By Joginder Tuteja

There is a surprise in store for all Bollywood fans and followers; though not really a pleasant one. Even as producers and multiplexes continue to play the game of ‘luka chuppi’ not just amongst themselves but also with the audiences, there are a few daring film makers who are going ahead and bringing their movies in theaters this Friday. Now this was a good news. The bad news though is that none of these three releases have witnessed any promotion whatsoever and arrive sans any fanfare.

These movies are ‘Maruti Mera Dosst’, ‘Team - The Force’ and ‘Anubhav’. Ever heard of them? Well, won’t really blame you if you haven’t because while two of these films (’Team - The Force’ and ‘Anubhav’) are dated by a couple of years with the makers showing no inclination in creating any awareness around their projects, the promotion of the third film, ‘Maruti Mera Dosst’, has been patchy at best.

Let’s talk about each of the three films. ‘Maruti Mera Dosst’ is a part Live - part animation film which sees Chandrachur Singh making a comeback to the silver screen. He does so seven years after shooting for his last film ‘Bharat Bhagya Vidhata’ and two years after his last release ‘Sarhad Paar’ (2007).

In this film which is based in current times but has mythical elements involved (with Gods and Demons in full force), Chandrachur Singh towers the cast which includes Ritika Shrivastava, Erik A. Nanda, Sushmita Mukherjee, Murli Sharma, Vindu Dara Singh and Shahbaaz Khan. The film is produced by his brother Abhimanyu Shekhar Singh and directed by first timer Manikya Raju who has also written the story.

In spite of a title like ‘Maruti Mera Dosst’, Chandrachur Singh insists that it is not just a children’s film and caters to audiences across age groups. However, with neither children nor adults being enticed enough till date and the film arriving out of a blue, there are no brownie points for guessing the box office outcome of the film.

Ditto for ‘Anubhav’, which in spite of an interesting subject is releasing two years too late. In the film Sanjay plays a theatre actor who wants to eventually make it big in Bollywood. His life goes for a spin after some unfortunate incidents and he ends up becoming a gigolo (male prostitute). So while he has been a sensitive man, a true lover and a loyal friend all this while, he turns into a person that no one close to have would have ever imagined.

Even though Sanjay Suri insists that the film’s subject isn’t really dark and there is also Gul Panag too for company, prospects of ‘Anubhav’ look pretty bleak.

Which brings me to the third release of the week - ‘Team - The Force’. A couple of years back, when the film was ready for release, it could have been a safe preposition considering it’s mix of action and comedy.

The film has been ready for close to two years and there was a time when the promos were on the air as well. But before catching up on momentum, they suddenly disappeared and the film went into cold storage. For reasons known to the film’s producer duo of Manoj Chaturvedi and Sanjay Chaturvedi, the film never made it to theaters then.

Now the film is being revived since the producers v/s multiplexes strike is hardly showing any signs of coming to an end and theaters are starved of any new releases. Not that ‘Team - The Force’ would suddenly turn out to be the ‘Om Shanti Om’ for the multiplexes but anything ‘masala’ coming to theaters is most welcome.

Directed by Ajay Chandok and starring Sohail Khan and Amrita Arora in the lead roles with Yash Tonk paired opposite Aarti Chhabria, this film which also features Vrajesh Hirjee, Mushtaq Khan, Sayaji Shinde, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Shahbaaz Khan, has comparatively better chances of doing some reasonable business when compared with ‘Maruti Mera Dosst’ and ‘Anubhav’. -Sampurn Media