THREE WOMEN-CENTRIC FILMS TO TRY THEIR LUCK THIS FRIDAY

The month of July is here and it’ll be dominated by three major Hollywood films which will be released in the second and third weeks of July. Tomorrow, meanwhile, three Hindi films will be released, all of which are female-centric. My analysis:

NEEYAT: It stars Vidya Balan in the lead along with Ram Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Neeraj Kabi, Niki Walia, Amrita Puri, Shahana Goswami, Dipannita Sharma Atwal, Shashank Arora, Prajakta Koli and Danesh Razvi. This marks Vidya’s first film in cinemas after nearly four years. It is directed by Anu Menon of Shakuntala Devi and Four More Shots Please fame. The film is a murder mystery and from the trailer, it gave a déjà vu of the Hollywood film, Knives Out. The actors, during promotions, have assured that it’s not the case and that both films are as different as chalk and cheese. The awareness is very limited and hence, the opening will be poor, around Rs. 1 crore. If word of mouth is positive, the collections can double or go even more on Saturday.

BLIND: It stars Sonam Kapoor and this is also her first film in nearly 4 years. It will release directly on Jio Cinema and has Sujoy Ghosh as one of the producers. It is a remake of the 2011 Korean film of the same name and is about a blind cop in search of a serial killer. The trailer is intriguing. But the buzz is hardly there. The promotions are non-existent. There were reports that Sonam is disheartened with the way it’s being released directly on an OTT platform. Nevertheless, Blind can find an audience if reports are positive since Jio Cinema is available for free.

TARLA: It is the biopic of chef and cookbook author Tarla Dalal. Huma Qureshi plays the lead role and she’s joined by Sharib Hashmi. It marks the directorial debut of Piyush Gupta, who wrote Dangal and Chhichhore. Nitesh Tiwari, who made these two films, is also one of the producers. It’ll release on Zee5 and can grab attention due to its theme and light-hearted feel.

Another release this week is 72 Hoorain. The film is in the news more for the controversy. The makers have tried their best to arouse curiosity, with the hope that it turns out to be the next The Kerala Story. But looking at the hype and ticket sales, it doesn’t seem that it’ll manage to have good innings.

The Hollywood release this week is Insidious: The Red Door. It is the fifth and final part of the Insidious series. The franchise is not big in India. The last part, Insidious: The Last Key had collected around Rs. 11 crores in India. This one might collect in a similar range. In fact, it can open better than Neeyat.

Interestingly, Insidious: The Red Door had paid previews yesterday, that too at 11:55 pm and the occupancy was encouraging. It has a full-fledged release today. The makers decided to come earlier and not on Friday since next week, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One, will have a mid-week release, on Wednesday, July 12.