Six months of 2005 have whizzed past us, and most of the year's biggest releases are out. As always, most of them have been abject disappointments, crashing at the box office with a dismal thud. But Bollywood's January-June ride has been quite an interesting one, and quirkier than most of us would have imagined.
The year began with Kisna and Page 3 releasing simultaneously in January, industry prophets laughing it up at Madhur Bhandarkar. To be pitted against a mammoth Subhash Ghai feature isn't the kind of fate any self-respecting indie feature would wish for, but here came the twist.
Page 3, a self-professed 'expose' on Mumbai's glamour-world was lapped up by an eager-to-believe audience, ignoring the tackiness of the film and accepting it as 'different' fare. Gorged on tabloids, an exclusively multiplex audience flocked to see the feature, but -- and here's the twist of the year -- that was enough.
Made on a relatively shoestring budget -- possibly less than the doomed Ghai probably paid his leading man, Vivek Oberoi -- Page 3 proved to be the year's first hit. After his 2000 Yaadein debacle, Kisna's failure is proving hard for Ghai to recover from.
Text: Raja Sen | Design: Uday Kuckian