'Daddy Cool', 'Quick Gun...' fail to spin magic

New Delhi, Sep 1 (IANS) As many as six movies - "Daddy Cool", "Quick Gun Murugun", "Toss", "Yeh Mera India", "Kisaan" and "Love Khichdi" - that released Friday have fallen flat at the box office, failing to pull in the crowds. On the other hand, "Kaminey" and "Life Partner" are still keeping the ticket windows buzzing.

The movies released during the first weekend of Ramadan, generally considered to be a month of gap-fillers or average movies with no business expectations, and have not found too many takers.

But Vishal Bharadwaj's dark thriller "Kaminey", which stars Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapoor in a double role, and marriage comedy "Life Partner", which released Aug 14 are "still going strong" fetching in close to "60 percent" business.

"All the six movies have been disasters... none have fetched any appreciation from the audience. Its just 'Daddy Cool' that has managed something out of the lot and that too not more than 20 percent," Amit Awasthi, manager (programming and operations) of Spice Cinemas, Noida, told IANS.

In fact, "Kaminey" and "Life Partner", which stars Govinda, Tusshar Kapoor, Prachi Desai, Fardeen Khan, and Genelia D'Souza, are still bringing in business close to 60 percent, he added.

Yogesh Raizada, corporate head (cinemas) of Wave Cinemas agreed with Awasthi.

"The movies have not done more than 10-30 percent business...'Kaminey', 'Life Partner' and to some extent even 'Love Aaj Kal' are generating the main revenue. Movies like 'Quick Gun', etc have faltered badly," said Raizada.

Industry insiders said that despite the unprecedented buzz that "Quick Gun Murugun" garnered courtesy media promotions and praises from Aamir Khan, Ashutosh Gowariker and Vishal Bhardwaj, it has not managed more than Rs.20 Lakh (Rs.2 million) across the country counting in all the four languages - Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu - it released in.

"'Quick Gun...' was a real disappointment. There was a lot or pre-release buzz for the movie but the post-story has been completely different," said a source from PVR cinemas.

"All are average and below average movies and have opened to the same expectations. All have had low occupancy and nothing has really clicked with the audiences. 'Kaminey' and 'Life Partner' are making up for it as they are still going strong," the source added.

"Daddy Cool" and "Quick Gun..." were released at all PVR properties while the rest of the six opened only at selected cinema halls.

Added a source from Inox cinemas, Mumbai: "All the six movies have fared badly... it's only 'Kaminey' and 'Life Partner' that are keeping it going and that too considering that they missed the opening weekend in Mumbai and Pune due to the swine flu scare." Click the Movie button below for more info:
Quick Gun Murugan