June 21, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): It was always meant to be an inconsequential release and this is exactly what happened in the case of “Ek Second… Jo Zindagi Badal De?’ which didn’t even take off, let aside crashing through its course. The film saw zilch audience and went almost unnoticed even in cities where it did release. There was a struggle for its makers to procure an all-India release and even at centers where it did arrive, there were only a few oddly places shows allocated to the film.

Result? A disastrous outing at the box office where the collections struggled to reach even one crore mark. For a medium budget movie with decent production values, ‘Ek Second… Jo Zindagi Badal De?’ has been a loss making venture for all. The one who may be mourning least though is Manisha Koirala who got married soon after the release of the film. Of course this can’t be planned because ‘Ek Second… Jo Zindagi Badal De?’ is hardly the kind of film which an actor would wish to be called her swan song. The actress is good enough at demonstrating far better histrionics and one definitely expects one final strike that she would make. Would a brief appearance in one of the short stories of Onir’s ‘I Am’ turn out to be that one memorable performance? Let’s wait and watch.

While the fact cannot be denied that this poorly made film has only added to the pile of disasters at the box office, there is a theory going around the industry circles. As per that, the film was doomed since it starred ’senior actors’ like Jackie Shroff and Manisha Koirala, there were no takers. I disagree. A film can definitely do well if it has a set of committed actors who bring on the fire in them to perform well. Add to that a reputed banner, great content and terrific pre-release buzz and we could well have audiences longing to watch a film with senior actors as well.

Yes, agreed that it has been ages since Manisha Koirala and Jackie Shroff did something worthwhile. Also, Partho Ghosh is a spent force. Still, given a good setup (which ‘Ek Second… Jo Zindagi Badal De?’ didn’t boast of), a film with veteran actors can do well too. Remember Manisha’s own debut film ‘Saudagar’ which had Dilip Kumar and Raj Kumar palying the central protagonists?

-Joginder Tuteja/Sampurn Wire