My Pre-Release Thoughts on Radhe
(NOTE: ALL box office collections mentioned in this article are nett box office collections of India only).
There used to be a time that when Salman Khan's film was about to release on Eid, I would start my prediction article for the film by writing about the monumental Blockbusters Salman has been delivering on Eid the years prior to that year.
No such beginning today. Instead, it's now become important to start my article by highlighting the many underperformers of Salman on Eid in recent years:
-Tubelight: A huge underperformer. Whereas Salman/Kabir's prior film Bajrangi Bhaijaan did 315 cr, this film only collected 114 cr, making it a box office DUD.
-Race 3: Huge underperformer, given that Salman already had 3 films prior to this film that crossed the 300 cr mark. This film reached 160 crores, riding solely on Salman's starpower, despite being a film that was ridiculed by one and all, with classic dialogues such as "isse Dil khol ke nahin, Dell khol ke dikhao" and of course...."our business is our business, none of your business"
-Bharat: Another huge underperformer. Whereas the trio of Salman/Katrina/Ali Abbas Zaffar gave Tiger Zinda Hai in 2017 which collected 339 cr, Bharat only collected 197 cr.
Of course, I can't forget to mention Dabangg 3:
Dabangg 1 (2010): Blockbuster
Dabangg 2 (2012): Blockbuster
Dabangg 3 (2019): Flop!
These are very worrying and alarming stats, as everyone knows...except for Salman Khan himself. He seems to be living in some la-la land where the box office of his films is still really good and his films are being appreciated.
Back in 2019, shortly after Dabangg 3 released, I made a bold prediction that if Radhe releases on Eid 2020, its lifetime collections will remain below 100 crores. At the time, we all had no idea, of course, about the COVID-19 pandemic, which would ruin the box office from March 2020 onwards. And yet, that was my prediction, and I was probably factoring in that Akshay's Laxmii was set to clash with it on Eid 2020.
When news came a while back that Radhe is set to release on Eid 2021, I tried to be optimistic initially. I liked the first posters of the film that were released.
Then....the theatrical trailer happened!
Now, what was that?
Pathetic. Terrible. These are the words that come to my mind after watching the theatrical trailer of this film.
Copy of South Indian style films (in fact, some of the dialogues in the promos sound like have been delivered in the same way as one hears in a Hindi-dubbed South Indian film!)...same old storyline...Randeep Hooda's hideous hair....sequences that look similar to Race 3...Same "Ek Baar Commitment" dialogue.
It quickly occurred to me that this trailer, and the film itself, will be in the mould of Race 3: meme-worthy crap!
In fact, the film just seems like a mix of previous Salman films...
-there are dark sequences, Salman/Randeep confrontation scenes, a song with Salman/Jacqueline, and a story around helping kids, which all feel similar to Kick.
-There are sequences in the trailer that seem similar to Race 3
-The film seems like it's obviously trying to re-create the magic of Wanted
The other thing that I have been noticing with Salman is the same thing that I noticed with SRK. In recent times, they both tend to have an approach of lazy filmmaking. It seems they both think individually about their own respective films "chalo yeh scene dhaalte hai aur loge yaha taaliyan bajaayenge!".
SRK and Salman don't let the story of the film do the talking. They don't put much effort in the story, and instead rely on gimmicks and scenes in which they think their audience will erupt with cheers/whistles/clapping.
SRK did this with Dilwale: the story of the film was nothing special, and he just added DDLJ type gimmicks and some massy action dialogues that would please the audience. The audience ended up rejecting the film, and it was a big blow to his superstar box office power.
Now, Salman is following the same path as SRK, with films like Race 3 and now Radhe following the same path.
Now just imagine...someone asks you who the biggest star in Bollywood is. You mention Salman Khan. Great. But then they ask...
"what film of his is releasing?"
There's no way you can show that person any promo material of Radhe without feeling embarrassed!
With great power comes great responsibility. A film like Radhe, starring the biggest star in Bollywood Salman Khan, becomes representative of Bollywood....and such a film is exactly why people make fun of Bollywood!
It's unknown why Salman wouldn't decide to do a film instead that offers an out-of-the-box, creative storyline rather than the same old trash.
Radhe gives an outdated vibe. I liked the first poster with Salman sideways and holding the gun, but something about it reminded me of Sunny Deol's Indian which released 20 years ago.
The only thing I have liked from the Radhe promos is the Radhe title track: its catchy.
But, as for the film itself...
As I said earlier, if Radhe released in theaters before the COVID-19 pandemic started, its lifetime collections would be below 100 crores. It would STILL have been a BOX OFFICE DISASTER!
WAKE UP, SALMAN!
Oh, and if you still have any doubts about what I have written and you feel that Radhe has the potential to be a good film, just know this: one of the screenplay writers of this film, A.C. Mugil, was also one of the screenplay writers of Prabhu Deva directorial and box office dud Action Jackson!
My predictions for the audience Word of Mouth of Radhe: The audience will say that it's a maha bakwaas film. Also, I predict that the film's iMDB rating will be approxmately 2.1/10.
Kumkum Bhagya
Anupamaa
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