Race 2 Movie Poster                                          Cocktail Movie Poster

Eventually, the film now stands at 75 crores in one week which is a huge number by all standards. Let’s not forget that the film’s promotion hadn’t quite hit the roof, music was released only digitally (which did lead to lesser visibility and popularity) and the end product by itself wasn’t any great shakes. Still, it is due to good credentials attached to this Abbas-Mustan directed flick that resulted in a big number like this being achieved.

The film has now almost equated the lifetime collections of Saif Ali Khan’s Cocktail (76 crores) in one week itself. At the time of this piece going Live, Saif Ali Khan would have enjoyed his biggest money-spinner till date. It’s a wait and watch game to see how close does it come to the 100 crore mark. As things stand today, it should be touch and go. For John Abraham though, this would be his second highest grosser after Housefull 2 (114 crores). As for Deepika Padukone, the film is now all set to be her biggest success ever, hence beating the collections of Om Shanti Om (80 crores), which was ironically her first film.

For his second film Akaash Vani, director Luv Ranjan didn’t enjoy any such luck as there were hardly any collections to boast about. With collections reading a mere lakhs on a daily basis, this Kartik Tiwari-Nushrat Bharucha film has turned out to be an unfortunate disaster at the box office. Ditto for Main Krishna Hoon which had just seen a formality release and came with no chances whatsoever to begin with.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Race 2 Movie Poster

Standing at around 51.30 crores in just the opening weekend, the film is just a little lower than what Cocktail had managed in its entire week (55 crores). For John Abraham too, the film is all set to record the highest first week collection ever since his last biggie was Housefull 2 that had managed 63 crores in it’s opening week. As for Abbas-Mustan, the film’s superb opening has pretty much wiped the disappointment that had come exactly a year back in the form of Players. They have proved their stranglehold yet again over the medium of making slick movies and can be expected to make more films belonging to this genre.

While this huge opening should account for a good distance being covered towards the 100 crore milestone for the film, it has to be mentioned that as a final product, Race 2 did leave a little more to be desired at the least, if not a lot. Race was a much superior product in terms of the script and overall narrative and how one wishes that if only Race 2 would have maintained similar product quality, it could have covered a much larger distance in the final tally.

Akaash Vani Movie Poster

Unfortunately for Akaash Vani though there was not even a little distance covered as the film sunk without a trace. As highlighted in this column last week, everything depended on the word of mouth for the film’s eventual fortunes. However even for that the bare minimum requirement was for the film to be seen by a select few at the least, something that had made Pyaar Ka Punchnama a success in a long run. However none of that happened as the opening was dismal with negligible collections coming in.

The film was crushed by Race 2 onslaught and got totally sidelined despite boasting of some good moments. In fact its reviews too were decent to good with Nushrat Bharucha in particular fetching some good response for her performance. However that won’t quite count in the eventual outcome, at least as far as the theatrical run is concerned, since there is hardly any space for the film to find itself on stable grounds, courtesy onslaught of newer releases starting next week.

As for the third release of the week, Main Krishna Hoon, it went completely unnoticed as it wasn’t even reviewed by critics, leave aside being seen by the audience.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Akaash Vani Movie Poster

Rating: 2.5/5

Star cast: Nushrat Bharucha, Kartik Tiwari, Kiran Kumar, Fatima Sana Shaikh.

What’s Good: The fuzzy and the feel good romance is bound to soothe your soul.

What’s Bad: A rather clichéd and already seen story which drags long enough to test your patience.

Loo break: Immediately post-interval. You almost wish the interval hadn’t ended. And if you are a free spirited woman, I strongly recommend you to carry an analgesic.

Watch or Not?: If Sleepless in Seattle is the kind of film that wrenches your heart, Akash Vani is worth a shot!

User Rating:

When Luv Ranjan’s Pyaar Ka Punchnama released, it worked for its sarcastically and wittedly told story. I remember walking out of the hall, still laughing at Kartik Tiwari’s awesome 5 minutes of comical yet stellar women bashing! Ranjan comes back this time to narrate a diametrically opposite story. Akash Vani is all about college romance forced by circumstances to remain unrequited and is wound up quite shabbily in the climax.

A simple, homely girl-next-door Vani begins her journey at St Stephen’s College Delhi. There she meets Chandigarh ka rustic lad Akaash. Intense sparks clearly ignite between them quite early. A large part of the film’s first half focuses on Akaash and Vani romancing their way through English Honours classes at St Stephen’s Delhi, or while their hands are folded in prayer at Bangla Saheb and also in the dusty nooks and corners of Parathewali Gully. They are intimately in love, dating each other over midnight maggi, sweet shayari and ek pyaali chai. The typical of Sarson ke khet da pyaar sliced straight out DDLJ and Manali’s snow just adds a greater adorable charm to their teenage romance.

As college ends, and the two move into their separate walks of life, they briefly engage in a long distance relationship. While Akaash goes away to UK to pursue higher education, Vani is entrapped in a family crisis which forces her to end her four year long relationship with Akaash and marry the groom her father chooses for her. Akaash unable to gauge Vani’s helplessness and disgusted with her betrayal shuns their prized relationship unquestioningly, sulking in his male ego.

While Vani battles her pitiful marriage to a Satan like man, destiny decides to give Akaash and Vani another chance by getting them together again. Will Vani stand up for the man she loves against her family? And will Akaash fight to win back the love of his life?

Nushrat Bharucha and Kartik Tiwari (Akaash Vani Movie Stills)

Akaash Vani Review: Script Analysis

While expectations are sky rocketing high from Luv Ranjan, his story was clearly disappointing. The film which was directed towards the younger faction of the audience will surely not be able to please them, at least the urban audience. While the romance of Akaash and Vaani is quite impressionable, it is hard to buy that a girl educated at India’s one of the most premier colleges acts so dim wittedly. It is almost a blemish on the name of Stephen’s that they could not educate their students aptly to learn the most important value of self respect, which is factually incorrect. When Vani’s elder sister elopes to marry a man outside her caste, Vani almost acts like a martyr and marries the man her father chooses ending her four year long relationship with Akaash over a phone call. Even if you do manage to digest the break up, it is impossible to believe a 21^st century woman marrying a man without getting to know him at all.

What follows is even more offensive! A young educated woman shrinks into the roles of a maid and a whore so numbly while her husband picks up every opportunity to fight with her and makes up by unreciprocated, thrust-on-her kind of sex night after night. Her docility will boil you up again and again. While as a woman, I was deeply insulted by such an archaic depiction of women, it must really anger the dignity of men to see them being depicted as nothing short of being barbaric and sex-hungry creatures.

While the ending does show a more emancipated versions of the characters which you have been looking for a long time, the story fails you for its own large and unbelievable loopholes. The runtime of the film makes you weary, wishing it would end soon.

Akaash Vani Review: Star Performances

Luv Ranjan did cast smartly for his film. Despite a terribly edited film, with a script full of loopholes, I salute Nushrat and Kartik. Their on screen chemistry makes the characters believable. Their romance is full of naïve-ness and yet possesses the strength to last beyond imposing social institutions, time and distance. The film is their story and they wonderfully lend to each scene an enthralling chemistry. The one scene towards the climax where Nushrat and Kartik break down at a station speaks volumes of their impeccable sense of timing at emoting right and their neat execution of feelings which they are meant to portray. At no point do they fail to live up to their roles, neither do they over do the melodrama keeping it just rightly blended. Despite a script, that could have been much better, Nushrat and Kartik are certainly the working wheels of this film and both deliver a spectacular performance in their own right.

Akaash Vani Review: Direction, Music & Technical Aspects

Luv Ranjan’s work is however disappointing. From the man who made Pyaar Ka Punchnama, Akaash Vani doesn’t match up to the stature he had created for himself. The fresh music however does its best to make up for the lazy editing that added greater suffering to both the film’s fate and the audiences.

The tracks enmesh well with the youthful romance in the film. The lyrics of each song are wisely penned down and reflect the wit of Luv Ranjan. The tracks obviously reflect the higher octaves of romance quotient which makes the music of the film extremely endearing. Shafqat Amanat Ali’s Tera Mera Naam is the most prized package of the film’s music. Shot at picturesque locations, be it the bright yellow mustard fields of Punjab or the white snow capped hills of Manali, the film emits various hues and shades of  myriad colors associated classically with love and adds on to the romantic feel of the film.

Akaash Vani Review: The Last Word

The film makes for a decent one time watch. Watch it just for the beautiful and enchanting chemistry of Nushrat and Kartik! A double thumbs up to the duo.

Akaash Vani Trailer

Akaash Vani released on 25th January, 2013.

Share with us your experience of watching Akaash Vani.

Let us first take a look in the past. Exactly a year back when Agneepath had released on the Republic Day weekend, it had created a new opening day record (23 crores) while eclipsing the earlier record set by Bodyguard. Moreover, it had gone on to accumulate over 67 crores at the box office in its extended four day weekend. Since Race 2 has only a three day weekend for itself and Republic Day too falls on a Saturday, one can’t expect the film to come anywhere close to Agneepath numbers.

Race 2 and Akaash Vani Movie Poster

However it did have good chances to come somewhere close to these numbers, given it’s cast, canvas, setting, good music and most importantly the sequel factor. Surprisingly though, the kind of hype and buzz is not quite in line with the inherent merits that the film carries. Of course it’s the content that would have the biggest role to play in the eventual outcome of the film but from the opening numbers perspective, the film could have gathered much stronger steam.

This means that the film’s opening can be expected to be good, if not great. Since Race 2 would be seeing a massive release for itself, one can expect collections in the range of 60%-70% with premium multiplexes fetching higher numbers. Needless to say, the film is also all set to earn Saif Ali Khan his best opening till date and also present him his real chance to step into the 100 crore club.

Another release of the week is AkaashVani and though by the face of it, the film looks like yet another light hearted movie in the offering by director Luv Ranjan (of Pyaar Ka Punchnama fame), competition from Race 2 would have a role to play in it’s opening. One can just hope that just like Pyaar Ka Punchnama, this one too catches well on the word of mouth and finds its audience.

There is also the much delayed Main Krishna Hoon releasing this weekend. However despite cameos by Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, it doesn’t stand a chance at the box office.

Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder

Kartik Tiwari

Good things are happening to Kartik Tiwari – his second feature film Akaash Vani is coming out on Friday and Subhash Ghai has finalised him as the male lead of his new film “Kaanchi”, in which a Bengali girl will play the title role.

The girl is from Ghai’s acting school Whistling Woods.

Ghai, who turns 68 Thursday, said: “After nine months of hunt I have finalised the hero and the heroine of my film Kaanchi. The hero is Kartik Tiwari and a new girl from West Bengal, who is under training at Whistling Woods and Mukta Arts, plays the heroine. Rishi Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty play stellar roles in the film.”

Ghai is also excited about the music of Kaanchi.

“I have recorded three songs (composed) by Ismail Darbar and penned by Irshad Kamil. I am too excited about going on the sets in February. It is such a fabulous script with brilliant characters and great music,” said the filmmaker.

Kaanchi will release during the same week when Ghai’s Karma was released in 1986.

” Kaanchi will release on August 15, 2013. Just wait and watch Kaanchi.”

While details of the film’s plot are elusive, one learns that “Kaanchi” is akin to Raj Kapoor’s “Ram Teri Ganga Maili”. It’s an epic journey of a simple innocent girl into a world of corruption and heartbreak.

Kartik Tiwari sounded understandably excited by the big break.

“Every newcomer dreams of working with Mr. Subhash Ghai. I am two films old. My second film ‘Akaash Vani’ will release in two days. I am excited. And now to be a part of a film directed by Subhashji just makes the picture complete,” said Kartik, who debuted with 2011 movie Pyaar Ka Punchnama

It took the 24-year-old nearly two years to find his bearings in Bollywood.

“To be honest, there was no long line of producers at my door even after the good response to ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’,” said the youngster and gives credit to his director Luv Ranjan for not letting him sign “wrong films”.

“I could have easily done that since I’m not from the film industry and have no idea of the right and wrong moves. Because I held back, I am today doing a Subhash Ghai film. I can’t wait to start ‘Kanchi’,” says the newbie who admits he’s single in spite of a huge fan-following among girls.

“I had a girlfriend. She left me when I became an actor. She couldn’t bear to see me romance another girl on screen. Hopefully, after the release of ‘Akaash Vani’, I’ll find a girl to romance for real.”

Sequel to the 2008 film, Race, Abbas-Mustan directed Race 2, a sleek action film, is set in the exotic locales in Europe, with the backdrop of casinos and gambling. The thriller that takes the legacy of Race forward claims to be an edge-of-the-seat drama with high octane action, combined with twists that will take audiences on adventure-filled roller coaster ride.

Race 2 Movie Poster

In part two, Anil Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan reprise their roles as Robert D’Costa and Ranveer Singh respectively from the previous film, while Deepika Padukone, John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel are new additions to the cast. Actress Bipasha Basu will reprise her role of Sonia in a special appearance in the film.

After the action and thrill of Race 2, next on the list is director Luv Ranjan’s romantic offering – Akaash Vani, about two youngsters – Akaash, played by Kartik Tiwari, and Vani, played by Nushrat Bharucha.

Akaash Vani Movie Poster

Both of them set out on their journey with a common destination – St. Stephen’s College in Delhi University. The moment they meet, their life takes an unusual turn. Vani has a calming affect on Akaash, who in return instills a bit of a rebellious streak in her. In three years, Akaash and Vani become best buddies. But as the college ends, they have to part ways.

The film, produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak under the banner Wide Frame Pictures, is the journey of their struggle to find each other again.

This week the children will have something to look forward too. Main Krishna Hoon, a 3D-animation film featuring actress Juhi Chawla, who plays Kantaben in it, is coming out too.

Main Krishna Hoon Movie Poster

In the film, Juhi runs an orphanage. She is impressed by a boy who arrives at the orphanage, braving the rain and the flood. His perseverance inspires her to name him as boy Krishna. He is unhappy being alone in an orphanage and has a health disorder. To wipe away his tears and entertain the other children, Kantaben tells them inspiring stories about the naughty and loveable Lord Krishna.

The film, directed by Rajiv S. Ruia, also has Katrina Kaif, Hrithik Roshan and Rajneesh Duggal in cameos.

Nushrat Bharucha

Actress Nushrat Bharucha of Pyaar Ka Punchnama (PKP) fame, says she and her co-star Kartik Tiwari, both had to shed all colours of PKP for their upcoming film Akaash Vani.

PKP had got so “ingrained” in them that they had to “take it out and then enter this film,” Nushrat said here Monday at a promotional event for the movie.

“More than efforts, it needed time and we had committed as much time to Luv sir (director Luv Ranjan) as needed,” she added.

PKP saw Kartik as Rajat aka Rajjo while Nushrat played his nagging girlfriend Neha.

“(We said) Take as much time as you want, but let’s make the right film. It should not make people say that she is same as Neha and he is the same Rajjo,” she added.

And Kartik too feels that their characters are very different from what they played in Pyaar Ka Punchnama.

“Her character Vaani and mine Akaash are very different from Neha and Rajjo. My character is very shameless, hers is very sweet. (In PKP) Neha was bitchy and Rajjo was an easy going boy,” Kartik said.

Akaash Vani hits the theatres Friday.

Kartik Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha in a still from Akaash Vani Movie

Akaash Vani releases 18th January 2013.

Nushrat Bharucha and Kartik Tiwari in Bas Main Aur Tu Song in Akaash Vani Movie Stills

Akaash Vani releases 18th January 2013.

Kartik Tiwari

Remember lean-framed cute looking boy Kartik Tiwari from Pyaar Ka Punchnama? He was asked to beef-up for his role in the forthcoming film Akaash Vani and the vegetarian actor devoured as many as 25 eggs a day to gain weight.

He had six to eight months to pump up for the film and if a source is to be believed, it was not an easy task as he had to gain quite a good amount of weight while still looking fit.

“Kartik, a vegetarian, is used to eating eggs once in a while. But when it came to gaining a little more weight for the film, he had to eat approximately 25 eggs a day,” said the source.

“Initially, it was difficult for Kartik to eat so many eggs, but with sheer determination he made sure that he achieved his target. His daily routine included 12 eggs in the morning, six to seven for lunch and the rest for dinner. Although he ate them in different forms, it was quite a task to pull it off,” the source added.

Co-produced by Kumar Mangat Pathak and Abhishek Pathak, Akaash Vani, directed by Luv Ranjan, is slated to release Jan 18.

In the film, Kartik will be seen romancing his Pyaar Ka Punchnama co-star Nushrat Bharucha.

Enjoy the song right here:

Kartik Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha in Rumani Song in Akaash Vani Movie Stills

Directed by Luv Ranjan, Akaash Vani is slated to release on 18th January, 2013.

Enjoy the song right here:

Kartik Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha in Crazy Lover Song in Akaash Vani Movie Stills

Directed by Luv Ranjan, Akaash Vani is slated to release on 18th January, 2013.

Directed by Luv Ranjan, the music has been composed by Hitesh Sonik. The lyrics of the song have been penned by Luv Ranjan.

Enjoy the song right here:

Pad Gaye Tere Pyaar Mein Full Video Song – Akaash Vani Movie | Kartik Tiwari, Nushrat Bharucha

Kartik Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha in Pad Gaye Tere Pyaar Mein Song in Akaash Vani Movie Stills

Check out the video right here:

Akaash Vani Movie Trailer | Kartik Tiwari, Nushrat Bharucha

Kartik Tiwari and Nushrat Bharucha in Akaash Vani Movie Stills

Directed by Luv Ranjan, Akaash Vani is slated to release on 18th January, 2013.

Featuring the lovey-dovey couple Nushrat Bharucha and Kartik Tiwari of PKP, yet again, the film is a romantic comedy and will hit the screens on 18th January, 2013.

Meanwhile, take a look at the Digital Poster right here:

Nushrat Bharucha and Kartik Tiwari in Akaash Vani Movie First Look Poster