to press.
The move comes amid criticism of the government for recent steps that have been regarded as attempts to curb freedom of speech.
DoT couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. UGC and IIPM representatives also couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
IIPM has been the subject of several critical articles in various publications, including Outlook, Careers360 and The Caravan. The URLs related to these stories have been blocked. A controversy had blown up in 2005 over attempts to gag a blogger critical of IIPM. That site, too, is among those ordered to be blocked.
The Caravan editor Anant Nath said, “Our biggest concern is that DoT has taken this action by itself. We haven’t been informed about this notice. In the conventional course, we expect it to inform the said media houses. So, at the first instance, we will take this matter up with DoT itself, and if further needed, we will take legal action also.”
Maheshwar Peri, publisher of Careers360 magazine, said, “It is outrageous. We will reply to the notice and may explore a contempt case.”
Just now watched Table 21 on Colors. They should have made it tax free for the message. After a long time, I felt I saw a decent movie with no frills but thrills. Wished the ending was otherwise.
SPOILERS
I wished K killed the son and suffered lifelong with guilt while the girl must have gone to mental asylum permanently as a punishment.
Khandelwal’s character is not grey but more than that.
Bachchan could have done Paresh’s role as a game show host to lend more credibility and interest.
Saw Rowdy Rathore on Sony Max. Complete masala and Akshay gave a convincing performance. His no nonsense police avataar is a treat to watch. Though I hated all those song and dance routines. The film would have been more gripping without all that silly bollywood numbers. The villain was more disgusting than terrifying. I just could not help remembering Amjad Khan of Sholay who gave a rare dignity to his role.He was never disgusting. We dont get villains like him anymore.
RR and Dabangg can be called rural friendly and an answer to multiplex Race series. Akshay Kumar has become serious competition. Lesson1. Dont writeoff anyone in a hurry.
With Special 26, he earned respect of the likes of Rajeev Masand.
Lesson2.It is not enough to be a great actor only like Manoj Bajpai and Irrfan Khan to get the star status, one needs to become a hero first and foremost.
He has replaced Ajay Devgn and is about to upset the apple cart of some others too.
ABCD Keeps Ruling The Box Office In Its 2nd Weekend
After scoring very well at the Box Office in its 1st Week, Remo D’Souza’s dance flick ABCD – Any Body Can Dance continued to make decent business in its 2nd Week at the Domestic front. The movie, which collected 32 crores in its opening week, added approx 5 Crores more in its kitty on Day 8 and Day 9 at the domestic box office.
The movie made a business of about 2 crores on its 2nd Friday and picked up a little on 2nd Saturday, as per early estimates, by collecting 3 crores at the Box Office. ABCD now stands at a Domestic total of about 37 Crores at the Box Office.
Special 26 has collected around 9 crore nett in its 2nd weekend at the box office as per estimates. Special 26 collected around 4 crore nett on 2nd Sunday. It earlier collected around 2.25 crore nett on 2nd Friday and another 2.75 crore nett on 2nd Saturday. Special 26 total collection after 10 days is around 52.15 crore nett.
Special 26 showed jump on 2nd weekend and collected decently. Jump is decent, but could have been even better. Second weekend collection has ensured that S26 will now cross 55+ crore nett by the end of second week. S26 should also touch 60 crore nett by third weekend end or atmost by third week. After that only time will tell whether it can collect more or not.
Makers of S26 have already made profits when non-theatrical revenue is considered. But it looks like few exhibitors/distributors are about to lose money who have brought the rights for big price. Regarding those who are asking S26 to touch 100 crore nett in India, would like to say that only a miracle will take S26 near that mark now.
The stars are so rich and the top stars have wealth which must be in multi billions, declared and undeclared taken together. Yet their films beg for money from the poor, yes, relatively poor, who throng cinema halls. Only that means approval. While each of these stars can shell out the few crores to make their films 100,200,300 crores in a jiffy and earn that tag but cant for obvious reasons. One or 2 stars used to do blockbookings to make it appear as though the films are running to full houses.
It is pathetic when these figures include only a measly few lakhs making 2 to 3 crores. Sometimes thousands.
This craze is not a recent phenomena. Those who live by numbers have to fall by the very numbers one day or the other.
In the past, films used to run for months together. Genuinely, not like Chopras are doing for DDLJ. Golden, silver and diamond jubilees. There used to be one jubilee Kumar who was a 100 crore man of those times. Slowly even jubilees got manipulated as films ran without housefull crowds just to achieve that jubilee tag.
Now the first step for glory is 100 crore club. Woe behold the star that fail to reach that.
The scenario can be described with this example.
papa, did your film crossed 100 crores?
beta, no.
papa, how can I show my face to my friends?
beta, where is your report card and did you come first?
beta runs away while papaji smiles ruefully.
Special 26 has grossed around 48 crore nett in ten days as it added around 9.25 crore nett in its second weekend. The film had better weekend collections than the new release Murder 3 in a couple of circuits. On Sunday it was ahead of Murder 3 at most places as it grossed 4.25-4.50 crore nett compared to the 4 crore nett of Murder 3.
The film has done decent business in all circuits apart from from Nizam/Andhra with Delhi/UP, East Punjab and Mysore being top performers.
The film should gross around 53-54 crore nett in two weeks and go to 60 plus for its lifetime business. Basically the lifetime business of the film will be in the same range as Khiladi 786 while the distributor share will be around the 30 crore mark.
February 17, 2013, 12:36 pm
Bruce Willis Shows Strength at the Box Office
By BROOKS BARNES
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone went kersplat in their recent attempts at renewed box-office glory, but another 1980s-era star — Bruce Willis — has shown that he’s still kicking. “A Good Day to Die Hard,” starring Mr. Willis in a role he created 25 years ago, was No. 1 at North American theaters over the weekend, taking in about $25 million. The film, which cost 20th Century Fox about $90 million to make, has sold $33.2 million in tickets since opening on Valentines Day, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data.
“Identity Thief” (Universal) was a strong second, selling about $23.4 million in tickets, for a two-week total of $70.7 million. A poorly reviewed romantic drama, “Safe Haven,” which also opened on Thursday, took in about $21.4 million over the weekend, for third place and a total of $30.3 million; it cost Relativity Media an estimated $30 million to make. “Escape From Planet Earth,” an animated movie that cost the Weinstein Company $40 million to produce, was fourth, taking in a weak $16.1 million. “Warm Bodies” (Lionsgate) was fifth, selling about $9 million, for a three-week total of $50.2 million.
There was one notable flop: “Beautiful Creatures” (Warner Brothers) took in $7.5 million in sixth place; Alcon Entertainment spent about $50 million to make it.
ha ha……….was at a Valentine’s party last saturday and was asked as a part of a party game to tell my fav. Romantic movie- wanted to say -Pyar ka Punchnama but chose Saajan instead..LOL!!
Is it because you want The Great American Action Film to still be kept alive (or atleast not get obliterated by their Hong-Kong, French or Korean counterparts who for quite some time now are simply better films in the genre) or is it love for the franchise itself. Btw I always once Alan Rickman’s character was disposed off the franchise was never the same. Anyway I always believed that True Lies was probably the last truly great ‘pure actioner’ I saw from Hollywood
I actually much preferred Jeremy Irons in Die Hard With a Vengeance to Rickman’s villain in the first. This is blasphemy in some circles but I also prefer that third movie to the first.
I too liked Irons a lot. Now the 1st one part is my favourite but I do think that the 3rd part is its true sequel (in terms of plot and character development).
Aside I recently saw Dead Ringers recently and I thought Irons’ performance in a double here is one of the best ever. Intact from the ones I have seen I will only Bachchan’s double acts in Don and Satte Pe Satta and Dilip Kumar’s Ram and Shyam over this.
I’d tend to agree on Irons in Dead Ringers, that’s also even otherwise a great Cronenberg movie.
On that note I just saw Cosmopolis at a screening this past weekend and found it disappointing. It’s obviously a literary adaptation but even so it just played like it belonged on the page. Felt similarly about A Dangerous Method even if I far preferred that film to this one.
agreed on both counts.. the thing with the first one even at a more ‘mechanical’ level (and though I do like the film) is that McClane’s extraordinary energy has to always operate in a very compressed set of spaces. This leads to a certain repetition. I even prefer the second one though I can see the argument for why it would seem to be the ‘lesser’ film. In this sense there’s a progression from the first to the third film where so that McClane’s world keeps expanding (from the elevator shaft to some floors in a building to the airport to the entire city!). The fourth was still enjoyable but it didn’t build on the franchise in the same sense. The problem with the current one is how incredibly poor it is in every way. Willis can barely bring himself to breathe in this one! And the script could have been way better for the terrain. Couldn’t believe they did this to the franchise even accepting that sequels are just very stale beyond a point.
That’s a great point, Satyam, and probably as thoughtful an assessment on filmmaking choices of the Die Hard movies as anyone’s ever made! And actually if one wanted to grasp a bit, picking up on your cue, you could say that the franchise, after the city, expanded to a “national” stage (the film takes place in D.C., and even its Bush-era-friendly title, Live Free or Die Hard, seems to telegraph the national perspective) and now this last one is the first time McClane goes international!
At this stage one could probably assume that the next one will be called “Die Hard…in Space”!
LOL on the last bit! But yeah you’re absolutely right about the rest. The Russia bit though with all the Chernobyl stuff really seemed like a throwback. It’s almost as if they polled this movie and decided only older white guys were really interested in this and therefore the Russia deal would work!
Rana Daggubati, who is usually stays reserve, stunned everyone by taking on Tamil actor Vikram on a social network platform. The lanky lad, in fact, has attacked Vikram for making comments on his filmi career.
When asked why Southern actors don’t venture out into Bollywood, Vikram, in an interview to a National daily, mentioned Rana saying that only actors who don’t have much base in South Indian films would be happily doing Hindi films. He said, “”Look at Rana. He started in the Telugu industry and came to Bollywood but he hadn’t made any headway in the south. Now he’s not bothered about the Telugu industry,” Vikram was quoted as saying.
This irked Rana and the actor gave a befitting reply by tweeting, “Dear Mr.Vikram I see you quote me and my directions in quite a few media interactions of yours recently. It is best if you focus on your…Career that isn’t headed in the right direction with close to 10 odd disasters in your kitty I’m barely 2 1/2yrs old as an actor and…..You are almost close to 25yrs. Stay put on urs as I am on mine 😉 not take anything away still a huge fan of few of your films ;).
Apparently the two actors spoke on the phone and Vikram told Rana that he was misquoted. And all’s fine between the two again. “Spoke to actor Vikram finally, says its a misquote from what he actually said. Glad the air is cleared apologies to him and his fans for my harsh reaction,” wrote Rana. Looks like the boys have made up and hopefully that’s the end of the controversy, for now at least.
The 2nd weekend isn’t as strong as the latter’s. The upper limit is now 65 crores. That too isn’t guaranteed because Barfi had an extraordinary 3rd week, where it dropped less than 35%
Of course, Barfi had no significant releases to contend with.
Incidentally, since I’ve been looking at some numbers recently (you_can_insert_not_having_a_life_joke_here), Talaash actually trended worse than Dabangg2.
this whole print count argument is silly because the idea it rests on is simply ridiculous. Special 26 is somehow just like Barfi if you believe some of the folks here. Gimme a break! This is the move SRK fans used to engage in once upon a time. As long as he did not do his usual stuff any and every film would be called very different and what not. Some even stretched the limits of language and logic to include KANK! Of course the very same folks are otherwise dissing ‘different’ either as pretense (fake films) or as completely regular stuff, sometimes both at one and the same time. The correct definition for Special 26 is meaningful entertainment or sensible commercial cinema. This does not automatically make it this very risky and daring example in ‘different’ cinema. Now Akshay himself probably has a disadvantage doing this inasmuch as his audience only wishes to see him do Houseful! But that’s a different debate. It’s not a limitation of the genre itself. The film is real terms is behind Kahani, all things considered. There’s no excuse for this! of course I don’t find this result greatly surprising but those who insist that every single thing about a film’s gross is only due to the male lead must also accept these less than extraordinary results as also belonging to the same. The genre thing cuts both ways. Sure films like Special 26 normally don’t throw up huge numbers. On the other hand films like Houseful do well with all sorts of stars. So how much should we take away from Akshay’s initial when he attaches himself to an already popular genre?
All of this isn’t an anti-Akshay argument by any means. But it is one against the absurdity of certain claims.
I don’t know about print counts, they are hard to determine anyway, but Special 26 achieved the same growth as Barfi did in its first weekend. Of course, S26 started off at a much lower number. The first week performance for the 2 films, based on their respective starts, is also very similar.
From the 2nd weekend onwards, S26 has begun to fall behind.
That said, this is all based on numbers from BOI. There’s no guarantee that the numbers themselves are 100% correct.
“Barfi is rather a conventional heart warming story told in relatively unconvention way for Indian audience…”
Some on this blog couldn’t watch Barfi.
I couldn’t either.
I tried twice.
Both the times, I walked out of ‘theatre’ at the same point in the movie!
Someone else in my family too.
This is rather rare for me. I seldom leave even a boring movie half way. Can’t make out how this movie made 100 crore!!
At what point you walked out? I found the story telling something akin to French or other western movies. In fact, I liked it so much that I went ahead and recommended it on FB. I toned down my praise after knowing that many of the comical scenes (even some normal) were copied. But still the story is original.
I did not know in which thread there was discussion/recommendation on ‘House of Cards’ a new series at Netfix..Sorry for plugging my comments here:
Thanks a lot for bringing to our attention..This is very gripping series..Cannot wait to complete it..Wish I had time to complete all the episodes in one sitting..
Awaiting for the debut of ‘Homeland’ in Netflix….:)
BTW any inputs on ‘White Collar’..
I would also recommend the French thriller ‘Sleepless Nights’..One of the best Thrillers I have seen recent times.
Satyam, did you get a chance to catch ‘Neeraparavi’..I guess not ,as you might have other things going…I’am huge fan of Mani Sir and ARR..but I feel this time around I feel ‘Neeraparavi’ has been well made compare to ‘Kadal’ ( both the films are based on people living around coasts, Christian community)..Even the music ‘Neeraparavi’ is better..
I haven’t seen either movie, and I do like neeraparvai’s music, but with all due respect it can’t be compared to Kadal’s — this is no put-down, as the former has some very soothing, gentle music, but two or three of Kadal’s songs are outstanding…
Thanks Q. But somehow Kadal’s songs are not growing in me to have them listen tmore often..Probably it maybe because ‘Neeraparavi’ ‘ music is not letting me come out of it..Or maybe I may be overrating that too because I saw this first.
Mid-day started again rumors against bachchan.Few years ago they floated these kind fof rumors and then bachchfan showed all proofs in his blog and they immediately surrendered to bigb . Some people will never change
I really doubt this one..this sounds too ‘foolish’ on AB’s part if it is true..and i really cannot associate dumbness with AB. He can make money elsewhere by selling one more product..why does he have to resort to extortion of this kind? As I said, this would be plain dumb on his part..there is a difference between prestige and finance..and I think he understands that..
Anyway, MID-DAY, except for those rare photographs, has gradually deteriorated into a diaper in the name of newspaper..
I would hardly touch it but for the nostalgia of Bombay..
Naseeruddin Shah issues these sensational statements just to shock. He has become too cynical. Agree that most of the bollywood films are more like cheap dramas than any good cinema but thats how bollywood is surviving. If it produces only meaningful cinema starring Naseeruddin, Shabana, Tabu, then it will go bankrupt and thousands of workers, smalltime artistes who depend for their survival will become unemployed.
Even regional cinema nowadays is following bollywood for its survival. The great bengal supports SRK movies and Vidya’s masala movies. So the entire Indian film industry has become too commercial but why to grudge? At the end of the day it is entertainment catering to the lowest common denominator.
Films for the mediocre, by the mediocre and of the mediocre.
Why to scoff at this scenario? They are atleast feeding many and the government is getting financial benefits by taxing this industry and its people.
Naseer makes a common error: the fact that great art has been produced in societies under great stress does not mean that great suffering and sorrow is a necessary pre-condition for great art. There’s no shortage of great art produced in (at least ostensible) conditions of great material satisfaction and contentment (Marcel Proust, anyone?).
There’s also something almost disgustingly privileged about Naseer’s “we are too fat and contented” — there are plenty of Indians who don’t fall in this category, and many who might make films that draw on all sorts of experiences; perhaps what Naseer means is that because he has become contented and has turned his back on serious cinema, that no serious cinema exists in the country. Then there’s also the question of the privilege to pontificate on what “neighbourhood” countries have been through — if Naseer got his head out of his ass he would see that the “hell” Nepal has been through is pretty much the sort of “hell” that has engulfed Chattisgarh and other Naxalites-affected areas for years. Will we be seeing great films from Kashmir, the North-East as well, or are they examples of fat contentment? Bangladesh’s genocide/killing fields were 40 years ago, where are the great films? This whole calculus, of “you’ve been through hell, but hey there’s art” is more than a little obscene, because such pronouncements betray the privilege of the podium from which they are uttered…
To be fair, this is also one of those quick and dirty interviews, and it isn’t clear to me what else he might have said.
Aside: while I’m sort of glad khuda ke liye was made, it is a thoroughly overrated film, and panders to the self-image of Pakistan’s urban elites, as many “political” films in India do as well… The notion that it is some kind of classic is ridiculous. Khamosh Pani is superior…
Completely agree with everything Q bhai..I think he is these days just talking out of the necessity of exercising his mouth.
Even a person like Kashyap has gone from tom-tomming ‘our cinema is immature, our media is immature, our artists are immature’, to, ‘We need a Rowdy Rathore so that the money generated from it can be channeled to film-makers like us who can then make GOW..’
Wonder when our Naseer bhai will reciprocate..he needs to really get out of the complex that he could never be a box-office/critical force jointly a la Bachchan..I think then he will start making coherent statements..
On KKL, I agree that it is truly over-rated..it was like everybody was hell-bent on raising it to sky-heights..KHAMOSH PANI..as you said, is miles ahead of this one..
Superbly said Q. Completely agreed. I also think that Naseer is somewhere lamenting the fact that he ‘himself’ has not been part of too many ‘truly great films’ (which is different from a ‘classic’ or a ‘pathbreaking’ film). IMO the only 2 such entries in his filmography are Aakrosh and Sparsh (which to my mind are one of Hindi Art Cinema’s 3 greatest films- the other being Ankur which was slightly superior to the former 2. And Naseer’s performane in the 2 films are as good as any performance I have ever seen anywhere in the world) . Having said that he has been in a number of very important films. And I also do not have a problem if someone calls him a better actor than AB even if I would never agree to it. I find him much superior to Dilip Kumar and after AB he alongwith Sanjeev and Balraj Sahni would be on my list of the greatest bollywood ‘actors’ (I am also tempted to put Motilal and Anant Nag somewhere but both of them have not done even Hindi films)
I must also say that I find one of Nasser’s older comment- where he said that Bachchan is a great actor but he does not have a single important film- truly bewildering (though an average actor can be a part of a great film). I don’t think it’s at all possible that one can be a ‘great’ actor without acting in an important film. And I do not If Bachchan would only have done Kaaliya he would never be considered to have such pedigree as an actor. Because finally an actor is as good as the film is.
It is possible to be a great actor with not a single important film. Important film differs from person to person and relative. While Mother India is an important film for many, for me it is nothing but too dramatic. And so are many films touted to be important and even Pather Panchali is not everybody’s cup of coffee or tea.
I feel cinema is not pure art like writing a book. Films have limited hours to say what it wants if at all it wants to tell something and is constrained by so many factors. While books have no such limitation.
Re: “Films have limited hours to say what it wants if at all it wants to tell something and is constrained by so many factors. While books have no such limitation.”
I agree that writing is a solitary art (whereas theater or film depends on the collaboration of many different people from different disciplines), but writing faces its own constraints: when talking about print magazines, the constraints of space and advertising, limiting what can be said and how long one can say it for, are huge. Even where books are concerned, remember these need publishers, and most major publishers will tell you that in essence, popular books like the latest thriller or airport novel essentially subsidizes literary fiction and other high-brow genres — these days of course one can easily self-publish at little cost, but again, if you want to get noticed, some amount of marketing expenditure would be essential (sure, the odd self-published book will become a runaway bestseller, but that’s akin to buying a lottery ticket). I do feel writing is more “free” than cinema — even if no-one publishes me, they can’t stop me from writing something, whereas I can’t make a film by myself in my room — but I think there are a lot of similar constraints too…
Reading a book is a solitary exercise while watching a good movie in a theatre is not. We are disturbed if a child cries, persons eating popcorn, mobile ringing and other such factors.
When a famous novel is filmed, some are happy and some are not. Gone with the Wind, Godfather series comes to mind and also Guide by Dev Anand and those Saratchndra’s novels.
Naseer talks of collective suffering which is not always correct. A work of art is more a product of individual suffering(a director’s take or at script level) if suffering is taken as criteria for a great work of art. An individual can suffer a great deal at personal level even if the country is prosperous and happy.
You only have to look to Iran to validate what he is saying.
P.S. haven’t read Naseer’s interview yet
P.S1. Naseer has gone patronizing mode because his play was well received in Pakistan and he is planning to go there every year
P.S2. Why is indian cinema so overwhelmingly dominated by Muslims (talking abt ratio)? Maybe repression does cause some sort of artist to come out? Or is it just majboori?
You are so filmy! So much drama saberey-saberey. You will execute poor Naseer for sneezing. What is he to say? In a interview with Paki press? That he is out there to represent India and show the pakis that they are artless, tasteless bunch of bigoted race! lolz
North Korea…some sort of revolution will happen….then loads of films/film-makers will come out of closets and make movies…hopefully in our life time.
Aside: I don’t mind “back and forth”…lolz…I could put poor alex to shame this morning.
In very many countries, “minorities” of different kinds seem to be over-represented in film/entertainment (in the Hollywood “founding” moment in the early decades of the twentieth century, there were a disproportionate number of Jewish artistes; obviously African-Americans in the entertainment industry later)…
Jews, blacks…you said it! You only have to look at their combined histories to find the answers! Chalo…chor ki dhadhi may tinka types. You only are out there to get Poor Naseer. He is only an artist (not some politician). Don’t be so harsh on him Maybe go after SRK for a change 🙂
Special 26 has done well in Mysore, it is probably the only circuit out of the ones sold where the distributor will make money and the film should do a distributor share in the 1.75-2 crore range. The daily collections in Mysore till date are as follows.
Prabhu Deva’s ABCD – Any Body Can Dance notched up exciting numbers on a strong showing at the multiplex screens in its 2nd weekend at the Domestic Box Office.
After collecting 5 crores nett on its 2nd Friday and 2nd Saturday, ABCD added more 4 crores in its kitty on its 2nd Sunday. ABCD’s 2nd weekend total now stands at 9 crores nett, that takes its India Box Office Total to 41 crores.
This Remo D’Souza flick has done extraordinarily well on word of mouth publicity and is expected to hold well through its 2nd week.
By now, the movie can be termed as Super-hit in terms of Return on Investment.
Mukul tweets @mksmukulsharma
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s new film “The Attacks of 26/11” has been passed by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) without any cuts, but with an ‘Adults Only’ certificate.
“He expected an ‘A’ certificate because of the nature of the content. But the fact that not a single shot was found to be objectionable only vindicates the stand Ramu had taken when he was attacked for making the film. He didn’t make this film to sensationalise the issue,” said a friend of Varma.
And now he awaits the release of the film March 1 with fingers crossed. The film is based on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which took 166 lives.
Good that the censor has passed it without a cut..but I hope it is not for the following wrong reasons..
a) RGV’s camera angles so shocked the censor board members that everyone suffered from nausea and to get out of it, they passed the film with no cuts in a bit to have their revenge on the public that makes them see such movies before vetting them
b) The movie is so confusing that they figured the public would forget the real attacks’ wounds and start focusing on the real terror: that of watching RGV go wild and reach his nadir!! They might forget India being a soft target and wonder why RGV is such a hard target in spite of taking the longest time by any film-maker to get back to form!!
haha. When I read that Shekhar Kapoor could not sleep after watching the movie, I felt sorry for him. How can anyone sleep after watching RGV’s film? Incidentally he also mentioned about ghosts or bhoots.
From Wikipedia: (I’ve highlighted the relevant portion)
The main cinema reviews section, with every new movie for that month reviewed and rated. Major releases receive comprehensive coverage, with a star rating out of five, the magazine’s own Predicted Interest Curve — a graph that demonstrates which moments of a film are likely to hold the viewer’s attention and a short Verdict. Also briefly listed are similar recommendations under See this if you liked… Smaller films receive a concise review and rating. The end of the section is devoted to the current U.S. and UK box office charts, an irreverent flashback to an old issue and summaries of any films that were not shown to journalists in time for that month’s print deadline.
I read somewhere that some South Korean producer wants to remake ABCD with gangnam star. Atlast bollywood also inspires some phoren film maker. Step in ABCD and gangnam a full circle.
This is what Hi fi is tweeting about KAI PO CHE..don’t know whether it is ‘scratch my back and I will scratch yours’ or a true reflection..
anyway, my money is NOT going to chetan bhagmat any longer..3 idiots was the last straw..
BTW, Abhishek Kapoor and Aftab have HOTTTT women on their arms..as Terylene said in AGNEEPATH , ‘lucky bastards..’
Here’s what your favourtie Bollywood celebrities are tweeting.
Bollywood stars, who attended the screening of Abhishek Kapoor’s new film Kai Po Che, showered praise on the movie on Twitter. Here’s what they said:
Arshad Warsi: ‘Depth, substance, human relations, dreams n much more. Great performances, brilliant direction, stunning cinematography thats “KAI PO CHE”‘
Roshan Abbas: ‘Kai Poche!! Leaves u speechless ! Do yourself a favour Watch it. @abhishekkapoor does a stellar job as director. One film abt which every tweet is the honest truth. Sensitive, subtle, soulful.’
Maryam Zakaria: ‘#KaiPoChe really nice and emotionally touching movie. Brilliant work by @Abhishekapoor n every single actor in the film. A must watch film!’
Monica Dogra: ‘Kai Po Che. Woooowwwww. How beautiful. #KaiPoChe @_Amrita_Puri – see this film. @swanandkirkire and amit trivedi. What a fine job all!’
Shruti Seth: ‘Please watch Kai Po Che. Sensitive & soulful. Impeccable job by director @abhishekkapoor, his cast and crew. New actors to watch out for.’
Salim Merchant: ‘Just watched kai po che…brilliant film’
Hansal Mehta: ‘Kaipoche is a deceptively simple & very well executed film. Made with a lot of heart by @Abhishekapoor and well cast, well acted, well shot.’
Mini Mathur: ‘Kai po che is a beautifully crafted film. Sensitive & engaging..with a brilliant young cast & Amit Trivedi’s evocative music. Don’t miss it.’
Sujoy Ghosh: ‘i dont know who hitesh soni is but dude.. tu sher hai.. the bgm of Kai Po Che is one of the best i have heard in a long time. clap clap and Raj Kumar Yadav in kai po che is superb. that boy is so good.. and one actor called manav kaul. spot on casting. brilliant acting.’
Kabir Khan: ‘When you wake up & last nights film is still running in your head… You know the film has touched you deeply…. KAI PO CHE…’
Huma Qureshi: ‘How amazing was #KaiPoChe.. Faab Sushant, @raj_kumar31 @TheAmitSadh ..take a bow @Abhishekapoor. Must watch! Honest. Real.’
Shrishti Arya: ‘#kaipoche what a wonderful film! Stayed in my mind since the screening… Haunting me… Good luck @Abhishekapoor: and more power to team UTV for backing a vision and not a proposal.’
Neha Dhupia: ‘#KaiPoChe is simply outstanding. Congratulations @chetan_bhagat @_Amrita_Puri @Abhishekapoor and team #KaiPoChe. This ones a must watch.’
Shraddha Kapoor: ‘Saw #KaiPoChe last night. Still reeling from it. Beautiful film.. amazing performances @Abhishekapoor.’
Kai Po Che has three elaborate set-pieces: the Ahmedabad earthquake, the religious riots, and a cricket match between India and Australia that lasted five days. Intriguingly, the film depicts these through the eyes of Ishaan, Govind and Omi, and Ishaan’s protégé Ali (Digvijay Deshmukh), a young Muslim cricket prodigy. As a result, Kapoor could avoid relying on special effects.
“This film is not about special effects,” he insists. “It’s about the characters and how they feel. In fact, we had two big shots of the earthquake, one of a bridge collapsing. But suddenly the attention was drawn away from Govind to look at effects. And I didn’t want to break away from his emotion.”
Similarly, Kapoor tried to show the riots between Hindus and Muslims through Omi’s eyes, believing that the fighting—which included a train bombing and knife fights—had been covered extensively in the media.
Big B allows Anurag to shoot in his bungalow
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, Feb 21, 2013 – 13:54 hrs IST
#
In a first of its kind, Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic bungalow Prateeksha will be given out for a film shoot. The film in question is Anurag Kashyap’s short film that is a part of ‘Bombay Talkies’- a special film presentation celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema.
Kashyap’s short film deals with a die-hard Bachchan fan who travels all the way from Allahabad to Mumbai to fulfill his dying mother’s last wish of feeding the Superstar home-made murabba (sweet pickle). This is the first time an actual shoot would take place inside Big B’s iconic bungalow. The short film will feature the bungalow’s porch, drive-way and main reception area.
Two powerful bombs ripped through a market place in Hyderabad on Thursday evening killing seven and injuring up to fifty people as per initial reports.
The blasts took near a bus stand in the Dilsukh Nagar area. The area is a busy and crowded part of the city.
Intelligence Bureau told Times Now that they are not ruling out any possibilities.
Agreed Rajen, Also Not sure, but Satyam sir you do seem to be from that part of the world ( I think) Hope your family and loved ones are safe and that goes to all the friends here who’s family is from there.
don’t really have any contacts there at present but do know a few friends here with families there.. hope all’s well with anyone who visits the blog and either lives there or has family/friends there. thanks for your thought..
Hmmm agree!!
Where are the ‘secularists’ ??
Why are they quiet!?
Just read the news–
“the immediate provocation can be the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru ”
Now what’s surprising, even shocking is that why is there so much ‘support’ for someone who had attacked the parliament of a country?
Ad this doesn’t even have fringe support but mainstream support !!
Can someone explain why the indian govt had to be so apologetic and defensive about hanging them?–maybe I’m missing something…
Btw hope Satyam and his family are safe..even gf’s
Also suspect sanju, Ann jo &/or sm are from there…
I was stunned to see RK’s filmography as a director – 9 out 10 were BO hits and the 10th one is “Mera Naam Joker”!!!!! he truly was a legend. His first film was directed in 1948 and the last in 1985!!! in 37 years – only 10 directions but how good!!! in between many movies an actor and 17 as producer
he had four in a row but Parvarish didn’t release in the same year as the other three. This sequence though constitutes the greatest commercial feat of Indian cinema and actually any other cinema I am aware of. All four multistarrers with a huge number of actors when you include all the parts. To be able to do all of these at the same time (even Parvarish overlapped with some of the others in terms of the shoot and/or post-production) is miraculous! But Desai hardly had failures in a 25 year or more career.
SATYAMSHOT 
February 15, 2013 at 6:09 AM
Top 5: ‘Special 26’ 44 cr, ‘ABCD – Any Body Can Dance’ 32.2 cr
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February 15, 2013 at 6:10 AM
Murder 3 Average Opening Jayantabhai Ki Love Story Dull
Friday 15th February 2013 12.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Murder 3 took an average opening of around 30% with collections being below the mark at many places. The film has a wide release which can help to put up a respectable day one total if the film can improve a bit through the day. The collections in mass belts are likely to be better than the metros. The occupancies are much lower than Murder 2 which released in 2011.
Jayantabhai Ki Love Story saw a very dull opening with opening collections in the 5-10% range. The film will find it tough going from such a low level.
Special 26 on its 8th day is better in the big cities but collections outside big cities have seen a huge drop.
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February 15, 2013 at 7:33 AM
Has anyone seen the Hindi version of Vishvswaroopam?
did not release in hindi at AMC in Chicago…..
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February 15, 2013 at 8:40 AM
Rocky bhai:
I don’t think the HIndi version is released in US anywhere..I watched it in TAMIL with sub-titles (although I always wanted to stay away from the Tamil version) when I heard KH had agreed to make the cuts..I think that’s all we can catch in the US..
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February 15, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Thank you Ann jo, I guess will wait for the Hindi DVD to come out then..
speaking of which, they still have not come out with the Hindi DVD of Makhkhi !!!!!
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February 15, 2013 at 1:29 PM
Makkhi as well as the subtitled version of Eega is available in a single video on YouTube in case you are interested watching it this way. Of course the best way was to see it on the big screen simply because some of the sequences are even better than Robot
In any case here is the link-
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February 15, 2013 at 2:19 PM
Thanks saurabh, however will wait for the DVD to come out, I never watch movies on Computer..
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February 16, 2013 at 6:38 AM
I do not know about Makkhi but the official subtitled Blu-ray DVD of Eega is out. In any case this is much better than watching the dubbed Hindi version Makkhi
Here is the link for the blu-ray-
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Eega-Blu-ray/59481/
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February 16, 2013 at 6:53 AM
Makkhi is a sad case of a good movie getting no recognition. Sudeep stole the show.
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February 15, 2013 at 9:56 AM
hahaha! hilarious!
http://moifightclub.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/votd-gangs-of-social-media/
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February 15, 2013 at 10:12 AM
I haven’t seen this yet, So not sure if it’s a good chat. Thought it should be shared. Enjoy friends.
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February 15, 2013 at 2:25 PM
QT has your traits Satyam Sir, He likes to write essays/pieces on films and not particularly criticizing them. He mentions that while writing these essays he comes up with the story/idea for his next film that he just picks up and starts writing from the idea that are born while writing the essays. Do you have such stories to tell? Do share.
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February 15, 2013 at 3:24 PM
Who’s QT?
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February 15, 2013 at 4:03 PM
Quentin Tarantino
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February 15, 2013 at 10:42 AM
A few days ago, at a dinner conversation, I was asked: “How come there’s been no ‘world cinema’ from the Tamil film industry?” The person asking this question – let’s call him M – wasn’t exactly a long-time follower of Tamil cinema (he said he’s seen only two really great films in Tamil, Pushpak and Michael Madana Kama Rajan), so he couldn’t place the names when I mentioned a bunch of people like Mahendran and Rudraiah, along with films like Aval Appadithaan and Udhiri Pookkal. Or for that matter, more recently, films like Virumaandi (with its shades of Rashomon) and Aaranya Kaandam (with its cheeky blending of noir and pop culture). M said, “But why hasn’t anyone heard of them.” And I said, “Of course people have heard of them. Ask any regular Tamil-movie watcher.” And M said, “I’m taking about outside Tamil Nadu. Why aren’t these filmmakers known the way Adoor is, or Kasaravalli is?”
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February 15, 2013 at 11:37 AM
my response on his blog:
[You make many of the right points as always. ‘World cinema’ in any case is not as neutral a term as people think. Much like a global film festival structure always involves certain choices, decisions etc at various ideological levels. But also the category of the ‘global’ that always seems to confer a certain prestige on the recipient (and his or her work) and is sometimes used interchangeably with ‘universal’ is itself dependent on various political histories and so forth. For instance Shakespeare or Mozart aren’t the ultimate global artists simply because they’re ‘great’ but because they benefited from the histories of colonialism whereas the comparable Japanese talent never had the same chance until recently when Japan was re-invented by contact with the West. All of these questions are very complicated at every end of the equation but once again, and in a nutshell, there is no ‘neutral’ category of the global which somehow all works can equally access and then become successful or not based on their intrinsic merits.
The other question that must be asked is: why should a film become globally known at all? This already suggests a somewhat colonial impulse (or within India one that often finds itself answering to a North India or ‘Hindi’ hegemony). In other words unless the film is counter-signed by a film festival of note or by ‘Bollywood’ or what have you it can never be considered worthwhile in the most absolute ways. However one judges Mohanlal’s skills (and I find them supreme) these cannot be dependent on how well-known he is in India or how many films of his are ‘visible’ anywhere on a film festival circuit. The history of an art form is always deeply intertwined with its political contexts. The latter is a pragmatic truth which cannot be confused with the absolute value of the work. The caveat one must consider is that even the ‘aesthetic’ reception is often framed by these political choices. But this should be a reason to interrogate these things even more rigorously and not simply succumb to them. For instance Kurosawa often engages in a very commercial brand of cinema (this is of course not to argue against the stunning nature of his achievements at a variety of levels). But it is one authorized by the global festival circuit. A comparable filmmaker from India (who doesn’t have to be of the same pre-eminence but just somehow who offers in a rough sense the same combination of cinematic choices) would never be celebrated in the same way within India because the endorsement of this global paradigm would have been absent.
So a lot of these things depend on contingency. Adoor as a matter of fact is poorly known outside India relative to his merits. Yes there have been retrospectives of his work in certan major cities but there is absolute gulf between knowledge of his cinema and Ray’s (even right after Pathar Panchali). Why is it that Ray Indian portrait acquired so much currency so instantly whereas Adoor’s hasn’t? Once again the answer lies in the very same questions.
Unfortunately the problem with otherwise significant cinematic voices like Kashyap is that they end up too easily endorsing this very global structure. Or ‘Tamil cinema’ too often becomes simply fodder in a polemical battle with ‘Bollywood’. The latter is certainly a worthwhile goal on its own (it’s one I engage in rather regularly as well!) and there is certainly much of value that becomes more noticeable because of a film festival appearance (here one could write an essay on the ‘out of festival’ economy at the same that is largely for ‘home’ consumption or one that satisfies the same sort of ‘desire’ in the ‘native’ country) but there is something problematic about subscribing rather easily to the global hegemony in these matters. One does not have to stop attending festivals or stop sending one’s films to them but one can subvert things greatly in other ways. I have never come across a ‘hot shot’ Bombay director (in any sense of the word) who has so much as mentioned Adoor. I have never come across conversations where Ray or Ghatak (or whoever) are more than passing references. These directors are simply not invested in these figures the way they are in the same Hollywood-foreign film axis as authorized by the ‘global cinema’ censors. And there is something troubling about this for more reasons than one.]
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February 15, 2013 at 5:14 PM
Why Malayalam cinema speaks in English-
It’s really funny — all the five Malayalam films released in Kerala today have English titles: Celluloid, Cowboy, Houseful, Black Butterfly and Breaking News!
Along with a breed of young and irreverent film-writers and directors, who have been credited with a genre of “new generation cinema”, this is a trend that marks contemporary Malayalam films.
http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/why-malayalam-cinema-speaks-in-english-626884.html
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February 15, 2013 at 2:43 PM
This is really really interesting. One of the first scientific ranking system. Not surprisingly Salman leads this list currently. Do check it out.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Times-Celebex-Rankers-Male/articleshow/18517128.cms
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February 15, 2013 at 3:00 PM
Robert Redford resurfaces as Actor and Director.
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February 15, 2013 at 3:09 PM
@ kash –how r u m8
I really like Robert Redford –smooth delicate nuanced actor–eg in ‘all the presidents men’ he overshadowed Hoffman …
Btw kash–further to our discussion— i checked django
My thoughts and more importantly the ‘objections’
Where’s your post
To add– inspite of numerous ‘objections’, I have to confess that I had to check it again yesterday
Saw first half and then had to move onto other ‘pursuits’ ….
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February 15, 2013 at 3:13 PM
I completely missed the above comments by you, Will have to come back and check it out. I was free up until now, have to run mate. Apologies.
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February 15, 2013 at 3:52 PM
Ok m8– even I’m quite ‘spent’..
There was a risk of me falling asleep now whilst driving bak on the motorway—l8 nites not good…ha
Anyhow –something bout this flick ‘stayed’ with me-besides the music
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February 15, 2013 at 4:30 PM
OT–the cute, ‘innocent’ yet naughty world of japs….
http://samanthatyl.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/cats.jpg 🙂
Ps: they are ideal company–‘enjoy’ everything lol
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February 16, 2013 at 2:11 AM
Trailer of Danis Tanovic’s (No Man’s Land) upcoming film ‘An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker’
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February 16, 2013 at 2:59 AM
http://www.fakingnews.com/2012/09/billionaires-shocked-that-middle-class-idiots-cant-appreciate-inflation/
It is equally applicable to USA.
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February 16, 2013 at 5:28 AM
Special 26 Day Eight Business
Saturday 16th February 2013 11.00 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Special 26 grossed around 2-2.25 crore nett on its 8th day. The drop is 60-65% from day one which is reasonable. The total after eight days is around the 40 crore nett mark for the film.
The poor performance of Murder 3 and Jayantabhai Ki Love Story will ensure the film shows huge growth on Saturday. The film should comfortably cross 10 crore nett for its second weekend. The film is doing best in delhi NCR and Mysore.
The lifetime business of the film should cross 60 crore nett with an outside chance of 65 crore nett if it can hold in the third and fourth weeks of its run.
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5404&nCat=
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February 16, 2013 at 8:39 AM
the film is fine in terms of trending at least going by present-day standards. But it started rather low and never got that big jump and it’s clearly not the OMG kind of trending pattern either. BOI have the above numbers, Taran’s is higher. But either way this is a far lower total than one would expect for Akshay. Even accounting for the fact that this isn’t his typical film it also isn’t some crazily risky subject! It’s still a very accessible, mainstream deal that if anything might have done more than this with an actor with greater credibility for the subject. But the remarkable thing here is the extent to which Taran and co have been calling it a success without qualification! Not that I’m surprised but at every turn the dishonesty is blatant. Of course I’m pleased with whatever Special 26 has done and would have liked it to do a lot more. But that doesn’t mean one should stop assessing things honestly. Talaash despite not trending well, specially by Aamir’s lofty standards got to 90 crores or more, Barfi did a 100. So Special 26 is somehow a trickier subject than both of those films?!
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February 16, 2013 at 11:49 AM
This puts a lot of other grosses in perspective: consider the hysteria and nastiness that accompanied many of (eg) Abhishek’s grosses, or even a Talaash; Dum Maaro Dum, a pretty grim film by Hindi film industry standards, got to 35 crores two-and-a-half years ago, and this in the teeth of some pretty tough reviews. And Talaash’s gross is of course of a whole different order of magnitude than Special 26, especially given the sort of film it is…
By the way, none of this is a knock on any film — more an acknowledgment of the audience reality in Bollywood. Frankly, 60-65 crores for a film like Special 26 is actually fairly creditable, especially given Akshay is playing against type.
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February 16, 2013 at 12:29 PM
not to mention that Abhishek had hit rock bottom at the box office by the time this film released. This is a point I’ve been making for years. It’s not that easy to get a big success doing different. With Talaash my larger point was that I have not seen for 15 years or more a film that really questions the self-image of multiplex audiences become a big success. There just isn’t an example. There are all sorts of examples at all levels of filmmaking beginning with Khakee. And so a lot of times when people celebrate the ‘different’ what they’re really looking for is an ideologically suspect product that can be ‘consumed’ more easily than many others. So with Talaash the point isn’t that it’s dark. It definitely is so but it is so in certain ways. Because it did get a very significant initial but it didn’t sustain this pace. This point is often a mystery to those who think of cinema in terms of abstractions. There are many kinds of ‘different’ films but they’re not all the same. There is a world of difference between Guru and Raavan and banalities like ‘the former is a better film’ or that ‘the latter didn’t have a good script’ or whatever don’t even begin to get to the heart of the problem.
Of course the other problem here is that leaving aside the ‘ideological’ issues for too long Bollywood audiences have been weaned on this ‘luxury cinema’ diet. Essentially cinema fulfills just about every reason from the date film to the family night out with the meals delivered to your seat or whatever to the ‘taking the client to a game’ equivalent. All of this and actually ‘experiencing’ an authentic film is not an item on anyone’s list. So even leaving aside specific ideological choices people are mostly interested in watching films in a very passive way. Something all of us like to do from time to time (though I discovered the ‘hard way’ the other day that I evidently couldn’t be passive enough for the latest die hard installment!) but not necessarily as a principle. In Bollywood essentially junk cinema shot in designer fashion has replaced any notion of worthwhile cinema. There are exceptions at the very niche end of the equation but these are films very few people check out in a theater and not that many check out even at home. There is a bit of space for the Kahani kind of deal, the except that audiences celebrate and which then allows them to indulge in the usual stuff without guilt.
In some ways even this criticism is beside the point. The Bombay film industry is just dead. It’s become something else altogether in its mainstream varieties. So even bemoaning this state of affairs is a bit anachronistic because that assumes a ‘normal’ industry. What Bollywood makes and celebrates is really Bang Bang! Not that I’m picking on this one film but it is a classic symptom of everything that’s wrong. And when you see people here comparing this film with more serious ventures or using a logic that ends with the pornographic (‘hey even Bang Bang isn’t easy to do, it requires a certain kind of star and skill set and so on’ well so does porn!). Clearly De Niro cannot do Die hard the way Bruce Willis can but it’s a fallacy to think that these are somehow comparable skill sets with each star having a different kind! The reason I point this out is that when this is the level of bankruptcy informing both ends of the equation one can’t reasonably expect great cinema! There is never an important art form or even entertainment form that comes out of the desert! Yes the production system of contemporary Bollywood allows people like Kashyap to do their own thing and this is obviously a plus. But the industry very successful ghettoizes these efforts. The fond hope that one might have had for a while that these smaller efforts would inform larger ones has also not materialized. Because you have either small films or somewhat niche efforts (whether it’s Kahani or Rohan Sippy or whoever) that enjoy more visibility because of stars, not because they’re necessarily bigger films in other ways and often the audience interest in them confirms this fact. And the ultimate ‘proof’ here is that you see the most retrograde kind of masala prospering at the moment. It’s not just Southern masala but its most retrograde variety.
Bollywood is an industry that must largely be ignored at this point (if one has any interest in superior entertainment) except on the odd day. Unless one has specific and perfectly understandable cultural reasons for wishing to keep the engagement alive.
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February 16, 2013 at 1:34 PM
That’s a fantastic comment. But Kashyap for one is trying to come out of this ghetto by going mainstream without compromising on the quality- GoW was an example of this and his Bombay Velvet will be in the same vein(Mumbai Fables is a must read BTW). And by doing a smaller edgier film like Ugly in between he is mixing it up very well
Also I am not sure if you know abt this (Saket had put up the links) but many important critics and websites in the West have GoW in their best of the year list (IMDB too has this recognised). I think after a very long time an Indian film has been praised so much all over the world. Kashyap was also part of the Sundance jury this year. So irrespective of what one thinks of the film (I, for one, thought the 1st part was one of the best Indian films in the last decade. Infact for me it just well short of being a masterpiece. Sadly I did not like the 2nd part. Overall as a double I will probably prefer RC to this), I think we should all be happy that an Indian film has found a lot of acclaim worldwide
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February 16, 2013 at 1:55 PM
I am not sure what those critics saw. As I said earlier it is not a bad movie and probably better one to come from Bollywood. But if you start comparing with West the bar is high. Recently saw two indie movies “Robot and Frank” or “Perk of beings a wallflower” and I can safely say they were far executed better.
ps – Even “kites” has in general had good reviews in west. I normal filter from critics’ language. I think even poor movies get good reviews in west because You just can not say the movie is bad when you have so many people watching them.
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February 16, 2013 at 2:04 PM
part of this comment might be relevant here as well:
But to add to this I think the Western reception of Kashyap is tied up with the problems (as I see it) of contemporary Bollywood. Or put differently as long as this sort of film can be made and as long as it can get favorable attention in the global’ media circuit and/or at film festivals Bollywood can keep congratulating itself and keep indulging in the Khiladi 786 kind of deal. In other words this latter is the ‘norm’ while the Kashyap deal is the ghettoized supplement that is necessary in these other ways.
As an overall project, and even as I have liked most of his films at some level or the other I have a considerably dimmer view on Kashyap’s project (not just Kashyap’s.. I could substitute him with Bannerjee and some others too.. not because I am somehow confusing the obvious distinctions). Not least because there are essential contradictions in his project that he hasn’t sorted out. At the level of a more institutional criticism I left this comment on twitter some days ago:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/kq1ail
Kashyap was one of my primary targets. I’ve never seen a director of his ilk (or any other) become such a one-man plugging industry for his films. From any and every review and tweet that’s positive on his film to any and every bit of attention that his film gets globally any and everything is tweeted. My long comment above responds to this.
Leaving this aside I’d say that his films even when they’re worthwhile don’t often live up to his polemical instincts. That’s they’re interesting cannot be denied, whether they’re important is far more questionable. Much as his more rooted Bollywood attempts often rely on the very same multiplex registers (which is why they’re celebrated by the same!). Or his polemical goals despite his ambitions ultimately seem to be about shocking the very multiplex classes that he otherwise professes to have no interest in. His ideal viewer in many ways is far less the kind who fanatically celebrates him on twitter and far more the one who’s probably offended by the candid conversations on sex or the ‘bad words’ and so on. Kashyap primarily likes to shock. The problem with this instinct is that if it isn’t kept in check it can often mar one’s cinema and keep one in that ‘infantile’ state for very long. In this sense Kashyap has never quite lived upto the Black Friday promise. Almost all his other films have been ‘screw you’ messages to this bourgeois audience. which is fine as far as it goes but great cinema needs something more than just the polemical stance.
Now this doesn’t mean he’s not better than most others in his industry even at his end of the equation but that’s a low bar!
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February 16, 2013 at 2:51 PM
I do agree with the gist of your comment but would like to debate with you on this specific point-
“Kashyap primarily likes to shock”
I must say that I completely disagree with this. I do not think Kashyap uses sex and foul language to ‘shock’- they very much belong to the ‘world’ of his films and the milieu he is representing. And if Kashyap is accused of this charge so should be Tarantino (he is as being a proponent of foul language and violence as any other filmmaker in this world). Btw I must also add that even Scorsese has used this kind of language where it was not ‘always’ needed IMO. And our very Bharadwaj did the same in Omkara- and IMO it’s not done to bring out the authenticity of the native but to also used to present ‘a new world’ in the native itself- for example I am quite familiar with the local places of Bihar but I still thought the ‘world of GoW’ was a new one- the ‘hyper-real’ effect here was intended. Btw in the same manner i feel the mild toilet-humour in 3I was not forced- i did not like it but i also did not have a problem with it
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February 16, 2013 at 3:36 PM
Before Django I often had a somewhat similar charge against Tarantino as well. I doubted the value of his entire project. Not to say that Kashyap is like Tarantino. My problem with Kashyap is that his worlds often become reducible to this anti-bourgeois prism (as he frames it). It is not his intention that is the problem here but the fact (on my terms) that the interrogation isn’t profound enough once one gets past its shock value. Again haven’t seen GoW yet.
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February 16, 2013 at 7:06 PM
and let me add to this larger point in this way — that there is a certain kind of cinema which is always parasitic on what it constantly deconstructs. It never quite acquires the ‘independence’ to function fully as a fiction on its own. In other words a film like GoW (haven’t seen it but know enough of/about it..) or some of Tarantino’s older films (not all.. and not that his mode is the same as Kashyap’s) are not quite able to pull off the Leone trick (though Tarantino in my view finally does it in Django) of what for want of a better term I’ll call ‘belated modernism’. When Joyce writes his mock-Odyssey in Ulysses all the ironic references to the latter and in fact this entire schema is a sort of red herring. It does impart a level of meaning to the work but it is not what the work is actually about. Ulysses is very much a ‘contemporary’ (with reference to its present) work that offers a compelling sense of something new having emerged. Part of the work involves a similar critical framework where from the Odyssey to older English novels entire histories are accounted for in mock fashion. Not as a simple exercise in brilliance however because this critique very much connects with the larger project of the novel which is to set forth how and why those older modes of fictional transcendence are no longer available. In a newer reality the Austen view of the world (for instance) is not satisfactory enough to organize this newer experience. Something is needed and Ulysses (along with many other works in literature and elsewhere) tries to formulate a response.
Similarly at a more popular level Leone does the very same. The best example here is Once Upon a Time in the West (though Leone was always on this path and this late film is the culmination of his concerns in many ways). Every other scene or sequence here references a canonical moment or shot from the history of the Western. However Leone’s work isn’t an archive for the same. The true focus of the work is the waning of the entire Western genre and even more profoundly the waning of a certain cinematic transcendence. There are specific American angles that can be read into all of this (the Western being the pastoral genre of American culture) but at any rate Leone is not simply playing a game of referencing Shane or whatever.
With pre-Django Tarantino and with Kashyap (again not only him, I am using his name as a signature or as a ‘symptom’.. of course I’ve also done the same for contemporary masala cinema in the past) I do not see this other side. Too often the ironic references seem to be everything. All of this constitutes a cinema that can be very compelling on its own but it doesn’t necessarily offer a newer world. It is simply happy to keep deconstructing the old. Whether this ‘old’ is a masala tradition or alternately a Scorsese-inspired brand of realism. I like the two Kill Bill films a lot, specially the first one, but I am unsure what the ultimate meaning of this work is beyond the obvious. Once again the Scorsese example is instructive. He too responds to the loss of transcendence in every which way — from the cinematic (the romance of the old gangster/noir films) to the societal and so on. There is a new formulation that emerges in his cinema. However he is not content to just downsize the epic history of the genre. He creates a more materialist version of the same where transcendence is skillfully concealed. All of this would take too long to unpack but suffice it to say for now that his later more epic films (Casino, GONY, Aviator) don’t seem surprising at all in this sense. and so those who equate his more flinty worlds with a more documentary notion of realism miss this point. Scorsese is never less than a romantic. This is one possible response. Leone’s is a different one. It’s instructive to compare his Once upon a Time in America with Scorsese’s works. Leone keeps the twilight moment forever suspended. One keeps revisiting the ‘waning’, one never quite exits it (incidentally I have a very great taste for this ‘autumnal’ tone everywhere in the arts). Scorsese on the other hand snaps out of it as a condition for his cinema to emerge and then figures out how a different sort of transcendence might nonetheless be possible. And of course there are other choices. I am just using these examples here. But on a Hindi front note how RGV starts off downsizing commercial cinema and introduces his own brand of realism while later on he himself reverts to the more epic by way of an exaggerated operatic stylization. So in RGV there is a thinking of the problem whether it’s manifested by way of Shiva or Satya or the Sarkar films or the Rakta Charitra double.
The question is whether GoW does this or if it remains at the Tarantino level? My hunch, having read a lot of informed opinion on the film, is that it’s the latter. Once upon a time there were B movies (whether Samurai send-offs in Japan or various exploitation genres in the US) that were similarly parasitic on mainstream genres. They didn’t have to be anything more than this. But more ambitious works that strive to present a new world or a new fiction have to do more than this of necessity. For instance whatever you can get out of Kill Bill is something you can already derive from Leone or Lady Snowblood or what have you. What remains once you account for this is relatively little. Beyond of course the stylistic virtuosity.
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February 16, 2013 at 3:33 PM
There r some ‘double standards’ bein used here
For the same sins, satyam was defending/glorifying QT!
Obviously QT is much more successful prominent maker (maybe superior) than kashyap!
But u cannot diss kashyap for the abuses, violence while continuing to defend QT for the same! Infact finding all sorts of novel designs in QTs violent obscenities!
I repeat—
The ‘minor’ who inserted a metal rod into the girl in that Delhi incident IS an advanced ‘continuum’ of the spectrum of ‘tastes’ that QT has been cultivating and many ‘pseudo intellectuals’ have been praising to the skies whilst being oblivious to the ‘numbing down of their own default reactions’ of disgust to obviously extreme violence/Torture!
Time to rethink…
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February 16, 2013 at 6:18 PM
I’m going to try and un-mangle some of the language here and offer some clarity since you either don’t know what”double standard” means or you’ve decided to pretend there is one here. Satyam never argued that it’s the violence and language that make Django a great or very interesting movie. His criticism against Kashyap’s films, likewise isn’t that they’re too profane and violent. It’s that they’re not terribly deep movies and they rely on these profane gestures to paper over the lack of true subversion or novelty. Changing what the debate is about doesn’t make your manufactured points (to the extent that one thinks you have a point; I don’t) any more valid.
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February 16, 2013 at 6:37 PM
GF has already made my point for me far more lucidly than I ever could!
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February 16, 2013 at 6:50 PM
Thanx for the attempt to ‘unmangle’ things here. ‘Satyam’ here doesn’t mean Satyam himself but a certain cohort who ‘look upto certain personalities’ and become their devout apologists!
Sometimes a bigger point needs a certain ‘visible’ aspect to be highlighted to drive the point home. Though it appears to be presented in this simplistic way, use of violence in a porn-like fashion is not the main/only point, just a symptom of a bigger ‘syndrome’.
Wherein it is decided beforehand whether to diss completely or defend completely something–sometimes these black-n-white ‘all or none’ positions are difficult to maintain.
For eg–if ANY one sees only positive in mani /QT & only/mostly negative about kashyap–it just can NOT be a correct position since it doesn’t pass the ‘sniff test’!
Let’s assume that this WAS a ‘manufactured point’. Lemme frame it differently of the framing is the problem.
It’s a problem in ‘tone’
I have also LOVED django unchained & DO admire QTs craft.
I see a film twice v v few times!! But that won’t /shouldn’t force me to defend against certain things I feel there IS a problem with.
Anyone who loves Rohan sippys work for eg –I don’t have problems with at all. But then employing somewhat impossible, standards of finding loopholes in a far superior kashyap –that’s what the problem is
Finally –one doesn’t have to agree with ones choices. But of those ‘choices’ seem predetermined decisions than those having passed the ‘unbiased analytical’ test –is wherein eyebrows are raised 🙂
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February 16, 2013 at 7:26 PM
“‘Satyam’ here doesn’t mean Satyam himself but a certain cohort who ‘look upto certain personalities’ and become their devout apologists! ”
Oh I didn’t realize that’s how we were doing discussions now, cool. In that case, I just want ‘Rajen’ to know that ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what he’s talking about more often than not on this forum, and that ‘Rajen’ should stop misusing words like apologists when it’s clear ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what these words mean.
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February 16, 2013 at 6:58 PM
LOL,GF!
My sense is hardly any one reads this drivel and oft repeated ‘points’. But, you are right, there is no point except to get in peoples faces in pursuit of badly needed attention!
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February 16, 2013 at 7:18 PM
Seems rajen uncles back–‘fresh’ from the murder3 show!!
Won’t be harsh on him ….
Seems he ‘spent’ already!!! 🙂
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February 16, 2013 at 7:33 PM
“In that case, I just want ‘Rajen’ to know that ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what he’s talking about more often than not on this forum, and that ‘Rajen’ should stop misusing words like apologists when it’s clear ‘Rajen’ doesn’t know what these words mean.”
Uve again proved the point.
U are getting ‘distracted’ by non-issues by Satyam or rajen and missing the CENTRAL premise here .
But anyhow –one can only take the horse to the well…
Ps: it was actually someone else who had issues about kashyaps use of MC/BC Words whilst the same person didn’t hae a problem with the SAME BIGGER issue with QT…
Im not naming the person since u may then latch onto that name rather than the point–
Though I’m not really alleging that u are ‘clutching @ straws’ here–but it’s not too different 🙂
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February 16, 2013 at 8:30 PM
‘But anyhow –one can only take the horse to the well…’
Yes, An Jo has demonstrated this just now. Drink up.
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February 16, 2013 at 7:57 PM
@ Alex:
***Ps: it was actually someone else who had issues about kashyaps use of MC/BC Words whilst the same person didn’t hae a problem with the SAME BIGGER issue with QT…
Im not naming the person since u may then latch onto that name rather than the point***
That was ME. As with Utkal, you have chosen NOT to read the whole thing and understand the context..but that’s ok..it would be helpful to you if you read WHAT I say about ‘imitating’ Hollywood..it might also open your eyes that I have hit out at Aamir Khan —yes, the same guy I praised for making TALAASH– for making/supporting a trash movie called DELHI BELLY in a quest to sound ‘cool’ ..so please think twice the next time you try to accuse the ‘cohorts’ on this blog..
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February 16, 2013 at 8:09 PM
“I praised for making TALAASH– for making/supporting a trash movie called DELHI BELLY in a quest to sound ‘cool’ ”
That’s a good point Ann jo–I agree with that one..cheers
Ps: yeah–I admit to not reading stuff properly …
But those points are not ‘accusations’ just ‘innocent observations’ lol
Will catch up with this later
Ps2: reminds me of the ultra crap ‘blow job’ reference in Delhi belly-as if it was a ‘revolutionary’ deal -oh wait–someone will now call us all ‘perverts’ ha
Gud nite
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February 17, 2013 at 6:38 AM
If Special 26 trends like Barfi it should end up with 71 Crores.
If the film trends like 3 Idiots (unlikely) it will end up with a lifetime net of 93 crores.
Barfilike trending is the more likely scenario. Anything above 70 crores for Special 26 is a great box office outcome.
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February 17, 2013 at 6:40 AM
These numbers are based on BOI’s first day, first weekend & first week numbers, by the way. They are on the lower side, but because everyone seems to follow them, I’ve used them as the source.
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February 17, 2013 at 7:25 AM
I think Talaash a lot of credit (deservedly) for not being a very accessible film for the mainstream audience and yet getting to a good gross. But if a there’s a film deserving even more credit than Talaash than it’s GoW-1. It is a far less audience-friendly film and yet it got a very a healthy B.O. number- to mind the success story of last year
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February 17, 2013 at 7:51 AM
Part 2 didn’t do that well though, suggesting (to me) that a fairly high percentage of people who saw the first film didn’t care for it (everybody I know who liked the first film saw the second)…
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February 17, 2013 at 8:08 AM
LOL, you’ve made my point far more concisely!
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February 17, 2013 at 8:07 AM
GoW-1 did very well for the kind of film it was. It did 26-27 crores if I’m not mistaken. Maybe a bit more. But this outcome isn’t as remarkable as it might seem in another sense. Dev D some years before this did about 17-18 crores. What’s essentially happening is that there is a niche audience for these films that gets maximized for the right one. But the audience isn’t growing for this. Also GoW2 did far less than 1. Even out of the gate. And so ironically even though Kashyap goes on and on about Nawazuddun Siddiqui and everyone seems to agree on the performance this was the part far less people so theatrically. The question then becomes: why didn’t just the people who had showed up for the first part do so for the second? because even in the initial phase it wasn’t really keeping pace with the first one. The point I’m trying to make is that even within this niche audience there was an unstated sense of ‘one is enough’! And the larger point is that it is just hard to get these films to work beyond a point. This gets to my old D6 point. I compared it to Dev D once. The film did double the gross of Dev D. why? Because it was pitched as a more mainstream film, it had the works from the director to the star to Rahman and so on. But this wasn’t really a mainstream subject in any sense. With those factors the film could get enough of an initial to double the Dev D gross. But it of course wasn’t for a general audience. And this becomes problematic in another sense. A niche audience is far more open to certain kinds of cinema. Even when they don’t like a film they don’t go crazy over it. A general audience though gets intensely negative for the obvious reasons. And so the Dev D audience is really the one intended to watch it in the first place and the WOM is fine on a good day and on a bad day it still doesn’t affect anything because a general audience wasn’t going to show up in the first place. So you’re talking a really small subset when there is negative WOM within that same niche. On the other hand D6 has a more general negative WOM.
Again the reason I get into all of this is that for many years now I’ve seen this ceiling on certain kinds of cinema. Not odd in itself. This is true in every industry. But the difference is that films are often marketed and released the wrong way in Bollywood. In Hollywood even movies with very major stars get limited releases when the subject is not seen to be for a universal audience. Similarly at the other end Shanghai was seen as a box office disappointment. Again the film did no worse than Dev D. But the director got rather high profile in the meantime, the media started going crazy over him etc.. all of this didn’t really have anything to do with the kind of cinema he was making. Guzaarish was seen as a massive flop. Admittedly it didn’t even get an initial (Hrithik doesn’t really have the credibility for this sort of deal.. the audience doesn’t wish to see him this way) but this wasn’t Barfi. These sorts of films are hard to pull off in any situation. Once again the same sort of gross holds. Except that when it’s niche it seems adequate, when a major star is in it it doesn’t. Yes, an initial would have got it some more crores but wouldn’t have changed the box office outcome dramatically.
All of this is connected to GoW-1. One can’t really compare the box office story here with that of Talaash. The latter was released as a mainstream film and grossed like one. It’s very hard to do with the kind of genre it was. GoW-1 did very well, even leaving aside the fact that GoW-2 didn’t repeat this story, GoW-1 was successful in the Dev D sort of way. Admittedly Dev D is still a safer genre for that niche audience than GoW-1 but if you ask me I think GoW-1 benefited greatly from a certain sort of media attention and buzz. I’m not sure it’s target audience liked the film as much as the same did Dev D. Which probably explains the lesser interest in GoW-2 even in the initial phase. Otherwise the whole film is really building up towards the Nawazuddin Siddiqui character. Kashyap talked about this incessantly and yet when the release date came the very audience that came out for the first part clearly didn’t show up for the second one. And this wasn’t a sequel even but clearly the same film! So even though the gross on GoW1 is impressive the story here might be more complicated than this.
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February 17, 2013 at 8:08 AM
Yes, but we cannot forget the fact that ETT released just a week after GoW-2. And films like these which are finally dependent on trending and WoM really need atleast 2 weeks of unchallenged run
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February 20, 2013 at 9:49 AM
Talaash according to taran adarsh didnt trend well.Special 26 is going to dopuble its opening week.Why are you quoting total gross here.Talk about trending.
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February 16, 2013 at 5:29 AM
Official poster of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s upcoming Hollywood directorial venture “Broken Horses”-
Details-
Set in the shadows of the US-Mexico border gang wars and starring Vincent D’Onofrio (Men In Black) along with Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) and Chris Marquette (Alpha Dog), Broken Horses is an epic thriller about the bonds of brotherhood, the laws of loyalty and the futility of violence.
The films is being directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra who has also penned the script and screenplay alongwith Abhijat Joshi (3 Idiots).
Principal photography on the film commenced on 10th October 2012 and was completed on 14th December 2012. Shoot locations were situated in and around the Los Angeles area.
The Broken Horses team includes Oscar nominated Tom Stern (The Hunger Games, Changeling, Million Dollar Baby) as Director of Photography, Toby Corbett (Crossing Over, Bad Lieutenant) as Production Designer, Emmy nominated Mary Vogt (Men In Black 3, Batman Returns) as Costume Designer and is being edited by Todd E. Miller (The Expendables 2, The Mechanic) along with Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
Genre Action/Drama
Principal Cast Vincent D’Onofrio, Anton Yelchin, Chris Marquette, Maria Velverde, Sean Patrick Flanery, Thomas Jane
Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Subhash Dhar, David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman
Creative Producer Vir Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani
Story Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi
Screenplay Abhijat Joshi, Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Screenplay Associate Supriya Kelkar
Dialogues Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Abhijat Joshi
Director Of Photography Tom Stern
Editor Todd E. Miller
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February 16, 2013 at 5:34 AM
Talaash collected 2.25 on its 8th day(Talaash was released on 2700 Screens while Special26 was released on 1600 Screens)……
does that mean Akshay kumar in this Genre is a bigger Reliable actor than Aamir khan in the same genre..???
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February 16, 2013 at 5:44 AM
Man, the 2 films do NOT belong to the same genre.
Btw Spl. 26, belonging to a much more favourable genre, opened much below the Talaash. So there goes the ‘Akshay and prestige’ theory for a toss
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February 16, 2013 at 6:08 AM
Saurabh can u tell me how Special26 belongs to more favourable genre than Talaash ??
i accept u liked Talaash more but don’t say things just to defend Talaash..!!
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February 16, 2013 at 8:33 AM
That Special 26 is a much more favorable genre in box office terms than Talaash isn’t even debatable as far as I’m concerned!
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February 16, 2013 at 6:19 AM
Just because Special26 has a more commercial star doesn’t make it more Favourable genre…….
let me recollect….what did Talaash had—-
2 most commercial heroines of their Times, one of them playing a Prostitute.
Movie involving more masala elements like Ghost Angle…
Movie having Aamir khan coming back after 3 years ….
Movie having lots of Scenes involving the unseen (Lucrative) world of Mumbai….
Aamir khan fighting with his Emotions on one side while trying to deal with his Attraction towards Kareena…
Murder mystry …
if all these Things don’t make a movie Favourable(i m also not saying Special26 is also not Favourable in its genre though it is less as compared to Talaash) in its GENRE then no one can ever be..!!
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February 16, 2013 at 6:42 AM
and also tell me how a more Commercial movie like Special26 get released on 1600 Screens while a less Commercial movie like Talaash get released on 2700 Screens even more than Housefull 2 which released on 2600 Screens or may be Son of Sardar which released on 2000 Screens????
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February 16, 2013 at 7:04 AM
Rani is not commercial anymore and Kareena had a serious role.
Ghost angle was not exploited the usual way with candles and white saree and mirror scene.
Showing the redlight areas without the required sleazy item numbers and other paraphernalia.
Aamir acted in Dhobighat also in between.
Opening in 2700 screens or 2000 screens is the same as Special 26 and ABCD.
Special 26 got rave reviews and it was supported by BOI in an unparalleled way till now. The drops for Talaash elicited negative remarks from them while the drops for Special 26 so far got very encouraging remarks.
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February 16, 2013 at 7:09 AM
Forget Aamir Khan, Akshay has a bigger and greater role model in front of him in his father in law the late Rajesh Khanna.
One can literally weep seeing the earlier filmography of Rajesh Khanna and the filmography of his son in law.
Npt tp forget Dimple Kapadia. She looked mesmerising with a younger Akshaye Khanna and acted like a diva.
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February 16, 2013 at 7:14 AM
Dont forget that Special 26 is a highly hyped movie. It is hyped more than 3 Idiots by everyone.
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February 16, 2013 at 8:10 AM
1. ABCD Opens Better Than Special Chabbis
http://www.boxofficeindia.com/boxnewsdetail.php?page=shownews&articleid=5376&nCat=
yes above article shows how BOI is supporting Special26..!!
2. “Opening in 2700 screens or 2000 screens is the same as Special 26 and ABCD.”
so opening on 2700 screens is same as 1600 screens…ok…that’s new to me….
or is it that S26+ ABCD=2600 Screens(if so can i add ABCD collections to S26 ??)
3. “Kareena had a serious role.”
yup Kareena saying 4 times to Aamir’s character that kya sab pyar ho gaya kya mujhse
or
all those flirty lines to Aamir by kareena made her role Serious.I think u watched some different movie.
moreover her role was more Sensuous n Sensitive rather than Serious..!!
4. “Showing the redlight areas without the required sleazy item numbers and other paraphernalia.”
ok so Special26 had a escort dancing while the fake CBI raided the ministers house..!!
5. ” The drops for Talaash elicited negative remarks from them while the drops for Special 26 so far got very encouraging remarks.”
yes a drop from (Talaash)1st day 11 cr to 8th day 2.25 cr is same as (Special26) 6 cr(1st day) to 2.25 cr(8th day)..!!
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February 16, 2013 at 8:18 AM
“Dont forget that Special 26 is a highly hyped movie. It is hyped more than 3 Idiots by everyone.”
yup that’s why there were only 1-2 comments(on the movie) on Special26 thread with over 100 comments on other Topics on this blog..!!
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February 16, 2013 at 8:23 AM
“Ghost angle was not exploited the usual way with candles and white saree and mirror scene.”
then what was all those candles used by Rani’s neighbour to call the spirit of Her son……and instead of sarees they used western clothes when kareena rescued Aamir underwater out of nowhere isn’t it modern version of Ghost appearing in saree in Mirror out of nowhere ??
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February 16, 2013 at 9:25 AM
Why it did not get comments?
Maybe only the 3 Khans get negative and positive comments most of the time.
Special 25 has Manoj Bajpai who got most of the comments as usual. I agree it is a bit unfair for Akshay.
I have nothing against Akshay but I want a level playing field at BOI.
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February 16, 2013 at 7:12 PM
More Screens only help big hyped up films get a bigger initial but once the initial euphoria dies down screen count does not matter so whatever the film collects on its 8th day or in a long run only has do with the WOM than anything else. Now no one expected Special 26 to open like RR or Hf2 but it could have done 8-9 cr on its opening day and then some growth over the weekend would have taken it to 33-35 cr weekend and lifetime around 75-80 cr would be a good result but now it will end in the TZP/CDI range. On Talaash i know it didn’t trend well u said it collected 2.25 cr on its 8th day but u don’t remember a major Akshay film K786 released the same day and it also released on 2700 screens but still couldn’t match Talaash’s initial.
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February 17, 2013 at 5:38 AM
ok….so in case of Special26 it had ABCD on 1000 screens in 1st week and Murder3 on 1400 Screens and JBKLS on 800 Screens in its 2nd week
do ur maths and u will know whether Talaash released on 2700 screens will have more advantage in 2nd week or Special26 released with 1600 Screens will have more advantage in its 2nd week(despite other releases in both cases)..!!
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February 16, 2013 at 7:44 AM
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/attahasa-this-kannada-movie-is-a-one-time-watch/373120-71-203.html?from=HP
A Veerappan biopic. I dont know whether they have included Kannada superstar late Rajkumar’s kidnapping.
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February 16, 2013 at 8:13 AM
movie is already in legal Trouble (Just like Vishwaroop) and matter is in High court..!!
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February 16, 2013 at 8:54 AM
Haven’t /won’t see special 26– so can’t comment
But this Kareena being a ‘serious role’ in talaash is LOL
A prostitute with not only heart but also grey matter & an edgy profile
Besides a better wardrobe than her usual roles hahaha
“3. “Kareena had a serious role.”
yup Kareena saying 4 times to Aamir’s character that kya sab pyar ho gaya kya mujhse
or
all those flirty lines to Aamir by kareena made her role Serious.I think u watched some different movie.
moreover her role was more Sensuous n Sensitive rather than Serious..!!”
A flirty ‘trying to be sensuous’ prostitute Kareena –well…
To those who find some ‘deeper’ design in that –welcum
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February 16, 2013 at 9:17 AM
Epitome of ‘serious’ cinema!
Check out this Kareena prostitute dialogue —“kya sab pyar ho gaya kya mujhse” 🙂
Also–
Seems murder3 is getting murdered @ the box office..
Who are these girls!?
& seems hooda couldn’t keep it up (@ the box office)…
Ps: even ‘porn’ isn’t that easy
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February 16, 2013 at 9:26 AM
Good. Hope it will end that stupid series from the Bhatts.
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February 16, 2013 at 9:28 AM
Ghosts are supposed to be serious1
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February 18, 2013 at 5:57 PM
Thnx Sanjana..I want to check this out..Hope I get this in DVD in store nearby :)…The entire Karnataka went through very testing phase when Dr Raj was kidnapped..Miss Dr Raj…..Suresh Oberio plays his role 🙂
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February 16, 2013 at 11:10 AM
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February 16, 2013 at 3:36 PM
Has anyone seen this! Ridiculous stuff- Govt. is acting like a bunch of dictators
Govt orders blocking of IIPM-related URLs
ISPs asked to block access to more than 70 URLs that appear to contain material critical of IIPM
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/roausYEth9b0TvZv4r0whN/Govt-orders-blocking-of-IIPMrelated-URLs.html
New Delhi: In an unprecedented bid to block material critical of controversial business school Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM), the Indian government has ordered Internet service providers (ISPs) to prevent access to more than 70 URLs, provoking a storm of protest online and from the publications affected.
The directive was issued on the basis of an order from a court in Gwalior, said Gulshan Rai, director general of CERT-In (Computer Emergency Response Team-India). The order, signed by Subodh Saxena of the department of telecommunications (DoT), was issued on Thursday and was reported earlier on Friday by the MediaNama website.
Interestingly, the URLs listed include a University Grants Commission (UGC) notification saying that IIPM is not a university and “does not have the right of conferring or granting degrees as specified by UGC”.
A.K. Dogra, director (administration) at UGC, said he was “not aware of the development and it is news to me”.
UGC chairperson Ved Prakash and secretary Akhilesh Gupta could not be reached on their mobile phones, nor did they respond to text messages at the time of going to press.
The move comes amid criticism of the government for recent steps that have been regarded as attempts to curb freedom of speech.
DoT couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. UGC and IIPM representatives also couldn’t be immediately reached for comment.
IIPM has been the subject of several critical articles in various publications, including Outlook, Careers360 and The Caravan. The URLs related to these stories have been blocked. A controversy had blown up in 2005 over attempts to gag a blogger critical of IIPM. That site, too, is among those ordered to be blocked.
The Caravan editor Anant Nath said, “Our biggest concern is that DoT has taken this action by itself. We haven’t been informed about this notice. In the conventional course, we expect it to inform the said media houses. So, at the first instance, we will take this matter up with DoT itself, and if further needed, we will take legal action also.”
Maheshwar Peri, publisher of Careers360 magazine, said, “It is outrageous. We will reply to the notice and may explore a contempt case.”
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February 17, 2013 at 5:43 AM
My friend if u know the connection between Sibal and arindam chaudhuri friendly relationship u won’t be surprised one bit..!!
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February 17, 2013 at 3:09 AM
http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-02-15/news/37119544_1_multiplexes-big-cinemas-cinemax
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February 17, 2013 at 6:24 AM
Just now watched Table 21 on Colors. They should have made it tax free for the message. After a long time, I felt I saw a decent movie with no frills but thrills. Wished the ending was otherwise.
SPOILERS
I wished K killed the son and suffered lifelong with guilt while the girl must have gone to mental asylum permanently as a punishment.
Khandelwal’s character is not grey but more than that.
Bachchan could have done Paresh’s role as a game show host to lend more credibility and interest.
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February 17, 2013 at 6:25 AM
It deserved more success than it got.
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February 17, 2013 at 9:26 AM
if i m not wrong the director Aditya datt is coming up with his next 3G(also shot in Fizi)..!!
can he revive Neil Nitin Mukesh’s career ??? lets see.
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February 17, 2013 at 9:42 AM
3G. Is it in any way connected to telecom?
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February 18, 2013 at 10:15 AM
no…its about a phone that brings some Bad spirit in their life at least that’s what i can make out from Trailers..!!
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February 17, 2013 at 10:37 AM
Thanx sanju for that mini-review
So is table21 worth seeing
How’s the performance of that new heroine-forgot her name…
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February 17, 2013 at 10:55 AM
OT–
Capucchino-
Hohoho what bulllcrap…
Ps: enuf of break–need 2 get bak for some more stressful work–enjoy your Sundays at home u lucky folks…
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February 17, 2013 at 12:43 PM
strictly ok
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February 17, 2013 at 7:04 PM
Strictly ok? Ok…
Well, will leave u to check out this katrina clip
Saw few sec of this–Check out Salmans expressions haha
Bak2 burning midnite ‘oil’ now…
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February 17, 2013 at 8:07 PM
Saw Rowdy Rathore on Sony Max. Complete masala and Akshay gave a convincing performance. His no nonsense police avataar is a treat to watch. Though I hated all those song and dance routines. The film would have been more gripping without all that silly bollywood numbers. The villain was more disgusting than terrifying. I just could not help remembering Amjad Khan of Sholay who gave a rare dignity to his role.He was never disgusting. We dont get villains like him anymore.
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February 17, 2013 at 11:05 PM
RR and Dabangg can be called rural friendly and an answer to multiplex Race series. Akshay Kumar has become serious competition. Lesson1. Dont writeoff anyone in a hurry.
With Special 26, he earned respect of the likes of Rajeev Masand.
Lesson2.It is not enough to be a great actor only like Manoj Bajpai and Irrfan Khan to get the star status, one needs to become a hero first and foremost.
He has replaced Ajay Devgn and is about to upset the apple cart of some others too.
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February 17, 2013 at 11:13 PM
ABCD Keeps Ruling The Box Office In Its 2nd Weekend
After scoring very well at the Box Office in its 1st Week, Remo D’Souza’s dance flick ABCD – Any Body Can Dance continued to make decent business in its 2nd Week at the Domestic front. The movie, which collected 32 crores in its opening week, added approx 5 Crores more in its kitty on Day 8 and Day 9 at the domestic box office.
The movie made a business of about 2 crores on its 2nd Friday and picked up a little on 2nd Saturday, as per early estimates, by collecting 3 crores at the Box Office. ABCD now stands at a Domestic total of about 37 Crores at the Box Office.
koimoi
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February 17, 2013 at 11:31 PM
Lesson. Dont writeoff small films with no starcast.
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February 17, 2013 at 11:18 PM
Special 26 has collected around 9 crore nett in its 2nd weekend at the box office as per estimates. Special 26 collected around 4 crore nett on 2nd Sunday. It earlier collected around 2.25 crore nett on 2nd Friday and another 2.75 crore nett on 2nd Saturday. Special 26 total collection after 10 days is around 52.15 crore nett.
Special 26 showed jump on 2nd weekend and collected decently. Jump is decent, but could have been even better. Second weekend collection has ensured that S26 will now cross 55+ crore nett by the end of second week. S26 should also touch 60 crore nett by third weekend end or atmost by third week. After that only time will tell whether it can collect more or not.
Makers of S26 have already made profits when non-theatrical revenue is considered. But it looks like few exhibitors/distributors are about to lose money who have brought the rights for big price. Regarding those who are asking S26 to touch 100 crore nett in India, would like to say that only a miracle will take S26 near that mark now.
http://www.addatoday.com/2013/02/special-26-second-weekend-collection.html#more
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February 18, 2013 at 5:28 AM
Water, water everywhere
But not a drop to drink
The stars are so rich and the top stars have wealth which must be in multi billions, declared and undeclared taken together. Yet their films beg for money from the poor, yes, relatively poor, who throng cinema halls. Only that means approval. While each of these stars can shell out the few crores to make their films 100,200,300 crores in a jiffy and earn that tag but cant for obvious reasons. One or 2 stars used to do blockbookings to make it appear as though the films are running to full houses.
It is pathetic when these figures include only a measly few lakhs making 2 to 3 crores. Sometimes thousands.
This craze is not a recent phenomena. Those who live by numbers have to fall by the very numbers one day or the other.
In the past, films used to run for months together. Genuinely, not like Chopras are doing for DDLJ. Golden, silver and diamond jubilees. There used to be one jubilee Kumar who was a 100 crore man of those times. Slowly even jubilees got manipulated as films ran without housefull crowds just to achieve that jubilee tag.
Now the first step for glory is 100 crore club. Woe behold the star that fail to reach that.
The scenario can be described with this example.
papa, did your film crossed 100 crores?
beta, no.
papa, how can I show my face to my friends?
beta, where is your report card and did you come first?
beta runs away while papaji smiles ruefully.
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February 18, 2013 at 6:30 AM
http://ibnlive.in.com/photogallery/12625-1.html
Most dramatic death scenes. Surprisingly Bachchan had more dramatic death scenes according to this article.
Some of the missed ones.
Madhubala’s in Mughal e Azam
Rajendra Kumar’s in Sangam.
Dil Ek Mandir
The child’s death in Koshish.
QSQT climax death scene.
Dil Se climax
RDB and Bhagat Singh death scenes
And there maybe scores of others.
Some death scenes are so prolonged that some in the audience become restless. die man, die. die fast.
And the dialogues before death. They can revive the patient by taking him or her to the hospital in the meantime.
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February 18, 2013 at 8:29 AM
Special 26 Grosses 48 Crore In Ten Days
Monday 18th February 2013 10.30 IST
Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network
Special 26 has grossed around 48 crore nett in ten days as it added around 9.25 crore nett in its second weekend. The film had better weekend collections than the new release Murder 3 in a couple of circuits. On Sunday it was ahead of Murder 3 at most places as it grossed 4.25-4.50 crore nett compared to the 4 crore nett of Murder 3.
The film has done decent business in all circuits apart from from Nizam/Andhra with Delhi/UP, East Punjab and Mysore being top performers.
The film should gross around 53-54 crore nett in two weeks and go to 60 plus for its lifetime business. Basically the lifetime business of the film will be in the same range as Khiladi 786 while the distributor share will be around the 30 crore mark.
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February 18, 2013 at 10:25 AM
February 17, 2013, 12:36 pm
Bruce Willis Shows Strength at the Box Office
By BROOKS BARNES
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone went kersplat in their recent attempts at renewed box-office glory, but another 1980s-era star — Bruce Willis — has shown that he’s still kicking. “A Good Day to Die Hard,” starring Mr. Willis in a role he created 25 years ago, was No. 1 at North American theaters over the weekend, taking in about $25 million. The film, which cost 20th Century Fox about $90 million to make, has sold $33.2 million in tickets since opening on Valentines Day, according to Hollywood.com, which compiles box-office data.
“Identity Thief” (Universal) was a strong second, selling about $23.4 million in tickets, for a two-week total of $70.7 million. A poorly reviewed romantic drama, “Safe Haven,” which also opened on Thursday, took in about $21.4 million over the weekend, for third place and a total of $30.3 million; it cost Relativity Media an estimated $30 million to make. “Escape From Planet Earth,” an animated movie that cost the Weinstein Company $40 million to produce, was fourth, taking in a weak $16.1 million. “Warm Bodies” (Lionsgate) was fifth, selling about $9 million, for a three-week total of $50.2 million.
There was one notable flop: “Beautiful Creatures” (Warner Brothers) took in $7.5 million in sixth place; Alcon Entertainment spent about $50 million to make it.
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February 18, 2013 at 10:25 AM
Though I thought this film (Die Hard) was awful I am quite pleased to see it doing well (even if I have my doubts about how it might sustain).
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February 18, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Have you seen Die Hard already ?
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February 18, 2013 at 12:09 PM
yup, saw it on the day of release! Unlike a marriage a movie can be regretted on day 1.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:19 PM
ha ha……….was at a Valentine’s party last saturday and was asked as a part of a party game to tell my fav. Romantic movie- wanted to say -Pyar ka Punchnama but chose Saajan instead..LOL!!
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February 18, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Wahin dande baras jaate!
lOl @Satyam comment.
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February 18, 2013 at 10:51 AM
Is it because you want The Great American Action Film to still be kept alive (or atleast not get obliterated by their Hong-Kong, French or Korean counterparts who for quite some time now are simply better films in the genre) or is it love for the franchise itself. Btw I always once Alan Rickman’s character was disposed off the franchise was never the same. Anyway I always believed that True Lies was probably the last truly great ‘pure actioner’ I saw from Hollywood
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February 18, 2013 at 11:50 AM
I actually much preferred Jeremy Irons in Die Hard With a Vengeance to Rickman’s villain in the first. This is blasphemy in some circles but I also prefer that third movie to the first.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:16 PM
I too liked Irons a lot. Now the 1st one part is my favourite but I do think that the 3rd part is its true sequel (in terms of plot and character development).
Aside I recently saw Dead Ringers recently and I thought Irons’ performance in a double here is one of the best ever. Intact from the ones I have seen I will only Bachchan’s double acts in Don and Satte Pe Satta and Dilip Kumar’s Ram and Shyam over this.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:21 PM
Irons was fantastic recently in Margin Call.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:21 PM
I’d tend to agree on Irons in Dead Ringers, that’s also even otherwise a great Cronenberg movie.
On that note I just saw Cosmopolis at a screening this past weekend and found it disappointing. It’s obviously a literary adaptation but even so it just played like it belonged on the page. Felt similarly about A Dangerous Method even if I far preferred that film to this one.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:19 PM
agreed on both counts.. the thing with the first one even at a more ‘mechanical’ level (and though I do like the film) is that McClane’s extraordinary energy has to always operate in a very compressed set of spaces. This leads to a certain repetition. I even prefer the second one though I can see the argument for why it would seem to be the ‘lesser’ film. In this sense there’s a progression from the first to the third film where so that McClane’s world keeps expanding (from the elevator shaft to some floors in a building to the airport to the entire city!). The fourth was still enjoyable but it didn’t build on the franchise in the same sense. The problem with the current one is how incredibly poor it is in every way. Willis can barely bring himself to breathe in this one! And the script could have been way better for the terrain. Couldn’t believe they did this to the franchise even accepting that sequels are just very stale beyond a point.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:28 PM
That’s a great point, Satyam, and probably as thoughtful an assessment on filmmaking choices of the Die Hard movies as anyone’s ever made! And actually if one wanted to grasp a bit, picking up on your cue, you could say that the franchise, after the city, expanded to a “national” stage (the film takes place in D.C., and even its Bush-era-friendly title, Live Free or Die Hard, seems to telegraph the national perspective) and now this last one is the first time McClane goes international!
At this stage one could probably assume that the next one will be called “Die Hard…in Space”!
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February 18, 2013 at 1:46 PM
LOL on the last bit! But yeah you’re absolutely right about the rest. The Russia bit though with all the Chernobyl stuff really seemed like a throwback. It’s almost as if they polled this movie and decided only older white guys were really interested in this and therefore the Russia deal would work!
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February 18, 2013 at 12:26 PM
The only sequels which IMO have been better than the 1st ones are T- 2, Mad Max 2 and both the Bourne films (and probably Desperado)
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February 18, 2013 at 12:34 PM
If we’re only talking action movies, maybe; if we were to expand things a bit, for one I’d easily take the second Godfather over the first.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:54 PM
I meant the action ones only.
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February 18, 2013 at 12:16 PM
Rana Daggubati, who is usually stays reserve, stunned everyone by taking on Tamil actor Vikram on a social network platform. The lanky lad, in fact, has attacked Vikram for making comments on his filmi career.
When asked why Southern actors don’t venture out into Bollywood, Vikram, in an interview to a National daily, mentioned Rana saying that only actors who don’t have much base in South Indian films would be happily doing Hindi films. He said, “”Look at Rana. He started in the Telugu industry and came to Bollywood but he hadn’t made any headway in the south. Now he’s not bothered about the Telugu industry,” Vikram was quoted as saying.
This irked Rana and the actor gave a befitting reply by tweeting, “Dear Mr.Vikram I see you quote me and my directions in quite a few media interactions of yours recently. It is best if you focus on your…Career that isn’t headed in the right direction with close to 10 odd disasters in your kitty I’m barely 2 1/2yrs old as an actor and…..You are almost close to 25yrs. Stay put on urs as I am on mine 😉 not take anything away still a huge fan of few of your films ;).
Apparently the two actors spoke on the phone and Vikram told Rana that he was misquoted. And all’s fine between the two again. “Spoke to actor Vikram finally, says its a misquote from what he actually said. Glad the air is cleared apologies to him and his fans for my harsh reaction,” wrote Rana. Looks like the boys have made up and hopefully that’s the end of the controversy, for now at least.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/regional/telugu/news-interviews/Rana-says-sorry-to-Vikram/articleshow/18555717.cms
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February 18, 2013 at 1:18 PM
I am glad to be associated with 58th FF awards 😉
http://www.livedesivideo.com/2013/02/58th-idea-filmfare-awards-2013-main.html
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February 18, 2013 at 1:31 PM
Special 26 has now started to fall behindBarfi.
The 2nd weekend isn’t as strong as the latter’s. The upper limit is now 65 crores. That too isn’t guaranteed because Barfi had an extraordinary 3rd week, where it dropped less than 35%
Of course, Barfi had no significant releases to contend with.
Incidentally, since I’ve been looking at some numbers recently (you_can_insert_not_having_a_life_joke_here), Talaash actually trended worse than Dabangg2.
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February 18, 2013 at 4:10 PM
On weekly basis very similar..On weekend basis D2 did better.
ps – Final/week, Final/Weekend.
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February 20, 2013 at 9:42 AM
special 26 is released on 1500 screens,while barfi is relased on
2500 screens.
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February 20, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Barfi released in smaller screen count.
http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/barfi-raaz-3-box-office-collection/1/188165.html
Sp 26 released in 1750 screen count.
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February 20, 2013 at 11:16 AM
this whole print count argument is silly because the idea it rests on is simply ridiculous. Special 26 is somehow just like Barfi if you believe some of the folks here. Gimme a break! This is the move SRK fans used to engage in once upon a time. As long as he did not do his usual stuff any and every film would be called very different and what not. Some even stretched the limits of language and logic to include KANK! Of course the very same folks are otherwise dissing ‘different’ either as pretense (fake films) or as completely regular stuff, sometimes both at one and the same time. The correct definition for Special 26 is meaningful entertainment or sensible commercial cinema. This does not automatically make it this very risky and daring example in ‘different’ cinema. Now Akshay himself probably has a disadvantage doing this inasmuch as his audience only wishes to see him do Houseful! But that’s a different debate. It’s not a limitation of the genre itself. The film is real terms is behind Kahani, all things considered. There’s no excuse for this! of course I don’t find this result greatly surprising but those who insist that every single thing about a film’s gross is only due to the male lead must also accept these less than extraordinary results as also belonging to the same. The genre thing cuts both ways. Sure films like Special 26 normally don’t throw up huge numbers. On the other hand films like Houseful do well with all sorts of stars. So how much should we take away from Akshay’s initial when he attaches himself to an already popular genre?
All of this isn’t an anti-Akshay argument by any means. But it is one against the absurdity of certain claims.
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February 20, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Agreed.
ps – IMO Barfi is rather a conventional heart warming story told in relatively unconvention way for Indian audience.
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February 20, 2013 at 3:01 PM
I don’t know about print counts, they are hard to determine anyway, but Special 26 achieved the same growth as Barfi did in its first weekend. Of course, S26 started off at a much lower number. The first week performance for the 2 films, based on their respective starts, is also very similar.
From the 2nd weekend onwards, S26 has begun to fall behind.
That said, this is all based on numbers from BOI. There’s no guarantee that the numbers themselves are 100% correct.
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February 20, 2013 at 3:23 PM
agreed, the numbers are quite often grossly unreliable on all counts.
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February 20, 2013 at 3:05 PM
“Barfi is rather a conventional heart warming story told in relatively unconvention way for Indian audience…”
Some on this blog couldn’t watch Barfi.
I couldn’t either.
I tried twice.
Both the times, I walked out of ‘theatre’ at the same point in the movie!
Someone else in my family too.
This is rather rare for me. I seldom leave even a boring movie half way. Can’t make out how this movie made 100 crore!!
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February 20, 2013 at 4:46 PM
At what point you walked out? I found the story telling something akin to French or other western movies. In fact, I liked it so much that I went ahead and recommended it on FB. I toned down my praise after knowing that many of the comical scenes (even some normal) were copied. But still the story is original.
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February 18, 2013 at 6:05 PM
Out of Topic:
I did not know in which thread there was discussion/recommendation on ‘House of Cards’ a new series at Netfix..Sorry for plugging my comments here:
Thanks a lot for bringing to our attention..This is very gripping series..Cannot wait to complete it..Wish I had time to complete all the episodes in one sitting..
Awaiting for the debut of ‘Homeland’ in Netflix….:)
BTW any inputs on ‘White Collar’..
I would also recommend the French thriller ‘Sleepless Nights’..One of the best Thrillers I have seen recent times.
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February 18, 2013 at 8:34 PM
the original British series on which this is based is also available on streaming. The US version is just season 1 though.
On Homeland it won’t be available on streaming. Premium channel shows never are. It is of course available on DVD but the wait is enormous.
thanks for the recommendation.
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February 18, 2013 at 9:00 PM
Thanks a lot Satyam..
Satyam, did you get a chance to catch ‘Neeraparavi’..I guess not ,as you might have other things going…I’am huge fan of Mani Sir and ARR..but I feel this time around I feel ‘Neeraparavi’ has been well made compare to ‘Kadal’ ( both the films are based on people living around coasts, Christian community)..Even the music ‘Neeraparavi’ is better..
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February 18, 2013 at 11:57 PM
I haven’t seen either movie, and I do like neeraparvai’s music, but with all due respect it can’t be compared to Kadal’s — this is no put-down, as the former has some very soothing, gentle music, but two or three of Kadal’s songs are outstanding…
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February 19, 2013 at 2:24 AM
Thanks Q. But somehow Kadal’s songs are not growing in me to have them listen tmore often..Probably it maybe because ‘Neeraparavi’ ‘ music is not letting me come out of it..Or maybe I may be overrating that too because I saw this first.
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February 19, 2013 at 6:45 AM
I had marked out the youtube link but it was taken down a day or so after you pointed it out. Will get a DVD on this.
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February 19, 2013 at 1:30 AM
Sleepless Nights is a superb superb film. Infact this one and Raid are 2 of my favourite films from last year
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February 19, 2013 at 2:26 AM
Thanks Saurabh…I’am glad someone has seen this here..The hero in this movie looks and acts like Nana Patekar for me 🙂
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February 19, 2013 at 7:53 PM
Thanks for pointing out SLEEPLESS NIGHTS guys, looks fantastic! Cant wait to see this. Still to see RAID REDEMPTION as well..
Anyone here seen the IP MAN series yet? Anything been written up on it?
Ps: Agree the leading man in SLEEPLESS NIGHTS does remind one somewhat of a younger Nana Patekar (ANKUSH)
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February 19, 2013 at 8:13 PM
Thanks masterpraz. If you like ‘Sleepless Nights’, please also check out ‘POINT BLANK’ another good thriller..Saurabh or anyone here seen it ?
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February 18, 2013 at 7:04 PM
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2013/feb/180213-shot-in-the-dark-mega-star-gets-pricey-to-attend-a-felicitation-ceremony.htm
Mid-day started again rumors against bachchan.Few years ago they floated these kind fof rumors and then bachchfan showed all proofs in his blog and they immediately surrendered to bigb . Some people will never change
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February 18, 2013 at 9:58 PM
Why is Bachchan behaving like this? Why can’t he attaend Yash Chopra’s felicitation who gave him some of his biggest hits? This guy is unbeleivable.
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February 18, 2013 at 10:11 PM
The Chopras want to eat the cake and have it too.
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February 19, 2013 at 12:29 AM
I really doubt this one..this sounds too ‘foolish’ on AB’s part if it is true..and i really cannot associate dumbness with AB. He can make money elsewhere by selling one more product..why does he have to resort to extortion of this kind? As I said, this would be plain dumb on his part..there is a difference between prestige and finance..and I think he understands that..
Anyway, MID-DAY, except for those rare photographs, has gradually deteriorated into a diaper in the name of newspaper..
I would hardly touch it but for the nostalgia of Bombay..
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February 18, 2013 at 8:59 PM
Indian will NEVER produce great movies…
http://dawn.com/2013/02/18/great-cinema-will-emerge-from-pakistan-naseeruddin/
Hopefully there will be few cinema halls in Pakistan that wouldn’t be blown up to screen those great movies..
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February 18, 2013 at 10:10 PM
Naseeruddin Shah issues these sensational statements just to shock. He has become too cynical. Agree that most of the bollywood films are more like cheap dramas than any good cinema but thats how bollywood is surviving. If it produces only meaningful cinema starring Naseeruddin, Shabana, Tabu, then it will go bankrupt and thousands of workers, smalltime artistes who depend for their survival will become unemployed.
Even regional cinema nowadays is following bollywood for its survival. The great bengal supports SRK movies and Vidya’s masala movies. So the entire Indian film industry has become too commercial but why to grudge? At the end of the day it is entertainment catering to the lowest common denominator.
Films for the mediocre, by the mediocre and of the mediocre.
Why to scoff at this scenario? They are atleast feeding many and the government is getting financial benefits by taxing this industry and its people.
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February 19, 2013 at 12:02 AM
Naseer makes a common error: the fact that great art has been produced in societies under great stress does not mean that great suffering and sorrow is a necessary pre-condition for great art. There’s no shortage of great art produced in (at least ostensible) conditions of great material satisfaction and contentment (Marcel Proust, anyone?).
There’s also something almost disgustingly privileged about Naseer’s “we are too fat and contented” — there are plenty of Indians who don’t fall in this category, and many who might make films that draw on all sorts of experiences; perhaps what Naseer means is that because he has become contented and has turned his back on serious cinema, that no serious cinema exists in the country. Then there’s also the question of the privilege to pontificate on what “neighbourhood” countries have been through — if Naseer got his head out of his ass he would see that the “hell” Nepal has been through is pretty much the sort of “hell” that has engulfed Chattisgarh and other Naxalites-affected areas for years. Will we be seeing great films from Kashmir, the North-East as well, or are they examples of fat contentment? Bangladesh’s genocide/killing fields were 40 years ago, where are the great films? This whole calculus, of “you’ve been through hell, but hey there’s art” is more than a little obscene, because such pronouncements betray the privilege of the podium from which they are uttered…
To be fair, this is also one of those quick and dirty interviews, and it isn’t clear to me what else he might have said.
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February 19, 2013 at 12:05 AM
Aside: while I’m sort of glad khuda ke liye was made, it is a thoroughly overrated film, and panders to the self-image of Pakistan’s urban elites, as many “political” films in India do as well… The notion that it is some kind of classic is ridiculous. Khamosh Pani is superior…
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February 19, 2013 at 12:35 AM
Completely agree with everything Q bhai..I think he is these days just talking out of the necessity of exercising his mouth.
Even a person like Kashyap has gone from tom-tomming ‘our cinema is immature, our media is immature, our artists are immature’, to, ‘We need a Rowdy Rathore so that the money generated from it can be channeled to film-makers like us who can then make GOW..’
Wonder when our Naseer bhai will reciprocate..he needs to really get out of the complex that he could never be a box-office/critical force jointly a la Bachchan..I think then he will start making coherent statements..
On KKL, I agree that it is truly over-rated..it was like everybody was hell-bent on raising it to sky-heights..KHAMOSH PANI..as you said, is miles ahead of this one..
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February 19, 2013 at 1:11 AM
Superbly said Q. Completely agreed. I also think that Naseer is somewhere lamenting the fact that he ‘himself’ has not been part of too many ‘truly great films’ (which is different from a ‘classic’ or a ‘pathbreaking’ film). IMO the only 2 such entries in his filmography are Aakrosh and Sparsh (which to my mind are one of Hindi Art Cinema’s 3 greatest films- the other being Ankur which was slightly superior to the former 2. And Naseer’s performane in the 2 films are as good as any performance I have ever seen anywhere in the world) . Having said that he has been in a number of very important films. And I also do not have a problem if someone calls him a better actor than AB even if I would never agree to it. I find him much superior to Dilip Kumar and after AB he alongwith Sanjeev and Balraj Sahni would be on my list of the greatest bollywood ‘actors’ (I am also tempted to put Motilal and Anant Nag somewhere but both of them have not done even Hindi films)
I must also say that I find one of Nasser’s older comment- where he said that Bachchan is a great actor but he does not have a single important film- truly bewildering (though an average actor can be a part of a great film). I don’t think it’s at all possible that one can be a ‘great’ actor without acting in an important film. And I do not If Bachchan would only have done Kaaliya he would never be considered to have such pedigree as an actor. Because finally an actor is as good as the film is.
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February 19, 2013 at 3:07 AM
It is possible to be a great actor with not a single important film. Important film differs from person to person and relative. While Mother India is an important film for many, for me it is nothing but too dramatic. And so are many films touted to be important and even Pather Panchali is not everybody’s cup of coffee or tea.
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February 19, 2013 at 3:21 AM
I feel cinema is not pure art like writing a book. Films have limited hours to say what it wants if at all it wants to tell something and is constrained by so many factors. While books have no such limitation.
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February 19, 2013 at 4:36 AM
Re: “Films have limited hours to say what it wants if at all it wants to tell something and is constrained by so many factors. While books have no such limitation.”
I agree that writing is a solitary art (whereas theater or film depends on the collaboration of many different people from different disciplines), but writing faces its own constraints: when talking about print magazines, the constraints of space and advertising, limiting what can be said and how long one can say it for, are huge. Even where books are concerned, remember these need publishers, and most major publishers will tell you that in essence, popular books like the latest thriller or airport novel essentially subsidizes literary fiction and other high-brow genres — these days of course one can easily self-publish at little cost, but again, if you want to get noticed, some amount of marketing expenditure would be essential (sure, the odd self-published book will become a runaway bestseller, but that’s akin to buying a lottery ticket). I do feel writing is more “free” than cinema — even if no-one publishes me, they can’t stop me from writing something, whereas I can’t make a film by myself in my room — but I think there are a lot of similar constraints too…
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February 19, 2013 at 4:57 AM
Reading a book is a solitary exercise while watching a good movie in a theatre is not. We are disturbed if a child cries, persons eating popcorn, mobile ringing and other such factors.
When a famous novel is filmed, some are happy and some are not. Gone with the Wind, Godfather series comes to mind and also Guide by Dev Anand and those Saratchndra’s novels.
Naseer talks of collective suffering which is not always correct. A work of art is more a product of individual suffering(a director’s take or at script level) if suffering is taken as criteria for a great work of art. An individual can suffer a great deal at personal level even if the country is prosperous and happy.
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February 19, 2013 at 4:59 AM
Re: “An individual can suffer a great deal at personal level even if the country is prosperous and happy.”
A great point, sanjana, very well said.
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February 19, 2013 at 6:53 AM
You only have to look to Iran to validate what he is saying.
P.S. haven’t read Naseer’s interview yet
P.S1. Naseer has gone patronizing mode because his play was well received in Pakistan and he is planning to go there every year
P.S2. Why is indian cinema so overwhelmingly dominated by Muslims (talking abt ratio)? Maybe repression does cause some sort of artist to come out? Or is it just majboori?
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February 19, 2013 at 7:01 AM
Because they have exceptional charm and talent too. Relatively speaking.
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February 19, 2013 at 7:35 AM
wow..we need to convert the rest…so they can develop charm and talent….roflol
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February 19, 2013 at 7:52 AM
You only have to look at North Korea to refute what he is saying. One could keep going back and forth for ever 🙂
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February 19, 2013 at 9:13 AM
You are so filmy! So much drama saberey-saberey. You will execute poor Naseer for sneezing. What is he to say? In a interview with Paki press? That he is out there to represent India and show the pakis that they are artless, tasteless bunch of bigoted race! lolz
North Korea…some sort of revolution will happen….then loads of films/film-makers will come out of closets and make movies…hopefully in our life time.
Aside: I don’t mind “back and forth”…lolz…I could put poor alex to shame this morning.
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February 19, 2013 at 8:29 AM
In very many countries, “minorities” of different kinds seem to be over-represented in film/entertainment (in the Hollywood “founding” moment in the early decades of the twentieth century, there were a disproportionate number of Jewish artistes; obviously African-Americans in the entertainment industry later)…
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February 19, 2013 at 9:15 AM
Jews, blacks…you said it! You only have to look at their combined histories to find the answers! Chalo…chor ki dhadhi may tinka types. You only are out there to get Poor Naseer. He is only an artist (not some politician). Don’t be so harsh on him Maybe go after SRK for a change 🙂
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February 19, 2013 at 12:10 PM
Yeah, going after SRK — now that WOULD be a departure for me, wouldn’t it…
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February 19, 2013 at 12:11 PM
LOL!
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February 19, 2013 at 4:28 AM
Special 26 has done well in Mysore, it is probably the only circuit out of the ones sold where the distributor will make money and the film should do a distributor share in the 1.75-2 crore range. The daily collections in Mysore till date are as follows.
Friday – 27,00,000
Saturday – 47,00,000
Sunday – 54,00,000
FIRST WEEKEND – 1,28,00,000
Monday – 19,00,000
Tuesday – 18,00,000
Wednesday – 18,00,000
Thursday – 20,00,000
WEEK ONE – 2,03,00,000
Friday – 18,00,000
Saturday – 34,00,000
Sunday – 35,00,000
SECOND WEEKEND – 87,00,000 (Drop – 32.03%)
BOI
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February 19, 2013 at 4:32 AM
Prabhu Deva’s ABCD – Any Body Can Dance notched up exciting numbers on a strong showing at the multiplex screens in its 2nd weekend at the Domestic Box Office.
After collecting 5 crores nett on its 2nd Friday and 2nd Saturday, ABCD added more 4 crores in its kitty on its 2nd Sunday. ABCD’s 2nd weekend total now stands at 9 crores nett, that takes its India Box Office Total to 41 crores.
This Remo D’Souza flick has done extraordinarily well on word of mouth publicity and is expected to hold well through its 2nd week.
By now, the movie can be termed as Super-hit in terms of Return on Investment.
Mukul tweets @mksmukulsharma
koimoi
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February 19, 2013 at 9:14 AM
for the P.K. Post:
http://www.naachgaana.com/2013/02/17/pk-photos-aamir-khan-in-paheli-look/
(looks like NG has more enthu. aamir-fans 🙂 they are fast in updates atleast)
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February 19, 2013 at 9:43 AM
http://www.india-forums.com/bollywood/hot-n-happening/31054-the-attacks-of-2611-cleared-without-cuts.htm
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma’s new film “The Attacks of 26/11” has been passed by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) without any cuts, but with an ‘Adults Only’ certificate.
“He expected an ‘A’ certificate because of the nature of the content. But the fact that not a single shot was found to be objectionable only vindicates the stand Ramu had taken when he was attacked for making the film. He didn’t make this film to sensationalise the issue,” said a friend of Varma.
And now he awaits the release of the film March 1 with fingers crossed. The film is based on the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks of 2008, which took 166 lives.
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February 19, 2013 at 10:23 AM
Shekhar Kapur liked it.
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who recently watched Ram Gopal Varma’s new film The Attacks Of 26/11, was moved after watching the film.
‘Tonight is gonna b a tough night 2 sleep. Just came out of a screening of Ram Gopal Varma’s film on 26/11,’ he updated.
‘Every1 will have a deeply personal reaction 2 Ram Gopal Varma’s film on 26/11, but it left me haunted by d ghosts of those fateful days,’ he added.
Starring Nana Patekar and Sanjeev Jaiswal, the film releases on March 1.
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February 19, 2013 at 2:07 PM
Good that the censor has passed it without a cut..but I hope it is not for the following wrong reasons..
a) RGV’s camera angles so shocked the censor board members that everyone suffered from nausea and to get out of it, they passed the film with no cuts in a bit to have their revenge on the public that makes them see such movies before vetting them
b) The movie is so confusing that they figured the public would forget the real attacks’ wounds and start focusing on the real terror: that of watching RGV go wild and reach his nadir!! They might forget India being a soft target and wonder why RGV is such a hard target in spite of taking the longest time by any film-maker to get back to form!!
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February 19, 2013 at 2:26 PM
haha. When I read that Shekhar Kapoor could not sleep after watching the movie, I felt sorry for him. How can anyone sleep after watching RGV’s film? Incidentally he also mentioned about ghosts or bhoots.
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February 19, 2013 at 2:39 PM
The movie that will surprise this year will be AK’s KPC 🙂
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February 19, 2013 at 2:55 PM
Total Film reviews GoW:
http://m.totalfilm.com/reviews/cinema/gangs-of-wasseypur-part-1
Total Film, btw, is the second biggest film magazine in the UK, after Empire.
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February 19, 2013 at 7:54 PM
There’s barely 2 lines there? Please don’t tell me thats the whole “review”?
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February 20, 2013 at 2:56 PM
From Wikipedia: (I’ve highlighted the relevant portion)
The main cinema reviews section, with every new movie for that month reviewed and rated. Major releases receive comprehensive coverage, with a star rating out of five, the magazine’s own Predicted Interest Curve — a graph that demonstrates which moments of a film are likely to hold the viewer’s attention and a short Verdict. Also briefly listed are similar recommendations under See this if you liked… Smaller films receive a concise review and rating. The end of the section is devoted to the current U.S. and UK box office charts, an irreverent flashback to an old issue and summaries of any films that were not shown to journalists in time for that month’s print deadline.
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February 20, 2013 at 2:57 PM
GoW part 1 is releasing in the UK, this Friday.
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February 20, 2013 at 12:56 AM
Race 2 is declared semi hit by BOI.
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February 20, 2013 at 2:56 AM
So the more friendly Race 2 and the grim Talaash are in the same boat namely semi hit.
Special Chabbis may get above average tag and ABCD hit status.
Now the next big filom to be hyped will be Himmatwala.
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February 20, 2013 at 8:01 AM
I read somewhere that some South Korean producer wants to remake ABCD with gangnam star. Atlast bollywood also inspires some phoren film maker. Step in ABCD and gangnam a full circle.
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February 20, 2013 at 9:37 AM
you are still quoting boi’s verdicts?on talaash you were giving taran adarsh numbers.
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February 20, 2013 at 10:23 AM
This is what Hi fi is tweeting about KAI PO CHE..don’t know whether it is ‘scratch my back and I will scratch yours’ or a true reflection..
anyway, my money is NOT going to chetan bhagmat any longer..3 idiots was the last straw..
BTW, Abhishek Kapoor and Aftab have HOTTTT women on their arms..as Terylene said in AGNEEPATH , ‘lucky bastards..’
Here’s what your favourtie Bollywood celebrities are tweeting.
Bollywood stars, who attended the screening of Abhishek Kapoor’s new film Kai Po Che, showered praise on the movie on Twitter. Here’s what they said:
Arshad Warsi: ‘Depth, substance, human relations, dreams n much more. Great performances, brilliant direction, stunning cinematography thats “KAI PO CHE”‘
Roshan Abbas: ‘Kai Poche!! Leaves u speechless ! Do yourself a favour Watch it. @abhishekkapoor does a stellar job as director. One film abt which every tweet is the honest truth. Sensitive, subtle, soulful.’
Maryam Zakaria: ‘#KaiPoChe really nice and emotionally touching movie. Brilliant work by @Abhishekapoor n every single actor in the film. A must watch film!’
Monica Dogra: ‘Kai Po Che. Woooowwwww. How beautiful. #KaiPoChe @_Amrita_Puri – see this film. @swanandkirkire and amit trivedi. What a fine job all!’
Shruti Seth: ‘Please watch Kai Po Che. Sensitive & soulful. Impeccable job by director @abhishekkapoor, his cast and crew. New actors to watch out for.’
Salim Merchant: ‘Just watched kai po che…brilliant film’
Hansal Mehta: ‘Kaipoche is a deceptively simple & very well executed film. Made with a lot of heart by @Abhishekapoor and well cast, well acted, well shot.’
Mini Mathur: ‘Kai po che is a beautifully crafted film. Sensitive & engaging..with a brilliant young cast & Amit Trivedi’s evocative music. Don’t miss it.’
Sujoy Ghosh: ‘i dont know who hitesh soni is but dude.. tu sher hai.. the bgm of Kai Po Che is one of the best i have heard in a long time. clap clap and Raj Kumar Yadav in kai po che is superb. that boy is so good.. and one actor called manav kaul. spot on casting. brilliant acting.’
Kabir Khan: ‘When you wake up & last nights film is still running in your head… You know the film has touched you deeply…. KAI PO CHE…’
Huma Qureshi: ‘How amazing was #KaiPoChe.. Faab Sushant, @raj_kumar31 @TheAmitSadh ..take a bow @Abhishekapoor. Must watch! Honest. Real.’
Shrishti Arya: ‘#kaipoche what a wonderful film! Stayed in my mind since the screening… Haunting me… Good luck @Abhishekapoor: and more power to team UTV for backing a vision and not a proposal.’
Neha Dhupia: ‘#KaiPoChe is simply outstanding. Congratulations @chetan_bhagat @_Amrita_Puri @Abhishekapoor and team #KaiPoChe. This ones a must watch.’
Shraddha Kapoor: ‘Saw #KaiPoChe last night. Still reeling from it. Beautiful film.. amazing performances @Abhishekapoor.’
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February 20, 2013 at 7:25 PM
Kai Po Che has three elaborate set-pieces: the Ahmedabad earthquake, the religious riots, and a cricket match between India and Australia that lasted five days. Intriguingly, the film depicts these through the eyes of Ishaan, Govind and Omi, and Ishaan’s protégé Ali (Digvijay Deshmukh), a young Muslim cricket prodigy. As a result, Kapoor could avoid relying on special effects.
“This film is not about special effects,” he insists. “It’s about the characters and how they feel. In fact, we had two big shots of the earthquake, one of a bridge collapsing. But suddenly the attention was drawn away from Govind to look at effects. And I didn’t want to break away from his emotion.”
Similarly, Kapoor tried to show the riots between Hindus and Muslims through Omi’s eyes, believing that the fighting—which included a train bombing and knife fights—had been covered extensively in the media.
Recreating the riots involved genuine risk. “This is still a very sensitive topic in India,” Kapoor explains. “We’re shooting on a real location, on a Hindu street that we dressed to look like a Muslim one. The locals were really upset. We had to calm them down and then shoot as fast as we could because we didn’t want it to get out of control
http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and-features/features/movies/e3if2f3d5ee558c348ecf74286585077656
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February 21, 2013 at 5:30 AM
First images from Ketan Mehta’s biopic ‘Mountain Man’ starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui-
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February 21, 2013 at 6:21 AM
Big B allows Anurag to shoot in his bungalow
By Bollywood Hungama News Network, Feb 21, 2013 – 13:54 hrs IST
#
In a first of its kind, Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic bungalow Prateeksha will be given out for a film shoot. The film in question is Anurag Kashyap’s short film that is a part of ‘Bombay Talkies’- a special film presentation celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema.
Kashyap’s short film deals with a die-hard Bachchan fan who travels all the way from Allahabad to Mumbai to fulfill his dying mother’s last wish of feeding the Superstar home-made murabba (sweet pickle). This is the first time an actual shoot would take place inside Big B’s iconic bungalow. The short film will feature the bungalow’s porch, drive-way and main reception area.
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February 21, 2013 at 7:52 PM
Satyam do you have an email address I can contact you on?
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February 21, 2013 at 9:10 PM
the one you’ve used before is still fine..
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February 21, 2013 at 7:13 AM
Superb interview of Tigmanshu Dhulia-
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February 21, 2013 at 9:34 AM
Sanjana:
OTT
Two powerful bombs ripped through a market place in Hyderabad on Thursday evening killing seven and injuring up to fifty people as per initial reports.
The blasts took near a bus stand in the Dilsukh Nagar area. The area is a busy and crowded part of the city.
Intelligence Bureau told Times Now that they are not ruling out any possibilities.
The injured have been rushed to nearby hospitals.
TOI
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February 21, 2013 at 11:39 AM
Whenever we think something hasn’t happened and probably things are better, we have one of these.
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February 21, 2013 at 12:29 PM
Extremely sad!
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February 21, 2013 at 4:16 PM
The mofos responsible for this should be found and dealt with in the strictest fashion and without waiting. And,anybody/country behind them.
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February 21, 2013 at 4:18 PM
Agreed Rajen, Also Not sure, but Satyam sir you do seem to be from that part of the world ( I think) Hope your family and loved ones are safe and that goes to all the friends here who’s family is from there.
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February 21, 2013 at 6:16 PM
don’t really have any contacts there at present but do know a few friends here with families there.. hope all’s well with anyone who visits the blog and either lives there or has family/friends there. thanks for your thought..
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February 21, 2013 at 7:36 PM
Satyam sir is from God’s own country (and god here is not AB ) 🙂
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February 21, 2013 at 7:43 PM
Not from that country of God either!
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February 21, 2013 at 6:05 PM
Hmmm agree!!
Where are the ‘secularists’ ??
Why are they quiet!?
Just read the news–
“the immediate provocation can be the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru ”
Now what’s surprising, even shocking is that why is there so much ‘support’ for someone who had attacked the parliament of a country?
Ad this doesn’t even have fringe support but mainstream support !!
Can someone explain why the indian govt had to be so apologetic and defensive about hanging them?–maybe I’m missing something…
Btw hope Satyam and his family are safe..even gf’s
Also suspect sanju, Ann jo &/or sm are from there…
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February 21, 2013 at 11:59 PM
Naah I am from Bombay..I think I will be protected by
Salman Dabaang Khan..when he is not driving his BMW I mean…
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February 22, 2013 at 2:10 AM
Comment of the day.
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February 22, 2013 at 2:17 AM
off-topic: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004292/?ref_=tt_ov_dr
I was stunned to see RK’s filmography as a director – 9 out 10 were BO hits and the 10th one is “Mera Naam Joker”!!!!! he truly was a legend. His first film was directed in 1948 and the last in 1985!!! in 37 years – only 10 directions but how good!!! in between many movies an actor and 17 as producer
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February 22, 2013 at 3:17 AM
That is truly an incredible record. Having said that Manmohan Desai had 4 superhits in a single year- AAA, Parvarish, Chacha Bhatija and Dharam Veer.
And one should also spare a thought for Rajamouli- 11 films, 11 hits- Amazing
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February 22, 2013 at 5:51 AM
he had four in a row but Parvarish didn’t release in the same year as the other three. This sequence though constitutes the greatest commercial feat of Indian cinema and actually any other cinema I am aware of. All four multistarrers with a huge number of actors when you include all the parts. To be able to do all of these at the same time (even Parvarish overlapped with some of the others in terms of the shoot and/or post-production) is miraculous! But Desai hardly had failures in a 25 year or more career.
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