Last week’s prediction pretty much came true as between the three releases, it was Raanjhanaathat came trumps. It was said in this column that the film’s opening won’t really hit the roof but would see gradual rise if the content turns out to be a winner. This was indeed the case as this Aanand L Rai directed film opened on a 25%-30% note, only to reach 70%-80% mark at an average by the time evening shows ensured. There was further progress over the weekend as the word of mouth ranged from above average to good to very good, hence resulting in a satisfying weekend.
Critical response to the film was generally good as well and further credibility came from the fact that the lead pair saw all around appreciation coming its way. Dhanush saw good brownie points coming his way for his first ever Bollywood outing while Sonam Kapoor saw best response ever in her career, which surpassed the appreciation she had gathered in Saawariya, I Hate Luv Storys, Delhi 6 and Mausam. With weekend collections of about 19.90 crores, the film has now passed the entire first week collections of Rai’s last release Tanu Weds Manu.
Dhanush And Sonam Kapoor in Raanjhanaa Movie Stills
Other two releases of the week, Shortcut Romeo and Enemmy, weren’t impacted as much by their content as they were by the pathetic release that they got. Without any backing whatsoever of a corporate house, both films hardly saw any shows coming their way. This can be pretty much gauged by the fact that while Raanjhanaa got as many as 10 shows a day in ‘every’ premium multiplex, Shortcut Romeo and Enemmy got – hold your breath – just 25 shows between them in total throughout the entire Delhi NCR.
Now this pretty much tells the tale as the collections read a mere few lakhs for both the action tales. It is one thing for a film to be hampered by poor content (which was not quite the case here) and another to be massacred due to non-availability of theatres for audience to even give them a dekko and then pass their verdict. This may have been acceptable for a nondescript everyday release with zero known names but not for films that have known faces like Neil Nitin Mukesh, Ameesha Patel, Mithun Chakraborty and Suniel Shetty involved.
