To shake the position of 'My Name Is Khan', which is still minting box-office moolah, the releases this Friday have
to be really exceptional to make its way to the audience's heart.
The magic of '3 Idiots' can't be ignored
either; its long run at the box-office just endorses the fact that audience won't mind shelling out for good films,
irrespective of it being an old release.
This gives a tough competition to new weekly releases as happened
with 'Toh Baat Pakki' and 'Click' that failed to leave a mark on cine-goers mind, although 'Click' has done fairly
well, but Tabu's matrimonial drama fell flat like a house of cards.
With a mild last week, Bollywood boomerangs this Friday to a clash of titans- Farhan Akhtar's 'Karthik Calling
Karthik' pitched against Amitabh Bachchan and Sir Ben Kingsley's 'Teen Patti' and to a certain extent Salman
Khan's 'Prem Kaa Game', which might edge out the urbane 'Teen Patti' and 'Karthik Calling Karthik' in small
centers.
Starting with 'Karthik Calling Karthik', the immense promotion by Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone has
brought 'Karthik Calling Karthik' in a comfortable position.
The music has already created waves,
especially 'Uff Teri Ada'. Interesting title and excellent star cast is the unique selling point of this film.
Everything seems to be in place 'Karthik Calling Karthik'. Now the question remains, will critics and
audience approve the content? It's going to be a litmus test for Vijay Lalwani who is stepping into Bollywood with
'Karthik Calling Karthik'.
Next is 'Prem Kaa Game', a film that rides purely on Salman Khan's name, as rest of the star cast is barely
enough to pull a critic, leave alone audience to theater.
Arbaaz Khan, Tara Sharma, Madhuri
Bhattacharya, Malaika Arora are not enough to get the cine-goers glued to their seats. Bad promotion, in fact no
promotion, can be disastrous for the fate of this movie.
Nonetheless, if passed by critics it can get some
audience here and there and word of mouth might pull off this film from going turkey.
Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley and R. Madhavan, what else do one need to bring the audience inside a cinema
hall?
Although, the movie seems to be loosely based on Hollywood venture '21' still it has a great scope
of doing well at box-office. Promos look promising, though the movie has not been promoted as well as 'Karthik
Calling Karthik'. Amazing star cast, lavish look and promising storyline can work in favor of 'Teen Patti'.
Saturday, February 27, 2010 11:14 IST