Tom & Jerry (AVAILABLE ONLY IN CINEMAS IN INDIA) looked very entertaining from the trailers and promised a fun ride. And it has a lot going in its favour – excellent cast, technical finesse and a great plot in hand. Even the characters are well fleshed out. Sadly, the writers fail to similarly flesh out the screenplay. The film should have been a laugh riot while making us adore the cat and mouse – that’s what Tom & Jerry is all about. However, that happens only in parts. A few gags are repeated from legendary scenes of the television series. A few of them, meanwhile, fall flat. On the plus side, some scenes do evoke laughter. And the performances are a saving grace. Chloë Grace Moretz is terrific and plays the streetsmart character with panache. She proves yet again that she’s one of the best talents around. Michael Pena is quite good. Ken Jeong fails to impress. Pallavi Sharda, of Besharam fame, gives a very fine performance and it’s good to see that she has a considerable screen time. Colin Jost is strictly okay while Rob Delaney is fair. Patsy Ferran has an interesting look and gets her act right. All in all, Tom & Jerry is an average fare!

My rating - ** ½ out of 5!

WILL TOM & JERRY MANAGE TO GET AUDIENCES TO CINEMAS?

For most children and even adults, Tom & Jerry is surely the most favourite cartoon show of all time. The 10 or 15 minute episodes of this series is about a cat and a mouse, who can’t live with and can’t live without each other, and how they raise laughs with their antics and adventures. Hence, a film on these madcap characters surely sounds like an exciting thing. And that it’ll release in cinemas is something that would have led to healthy box office collections had it not been for the pandemic.

Tom & Jerry was an animated series but the film which is releasing tomorrow is a mix of both live action and animation. So, Tom, Jerry and the other animals appear in an animated form. But the locales and the various human actors are all real. The blending of the two looks nice on screen. Reputed actors like Chloë Grace Moretz, Michael Pena and Ken Jeong are a part of the star cast and this has also given the film an edge. The trailer is nothing extraordinary but it looks interesting and cute, and promises that the film would be an entertaining fare.

The film, however, arrives with minimal publicity. There are people who still don’t know about its release or even its existence and these are the ones who can be potential audience for Tom & Jerry. Also, with viewers staying away from cinemas, the film needs to be really good. Only then will a major chunk of moviegoers go to theatres to watch the film. Tenet collected around Rs. 1.10 crore on day 1 while Wonder Woman 1984 collected Rs. 1.50 crore. The latter had the advantage of Christmas holiday. Tom & Jerry would not be able to reach till even Tenet and a Rs. 50 or Rs. 75 lakhs opening is expected.

The other release of the week is Tuesdays And Fridays. It is produced by T-Series and Sanjay Leela Bhansali and stars Poonam Dhillon’s son Anmol Thakeria and Jhataleka Malhotra, the first runner-up in Femina Miss India 2014. It’s a delayed film and has been ready since more than a year. The trailer is very poor and even the music hasn’t got noticed. And publicity is negligible. If many viewers are not aware of Tom & Jerry’s release, then one can imagine the near-zero awareness about Tuesdays And Fridays. In fact, as suggested last week, this film should have released last week as it’s a romcom and would have got some benefit during Valentine’s Day. It’s bewildering why that wasn’t done and why the makers would choose to release a week later, especially when last week had no release. And also, clashing with Tom & Jerry isn’t a good idea. The few moviegoers who would go to cinemas would obviously pick Tom & Jerry over this one. Hence, its box office performance would be very disastrous.

BOLLYWOOD LETS VALENTINE’S DAY WEEK TO GO WASTE

Over the years, the Valentine’s Day has become as important as any other festive holiday. Interestingly, offices, banks and educational institutes are all open on February 14. Yet, the footfalls in theatres have seen an upswing on this day. Last year, February 14 fell on Friday luckily. Love Aaj Kal released on this day and it collected a huge Rs. 11.75 crore. In 2019, Gully Boy released on a Thursday to take advantage of this day and it was a good decision. The film opened very well, at Rs. 19.26 crore. In 2018, Pad Man released in the Valentine’s week while in 2017, it was Jolly LLB 2. Both films starred Akshay Kumar and were not exactly ideal Valentine’s Day films. Yet, the collections for Pad Man grew by around 20% while that of Jolly LLB 2 jumped by 25%. That’s the power of this day.

After the lockdown was imposed, very few films have been releasing in cinemas. There have been weeks where no Hindi film has released. And sadly, this week, too, would be one of those. However, till now, at least some film has released on festivals, though most of them were non-exciting. Suraj Pe Mangal Bhari released on Diwali and was the best of lot. Chrismtas saw the release of Shakeela, Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi came on New Year’s Day while Madam Chief Minister hit screens in Republic Day week. Hence, it was expected that some film would make it in the Valentine’s week.

Surprisingly, two films are scheduled to release next week and both seem ideal Valentine’s Day entertainers. One is the Hollywood film Tom & Jerry. However, it’s made by Warner Bros. It’s Indian office is releasing it a week before it’s international release, which is two weeks away from now, on February 26. To convince the Los Angeles team to prepone the film’s India release by 2 weeks would be too much.

However, the other release is a Hindi flick, a romcom that too, called Tuesdays And Fridays. It is produced by T-Series and Sanjay Leela Bhansali and stars Poonam Dhillon’s son Anmol Thakeria and Jhataleka Malhotra, the first runner-up in Femina Miss India 2014. This film looks forgettable but it at least is a love story. In fact, this film had some chance of earning something if it had released this week rather than the next.

With no other option, multiplexes will be playing past romantic hits from Bollywood like Bajirao Mastani, Dil To Pagal Hai, Gully Boy, Jab We Met, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, etc and from Hollywood like A Star Is Born, La La Land, etc. Will it lead to even 5-10% occupancy remains to be seen.