October 28, 2010 : None of the four new releases of the week – Rakht Charitra, Jhootha Hi Sahi, Hisss and Dus Tola managed to make any impression whatsoever at the theaters. Of course the merits (or the lack of them) were primarily responsible as well but they come into play when audience watches the film. What can one say when no one even bothers to step into theaters and then spreads word-of-mouth, whether negative or positive. This is what happened in case of the new releases as they went unnoticed.
As for Jhootha Hi Sahi, it was indeed disappointing to see an extremely poor opening with collections in the range of 5 crores over the weekend. If very low footfalls on the first Friday were not bad enough, the reviews weren’t encouraging either. They were largely mixed with a majority panning the film though a few reviewers did appreciate the film for its light-hearted humor. However, the fact remains that with a mere 30%-40% opening, Jhootha Hi Sahi did much below 50% plus opening that was predicted in this column last week.
Rakht Charitra didn’t fare any better either with the Hindi version failing to catch hold of audience attention. In any case, expectations were kept low here and hence a 30%-35% didn’t come as a surprise. As a result, this Vivek Oberoi starrer opened much below Prince with opening weekend collections staying below 5 crores. However, the film has good hopes ahead as it is not just the Hindi version but also the Telugu version which will bring in moolah. Also, part two of the film as well as the Tamil version with superstar Suriya is expected to be huge when it opens on 19th November.
As for Hisss, it turned out to be an apology of a film and though there were some footfalls on the opening Friday, the word spread out quick that the film didn’t carry any merits whatsoever. A ‘Z grade’ film which again had an opening similar to that of Rakht Charitra, Hisss has been detested by those who have dared to see the film which means that there are no chances whatsoever for any revival. For Mallika Sherawat, it is a big set back because she was relying a lot on this so-called Hollywood product. However, with Indian audience too showing their back on this film, Mallika would have to re-establish her market all over again.
One doesn’t shed many tears for Dus Tola though. It had arrived without any noise and was anyways expected to disappear without even getting noticed. Add to that the fact that the film wasn’t any great shakes and this Manoj Bajpai and Aarti Chabria struggled to stay in theaters even for one weekend. The collections are bound to be pathetically low for this small time film which opened to empty houses.
