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By Joginder Tuteja ©2005 Bollyvista.com |
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A Still from Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal |
Ditto seems to be the case of 'God-Knows-When-Would-It-Release ‘Taj Mahal’ -another mega movie by Akbar Khan. The filmmaker has every resource available to him. A period drama, which if presented well, can turn out to be blockbuster. The recent success of 'Mughal-E-Azam' reinstates the faith that timeless romance is here to stay. Gigantic sets, a 50 crore plus budget and Naushad Saab’s music where present but still due to some reasons unknown, the only promos on the screen are song ‘n’ dance routines that are hardly interesting for today's audience looking for something more. Even in the case of Mughal-E-Azam's re-release, the focus was on dialogues and crisp promos rather than anything else. Then why, in the case of Taj Mahal, all one sees is a 30-second song sequence that fails to strike a chord? For a massive movie like this, it should have been an all out publicity campaign with promos flooding the screens. Sadly, that was missing. For a 50- crore movie, it is for sure a major risk because what one wants is not just a money spinning weekend but a few weeks at a stretch!
'Waqt' starring Big B and Akshay Kumar is another one of the movies that is being promoted well but still not in a way that would result in an earth-shattering response at the box office. Yes, the song and talkie promos are being mixed up well. In fact, the songs have been received well by the music lovers. But that zing which one expects from an Amitabh-Akshay-Priyanka starrer is surprisingly missing. What could have been the first blockbuster of the year 2005 seems to be just heading towards an above average to good opening. The earlier promos were good but somehow the comic trailers featuring Amitabh, Boman Irani and Rajpal Yadav in various situations have not really tickled any funny bones across all segments. This also seems to be a hurried up effort to camouflage the family melodrama, which in fact the movie is really all about. Just because some segments of the industry want to write off the movie as a tearjerker (and hence this effort to project a movie in different light), doesn’t mean that the makers need to move away from the theme. All said and done, the first time when Big B and Akshay came together was in 'Ek Rishta', a family drama that was received quite well by the audience. The same should hold good for ‘Waqt’ and the makers should go back to the movie’s USP! |
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