The last quarter of the year is always the most exciting—with the long festive season supporting the release of all the big-budget star-studded films.
October began propitiously with Meghna Gulzar’s Talvar getting rave reviews and a lot of media attention. In spite of the combined presence of Akshay Kumar and Prabhudheva, Singh Is Bling did not get a fraction of the hype that Talvar did (because it was based on a true story), but did well at the box-office; there are always enough people to patronize mindless potboilers.
Coming this week is Aishwarya Rai’s ‘comeback’ film, Jazbaa, directed by Sanjay Gupta and also starring Irrfan, who is on a career high right now. The film is based on Won Shin-yeon’s Korean film (Gupta’s favourite source of ‘inspiration’), Seven Days, and has Aishwarya Rai playing a lawyer whose daughter is kidnapped. (The promos show her overacting like crazy, but that could just be a wrong selection of clips.)
Then, after some smaller films like Ho Gaya Dimaag Ka Dahi, Pyaar Ka Punchnama 2 and Wedding Pullav, the Dussehra weekend has Vikas Bahl’s Shaandaar, with Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt. Bahl is the director of one of last year’s favourite films, Queen, so there is a great deal of interest in it and in the fresh pairing of Shahid and Alia.
Some other films that have got attention, Prawaal Raman’s long-delayed Main Aur Charles, based on the life of the notorious Charles Sobhraj, with Randeep Hooda playing the part. There’s Kanu Behl’s Titli feted at international film festivals—a film about a young man who wants to escape the circle of crime his family is involved in. Naseeruddin Shah stars in Manish Srivastav’s crime caper Charlie Kay Chakker Mein.
Diwali week will see the release of Sooraj Barjatya’s family saga Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, starring Salman Khan, so nothing comes in the way of the film and its blockbuster status. Imitaz Ali’s Ranbir Kapoor-Deepika Padukone starrer Tamasha is gathering a lot of buzz too. Then comes Bejoy Nambiar’s Amitabh Bachchan-Farhan Akhtar starrer, Wazir.
Films like Hate Story 3 and Mastizaade, both exploiting sex — one in the crime format and the other comedy— will get by before two of the biggest and most talked about films come out at the end of the year — Rohit Shetty’s Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol starrer Dilwale and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s colourful romantic epic Bajirao Mastani with Ranvir Singh, Deepika Padukone and Pryianka Chopra. The battle for eyeballs is on…