The Thugs came. They raised ticket prices. They delivered a shoddy film. And we, as the audience, didn’t even bat an eyelid as they looted us in broad daylight. Yash Raj Films’s Thugs Of Hindostan has opened to a reported Rs 52 crore collection on the first day.
The hype around the Aamir Khan-starrer was at its peak, and then the trailer dropped. Understandably, comparisons were drawn between the film and its many reference points. The trailer looked like it was trying to be everything between the Pirates of the Caribbean films, Manoj Kumar’s Kranti, Mangal Pandey and Telugu blockbuster Baahubali, all at once.
#BoxOffice @yrf ‘s @aamir_khan @SrBachchan @fattysanashaikh & #KatrinaKaif starrer #ThugsOfHinduston opens on a massive note.
Day 1 – 5000 screens
Hindi – ₹ 50.75 Cr
Tamil & Telugu – ₹ 1.50 Cr
Total – ₹ 52.25 Cr— Bollywood Hungama (@Bollyhungama) November 9, 2018
On the day of the release, right around when the morning shows got over, there were several jokes about how painful the film is. Twitter can be a mean place, where sentiments aren’t very high on the priority list.
Here’s what some of the reviews had to say about the film.
Source: Film Companion
Source: Hindu
Source: The Wire
Source: Livemint
Source: Film Companion
Of course, there is the usual debate between critical acclaim and ‘massy blockbusters’. But how wide can this dissonance be? Where a film is unanimously panned, that has been called a ‘disappointment’ even by the usually lax Taran Adarsh?
How starry-eyed is the Bollywood audience, who cannot see past the glitter of a ‘big budget film’? That cannot look past the apparent ‘casting coup’ of seeing Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan, share a screen for the first time?
How long before the Bollywood audience stops giving their hard-earned money to such outright terrible films? Not even middling, not even experimental – something so infuriatingly dull. How is it that the audience thinks something so lazy, derivative and plain stupid film deserves more of a chance than something like… say an October or a Tumbbad, that showcase tremendous ambition at a fraction of the budget?
Watching something like Thugs of Hindostan for 400 bucks (10% above usual ticket prices), when we’re not willing to pay for films (that have much more skin on the line) – should be a crime. You’re free to watch it obviously, but it’s been said earlier and it obviously needs repetition – the Bollywood audience needs to understand the responsibility vested in them. The movies they pay to watch, are the kind of movies they commission for the future.
