Mixed response for 7 Khoon Maaf

7 Khoon Maaf turns out to be a disaster at the box-office and has no chances of picking up over the week. According to trade analyst Amod Mehra,“The movie has flopped at the box-office. The makers of the film are going to face losses as it was a costly project and the film,over the weekend,couldn’t even cover up Rs 10 crore. Till Sunday it made around Rs four crore. All the distributors are going to suffer losses for sure.”

Mehra thinks that it is the complex plot of the film that the audiences are not able to digest,and hence are rejecting the film. He further adds,“There is no justification of her deeds anywhere in the film. There is not a single clue as to why she kills her husbands. Also,at some parts Priyanka is best overacting!”

He ends saying that this is the actress’ darker version of What’s Your Raashee?…and the film falls in the Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey category,which is totally disappointing.

Siddharth Roy Kapoor,UTV Motion Pictures,however begs to differ. He says,“The film is quite a success,commercially. It was made at 15 crore and we spent around seven crore on the film’s publicity,which makes it a 22 crore project. So if we have to talk about recovery,the movie has recovered 11 crore from its music and satellite rights. From new media,we have recovered one to two crore,from theatre overseas we have collected two crore and from the Indian theatres we have recovered 11-12 crore. Thus the film has proved to be profitable for us.”

Talking about the ICC World Cup 2011,he said that,on Saturday,people who stayed back to watch India playing the game,came on Sunday to watch the film. He clarifies that the trade analysts only look after the box-office performance and decide on the fate of the film and do not check or take the economic or the overall performance (new media,satellite right) into consideration.

The multiplexes though,have a different story to tell. Shedding light on the box-office performance of 7 Khoon Maaf,Girish S. Wankhede,Deputy GM for Cinemax India Ltd says,“The film has got an average opening of 51 per cent all over India. Throughout the weekend,it has got 50 per cent occupancy,which is not bad. 7 Khoon Maaf is one of those dark films that Vishal Bhardwaj makes. Such movies take time to pick up so it may grab audiences over the time. However,at the end of the day,the film has proved definitely disappointing.” Prakhar Joshi,Head Programing,PVR says that the movie has collected a gross amount of 1.75 crore in three days (Friday to Sunday),all over India. So for PVR,it is doing an average business.

Blaming the film’s poor script and performances for its failure,trade analyst Vinod Mirani says,“7 Khoon Maaf has gained poor collections and is being rejected. The main reason for its failure is that it has no connect. There is no story at all. I would like to know why the lead character is on a killing spree,is it a revenge or is she mad? There is just no link to justify her deeds. Sadly,nothing can save the film,it’s going to get even worse in the coming days. Also it’s 7 Khoon Maaf but there are only six murders as one of her marriages is with Jesus Christ. So many talented actors are playing the husbands,but apart from Irrfan,no one shines in the film. Even the music is bad.” Ask him if the on-going World Cup matches are hampering the film’s success and he says that if a movie is bad then nothing can save it and anyway,who stays at home to watch the game of,say,Kenya with Canada?

Finding the movie disappointing,Rakesh Sippy of the single-screen theatre,Chitra,Mumbai,said that the audiences are not able to connect with 7 Khoon Maaf. He doesn’t blame the ongoing cricket game for the film’s failure and says,“There was a World Cup match on Saturday,but business wasn’t good even on Friday and Sunday.” Manoj Desai of Mumbai’s single-screen Maratha Mandir feels that it is the concept of the film,that is playing the spoil sport as the audiences are unable to understand the reasons for the seven murders. He says that his theatre saw an occupancy of 60 – 70 per cent,thanks to the low rates. “People don’t mind spending Rs 50 – 60 for a flop film.” But he is all praise for Priyanka Chopra and says,“She is fabulous.”