Listed multiplex majors like PVR and Inox Leisure took a beating in the stock markets on Friday even as the benchmark indices clocked marginal gains. 

The losses of the multiplex majors were primarily on account of reports of a weak opening for Brahmastra, a multi-starer movie made at a cost of over ₹400 crores and one which was expected to break Bollywood’s run of flops. 

Shares of PVR lost 5.27 percent or ₹101.95 to end the day at ₹1,834.15. During intra-day trades, the shares hit a low of ₹1,825.90. Similarly, Inox Leisure saw its shares tumble nearly five percent or ₹25.70 to close at ₹494.40. 

More importantly, the lackluster opening of Brahmastra which boasts of a star cast including Amitabh Bachchan, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Nagarjuna, and a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan cost the investors of the two companies a combined loss of nearly ₹940 crore – the cumulative loss in market capitalization of the two listed multiplex companies. 

Market experts believe the huge hit taken by the multiplex majors was also because there were high hopes riding on the big-budget movie and it was expected that it would have put an end to the series of flops of Bollywood movies after high-profile productions including Laal Singh Chaddha and Shamshera. 

Incidentally, PVR and Inox Leisure reported a combined record ₹883 crore quarterly net box office collections in April-June 2022. That’s a 19 percent jump from the ₹743 crores, the two multiplexes made through net box office collections in April-June 2019. 

FY20 numbers are taken as the benchmark for comparison as the pandemic affected the movie exhibition business badly.   

It was also the highest-ever quarterly net box office collections for both PVR (₹530 crores) and Inox Leisure (₹353 crores) with back-to-back blockbusters from the South - RRR and KGF: Chapter 2 – playing a key role. 

For instance, KGF: Chapter 2 (across all languages) accounted for ₹121.4 crores of PVR’s ₹530 crore net box office collection, making the Kannada film PVR’s all-time highest grosser. 

‘Mujhe iss astra ki shakti ka ehsaas hai Scientist sahab’ – says Junoon, the antagonist of Brahmastra, played by the fierce Mouni Roy. For a moment, this line seemed like a reference to Sonakshi Sinha’s iconic ‘Thappad se darr nahi lagta sahab’ dialogue from Dabangg. It is impossible to imagine an antagonist as dangerous as Junoon, who is on a killing spree to get the most dangerous weapon known to mankind, addressing the scientist who holds a part of that weapon as ‘Sahab’. This is one of the many areas where Brahmastra, which otherwise is a visual spectacle and had the potential to be an intriguing fantasy film, falters.

Brahmastra does have good moments. They appear as sudden bursts of brilliance in between scenes that are monotonous and marred by poor writing. One such memorable moment is when Isha (Alia Bhatt) breaks into an impromptu dance to the iconic Chikni Chameli as Shiva (Ranbir Kapoor) joins her in a kids' party, that too on Diwali with a very short dress. It's like shouting in the face of the audience that we are coming baby and we will destroy your future generation, else what was the use of dancing on 3rd song with minor kids? There is also a high-octane chase sequence featuring one of Junoon’s ‘killers’ which will keep you on the edge of your seat. The VFX, too, is on-point and the sets are as grand and magical as they can get. Ayan’s vision is truly brought to life on the celluloid but sadly, it is the script and the writing which is the hamartia of Brahmastra, the hero all of us hoped would revive Bollywood.

For starters, Brahmastra doesn’t get its nomenclature right. As a fantasy film that borrows much of its themes and backstory from ancient Indian mythology and the legends of Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh, one would expect the writers to stick to using Hindi words to address characters and symbols. The usage of Love Storiya in Kesariya was only the tip of the iceberg. When we see Shiva and Isha discuss the astras, they talk of ‘light’ many times. “Jab andhera ho, light ko dhundho,” says Shiva.

The usage of the word ‘light’ looks misplaced and frankly, jarring. One wonders why the writers didn’t go for the Hindi word for the light which would have been appropriate. The film addresses SRK and Nagarjuna’s characters as ‘scientist’ and ‘artist’ – which, again, seems off-putting, especially during crucial fight sequences when killers call them ‘Ae, scientist!’. Of course, we aren’t told why the characters are called ‘scientists’ and ‘artists’ because we don’t really see them do research or anything creative.

The usage of correct nomenclature in a fantasy film is crucial. Unfortunately, Brahmastra doesn’t get this bit right.

The shoddy dialogue writing ruins some of the best action and dramatic sequences of the film. “Aap Brahmansh ki membership aise de rahe ho jaise Diwali ka double dhamaaka offer’ – says Shiva to Guru (played by Amitabh Bachchan) who is the leader of Brahmansh, a secret society meant to guard Brahmastra. The usage of the word ‘membership’ to refer to the induction of Shiva into the secret society takes away from the seriousness of the scene. Dialogues like the one above are plenty and honestly make one wonder if even the film takes itself seriously. “Mera kuch rishta hai aag se”, “bandar ko number dogi” and “scientist ki payal” are some other examples of similar phrases used by characters who, honestly, seem chuckle-worthy and illicit laughs after a while.

Fall of Alia Bhatt

Blunders and misfit dialogues aside, the most painful part in Brahmastra was seeing Alia Bhatt, unarguably the best actress of our generation, reduced to a prop. Alia, who has essayed the role of Sehmat, a freedom fighter in Raazi and the courageous and incorrigible Gangu in Gangubai Kathiawadi, plays Isha who is best described as a damsel-in-distress. Isha’s entire existence is based around Shiva, her love interest. We don’t really know what was Isha’s motivation behind following Shiva to Varanasi. What was in it for her? Why did she put her life on the line for a boy she met only a few days ago? We don’t really see her grow as a character in the film and sadly, the sole purpose of Isha’s existence is to make Shiva’s life convenient. She acts as his driver, caretaker and at one point, goes back to his home to get his clothes while he ‘trains’ at the Ashram. One cannot help but wonder why Alia went for a role as inconsequential as that of Isha who serves little-to-no purpose in the grand scheme of things.

All in all, Brahmastra is best described as a visual spectacle which is hollow and lacks depth. It has cinematic brilliance and good visual effects but lacks soul and fails to make the audience feel for its characters.

Day 1 collection of Karan Johar’s Brahmastra 

The first-day collection of the movie, which is said to have been made on a whopping Rs 450 crore budget, grossed around 35-36 crore nett in all its versions. Trade website BoxOfficeIndia.com has reported Brahmastra’s collection at around Rs 35-36 crore. This is being considered the highest opening day on a non-holiday for original Hindi content.

Brahmastra is the most expensive Hindi film ever made at 450 crores, breaking the record of Thugs Of Hindostan which was made at a cost of around 310 crores. Incidentally, Thugs of Hindostan earned around 52.5 crores on its opening day.

In comparison to these numbers and statistics for Brahmastra, Prashanth Neel’s KGF 2, starring South star Yash in the lead role of Rocky, not only grossed more at the box office but was also produced on one-fourth the budget of Brahmastra.

According to reports, KGF- Chapter 2 which was made on a budget of Rs 100 crore, collected Rs 134.50 crore in India and Rs 164 crore worldwide on the first day of its release. The Hindi version raked in Rs 53.95 crore at the box office on the first day, making it the highest opening day collection for a film in Hindi.

So if the budget and the first-day collection of these two movies are compared, KGF-2 emerges as the clear winner, as it not only grossed a higher first-day collection than Bramhastra but was also made on one-fourth of the budget giving it a clear edge.

King-sized disappointment: Karan Johar’s Brahmastra fails to impress

Notably, Karan Johar’s movie Brahmastra, which is now in theatres, failed to make an impression on film critics and reviewers despite all of the hype surrounding it. Well-known film critic Taran Adarsh took to Twitter on Friday to review the movie. He completely wrote off the movie and called it a ‘king-sized disappointment’. Giving the Ayan Mukherjee directorial movie a two out of five-star rating, Adarsh said that the film was ‘low on content’. He opined that the movie was ‘all gloss, no soul’.

Taran Adarsh was not the only one who was unimpressed with the movie. Many other movie reviewers and media houses gave the movie abysmal ratings ranging from 2 to 3.5 stars out of 5.

Financial Express went on to take a dig at the movie by calling it a ‘film for kids’. “Brahmastra review: Ayan Mukherji’s Rs 410 crore grand vision ends up becoming a film for kids!”, read the headline of Financial Express’ report reviewing the big-budget movie.

In fact, moments after the bad reviews of the movie started to appear, the stock price of major multiplex chains in the country started to fall. According to estimates, PVR and INOX, the two major listed theatre chains, lost over Rs 800 crore in market capitalisation on Friday. The stocks had started to gain in recent days, but they crashed on September 9, coinciding with the release of Brahmastra.

Karan Johar’s movie faces boycott calls

For the unversed, Karan Johar’s Brahmastra has been facing trouble ever since its trailer premiered. It came under attack after its lead actress Alia Bhatt also told people that they were under no compulsion to watch her movie. Besides, a video of actor Ranbir Kapoor, who is playing the protagonist in the movie, surfacedwhere he said he was a beef-eating foodie. This too attracted a lot of criticism. To add fuel to the fire, the Hinduphobic tweets of Dharma Productions’ Development Executive Shreemi Verma also went viral on social media.

With the screenshots of her anti-Hindu tweets, netizens started to post on Twitter that she is associated with Dharma Productions, and linked to the upcoming movie Brahmastra. Netizens called for a boycott of the movie for its association with such a Hinduphobic person. She eventually deactivated her account to control the backlash of her remarks.

Audience Reactions

References:

• msn.com
• firstpost.com - Author tweets at @Deepansh75
• opindia.com