They’re lining up to watch Aaliya

Even as the Best Bakery case shifts to a Mumbai court and the BJP is busy debating the effect of Gujarat riots on the Lok Sabha polls, Govin...

Even as the Best Bakery case shifts to a Mumbai court and the BJP is busy debating the effect of Gujarat riots on the Lok Sabha polls, Govind Nihalani’s film Dev, based on the post-Godhra riots, is raking in the moolah in Vadodara, the city which saw the worst of mob fury.

A cinema hall owner has also advertised in local dailies asking every Hindu and Muslim to watch the movie before it is banned. ‘‘The advertisements helped and the night shows are packed with Muslim youths. Though it is an art film, this movie will do well for at least four weeks,’’

says Manoj Suryavanshi, the owner of Vihar cinema hall.

‘‘People are smart. Everyone knows where the story came from, it is partly inspired from what happened at Godhra, Vadodara and Ahmedabad,’’ says Zainul Sheikh, a film publicist.

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The advertisements appeared a few days after the film was released here. The catch-phrase, ‘‘Ardh Satya: Part II’’, seems to be working. The advertisement, which is drawing crowds to the theatre, read: ‘‘Watch Vadodara’s Zaheera Sheikh-inspired Kareena Kapoor’s role. Naked portrayal of riots, inactive police force and non-performance at the behest of the Chief Minister.’’

The shouts of ‘‘Zaheera Sheikh’’ when Kareena Kapoor as Aaliya makes an appearance and later musters up courage to file a police complaint proved that viewers have related the riots to their hometown.

Coincidence perhaps, Vihar Cinema is hardly a kilometre from the Best Bakery, and a road stretch away from the bustling Walled City area. The theatre has more packed shows than the other two multiplexes — Inox and Chandan. No cabaret or any dream sequence like Fiza, but the Sunday afternoon upper stall crowd were rivetted to the riot sequences at Vihar Cinema.

But the audience at Chandan Multiplex was different, says manager Pavan Sharma. ‘‘The movie is doing well. We have corporate bookings and people, who want to understand what happened during the riots, are coming to watch the movie,’’ he adds.

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For Arif Saiyed from Raopura, the film is far from reality. ‘‘The director has done a balancing act and there was no one like Dev, the character portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan,” says Asif.