If it holds ground this week, will be a genuine success.
By Tathagata Mitra
BANGALORE: Tiger Shroff’s so much talked about Heropanti is the polar opposite of Himesh Reshammiya’s The Xpose. How, you say? It’s simple. While Himesh’s The Xpose were lauded by critics but received a very poor response at the box office Tiger Shroff’s Heropanti is a film the critics would like to forget as soon as possible, but nonetheless people are watching it in hordes, making it the highest grosser releasing this weekend.
Opening in more than 2000 screens all across India, Heropanti earned about Rs. 6.50 crores on its first day, and about 13 crores after its second day, leaving behind the Hindi version of Rajnikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan: The Legend, and Hollywood’s X-Men: Days of the Future Past which earned 10.5 crores in its two days. Shroff’s Heropanti has the fifth highest opening in 2014 for any Bollywood film, after Jai Ho, 2 States, Gunday and Ragini MMS 2.
Analysts say that the movie’s earnings are expected to grow on Sunday, brining in the sum total to about 20 crores, which is good enough for the low budget film that Heropanti is, and if it hold its ground during the weekday it could become a success.
However, the critics have a completely different opinion of this debutant couple led old school action film. To most of them, the hero, Shroff lacked acting skills, the story lacks sense, and the film lacks a great many things.
Faheem Ruhani of India Today has written, “After watching this film, you genuinely feel bad that one of industry’s nicest man Jackie Shroff’s son had to mark his Bollywood debut with something as asinine as Heropanti. The over two-hour long film is an assault on your senses with a stereotypical treatment borrowed from the movies of 80s and 90s.
“Boy looks at girl. Boy falls for girl. Girl’s father growls. Boy scowls. Girl howls. And I’m left sobbing into my popcorn,” said Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express. “Tiger has a fine set of ripped muscles which he shows off in shirtless scenes. He does a good job of wiping blood off his chin, and holding off goons. He can do action, sure. But you are also required to say your lines and romance your girl: did no one think of those crucial things?”
However, not all critics are trying to shoot Tiger down.
Sweta Kushal of The Hindustan Times has compared the arrival of Tiger to that of the action classics of Salman and Akshay. She wrote, “Watching Heropanti makes you think of Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar entertainers (Khiladi 786, Dabangg, Wanted and every other film where the hero plays the unrealistically good man disguised as a bad one!), but with a lot of decency.”