Kapkapiii is the last film directed by Sangeeth Sivan before his unfortunate demise in May 2024. The film's subject is relatable as many youngsters must have tried calling the spirits at some point in their lives. A few scenes are genuinely funny while the climax is gripping. However, the script is faulty and many jokes don't land well. A few developments are bewildering. The idea to end the film on a cliffhanger and keep the questions unanswered backfires. It worked well in Stree and also probably in the original film (Romancham). But Stree had a lot of plusses and was made in a certain way. Here, the lack of clarity will frustrate viewers. Shreyas Talpade is sincere. Tusshar Kapoor also does well but comes very late into the narrative, at a time when viewers have already lost interest in the narrative. From the friends, Varun Pande (Nirup) leaves the maximum mark followed by Jay Thakkar (Nanku), Abishek Kumar (Rivin), Dinker Sharma (Achyut) and Dhirendra Tiwari (Vijay). Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Rathee do well. All in all, Kapkapiii is an avoidable horror comedy.

My rating - * ½ out of 5!

FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES IS A SURPRISE HIT; MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING UNDERPERFORMS; ALL EYES ON THE CONTROVERSIAL BHOOL CHUK MAAF

The supernatural film Final Destination Bloodlines has emerged as a surprise success. The industry expectation was that it would open at Rs. 3 crores max. But it opened at Rs. 4.25 crores. On Saturday, it was going to face competition from a Hollywood film. Everyone was sure that it would drop. Instead, Final Destination Bloodlines had a decent jump. The target for the film was to cross the earnings of Evil Dead Rise; it earned Rs. 30 crores. Final Destination Bloodlines was able to reach this figure by Wednesday itself. If it holds well in the next two weeks, it has the potential to cross the Rs. 50 crore mark.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, meanwhile, has underperformed. It opened well at Rs. 16.50 crores on Saturday. Ideally, it should have jumped to Rs. 20 crores on Sunday. Instead, it settled at Rs. 17.75 crores. The film fell on Monday to Rs. 5.75 crores. It collected Rs. 5.50 crores and Rs. 4.50 crores on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively. The first week will end at around Rs. 54 crores. With such trending, crossing the Rs. 100 crore mark will be impossible.

Meanwhile, all eyes are now on Bhool Chuk Maaf. The film was all set to release on May 9. But on May 8, its producers, Maddock Films, called off the theatrical release and announced that the film will release directly on Amazon Prime Video on May 16. PVR Inox didn’t take this U-turn kindly and they knocked on the doors of Bombay High Court. The court stopped Maddock from premiering Bhool Chuk Maaf on Amazon. A few days later, both the parties had an out-of-court settlement. As per the settlement, Bhool Chuk Maaf will be released in cinemas on May 23 and it’ll then premiere on OTT two weeks later, on June 6.

With such an arrangement, it was assumed that viewers might not turn up to see the film in large numbers. However, the advance booking has been decent. It can still open in the range of Rs. 2.50-3 crores.

There are two more films this week - the historical Kesari Veer and the horror comedy Kapkapiii. Sadly, both these movies have negligible buzz and will go unnoticed.