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As agreed by all, ‘Highway‘ was always meant to show growth on the basis of word of mouth as one couldn’t expect an opening on the lines of Imtiaz’s last couple of biggies like ‘Rockstar‘ and ‘Love Aaj Kal‘. The very texture of the Randeep Hooda-Alia Bhatt film warranted that it lives a life of its own which is aided by audience and critics speaking highly about it.
As it turned out though, the film didn’t quite have a ‘Lootera‘ or ‘The Lunchbox‘ moment where critics in unison showered praises on the film. Though belonging in the same mould (it isn’t a true hardcore commercial film), the film saw mixed response coming its way. No one thrashed it but then the film didn’t quite lead to heaps of appreciation coming its way either, except for select members from the film fraternity that went gaga over it. The box office outcome was in line with what audience felt about it, what with around 13.50 crores coming in, which is a fair result.
The film basically has a week to make moolah since ‘Shaadi Ke Side Effects‘ arrives next which is being pitched (and seen) as an out and out entertainer.
Another release of the week, ‘Darr @ The Mall‘, had exactly the same weekend as Vikram Bhatt’s production ‘Horror Story‘ that had released last year. With the storyline of both films being quite similar, the box office outing was also on the same lines with over 3.50 crores coming in. Released a print count higher than ‘Highway’, this isn’t really an impressive result for the Jimmy Sheirgill starrer. The fact that reviews too hovered around the average mark meant that there wasn’t much going for the film. In fact the film’s weekend is half of what director Pawan Kripalani’s debut film ‘Ragini MMS‘ (6 crore) had netted three years back.
Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder
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