There were two distinct films that releases this Friday - Madgaon Express and Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. While the former is a quirky comedy, latter is a biopic. Both the films have an altogether different target audience base, though they are primarily catering to the multiplexes. In fact, both the films saw a restricted release for themselves, though former was relatively more widespread.
Let’s talk about Madgaon Express first. The film is an oddball comedy and if one thought that the trailer was crazy, then one has to check out the film to know where does it actually go. With Divyenndu, Pratik Gandhi and Avinash Tiwary as the leading men, all of whom are popular faces on OTT, it was always going to be audience word of mouth as the deciding factor when it comes to theatrical response.
Moreover, the film is also the directorial debut of Kunal Kemmu, and hence it could have surprised either ways. Hence, the opening of the film is at par with Rs. 1.63 crores coming in. Yes, Rs. 2 crores would have had a good ring to it but that shortfall should be taken care of today and tomorrow once good jumps come in.
As for Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, it has pleasantly surprised. Directorial debut of yet another actor, Randeep Hooda, it also features him in the central role. A polished product which goes into good details, something that doesn’t really happen for many a biopic, this one also managed to take a fair enough opening that was on the expected lines. Anything over Rs. 1 crore would have been some sort of start for the film and here it has managed to get Rs. 1.10 crores on a very small release. One now waits to see how the audience word of mouth turns out to be for the film because the collections would need to double up more, considering there is good budget spent here.
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
