‘Ponman’ box office collections day 1: Basil Joseph’s film mints Rs 75 lakhs

Basil Joseph’s second outing this year, ‘Ponman’ has started its journey at the box office and the first-day collections look decent.According to the Sacnilk website, ‘Ponman’ collected Rs 75 lakhs (early estimates) on its opening day from India. With positive reviews pouring in, the Basil Joseph starrer is expected to mint more numbers at the box office with a good hold in cinemas.Regarding occupancy rates, ‘Ponman’ had an overall 19.75 percent occupancy on day 1, Thursday with morning shows at 14.93 percent, afternoon shows at 14.29 percent, evening shows at 18.56 percent, and night shows at 31.22 percent. Even though the buzz for the film was low, the occupancy rates and the box office collections look decent.Directed by Jothish Shankar, ‘Ponman’, starring Basil Joseph in the lead, is adapted from the novel named ‘Nalanchu Cheruppakar’ penned by GR Indugopan. The story revolves around the gold dealer PP Ajesh who lends 25 sovereigns of gold to Bruno’s family for his sister’s wedding. Lijomol Jose plays the female lead character in the film.ETimes rated the film with a solid 4.5 out of 5 and our review reads, “The film is also filled with beautiful lines that combine humanity, humour and philosophy, like when a friend, Markhandaya Sharma, tells Bruno about how life is about a balance or when Ajesh tell Bruno about surviving and surging ahead in life. It will having you laughing and move you to tears. The actors are all at their brilliant best. Basil Joseph brings Ajesh’s pain and grit to life; we want to hug him, be his friend, help him. He is superb. Lijo Mol puts heart into a difficult character. Sajin Gopu, Anand Manmadan, Deepak Parambol have all done their part to bring perfection to their character.”