February 26, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): To shake the position of “My Name Is Khan’, which is still minting box-office moolah, the releases this Friday have to be really exceptional to make its way to the audience’s heart. The magic of “3 Idiots’ can’t be ignored either; its long run at the box-office just endorses the fact that audience won’t mind shelling out for good films, irrespective of it being an old release. This gives a tough competition to new weekly releases as happened with “Toh Baat Pakki’ and “Click’ that failed to leave a mark on cine-goers mind, although ‘Click’ has done fairly well, but Tabu’s matrimonial drama fell flat like a house of cards.

With a mild last week, Bollywood boomerangs this Friday to a clash of titans- Farhan Akhtar’s “Karthik Calling Karthik’ pitched against Amitabh Bachchan and Sir Ben Kingsley’s “Teen Patti’ and to a certain extent Salman Khan’s “Prem Kaa Game’, which might edge out the urbane “Teen Patti’ and “Karthik Calling Karthik’ in small centers.

Starting with “Karthik Calling Karthik’, the immense promotion by Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone has brought “Karthik Calling Karthik’ in a comfortable position. The music has already created waves, especially “Uff Teri Ada’. Interesting title and excellent star cast is the unique selling point of this film. Everything seems to be in place “Karthik Calling Karthik’. Now the question remains, will critics and audience approve the content? It’s going to be a litmus test for Vijay Lalwani who is stepping into Bollywood with “Karthik Calling Karthik’.

Next is “Prem Kaa Game’, a film that rides purely on Salman Khan’s name, as rest of the star cast is barely enough to pull a critic, leave alone audience to theater. Arbaaz Khan, Tara Sharma, Madhuri Bhattacharya, Malaika Arora are not enough to get the cine-goers glued to their seats. Bad promotion, in fact no promotion, can be disastrous for the fate of this movie. Nonetheless, if passed by critics it can get some audience here and there and word of mouth might pull off this film from going turkey.

Amitabh Bachchan, Ben Kingsley and R. Madhavan, what else do one need to bring the audience inside a cinema hall? Although, the movie seems to be loosely based on Hollywood venture “21′ still it has a great scope of doing well at box-office. Promos look promising, though the movie has not been promoted as well as “Karthik Calling Karthik’. Amazing star cast, lavish look and promising storyline can work in favor of “Teen Patti’.

-Esha Razdan/ Sampurn Wire