The hype exceeds the end-product. No matter how impressive the visuals, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way Of Water would find it hard to meet viewers’ expectations. While the advance booking (which opened almost a month ago) has been reasonably decent in the metros, the response so far to Cameron’s belated sequel in the smaller cities has been underwhelming.
In Indore a multiplex chain’s personnel revealed on Thursday evening, “We’re hoping for audiences to wake up to the Avatar magic when the film opens tomorrow. Abhi toh thanda hai (right now it’s cold).”
Interestingly the ticket bookings for the dubbed Hindi version of Avatar are far better in the non-metros than the English versions.
The length of the film, 3 hours and 12 minutes, could be a factor affecting Avatar’s box office performance. Post-Covid so many Indian and foreign films have a running-time close to three hours when in fact the audience has lost its appetite for lengthy films during the pandemic.
If Avatar works in India and the rest of the world as well as it is expected to, the credit must go to the special effects company Weta FX as well.
Karan Johar and Shashank Khaitan’s Govinda Naam Mera streaming on Disney-Hotstar, is actually a trippy and fun film which pays a winking tribute to Sriram Raghavan’s AndhaDhun. And it is for this reason that this Vicky Kaushal-Kiara Advani starrer has been put straight to the OTT platform.
The comparisons with AndhaDhun were the reason why Govinda Naam Mera was kept out of the cinemas. But this quirky crazy comedy runs on its own legs. Comparing Govinda Naam Mera to AndhaDhun is like comparing Sholay to Chupke Chupke. Different strokes for different folks.
Disney+Hotstar seeks to further strengthen its OTT clout after Kartik Aaryan’s Freddy which has been the best-performing OTT Hindi feature film premiere on their platform in recent times.
