The response to Anil Sharma's The Hero: Love Story Of A Spy (Sunny Deol, Preity Zinta, Priyanka Chopra) has been disappointing. Apart from the niche success of a few films like Tujhe Meri Kasam (Ritesh Deshmukh, Genelia), Jism (John Abraham, Bipasha Basu) and Ek Aur Ek Gyarah (Sanjay Dutt, Govinda), this year's releases have gone down the drain.
rediff.com takes a look at the clutch of attractively packaged, glossy, star-studded films on which the industry is now pinning its hopes:
Bhoot: Ram Gopal Varma's films always evoke tremendous curiosity. This time, the curiosity level is pronounced, thanks to its starcast.
Urmila Matondkar and Ajay Devgan play a couple who move into a flat haunted by a tragic suicide and begin to face unexpected problems. Enigmatic neighbour Rekha helps them deal with their crisis. Nana Patekar and Fardeen Khan also play stellar roles.
The film has a suitably chilling soundtrack.
But is the audience willing to be scared by a realistic horror film? Will they accept Bhoot in its songless splendour? We have to wait till May to find out.
Andaz: Producer Suneel Darshan and director Raj Kanwar desperately need a hit to boost their box-office credibility.
Kanwar's last film Ab Ke Baras (introducing Raj Babbar's son Arya), was a thundering flop. Darshan's Talaash, starring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor, also bit the dust.
Andaz is counting on the glamour quotient -- former Miss World Priyanka Chopra and former Miss Universe Lara Dutta squabble for Akshay's attention in the film -- to pull the audiences in. Besides, the film looks fetching and Nadeem-Shravan's music is a success.
On the flip side, the Priyanka-Lara pair is not exactly novel as the former has already made her debut in The Hero. Also, audiences rejected a far more box-office worthy pair when Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherji competed for Hrithik Roshan in Mujhse Dosti Karoge.
Andaz is scheduled for a May release.
Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon: Karan Johar predicted, 'This is the film that will make Kareena Kapoor the legend she aspires to be.'
Every film Sooraj Barjatya has made so far -- Maine Pyaar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun...! and Hum Saath-Saath Hain -- has made history to varying degrees.
In his latest (a remake of Rajshri's 1970s comedy Chitchor), Sooraj moves away from his trademark familial fold to focus on the luscious creases of love. Kareena, in a tailor-made author-backed role, goes back to her Refugee roots to give a lucid, radiant performance. Hrithik Roshan and Abhishek Bachchan are the two men in her life.
The film carries enormous hope, though none of the three main actors have had a hit in recent months.
Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon is being readied for a June release.
Koi Mil Gaya: Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai made his son Hrithik the rage of the nation. Will he recreate the same hysteria in their second movie together?
Roshan Junior plays a child-man who befriends an extraterrestrial. Rekha is Hrithik's mother. Hrithik's performance is supposed to be unlike anything we have seen any Indian actor do since Kamal Haasan.
The film is scheduled for an August release.
Aan: Men At Work: Shatrughan Sinha (who returns to the screen after a long time), Akshay Kumar and Suneil Shetty play fearless cops while Raveena Tandon and Lara Dutta provide the oomph in Madhur Bhandarkar's first 'big' film. Producer Feroz Nadiadwala has spared no expenses to give Aan a lush and tempting look.
Armaan: Amitabh Bachchan and Anil Kapoor get together for the first time as father and son in this big-screen medical soap opera about a son fulfilling his father's dreams. Debutant director Honey Irani has the idealism of the medical profession playing against a love triangle featuring Anil, Preity Zinta and Gracy Singh. But will the audience accept this old-fashioned tale of love and sacrifice?
Khaki: A film by Raj Kumar Santoshi (Ghayal, Lajja) is always a treat. In Khaki, his cast is helmed by the mighty Amitabh Bachchan. Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai play the romantic lead while Tusshar Kapoor has an interesting supporting part. This is the first time Santoshi is working with all four actors.
Ajay Devgan, who played Bhagat Singh in Santoshi's biopic, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, last year, returns in a negative role. Powerfully scripted, the film takes a bleak and forceful look at the workings of the police force.
Gangajaal: This is the third major cop movie this year. Prakash Jha, who earlier collaborated with Ajay Devgan on the fiasco, Dil Kya Kare, returns to the gritty and hard-hitting terrain of Mrityudand (Madhuri Dixit, Ayub Khan) to portray the police force with all its blemishes and vices.
Based on a true story, Gangajaal promises to reinvent Devgan's career and resurrect Jha's once-brilliant directorial skills.
Pinjar: Amrita Pritam's searing novel on the tragedy of India's Partition comes to life in debutant Chandraprakash Dwivedi's scrupulously mapped film. Urmila Matondkar plays a Hindu girl kidnapped by a Muslim man, played Manoj Bajpai.
The narrative of this big-budget film may be absorbing, but is the audience interested in historical/period films? Ashutosh Gowariker's Lagaan and Anil Sharma's Gadar in 2001 proved profitable. But the failure of the four Bhagat Singh films last year did create a problem for periodicity.
But, as Aamir Khan once said, a successful film has nothing to do with the era in which it is set. Tell a good story and the audience will favour you.
LoC: The third in J P Dutta's war trilogy, after Border and Refugee, LoC is his homage to the soldiers who perished in the Kargil war. Each of the soldiers is played by a box-office heavyweight, from Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan to Abhishek Bachchan and Manoj Bajpai. Rani Mukherji, Esha Deol and Kareena Kapoor pitch in to make this the grandest war epic filmed in India.
