The hits and misses of the week.
Kesari takes an impressive opening on Holi followed by a fair weekend.
But the audience is unfamiliar with the subject and the film's length are its biggest drawbacks, and limits Kesari to average.
Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota is below average.
Vinod Mirani gives us his weekly verdict.
Kesari
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Parineeti Chopra.
Director: Anurag Singh.
What works: Akshay Kumar.
What doesn't: Too long.
Number of weeks: New.
Box Office verdict: Average.
Mard Hai To Dard Nahi
Cast: Abhimanyu Dassani, Radhika Madan.
Director: Vasan Bala.
What works: Well directed film.
What doesn't: Tough!
Number of weeks: New.
Box Office verdict: Below average.
Photograph
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Sachin Khedekar, Vijay Raaz, Jim Sarbh.
Director: Ritesh Batra.
What works: Well-directed, novel story, strong performances.
What doesn't: Too slow.
Number of weeks: 1.
Box Office verdict: Flop.
Milan Talkies
Cast: Ali Fazal, Shraddha Srinath, Ashutosh Rana, Reecha Sinha, Sanjay Mishra, Sikandar Kher, Tigmanshu Dhulia.
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia.
What works: Good performances.
What doesn't: Confused film.
Number of weeks: 1.
Box Office verdict: Flop.
Badla
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh, Manav Kaul, Tony Luke.
Director: Sujoy Ghosh.
What works: Has all the ingredients for a suspense thriller.
What doesn't: Malayalam actor Tony Luke.
Number of weeks: 2.
Box Office verdict: Hit.
Luka Chuppi
Cast: Karthik Aryan, Kriti Sanon, Aparshakti Khurana.
Director: Laxman Utekar.
What works: Has all the ingredients to be a hit.
What doesn't: Lame formula film.
Number of weeks: 3.
Box Office verdict: Hit.
Sonchiriya
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Ranvir Shorey, Bhumi Pednekar, Manoj Bajpaiyee, Ashutosh Rana.
Director: Abhishek Chaubey.
What works: Terrific performances, stark, stirring tale of dacoits.
What doesn't: May seem too bleak.
Number of weeks: 3.
Box Office verdict: Flop.
Total Dhamaal
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Madhuri Dixit, Arshad Warsi, Javed Jaferi, Anil Kapoor, Riteish Deshmukh, Sanjay Mishra, Johnny Lever.
Director: Indra Kumar.
What works: Madhuri and Anil Kapoor.
What doesn't: Bad performances by the rest of the cast, lack of story and jokes, clumsy VFX .
Number of weeks: 4.
Box Office verdict: Hit.
Gully Boy
Cast: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Kalki Koechlin, Siddhant Chaturved, Vijay Raaz, Amruta Subhash, Vijay Maurya.
Director: Zoya Akhtar.
What works: Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Vijay Raaz, Siddhant Chaturvedi.
What doesn't: Abrupt ending.
Number of weeks: 5.
Box Office verdict: Hit.
- The Rediff Reviews: Sukanya Verma and Aseem Chhabra
Hum Chaar
Cast: Prit Kamani, Simran Sharma, Anshuman Malhotra, Tushar Pandey.
Director: Abhishek Dixit.
What works: Okay performance by the three male actors.
What doesn't: Repetitive drama and super slow film.
Number of weeks: 5.
Box Office verdict: Flop.
