New releases disappoint. Maiden week before Agneepath

Two weeks and there are no signs of success at the Bollywood box-office in 2012. This would continue for another week with no releases before Agneepath strikes.
Of the multiple movie releases this Friday, none managed to attract the audiences. Hriday Shetty's Chaalis Chauraasi looked promising for its impressive performance-oriented cast comprising of names like Naseeruddin Shah, Kay Kay Menon, Ravi Kishan and Atul Kulkarni.However under weak direction and an uneventful script, this crime-comedy which had the potential to be a great film, ended up being mediocre stuff. The film failed to work any magic at the box-office.
Shiny Ahuja's comeback vehicle Ghost turned out to be a horrific film with its clich��d plot and awful direction. An outdated face-horror like this failed to click even with fans of horror genre cinema. Ghost has flop written all over it.
The third release was a rather low-budget film with an entirely new cast - Sadda Adda. Though it had an interesting premise, the direction and performances were quite average and the film went unnoticed at the box-office. The last release Tutiya Dil had an even worse fate with no takers.
Meanwhile Players fell badly in week 2 and can be easily tagged as a flop. Despite lack of strong competition, the high-budget multi-starrer failed to pick up at the box-office in its second week. Too much harm was done by then.
Two weeks and there are no signs of success at the Bollywood box-office in 2012. This would continue for another week, not because there are dull releases but because there are no releases at all. The coming Friday sees a maiden week pretty early in 2012 which is strange because the preceding week had no big release as such that the box-office would ask for a breather.
Trade circles explain that there are no releases because Karan Johar's much ambitious Agneepath starring Hrithik Roshan and Sanjay Dutt is releasing one day in advance on the public holiday of Thursday, January 26, 2012 - Republic Day. However that doesn't make much sense either because in present times, the fate of a film is decided by its business till Monday. Anyway, all you movie-lovers will have to take it easy - this is what you call the lull before the storm.
Top Hindi Films this Week
Film: Players
Position: 1
Director: Abbas-Mustan
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Neil Mukesh, Sonam Kapoor
Upside: Interesting theme, thrilling train-robbery in first half,
Downside: Poor performances, predictable suspense, average direction, too many loopholes
Running Week: 1
Box-Office Verdict: Flop
Film: Chaalis Chauraasi
Position: 2
Director: Hriday Shetty
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Kay Kay Menon, Ravi Kishan, Atul Kulkarni
Upside: Interesting cast and theme
Downside: One-dimensional plot, uneventful script, dull direction, good potential underused
Running Week: 1
Trade Comments: Despite a cast comprising performance-oriented actors, the film failed to click even with the parallel-cinema audience because of its dull direction.
Film: Ghost
Position: 3
Director: Puja Jatinder Bedi
Cast: Shiny Ahuja, Sayali Bhagat
Upside: Practically nothing
Downside: Clich��d plot, corny treatment, not scarring, ugly face horror
Running Week: 1
Trade Comments: The outdated face-horror flick failed to draw in audiences.
Film: Sadda Adda
Position: 4
Director: Muazzam Beg
Cast: Bhaumik Sampat, Karanvir Sharma, Parimal Aloke
Upside: Interesting theme, good story, Average to above average acts
Downside: Poor direction, immature treatment
Running Week: 1
Trade Comments: With no face-value or promotions and average content, the film almost went unnoticed at the box-office