Trailer — Chachi 420

Showing at: Eros

Those who have seen Mrs Doubtfire already know the story of Chachi 420 but that’s not the reason all eyes were on Kamal Haasan’s latest release. The story behind the story was more intriguing, what with Shantanu Sheorey being kicked out in the middle of the project.

The film is finally complete with Kamal taking the directorial reigns himself and the story of the film is somewhat like this: Janaki (Tabu) is the only daughter of Seth Durga Prasad Bharadwaj (Amrish Puri) and heiress to his millions. She elopes with Jayaprakash Paswan (Kamal Haasan) a dance choreographer’s assistant. And of course daddy dearest finds him unacceptable. So when the marriage runs into stormy weather a few years later, Janaki’s father pushes her towards a divorce. Soon she’s a single mother looking after her only child, Bharthi (Baby Saana). The father has visitation rights only once a week — a fact he hates. He’s pushed into kidnapping his child and loses his weekly meetings.

So, when he sees an ad looking for a Brahmin ayah, Paswan decides to become a woman with the help of make-up wizard, Joseph (Johnny Walker). As Mrs Lakshmi Godbole, Paswan is an au pair par extraordinaire. In the bargain, Mrs Godbole also manages to win Durga Prasad’s heart and when a marriage proposal is made, he/she cooks up a runaway husband. But her troubles are far from over as Paswan’s landlord Hari Bhai (Paresh Rawal) also falls in love with Chachi. To complicate matters Janaki forgives her husband. So Chachi dies but before that she gets Durga Prasad to accept Paswan. So what if Kamal takes liberties with the script of the original Hollywood film, he certainly gives Robin Williams a run for his money. A fun-filled film with many twists and turns, don’t miss the chance to see Kamal don a new avataar.

Aflatoon

Director: Guddu Dhanoa

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Urmila Matondkar

Showing at: Novelty

Raja (Akshay Kumar) is a happy-go-lucky young man who does not have a job and doesn’t care. His mother — despite the odds — lives in the hope that one day her son will become a rich man. To satisfy her, he comes up with the easiest get-rich-quick formula — marrying a girl loaded with moolah. His plans are waylaid when he comes across a folder with documents and a bio-data that confers on him the title of lecturer. So, he heads straight for a college.

Now why would he do that? Well, it so happens that all the girls studying in that college are millionaires. He steals the admission forms of the students to find himself the richest and therefore the best match and stumbles onto Pooja (Urmila) the only daughter of multi-millionaire Uday Prakash (Anupam Kher). Unfortunately, in the process of wooing her, he falls in love.

When Pooja introduces him to her father, he realises that Raja is a look-alike of a bully named Rocky who has been blackmailing him for years. Uday Prakash pleads with Raja to save him from his past and Raja agrees. But Rocky finds out about Raja switches places. Well, if you have been watching Hindi films, you already know what happens next. But if you are type who likes to see events unfold, go and see Aflatoon. But be warned: Urmila wears more clothes in this movie than she does in all of Daud. t¬Ut›€8¼Tt›it fared best in Mumbai, where it made Rs three crore, while it averaged Rs two crore in other centres.Ishq: Indra Kumar continues to make music at the box-office. And although his romantic comedy starring Aamir-Juhi-Ajay-Kajol couldn’t match the success of his earlier films, it has done reasonably well. Sold at Rs 1.75 per territory, Ishq is expected to finish with Rs three crore per territory.Virasat: The scoring point for this remake of the Southern hit, Thevar Magan, was its price. Sold at just Rs 65 lakh per territory, the Anil Kapoor-Tabu-Pooja Batra starrer fetched Rs 2.5 crore in Mumbai and averaged Rs one crore in other centres.BUT the list of flops as usual is longer. This year also saw that fall of the onetime indestructible icon, the Big B.Mrityudaata: Amitabh Bachchan’s comeback film was sold at Rs two crore per territory but the film lost more than 60 per cent of its money in all centres.Aur Pyar Ho Gaya: This much-hyped debut for Aishwarya Rai, with music by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, was sold for Rs 1.75 crore per territory. Distributors lost over Rs one crore in every territory.Daud: The Ram Gopal Varma-Urmila team set the silver screen ablaze with Rangeela. But Daud which was sold for in the region of Rs 1.60-Rs 1.75 crore per territory lost the race. The film’s losses crossed the Rs one crore per territory mark.Hameshaa: Distributors refused to touch this Saif Ali Khan-Kajol starrer despite having G P Sippy as its producer. The Sippys had to release it themselves. In Bengal, Hameshaa didn’t even get a release. The estimated losses Rs three crore.Itihaas: This Ajay Devgan-Twinkle Khanna starrer directed by Raj Kanwar came and went in a flash. Sold at Rs 1.75 per territory, distributors lost 50 per cent of their investment on this film.Lahoo Ke Do Rang: Once again distributors lost more than 50 per cent of their investment of Rs 1.25-Rs 1.5 per territory.Mahaanta: Despite being in the making for several years,the producer of this Sanjay Dutt-Madhuri starrer hiked it’s price at the last minute. Sold at Rs 1.5 crore per territory, the film was taken off within a week. The other loss-making projects of the year include Himalayaputra, Auzaar, Tamanna, Sapnay, Koyla, Mrityudand, Mohabbat, Prithvi and Ghulam-E-Musthafa…. the list goes on.