Two distinct films release this Friday - Rocketry - The Nambi Effect and Rashtra Kavach OM. While former caters to the class audiences, latter is targeted at the masses. The Madhavan starrer has been in the news for a couple of years since it took its time to be made due to extensive detailing and then was waiting for the right release date to arrive. On the other hand Aditya Roy Kapur’s film was made during the pandemic and has still emerged as a big screen action affair.
Let’s talk about Rocketry - The Nambi Effect first. The Madhavan directed, produced and enacted film has seen one of the most sustained marketing and promotional campaigns devised as it stayed in news right through with multiple screenings happening abroad as well as in India. It has found attention amongst the critics as well as those in the parliament, and as luck would have it, there is a lot happening in the life of India’s space scientist Nambi Narayan as well, on whom the film is based. This is some coincidence indeed which has ensured that the real life hero stays in headlines too. The film is already fetching some good early reviews and is set to grow well from Friday over the weekend.
On the other hand Rashtra Kavach OM is a raw & stylised action drama which has an old school charm around ‘baap ka badla’ coming together with new age action theme and a Rambo feel to it as well. Aditya Roy Kapur had scored a decent success with his last theatrical arrival Malang which was an action affair as well and this time he seems to have gone even further ahead with this Ahmed Khan production where he has Sanjana Sanghi for company as the leading lady. With Jackie Shroff in a key role as well, the film has been put together as a true masala entertainer and should cater to the single screens.
Things have changed pre-pandemic to now and while both films could have opened in the range of Rs. 3-4 crores each back in time, for now a start of Rs. 75 lakhs – Rs. 1 crore each seems more plausible. There isn’t any major competition in sight for them so if any or both films turn out to be truly exciting then jumps over the weekend amongst their respective target audiences could take them through.
