'Fanaa' to rake in Rs 12 crore in its first week of release

New Delhi, May 27 (UNI) Aamir Khan's latest release 'Fanaa' may be in the eye of a storm for one reason or another and some film critics may have shredded the film to pieces on day one of its release for its ''meandering script and storyline'', but the Yash Chopra's new veture is virtually laughing all its way to the bank.

If trade sources are to be believed the flick has already set the cash registers jingling and grossed around Rs four crore on the very first day of its release with cinema halls across the country except Gujarat exhibiting the enterprise showing 'House Full' in all the shows. Movie collections are expected to cross the Rs 12-crore figure in the first week of its release itself, the sources informed.

Yash Raj Banner released 650 prints of the film across the country except Gujarat with Mumbai alone witnessing 60 single screen theatres exhibiting the venture.

Film critic and distributor Amod Mehra told UNI that the film earned Rs one crore in Mumbai alone on day one of its release.

Film critic Taran Adarsh said the film's opening was unprecedented and something rarely seen in the recent past.

Some multiplexes in the country ran as many as ten shows in the day and still the tickets of the films are rare to get, leaving many ardent fans of Aamir Khan and Kajol dejected and disappointed. But the film lost around Rs three crore in Gujarat as it could not be screened there following the saffron party's ban on it over Aamir Khan's remarks on the Narmada dam issue and the Narendra Modi government regarding recent violence in Vadodra.

Meanwhile, going by the reactions of viewers and trade critics, expectations from the film were mammoth and gargantuan but the flick could not live up to them due to its ''meandering storyline and script''. With this film, according to critics, a new trend has begun with everybody heaping praises on Kajol's performance and it is almost the first time a married actress staging a comeback has come in for many an encomium.

Earlier, Reena Roy, Bhagyashree, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Rati Agnihotri and Padmini Kolhapure staged a comeback but they were eventully relegated to roles of 'Maa or Bhabhi'(mother or sister-in-law), and now it seems a new beginning as the character and acting of the 32-year-old Kajol, who made her debut in 'Bekhudi' in 1992, in 'Fanaa' has been well received and lapped up by the viewersand some even bracketing her with Hollywood Julia Roberts who after losing sheen in her career staged an emphatic comeback in 'Erin Brockovich'.

Though filmmaker Karan Johar had offered her a very meaty role in his forthcoming film 'Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna' opposite Shah Rukh Khan, with whom she has given many a blockbuster like 'Karan Arjun', 'Baazigar', 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' and 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge', she turned down the offer and instead decided to stage a comeback opposite SRK's arch rival Aamir Khan in 'Fanaa'.

Kajol's performance in her last film 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gam' was lauded by one and all and after that she made a four-second appearance in Karan Johar's 'Kal Ho Na Ho' also , but post the birth of her daughter Nysa she went into complete hibernation and unofficially said 'goodbye' to the tinseltown.

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