August 30, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Neil Nitin Mukesh can smile. His ‘Lafangey Pardiney’, though not a stupendous hit by any means, has managed to cover its costs at least. For a film that came with limited hype and a director (Pradeep Sarkar) who wasn’t really trusted by many to deliver goods, ‘Lafangey Parindey’ has managed to Nett 17 crores in it’s first week. Now this is definitely good money and also the second best ever for Neil after ‘New York’ which also had star attraction of John Abraham and Katrina Kaif and was of course a much better film.

However, for Neil, what is heartening is to enjoy his first solo success after ‘Jail’, ‘Aa Dekhen Zara’ and ‘Johnny Gaddar’. Rest assured, his ‘Lafangey Parindey’ would cross the combined total of the aforementioned three films, none of which were theatrical successes. The young actor would still be pining for more though as ‘Lafangey Parindey’ still falls way short of the kind of collections that his closest contemporaries like Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan and Shahid Kapoor are enjoying.

For Deepika Padukone though, it is a continuation of some good luck after ‘Housefull’. Still, this performance oriented film wasn’t as critical for her as Neil since she has “Break Ke Baad’ and “Khelein Hum Jeen Jaan Se’ lined up as well.

Yash Raj Films have managed an average success with ‘Lafangey Parindey’ but in their hearts, they would be expecting something big in future. For the production house which has prided in making landmark cinema with some of the topmost box office records to their name, the last thing they would want is to make films that turn profitable more due to controlled economics (As has happened in case of ‘Lafangey Parindey’) rather than appreciation worthy content.

– Joginder Tuteja / Sampurn Wire