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Will Rishtey, Karz sing at the BO?
Directors Indra Kumar and Harry Baweja need a successful film as much as the industry
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Subhash K Jha
The films that release this Friday star a pair of Kapoors and Shettys. Rishtey features Anil Kapoor and Karisma Kapoor, as husband and wife. Karz: The Burden Of Truth has Suniel Shetty and Shilpa Shetty sharing the marquee.
Shilpa, who is common to both films, replaced Karisma to costar with Anil Kapoor in Badhaai Ho Badhaai earlier this year. Now, both leading ladies vie for his attention in Rishtey.
The festive Friday of Eid, when Ramzan, the holy period of abstinence ends, was supposed to bring at least four major Bollywood blockbusters, including Sanjay Gupta's Kaante to theatres.
Other biggies in queue were Suneel Darshan's Talaash, Indra Kumar's Rishtey and Harry Baweja's Karz: The Burden Of Truth. While Darshan moved his film to December 27, Kumar and Baweja are going ahead with their releases.
Inspired by Franco Zeffirelli's The Champ, Rishtey is about a single parent (Anil Kapoor) fighting to bring up his growing son. Karz is about the conflict between half-brothers Sunny Deol and Suniel Shetty.
Kiron Kher, in her first cinematic outing since Devdas, plays a rape victim, dealing with the scuffle between her legitimate and illegitimate offsprings.
Besides Shilpa Shetty the other factor common to both films is the score by young siblings Sanjeev-Darshan. Composer Shravan's sons started their careers with Indra Kumar's Mann. Their score in this week's releases is its weakest link. In spite of heavy air play and promotion by the music company (T-Series) neither score has caught on.
Trade analysts see a musical climb down in Rishtey and Karz. Kumar's earlier films from Beta, Ishq and Dil to Mann boasted some chartbusting music.
Baweja's hit Dilwale was propped up to a large extent by Nadeem-Shravan's songs. However, a substandard score need not be a deterrent to box-office success.
Both Kumar (whose last two films Mann and Aashiq were flops), and Baweja (who hasn't had a success since Dilwale eight years ago), are as desperately in need of success as the film industry.
As for the delayed Kaante, reports say it will 'definitely' release December 13. Its producers were hoping to get it into theatres December 6. Several distributors are apparently not too keen on the traditionally inauspicious Friday, the 13 release.