Once again,
Bollywood has gone into overdrive and a fivesome was released on Friday the 13th. The big release was
Fugly, of course, a
comedy drama directed by
actor-director Kabir Sadanand and co-produced by none other than Akki (
Akshay Kumar). However, this one has seen limited success at the
domestic box office. The other four flicks of the week include Md. Mohibul Haque-directed
action thriller 18.11… A code of secrecy;
Prakash Saini’s
Chal Bhaag, a crime comedy;
Debaloy Dey’s
horror flick Machhli Jal Ki Rani Hai and finally,
Unforgettable, a romantic flick directed by
Arshad Yusuf Pathan. Although the plots and the genres widely vary, there is one thing in common – all these four movies have turned out to be
box office disasters.
Fugly hit 1,100-plus screens in India and managed to collect Rs 2.95 crore on the opening day in spite of mixed reviews.
Director Kabir Sadanand was happy, though. “Good 1st day for @FuglyTheFilm, domestic box office collection of 2.95 cr. So guys go out there and watch the film, fight against the Ugly,” Sadanand tweeted on Saturday. The movie netted around Rs 9.5 crore after the first three days (Rs 7.23 crore as per trade figure). Although it had a big release, the movie’s budget is quite low (around Rs 16 crore) and Fugly just might avoid ending up in the red.
But even then, Sadanand’s third outing as a director takes him nowhere near his earlier release
Tum Milo Toh Sahi (2010).
Fugly is all about four close
friends –
Dev (
Mohit Marwah),
Devi (
Kiara Advani),
Gaurav (
boxer Vijender Singh) and
Aditya (
Arfi Lamba) – living a fast-track life in and around
Delhi. But when the corrupt cop
R.S. Chautala (
Jimmy Shergill) takes control of their life, the foursome gets entangled in social issues and tries to find solutions, Bollywood
ishtyle. The outcome is a wobbly plot that fails to delve into the myriad layers of reality or string together a robust, coherent human drama. At the end, the movie with a mission and a message (it is bound to remind you of
Rang de Basanti) simply ends up in a meaningless mess.
The other four flicks look like box office bombs although
18.11… A code of secrecy endeavours to decode terrorism. And this time, a
software engineer (
Rehal Khan) comes to the rescue with a hi-tech alert system and fights off all the baddies. The opening day collection of
18.11 stood at an approx. Rs 15 lakh, but the weekend numbers are not in yet.
Prakash Saini’s
Chal Bhaag tells the tale of three crooks –
Munna Supari (
Deepak Dobriyal),
Daler Singh (
Varun Mehra) and
Bunty (
Tarun Bajaj). A deadly game of hide and seek with the police begins after they are charged with a political murder and in the process, you get a chilling glimpse of fake encounters and other atrocities. But the movie fails to retain the momentum or the irreverent, light-hearted tone that would have made it a well-rounded
black comedy. Official numbers are not in yet, but according to industry insiders, nett collection of the first three days has fallen well below Rs 1 crore.
And the same holds true for the other two movies –
Machhli Jal Ki Rani Hai and
Unforgettable. Both are box office washouts although
Machhli may hook the horror movie fans. As expected, the plot is a cliché where
Ayesha and Uday (
Swara Bhaskar and
Bhanu Uday), a happy couple, fall prey to
paranormal activities. It has all the usual trappings to get you
spooked, including an act of exorcism for a climax. On the other hand,
Unforgettable features the eternal love triangle, with
Iqbal Khan,
Alka Verma and
Hazel Crowney in the lead roles. This is another
box office bomb that could not garner more than Rs 20 lakh on Day I and then sank into oblivion. As it is a high-budget movie and shot at the UAE, it is quite likely that
Unforgettable would not be able to cover the costs.
Images: Indiatimes
