This week the traditional Friday battle at the box office is assimilated on the streaming platform. There are two fairly big OTT premiers this week: debutant director Shantanu Bagchi’s Mission Majnu on Netflix and Marathi director Tejas Vijay Deoskar’s Chhatriwali on Zee5 are both about protection.
In Mission Majnu Sidharth Malhotra protects the country against our neighbour. In Chhatriwali Rakul Preet Singh champions the cause of contraceptives.
A woman selling condoms… wait, that has already been done in Janhit Mein Jaari quite recently. That film was out of theatres before one could figure out the correct spelling of its leading lady’s name Nushrratt Bharuccha.
Rakul Preet Singh in Chhatriwali (condoms are euphemistically know as chhatris) comes across relatively tame, over-bedecked and way too glamorized to be taken seriously in her sermonizing.
Sidharth Malhotra and Rashmika Mandanna in Mission Majnu are placed in a far more interesting plot. There is a certain dramatic momentum in this crossborder thriller-romance that should give Netflix a weekend of eyeballs.Thereafter, it is Shah Rukh Khan and Pathaan all the way.
The advance bookings have opened to an encouraging response. Shah Rukh Khan’s fans are whipping up a frenzy of anticipation. Whether Pathaan lives up to those expectations remains to be seen. The one thing we can say with full certainty is that Raj Kumar Santoshi’s desperate attempts to get noticed during the same week as Pathaan with his film on Mahatma Gandhi’s killer entitled Gandhi Godse Ek Yudh seem weird.
There is really no yudh here.
