July 24, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Believe it or not but a couple of upcoming actors along with Jimmy Shergill, have crushed Sanjay Dutt’s Lamhaa at the box office. Along with star studded Lamhaa, three small films – Tere Bin Laden, Udaan and Mel Karade Rabba (in Punjabi) clashed with each other at the box office. However, the unthinkable happened with each of the three films succeeding at the box office (in varied degree, of course) with an exception of Lamhaa that got totally whitewashed.

While Tere Bin Laden, a small budget comedy, ended up garnering more than 5 crores in the first week, hence instantly turning out to be a successful venture, Udaan too fared decently by netting over 2 crores. In fact, the promotion of both the films was quite varied with Tere Bin Laden keeping it all aggressive and Udaan being subtle. However, in their own small ways, Tere Bin Laden and Udaan have turned out to be average affairs. Also, they are continuing to be played in few shows at the least which means added moolah on a consistent note for some more days to come.

The biggest surprise though has come from the Punjabi film Mel Karade Rabba which has taken the Punjabi circuits by storm. Whether it is India (Punjab, Haryana) or overseas (Canada, Australia, UK, and US), the film is creating new records by being spoken about in the same vein as Gadar, Singh Is Kinng and believe it or faint, even 3 Idiots. Also, it is not the matter of print average which is doing the talking here. In fact, sheer gross collections are so high that the film has now fetched a blockbuster status for itself in one week flat.

All this means that Lamhaa was pretty much ignored as audience didn’t care for a film that was sold as an “issue based’ outing. Mixed reviews followed minimal word of mouth from audience as well since not many were even aware about the film being released; let aside talking positively or negatively about it. An 8-crore first week means that the film turned out to be an out and out disappointing fare for its makers. A disaster at the box office, it is not expected to find much patronage on home video and satellite circuits as well.

– Joginder Tuteja/ Sampurn Wire