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Response: Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur, with its crude humour, logged average collections and the first day saw the film mopping up Rs 3 crore while the remaining two days of the weekend (Saturday and Sunday) brought in around Rs 7 crore.

So, during the first weekend, the total amount grossed stood at Rs 10 crore, which is pretty good as no big stars were there to steer the film.

Made on a budget of around Rs 16 crore, Gangs of Wasseypur could see profit may be from the end of the second week. But in the Hindi belt, especially in Bihar and Jharkhand, the movie has been running to packed houses.

So, it won’t take long for the Gangs of Wasseypur to rake in the moolah.

Film type: Drama

Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Richa Chaddha, Reemma Sen, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi and Piyush Mishra

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Time of movie: Two hours and 40 minutes

Story: Gangs of Wasseypur is a tale of gang wars in Dhanbad, the coal capital of the country, where rivalry and revenge hog the limelight. Shahid Khan (played by Jaideep Ahlawat) is betrayed, and his son (played by Manoj Bajpayee) and grandsons swear to avenge his dishonour and death. However, even this promise goes amiss.

During the colonial rule of the 1940s, there is old rivalry in Wasseypur (near Dhanbad), a hub for coal traders and mafia.

The war in Wasseypur is a Muslim vs Muslim battle for power (between the Qureshis and the Pathans) which goes on for three generations, culminating in the death of Manoj Bajpayee.

Review: Gangs of Wasseypur is typically a film made in India’s rustic terrain of Dhanbad, which is also known as India’s Coal Belt, located in Jharkhand. The movie emanates a flavour of the coal capital. The crude dialogue delivery, the rustic humour as well as the songs and the direction are simply mind blowing and will lead to an outburst of laughter.

It is about real people and real violence. So, if you are curious to know about Dhanbad’s mafia, Gangs of Wasseypur can throw some light on them.

However, Gangs of Wasseypur fails to maintain its fast pace and tends to become very slow towards the end, concluding abruptly with the killing of Manoj Bajpayee. But the sudden ending may also be a deliberate move with director Anurag Kashyap probably wanting to keep the best for his sequel (Gangs of Wasseypur Part II).

The excessive violence and confusing plot in the Gangs of Wasseypur are some of the negatives of the film. But if you’re not the weak-hearted types and crave for some violence, Gangs of Wasseypur won’t let you down with its out-of-the box rustic scenes (and humour) of shootouts, country-made pistols exploding on hands and bloodshed.

But towards the end, the film drags on and on and may prompt you to wonder where it is heading to. But if you’re patient, it is worth every penny.

Manoj Bajpayee steers Gangs of Wasseypur alone with his superb dialogue delivery, and he is well supported by Tigmanshu Dhulia, Richa Chaddha, Reemma Sen, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Huma Qureshi. So, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to munch popcorn over some “real-time” gang wars in Wasseypur.

Rating: 4/5

Response: Reema Kagti’s Talaash, although not a great film, has ridden on the Aamir Khan wave but saw revenues drop in the third week, raking in just Rs 7.76 crore in the week. But the total earnings have been impressive at a whopping Rs 93.4 crore.

Talaash, also starring Kareena Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee in mega roles, had done good business in its first and second weekend, but the earnings declined considerably in the third week.

Talaash had raked in Rs 47 crore at the box office (in the Indian market) during the first weekend and grossed Rs 15 crore on the opening day.

Film type: Thriller.

Cast: Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

Director: Reema Kagti.

Time of movie: Two hours and 20 minutes.

Story: In Taalash, Aamir Khan is an investigating officer, inspector Surjan Singh Shekhawat, who is probing the bizarre car crash of Armaan Kapoor, a film director.

While digging deep during his probe, the case becomes a maze and Surjan realises something is amiss in the story.

Then surfaces a tragedy in the personal life of Surjan, where he loses his son in a motorboat accident. To overcome the loss, Roshni undergoes therapy while Surjan spends sleepless nights, thinking about his son and in trying to resolve the mystery.

Surjan investigates the mystery behind Armaan’s death and during his probe he meets various shady people, including a pimp, his aide Tehnur (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and a sex worker Rosie (Kareena Kapoor). With Rosie into the picture, the mystery in Talaash on who Rosie is and how she is linked to the car crash deepens.

Review: Talaash does have the Aamir Khan aura but the superstar’s acting in the film is a big dampener. Tears in his eyes and his face swollen – these are the two expressions we get to see on the actor’s face.

Perfectionist Aamir tries to get things right by wearing a grim face but gets it all wrong. The versatile Aamir Khan is simply missing in Taalash.

However, Nawazuddin and Kareena have been really impressive but Rani puts up a grim show.

The storyline of Taalash is somewhat unrealistic and tends to get slow (and boring) towards the end. But there is a thriller waiting. Go watch Taalash if you’re game for some ghostly thriller and Aamir Khan’s aura.

Rating: 3/5.

Response: Director Sujoy Ghosh’s Kahaani has been a much-hyped film but turned out to be a disappointment although it was Vidya Balan all the way. It opened much below expectations in movie halls and multiplexes.

Kahaani began with occupancy of 20 to 30 per cent, but because of its Kolkata connect, it did well in the city with over 50 per cent occupancy.

Kahaani has been improving its occupancy though with figures almost touching the 50 per cent-mark. In states like Gujarat, it has done abysmally with revenues of just Rs 10 lakh.

But Kahaani is doing better than other Holi releases such as Chaar Din Ki Chandni. Earnings till March 20 stood at above Rs 40 crore. According to a news channel, Kahaani’s gross earnings till date touched Rs 70 crore.

In the overseas market, Kahaani earned about Rs 3 crore in its first weekend.

Film type: Thriller

Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, Sashwata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui

Director: Sujoy Ghosh

Time of movie: About two hours

Story: In Kahaani, pregnant Vidya is on a mission to find her husband who she claims had gone missing after he went on an assignment to Kolkata.

She comes to the City of Joy, and with Kolkata police sub-inspector Rana, she goes to all the places where her husband visited.

She checks out the hotel where he was supposed to have stayed, goes to his office and his school but draws a blank. Strangely, everybody who interacted with her husband, goes on a denial mode.

She also finds that there was a look-alike of her husband in his office. It is after this that Kahaani sees a twist in the storyline.

Review: Apparently, the storyline is superb and would leave you spellbound, and coupled with this, Vidya Balan’s stunning performance in Kahaani will surely convince you that she is the undisputed leader among Bollywood’s actresses. She has given a litany of hits from Dirty Picture to Kahaani.

Vidya has also shown that no actress in Bollywood can be as versatile as her… from playing the role of a call girl in Dirty Picture to a distressed woman looking for her husband in Kahaani, she has done it all.

Kahaani emits a typical Bong flavour and Sashwata Chatterjee, who plays the role of a contract killer, does it with elan. His skills are only next to Vidya in the film.

Parambrata, who has off late, has had a slew of films in his kitty, plays a charmer as sub-inspector Rana. Also Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who plays the role of Khan, does a commendable job.

Vidya, who played the role of Vidya Bagchi in Kahaani, gave cooked up stories to the police. She says her husband landed on a particular day and stayed in a particular hotel during his assignment.

When the police probed the case, they found no immigration record of her husband, the hotel he stayed denied he had ever been there and his employer did not have his name in its rolls.

Even though Vidya was a pregnant woman, couldn’t the police have checked the phone records of her husband to see what conversation she had with him?

Here, they could have easily found that no such person (Vidya’s husband) existed.

After all, this is the basic information any probe agency would seek. Unless, the agency is really stupid!

But, if the film doesn’t leave you thinking, Kahaani is a splendid thriller, which, we would say, is a must see movie as Vidya is the winner all the way rather than the script.

Rating: 3.5/5

Response: Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur 2 bagged super reviews from its critics and even those who flocked to see it were happy but the box office collections present a different tale with the response being feeble (revenue collection was only Rs 28 crore). However, the makers of the low-budget film were happy with this.

Gangs of Wasseypur 2 opened to 30-40 per cent occupancy in various theatres (which is poor) and would have surely rung in the cash registers had Salman Khan starrer Ek Tha Tiger not eaten into its revenue. Total collections on Day I for Gangs of Wasseypur 2 stood at Rs 3 crore.

Film type: Drama.

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi and Tigmanshu Dhulia.

Director: Anurag Kashyup.

Time of movie: About three hours.

Story: Gangs of Wasseypur 2 continues the revenge saga after the macabre murder of the powerful Sardar Khan (played by Manoj Bajpai).

In the film, Sardar’s son Faizal (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui), the most powerful man in Wasseypur now, has only one aim in life: to kill Ramadhir Singh (played by Tigmanshu Dhulia).

Will Faizal manage to kill Ramadhir?

Review: Sheer brilliance of the actors in Gangs of Wasseypur 2, especially Nawazuddin Siddiqui, will surely bowl you over and the storyline as well as direction have been ingenious. Even the music was brilliant.

The Paperless.in managed to see the video of the film a couple of months after the release. And, we really missed the big screen impact.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an actor to reckon with. Right from his acting in Kahaani to the Gangs of Wasseypur sequel, he has been on an upward journey all the way. And, surely more is in store for him. Nawazuddin was well supported by Huma Qureshi and Tigmanshu Dhulia.

But again (similar to Gangs of Wasseypur I), the movie (Gangs of Wasseypur 2) is stretched and somewhat loses direction. Here is where boredom sets in. Had director Anurag Kashyap made Gangs of Wasseypur 2 shorter, it would probably have killed the boredom, and may be, more people would have flocked to watch it.

If you’re the type who wouldn’t mind some high voltage action and violence, then the Wasseypur sequel is the right movie to see (In this, it beats its part I hands down).

Go see it but not with your son or daughter but may be friends and enjoy (as we would call it) some lip-smacking violence. So, even as the response is feeble, Gangs of Wasseypur 2 is really a great movie.

Rating: 4/5.