Critics, go fly a kite: In a day or two Chennai Express will touch Rs. 200 Crores

It's Advantage Khan, at least for now. Akshay Kumar's much-vaunted Once Upon A Time In Mumbai Dobaara (OUATIMD) has under-performed at the boxoffice, leaving trade experts shell-shocked, and the Chennai Express (CE) producers laughing all the way to the bank.

And the next bank holiday.

Shah Rukh, we hear, plans a big celebration bash. We don't know yet if the OUATIMD producer Ekta Kapoor would be invited. But if reports that she refused to let Shah Rukh screen her film at his residence Mannat are true, then I doubt she would be in a mood to celebrate. Invite or no.

The boxoffice figures for Chennai Express are indeed staggering even in the second week. On its second Friday it collected 6. 50 crore rupees, Saturday's collections were 8. 51 crores, Sunday was 10. 22 crores.

The total over the second weekend was 25. 23 crore rupees. This, when added to the 1st week's collections of Rs 156. 70 cores totalled Rs 181. 93 crores collection for the first ten days.

In a day or two Chennai Express will touch Rs. 200 crores. 

Understandably there is much self-congratulation in the UTV camp. 

Says Gaurav Verma, Director India Theatrical Distribution Studios, Disney UTV Two powerhouses of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan and Rohit Shetty came together for the first time. That was enough reason to create a huge excitement.

Plus the magic of Deepika Padukone re-teaming with Shah Rukh after six years, backed by the aggressive marketing which created a huge buzz, all this did the trick.

Gaurav also feels the release timing was perfect. With Eid on Friday followed by Independence Day during the same week, the film got an opportunity to go really wide in Week 1. Our gambit paid off. Audiences came to cinemas in huge numbers and made Chennai Express an unprecedented office success. It continues to break many records every day. 

Gaurav gloats over the second week's collections. It is expected to dominate the box office the next week as well. So we'll continue to retain maximum screens in the weeks to come. 
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh endorses the film's whopping success. `The boxoffice business is phenomenal. SRK plus Deepika plus Rohit Shetty plus Eid plus masala have proved yet again that entertainment rules. The masses love Chennai Express. ` Critics can go fly a kite.

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Oops! OUATIMD rakes in only Rs 38 crore in its opening weekend

With a dismal performance, Akshay Kumar's latest release is no match for SRK's 'Chennai Express' which is racing towards Rs 200 crore mark

Ever since its release, Shah Rukh Khan's Chennai Express has bulldozed its way into record books. And looks like Akshay Kumar's latest release Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbai Dobaara has borne the brunt of Rohit Shetty's box office smasher. The SRK-Deepika Padukone starrer became the fastest film to reach Rs 100 crore.

Releasing across limited screens since Chennai Express was still thundering on its way forward on Independence Day (last Thursday), Milan Luthria's film failed to capitalise on the situation once SRK's film finished its first week run.

It collected approximately Rs 11 crore on the opening day but saw a downfall soon after except on Sunday, which saw a slight rise, raking in only Rs 38 crore till Sunday night. SRK's film on the other hand is racing full steam ahead towards the Rs 200 crore mark. 

Trade analyst Amod Mehra says, OUATIMD has failed at the box office. August 15 saw limited shows, which affected the collections. Though the shows increased on Friday, the collections didn't. Saturday was just about okay while Sunday was somewhat better. The film has failed to cross the Rs 50 crore mark over its four days. 

According to distributor Sunny Khanna, Shah Rukh has set a new benchmark of sorts. He explains, `Chennai Express has grossed approximately Rs 147 crore in the first week, adding Rs 23 crore in its second weekend, taking the total BO collection to Rs 170 crore in 11 days. 

The film is gearing up to touch Rs 200 crore in terms of all-India theatrical revenues. Even if it doesn't cross the figure of Rs 200 crore, the producer's share will be higher than all the movies released in the past including Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots. Based on their profit sharing basis, the distributors will have earned better. 
Regarding OUATIMD, Khanna points out that the weekend numbers were way below expectations. On Friday, the film raked in Rs 9 crore, Rs 8 crore on Saturday and Rs 10 crore on Sunday. 

According to distributor and box office expert, Suniel Wadhwa, Akshay's film could do nothing to stop the fast pace of SRK's film.

He says, The film performed very poorly and considering the cost of production as well as print and advertisement cost, Thursday fared better than the rest. With very weak word-of-mouth, the film will be difficult to sustain in the long run.

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SRK's Special Rakhi Gift: Buy 2 Tickets of Chennai Express, Get 1 free

Buy two, get one free -- is the Rakhi offer that superstar Shah Rukh Khan is making for everyone across the country keen to see his latest entertainment extravaganza "Chennai Express" which is blazing records at the box-office.

So if you love him for making you laugh in Chennai Express, you will love Shah Rukh all the more for his latest gesture.

A source close to the superstar said this is SRK's brainchild. The offer is valid on Aug 20 across the country because the 47-year-old wants to celebrate with everyone.

The source added: We have celebrated Eid and Independence Day with the entire country and this is his way of celebrating Rakhi as well. This is his small way of giving back the huge amount of love and support he has got from the people.

Directed by Rohit Shetty, Chennai Express is a runaway hit at the box office. Released Aug 9, it minted Rs.181.93 crore by Aug 18.

If viewers enjoyed SRK's new avatar in the romantic comedy, they also found Deepika Padukone's Tamil girl act thoroughly entertaining. The film was liked so much that it created a record by recording the fastest Rs.100 crore earning at the box office. The Rs.75 crore project achieved that in the first weekend itself.

"It has been an amazing journey for 'Chennai Express' so far. The audience has loved and supported the film, helping it to achieve unprecedented success at the box office. We wanted to find a way to thank our audiences, especially families, for their love and support for the film. 

We thought the occasion of Raksha Bandhan would be an ideal opportunity to do so, said Gaurav Verma, Director - India Theatrical Distribution, Studios, Disney-UTV, in a statement.

We are inviting everyone to celebrate the festival with 'Chennai Express' and are pleased to offer a third ticket free on the purchase of every two tickets, as a token of our appreciation," added Verma.

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SRK's Chennai Express breaks records in Pak

Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan starrer "Chennai Express" has grossed rupees 40 million, breaking all box office records in Pakistan's biggest city after its release at the Eid weekend on August 9

The action comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty also stars Deepika Padukone. "There is no doubt that 'Chennai Express' has become the biggest box office hit from India since the government allowed screening of Indian movies in the country," Mohammad Qadri the media spokesman for IMGC told.

IMGC is the biggest distribution company in Pakistan with its offices based in Lahore and it imports Indian films via Dubai. Qadri said that since its release in just eight screens in Karachi, "Chennai Express" had grossed over 40 million rupees and the figure was mounting.

"I can't give the exact figures now but the initial estimate of ticket sales for the week since its release 'Chennai Express' has grossed over 40 million rupees. The figure will be higher when the final figures of ticket sales for all over Pakistan are available by Monday," Qadri said.

The previous record for highest grossing movie from India was held by Salman Khan's "Dabangg" in Karachi. Qadri said due to the high demand for tickets the cinema owners had also hiked up prices for "Chennai Express" and in some areas it was being screened in five to six shows in a day. 

"Clearly the Pakistani people enjoy the movies of Shah Rukh Khan and its ticket sales exceeded expectations and it did much better than all the other Eid releases including some Pakistani movies and the Hollywood blockbuster, 'Wolverine'. 

" Pakistani film critics have also described the film as an entertaining time pass and one critic wrote, "The Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone starrer is an aesthetically selected evolution of the 'Dabangg' genre."

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Movie Review: Board 'Chennai Express' if you are an SRK fan

Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Sathyaraj, Nikitin Dheer, Kamini Kaushal, Mukesh Tiwari

Directed by Rohit Shetty

Rating: * * *

Dammit! No out-takes!! Is this really a Rohit Shetty film? Every film of the Gol Maal director so far ended with out-takes giving us entertaining glimpses from during the making of the film. Here those trademark Shetty out-takes are replaced by a Honey Singh track which celebrates Rajnikanth and the lungi.

The rest of the film resembles those typical sambar-and-sandalwood creations by K Raghvendra Rao, and worse still, Raj Kanwar's Dhai Akshar Prem Ke where Aishwarya to escape her parental wrath at her elopement, introduces a man she has just met to her family as her soul-mate. 

Of course there are the flying cars exploding in the air to make sure we know that all said and drummed, this is a Rohit Shetty presentation. 

Packaged with pickled precision, peppered with just the right doses of naughty jokes and precocious pranks that go well with Shah Rukh's 40-year old brat's act, Chennai Express is the kind of non-toxic comic entertainer where the most damaging double- entendres you'd get is a Tamil word that sounds like Angelina Jolie's name. 

Come again? 

That brings me to another major hurdle in the heap of hilarity that Shetty builds so meticulously in the first-half. 
The generous outflow of Tamil that seems initially engaging (more so, since Shah Rukh shares our non-comprehension of the rapidfire Tamilian cloudburst that accompanies Deepika's quicksilver character) begins to come in the way as the narration grows older and runs out of energy. 

But then there is the sprightly Deepika as the runaway Tamilian girl who piles on to the North Indian mithaiwala stranger to escape marrying the boorish fiancee back home in her village in Tamil Nadu. 

We've seen Kareena Kapoor do the chirpy runaway train traveler in Jab We Met. Deepika brings a special filtered-coffee flavour to her chirpy character. Even that broad hammy accent grows on us. Yes, we like ! 

Here she is is the only Rohit Shetty team member (and I use the term 'team' since Shetty generously credits the direction to himself and his team) who seems to have a firm grip over her rudderless dithering character. Deepika plays Meena Amma with flavourful flourish. 
She is specially delightful in three key sequences, two of them comic and the other unexpectedly somber. In the sequence where her character turns into a sleeping kicking and convulsive zombie she's unbelievably goofy. It's not just Shah Rukh who gets a kick out of that scene. 

Would Rohit Shetty please do a full-fledged out-and-out comedy with Deepika? That, Chennai Express is not. It is a half-hearted but laugh-hearted effort that makes the fatal error of taking itself too seriously. Towards the end when the utterly shammed climactic fight ensues, we even have a long speech by Shah Rukh on the social status of the girl child. 

Not now, please!
As we squirm at the attempt to turn comedy into a serious business we look back at the rest of the film with some amount of wramth and affection. Some of the long shots of the train winding through green acres is breathtaking. And Shah Rukh's first meeting with Deepika's father over a bridge over a fast-flowing river is shot with amazing brio. 

There's a wonderfully-shot sequence where Shah Rukh has to carry Deepika to a temple over hundreds of steps. Deepika here goes from amusement and mockery to a sense of belonging and pride in her man's arms. It's a moment built with care and love. 

But then, such tender affection really has no place in this comedy of cultural dispossession where the Punjabi boy Rahul gets embroiled in Tamil girl Meena's family affairs and comes out. . . . well not quite wiser. But filled with self-mocking laughter. 

Shah Rukh pokes a whole lot of goodnatured fun at his now-aging lover-boy persona. There are tongue-in-cheek references to Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and several other Shah Rukh Khan films and songs including the introductory South Indian lines from the Jiya jale song in Dil Se. 
All these self-tributes work better than what Puri Jagganath did with the Bachchan persona Buddha. . . . Hoga Tera Baap. Rohit Shetty is more in command of his canvas here than in his last comedy Bol Bachchan. 

But the self-deprecatory laughter is still not good enough. Somewhere you feel the one-line plot (okay, if not one then two-line plot) is stretched into an unwelcome second-half where nothing really happens. Even the humour tracks stops short beyond a point. 

But there is some genuine steam and spark in the early part of Chennai Express. Towards the beginning of the train journey when Deepika and Shah Rukh play a kind of antakshari of Hindi film songs to put the goons off her trail, Deepika completely overshadows her kingly co-star, who should be okay with being upstaged by his female co-star.

After all he has given Deepika priority over his own name in the credit titles. 
And Deepika takes the lead very seriously. She has never looked better and never been funnier on screen without even trying too hard. 

But then the plot and the situations let her down. The antakshari-speak that was amusing in the beginning recurs during a stale fight sequence in the second-half. 

We are no longer laughing. Not when Shah Rukh's purported big chase sequences end in embarrassing deadends. Not when an item song with incoherent words and even more misguided logistics pops up like a joke whose punchline has gone missing. Through all of this Shah Rukh Khan braves it with a delicious sense of self-mockery bordering almost on a masochistic absence of heroic pride. 

Yes, he likes it when the joke is on him. But that happens once too often here. 
So it's finally here. The film that all Shah Rukh Khan fans (which covers half the hemisphere) has been waiting for. The good news first. "Chennai Express" is a pleasant and likable film in parts. The bad news is, it does nothing for Shah Rukh Khan's imdomitable star power except to tell us he can still play a 40-year Rahul without faltering. That we already know.

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