September 1, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): When Karan Johar would have got the team of Kajol and Kareena together, he would have imagined a jackpot in hand for all the right reasons. After all a combination like this would have been the dream of many a film maker out there. However he wouldn’t have imagined a certain Salman Khan to come up with a ‘Dabangg’ in close vicinity.

One doesn’t encounter such a situation so often but somehow, the entire attention of the audience, industry as well as trade is towards ‘Dabangg’ today. This means that from opening standpoint, ‘We Are Family’ would have to be content with 50% - 60% start since many out there are expected to save their money for the big Eid release.

However, star power coupled with brand value of Dharma Productions means that if the film by itself is good enough, it would manage a quick increase in collections. Also, since the film has released a day earlier (Due to Janamashtmi holiday), a quick revival is pretty much on the cards with collections expected to become better from Friday to Sunday, hence ensuring a healthy total. However, for that, the underlining requirement is for the film to be really good.

There are a couple of small films as well which are releasing alongside ‘We Are Family’, though on Friday. ‘Mallika’ is a horror thriller and even though it stars Sameer Dattani, the focus has entirely been on debutant Sheena Nayyar. The makers are playing the formula of ’sex and horror’ coming together in right dose and at the least have promoted the film decently, unlike a ‘Help’ that didn’t make any noise whatsoever.

Low budget of ‘Mallika’ coupled with pre - sales of satellite rights, have ensured that the film has to do just about decent business at the box office to sail smoothly. However, anything more than 25% - 30% start is ruled out. As for ‘The Film Emotional Atyachar’ (yes, that’s the name of the film), it has been a strange case of a movie not able to find any genre slotting for itself despite a month long promotion (in limited dose though).

The film has Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak as the star attraction with Kalki (of ‘Dev D’ fame) being the lone female around. However, the promos have been downright tacky and the content doesn’t give any idea whatsoever about the film. One just assumes that there would be something surprisingly good about the film to cheer about but as of now, there are no hopes of any face saving opening at all. In any case, each of these films has only a week to play around before ‘Dabangg’ takes over the screens from next week on.

– Joginder Tuteja / Sampurn wire