Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl and Lanka dull at box-office

 While the new releases 'Ladies v/s Ricky Bahl' and 'Lanka' remained dull at box-office, 'The Dirty Picture' continued to mint money even in its second week.

This Friday saw two releases from prominent banners though both were low on promotions. Yash Raj Films' Ladies vs Ricky Bahl kept it low like most of their recent spate of films and perhaps wanted the content to do the talking. While the content was decent enough, it was never too strong to pull in audiences in multitudes. Thereby Ladies vs Ricky Bahl got an average opening with first weekend collections coming to around Rs 16 crores. Also expectations were rife from the Band Baaja Baaraat team (Ranveer-Anushka-Maneesh Sharma) but the film, though good enough, couldn't match up to its predecessor. The makers might have expected a strong positive word of mouth like in the case of Band Baaja Baaraat but even that didn't happen over here.

Vikram Bhatt produced Lanka was again a modest film with low promotions. Perhaps even Bhatt thought that the content would do the talking. But beyond a few positive reviews for Manoj Bajpayee's fantastic performance, Lanka failed to set the box-office on fire.

Meanwhile Vidya Balan's The Dirty Picture is amongst the very few films of recent times that continued to do good business even in its second week. The Dirty Picture collected a good Rs 11 crores and won the film a super-hit tag. Revenue from non-theatrical avenues isn't even taken into consideration, which means additional profit.

The coming week sees two modest releases. One is Vinay Pathak's Pappu Can't Dance Saala. The other is a love story Jo Hum Chahein starring newcomers Simran Kaur Mundi (ex-Miss India) and Suny Gill. Both the films aren't the ones is public eye and business depends on its merits. Also this could well be the lull before the storm - Don 2.


Top 5 Films this Week

Film: Ladies vs Ricky Bahl

Position: 1

Director: Maneesh Sharma

Cast: Ranveer Singh, Anushka Sharma, Parineeti Chopra, Dipannita Sharma, Aditi Sharma

Upside: Interesting plot, decent performances

Downside: Dull second half, love story spoils the con-essence of film

Running Week: 1

Trade Comments: Started on a low note and business didn't show any drastic rise over the weekend. Expectations were huge from the team of Band Baaja Baaraat but this film lacked the positive word of mouth like its predecessor. Opening weekend collection is around Rs 16 crores.


Film: The Dirty Picture

Position: 2

Director: Milan Luthria

Cast: Vidya Balan, Emraan Hashmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Tusshar Kapoor

Upside: Interesting story, good performances by Vidya-Emraan-Naseer, brilliant dialogues

Downside: Second half turns monotonous, abrupt climax

Running Week: 2

Box Office Verdict: The film had already crossed Rs 50 crore mark. Business continued to be strong in second week too and The Dirty Picture collected another Rs 11 crores over its second weekend. Super Hit!


Film: Lanka

Position: 3

Director: Maqbool Khan

Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Tia Bajpai, Arjan Bajwa

Upside: Manoj Bajpayee's powerful performance, Manoj-Arjan bonding, riveting narrative

Downside: Tia Bajpai's act, convenient and conventional climax

Running Week: 1

Trade Comments: Promotions were low resulting into a very weak opening.


Film: Desi Boyz

Position: 4

Director: Rohit Dhawan

Cast: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Chitrangda Singh

Upside: Humour not slapstick, funny dialogues, good Akshay-John chemistry, peppy music

Downside: Dull climax, graph dips in second half, gets formulaic at times

Running Week: 3

Box-Office Verdict: Above average


Film: Rockstar

Position: 5

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Nargis Fakhri

Upside: Ranbir Kapoor's brilliant performance, AR Rahman's music, interesting first half

Downside: Dull second half, disappointing end, confusing narrative

Running Week: 5

Box-Office Verdict: Above average. Non-theatrical revenues will help make profits.