Chaar Din Ki Chandni collected around 1-1.10 crore nett on Friday taking its total including paid previews to around 1.75 crore nett. The film fared better in North and Gujarat but overall collections were low as promotion was also low key. The film was released on around 700 screens. The approx collections from some circuits are as follows.
Mumbai – 38 lakhs
Delhi/UP – 22 lakhs
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Paan Singh Tomar remained rock steady on its 8th day as it collected around 70-75 lakhs nett which is a similar coillection to its first day. The film should do a second weekend of around 3.50 crore nett as Saturday should see a big jump in collections. The first weekend collections were around 4 crore nett approx.
The film has been well appreciated by its target audience and is settled for a good run as high end multiplexes will keep on screening the film for a few weeks.
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The National Awards results couldn’t have come at a better time! Just when Vidya Balan was in the midst of promoting Kahaani came the news that she has won the Best Actress Award in the 59th edition of the coveted awards. It gave the promotion of Kahaani a bonus push and put Vidya Balan under the spotlight…that too for the right reasons! And the talks of Vidya’s feats will go on for few more days for sure as Kahaani has turned out to be a riveting and mind-blowing thriller! The film has loads of thrill and nail-biting moments to keep you at the edge of the seat. And the suspense just shocks!
The story of the movie: Seven-month pregnant Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) arrives in Kolkata from London to look for her missing husband Arnab Bagchi (Indraneil Sengupta). However, she reaches a dead end when she goes to his workplace and guest house and is told that they have never come across anyone by the name of Arnab Bagchi! The cops too lose hope and feel that it’s better that Vidya returns to London inspite of going around the city and that too when she is just 2 months away from delivery.
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The film had everything that would make it an ultimate success. It’s based in a beautiful palace of Rajasthan filled with funny, quirky, weird and mad characters, some Rajputs and others Punjabis. The director is the one who tickled our funny bones last year with Yamla Pagla Deewana. But alas! Chaar Din Ki Chandni disappoints and how!
The story of the movie: Veer (Tusshar Kapoor) is a Rajput prince who falls in love with Chandni (Kulraj Randhawa) while studying in London. When he returns back to his hometown Khimgarh for the marriage of his sister Divya (Shruti Sharma), he gets Chandni along too. But Veer is so petrified of his father (Anupam Kher) that he lies to him that he and Chandni are just friends and that she’s a journalist who has come to experience and cover a royal wedding. The troubles don’t end here. Veer’s brothers (Sushant Singh, Chandrachur Singh, Mukul Dev) get smitten by Chandni. Veer, on the other hand, tells many more lies to cover up his first lie. How he gets out of the mess is what the film is all about.
When you see actors like Anupam Kher, Johny Lever, Sushant Singh, Chandrachur Singh, Mukul Dev, Amit Mistry and many others together in the film’s promos and first look, you definitely expect the film to be a laugh riot.
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Chaar Din Ki Chandni had a low opening on Friday with a 15-20% turnout. Some centres in the North and Gujarat were a bit better.
Kahaani opened to around 30-35% at multiplexes with some metro multiplexes having collections of 40% plus and it may come out with decent first day on the strength of these multiplexes. The film collected around 75 lakhs nett on paid previews on Thursday.
London Paris New York is a poor fare as it collected around 5.50 crore nett in its first week and collections are very low on its 8th day. FLOP
Paan Singh Tomar picked up after a slow start and held up well throughout the week to collect around 7.50 crore nett. The film was steady on its 8th day as well.
Jodi Breakers collected around 1.50 crore nett in its second week taking its two week total to 9.75 crore nett. FLOP
Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya remained steady with collections around 5.50 crore nett in week two. The two week collections are 17.50 crore nett. ABOVE AVERAGE
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Sujoy Ghosh’s fourth film Kahaani is a mind-juggling medley of manipulation masquerading as a “mother of a story”. Yes there is a story, but maybe not the one you are watching. By the time you are told that, your trust in the tale is too tall to be tricked. And then the blinding revelation is further plunged into a quagmire of emotions to leave you shaken, stirred and oh-so-satisfied!
As the pregnant V/Bidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) touches down in Calcutta, Kahaani takes off like a standard police procedural. She is looking for her missing husband Arnab Bagchi, who had left her in London for a software consultancy project at the National Data Centre in Calcutta.
But as she goes and visits the handful of people who might have met or known him, armed with the six-month-into-the-job local sub-inspector Rana/Satyaki (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), it uncoils into a kahaani with deeper and darker secrets.
Khan (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) from Delhi’s Intelligence Bureau arrives on the scene and tries to use Vidya — a helpless pregnant woman in an alien city — as a bait to dig fresh leads into past crimes. As blood starts getting splattered all around and loyalties go for a toss, Vidya is left with no option but to ekla cholo re to the truth.
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T here’s a story going around about two of the big Khans in Bollywood – Salman and Shah Rukh. As everyone knows, Salman is the most bankable star in the Hindi film industry today with the most number of films that have crossed the `100 crore mark and also that the two stars are no longer on talking terms.
But now, it looks like there’s even competition in their pay scales. The rumour is that Salman called Aditya Chopra to his farmhouse when they approached him for his latest film and when the subject of remuneration came up, he allegedly said he wanted `1 more than what SRK gets!
Since the days of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, and then Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan, there has always been competition between actors on-screen and off screen. The ‘one rupee more, please’ salary issue supposedly existed even then and the south film industries are no different.
Actors who are seen as arch rivals on-screen apparently want to score higher than their competitors even in terms of money. And it’s not large amounts but just a single rupee that can make a difference to their happiness.
At the same time, actors constantly try to woo the favourite producers of other actors.
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John Abraham has been granted bail by the Bombay High Court against a bond of Rs 20,000. This afternoon, the actor was taken into custody after a Mumbai sessions court agreed that he should spend 15 days in jail for rash and negligent driving, a sentence given to him by a lower court in 2010. The Bombay High Court has also suspended the 15 day sentence.
In 2010, he was found guilty of rash and negligent driving for a motorcycle accident in 2006. Mr Abraham, who has starred in movies like Desi Boyz and Dostana, had run into two pedestrians while riding his motorbike in Mumbai. He had rushed them to hospital.
The model-turned-actor has attended all hearings in his case.
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| Thriller
Kahaani is a nifty thriller with an enjoyment quotient that is indirectly proportionate to how long you spend thinking about the plot. If you back-track and try to connect all the dots, the implausibility of the story amplifies – there’s even a piecing-together-the puzzle moment that echoes The Usual Suspects but this riddle isn’t a patch on the intricate web of lies in the Bryan Singer film. However, if you’re willing to think less, there is some fun to be had here.
Kahaani is the story of Vidya Bagchi, a software programmer from London played by Vidya Balan, who is both heavily pregnant and missing a husband. She arrives in Kolkata and heads straight to the police station from the airport – a fact remarked upon by the cab driver who is intrigued and bemused by her. So are the cops. Vidya insists on staying at a seedy guesthouse, which proudly advertises running hot water because the employees include a young boy who runs to the rooms with a kettle of hot water. Vidya is helped in her quest by an earnest cop Rana, played by Parambrata Chattopadhyay. But her husband seems to have disappeared into thin air – there are no school records, no relatives, no immigration records for Arnab Bagchi.
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Rating: 
Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Saswata Chatterjee
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Clutching her stroller-bag in one hand, the other tightly gripping her passport and a bottle of Evian, a very pregnant Vidya Bagchi steps out of Kolkata international airport, and almost immediately appears lost, even as half a dozen cabbies heckle her for business.
Kahaani, written and directed by Sujoy Ghosh, hits the ground running with Vidya Balan playing the helpless Mrs Bagchi, who has arrived from London in search of her missing husband Arnab. With a sympathetic cop helping her on this mission, Vidya combs every corner of Kolkata. But all leads go cold – the guesthouse he was staying at, the National Data Center where he’d been assigned, even the Indian immigration authorities have no records of Arnab Bagchi. When it seems like her husband’s disappearance might be inexplicably linked to a most-wanted terrorist, Vidya pokes her nose around in dangerous places, angering the Intelligence Bureau that is trying desperately to keep some secrets hidden.
Taut and refreshingly original, the script of Kahaani keeps you on your toes with its tendency to throw surprises and twists at every turn. The emphasis here is on the story – who is Arnab Bakshi?
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Rating: 
Cast: Tusshar Kapoor, Kulraj Randhawa, Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Chandrachur Singh, Sushant Singh, Mukul Dev, Anita Raaj, Johnny Lever, Farida Jalal
Director: Samir Karnik
In the good ol’ days, audiences in some places were known to rip cinema seats, and to throw things at the screen if they were offended by the film they were watching. Beware, multiplex owners; that tradition is likely to be revived this week with Chaar Din Ki Chandni. This appalling comedy, directed by Yamla Pagla Deewana’s Samir Karnik is possibly the worst film you’ll see this year…and we’re only in March right now.
The movie’s centered on a Rajput royal (Tusshar Kapoor) who returns from university in London with his girlfriend (Kulraj Randhawa) by his side. Aware that his prejudiced father (Anupam Kher) will never approve of a non-Rajput bride, he introduces her as a journalist assigned to cover his sister’s lavish wedding. Things get complicated when his brothers – all three of them: the alcoholic one (Chandrachur Singh), the angry one (Sushant Singh), and the horny one (Mukul Dev) – fall for his girlfriend, and the situation only gets worse when his father decides to find a suitable groom for her.
About as much fun as plucking your nose hair one by one, Chaar Din Ki Chandni sees fine actors like Anupam Kher and Om Puri engage in what appears to be a contest of hamming.
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Film: Kahaani
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Nawazuddin, Indraneil Sengupta
Rating: ****½
These are good times. Last week, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Paan Singh Tomar gave us a taste of a rare, well-made Bollywood biopic. This week, director Sujoy Ghosh serves up another rare treat — a racy, edge-of-the-seat thriller. When was the last time you saw a Hindi film that had you gripping the popcorn tub tighter than usual, hair standing on end, and mind blown in the end?
Kahaani, about a pregnant woman’s search for her husband in an unknown city, is bloody engaging. It will have your balls in your mouth as you watch it unfold, your heart racing at several points, your mind trying to put together all the pieces of the jigsaw strewn across the film. Unexpected humour comes as a pleasant surprise every now and then; a reprieve from the tension that is palpable. Before you are back to holding on to the edge of your seat, wondering what the next scene will have in store.
All of it builds up to an explosive finale, which will leave you stunned. And then, the pieces will start falling in to place. Much after you watch Kahaani, the film will continue to occupy your mind, as you marvel over how efficiently the story panned out — the kind of film that is enjoyable to re-watch even after you know how it ends.
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Cast:Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Nawazuddin Siddiqe, Indraneil Sengupta, Kharaj Mukherjee, Saswata Chatterjee
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Indian Express Ratings:***
“Not Bidaa, it is Vidya, with a V”. Vidya Bagchi, newly-arrived in Kolkata on a painful quest, comes up slam bang against the one intractable law that governs the city. No Vs, only Bs. No problem, the Bagchi part of her is a feisty B, and she’s here for some answers, and she’s not leabing till she gets them. Her husband has gone missing while on assignment in Kolkata : where is he, why is there no news from him?
‘Kahaani’ gives us not just a woman on the trail of a missing spouse, but a terrorist plot, data-crunching specialists, contract killers, evil moles, salt-of-the-earth guys. And it keeps us guessing, more or less. Which, for a Bollywood thriller, is quite an achievement, even if the terrorist angle turns out to have faintly ludicrous edges. In the first place, Hindi cinema doesn’t really attempt fast-paced thrillers with quite these ingredients, and when it does, they turn out clunky if not plain terrible. If ‘Kahaani’ had managed to keep the edge of suspense as sharp in the second-half, which falls prey to a few improbable plot contrivances and some gratingly explanatory scenes, it would have been very good indeed.
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Cast: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chattopodhyay, Nawaquddin Siddiqui.
Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Length: 2 hours approximately
It is most risky thing to keep audience unaware of what the twists in the film will be. Come to think of it, suspenseful films are very difficult to make. One slight downer, and the whole project goes wrong. yes, one slight mistake and KAHAANI would’ve lost it in very beginning. But its a Thumbs Up to the screenplay and script writers who smartly trafficks the film with enough characters and plot that there is no time to think what will be presented in next few reels. Despite of so many characters the film manages to be convincing and unpredictable till the culmination.
The story revolves around Vidya Balan, but there are many characters right from beginning and each character is so well established and brought up in the story that you’ve no idea who is doing what! KAHAANI is amazing story! The film builts up the background where intense drama and thilling portions are brought in perfect blend. Thankfully, the director doesn’t puts his camera on dramatic woos, rather concentrates heavily on Thriller. Sujoy Ghosh is truly talented as a narrator and he does this film with sheer smartness.
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The concept behind a jigsaw puzzle is most fascinating. Its three-step model involves drawing an intricate picture laden with buried details and fine clues, cutting it into several unrecognizable segments and assembling a jumble that carries a seemingly simple challenge — to fall in place, to make sense.
Suspense thrillers are just the same. But very few films belonging to this genre are able to fit the right piece in the right place. And that’s what makes Sujoy Ghosh’s accomplishment in Kahaani worth all the applause that comes its way.
He builds anticipation and tension without relying too much on the age-old ploy of red herrings or an overwhelming background score. It’s as though he wants his viewer to follow the cues, solve the conundrum on a personal level and entertain every conceivable theory/ wild suggestion that pops in the head. Gratifying, if you nail it and astounding even when you don’t. Either way his refreshing approach is appreciative of his viewer’s intellect and enthusiasm.
Kahaani begins on a chaotic, breathless note with the arrival of a heavily pregnant Vidya Venkatesan Bagchi (Vidya Balan) in the frantic pace of Kolkata [ Images ] (also playing the only protagonist that has more scenes than its brilliant leading lady).
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Director: Sujoy Ghosh
Starring: Vidya Balan
Welcome back Sujoy Ghosh. We thought you were a one film wonder and had consigned you to oblivion after the disaster of Aladin. But Kahaani, a fast, fun, fearless thriller has made up for it.
Kolkata is the star of the film. Kolkata early morning, with people drinking tea, brushing their teeth, waking up from the pavement. Kolkata going home, on the tram, with the obligatory call from ma asking when you will come. Kolkata during pujas, dressing up, and then the melancholic farewell to the goddess. The Anglo Indian secretaries, mocambo restaurant, the little urchins with their precious toys, the ageing slow moving lifts. And into this comes Vidya Balan, just in from London, looking for her missing husband.
Of course, you can sense immediately there is a twist in there somewhere. Vidya’s boots are the giveaway, way too smart for just a wife of a software engineer, as is her obsessive cleaning of her room. There are some obvious loopholes, including a captain who by the end of the movie gets promoted to colonel. But by and large Ghosh keeps the plot ticking. Kolkata, usually shown as a sleepy city of privilege (Parineeta, anyone) comes alive in Ghosh’s hands.
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Check out this funny spoof from Golmaal 3. Love the sets and the background music. 
} – May 20, 10:25 PM } – May 20, 3:47 PM } – May 20, 3:42 PM
1.Pranoy Roy although is highly opiniated atleast allows its guests to talk. 2.Arnab Goswami... } – May 20, 12:43 PM
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