Murder 2 Movie Reviews - POST HERE - Page 2

Edit: double post

Originally posted by: masakaliii

Okay yeah i always thought Murder was suppoesed to be borderline shit as a film, but then i just recently found it that it has a lot of fans. Was the original movie good?

Originally posted by: priyazinta

😕 did she even dub her own voice?

Murder 2 review

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Jacqueline Fernandez, Prashant Narayanan, Sudhanshu Pandey

Directed by Mohit Suri

Rating: *

Mahesh Bhatt presents (a squirt of paan). A Vikram Bhatt production (a spew of ketchup). A Mohit Suri film (a splash of red curry). When the credits roll like this, it's not surprising that 60 percent of the film has some substitute for blood being spat on the screen. 'Murder 2' is, as you would imagine, a bloody thriller.

The film's lead hero, Arjun (Emraan Hashmi) is Goa's very own Robin Hood. An ex-cop who is now engaged in almost all illegal operations that can be managed wearing a leather jacket. He doesn't believe in God but regularly visits church to donate fat bundles of money to orphans. And yes, somewhere towards the end of the film, he does reinstate his allegiance to Christianity, inappropriately accompanied by the song 'Aye Khuda Mil Gaya'. And what transforms him into a believer is a series of painfully graphic and ridiculously illogical incidents.

Arjun's lady love, Priya (Jacqueline Fernandez) models for sleazy magazines. Naturally, in every two out of her three scenes, Priya is required to shed some part of her clothing. So, for anatomy students, it couldn't be a better way to learn about the human body. Most of Priya's dialogues are lost inside Arjun's mouth as he indulges her in one smooch-athon after another. And when she does get a chance to speak, it's a bit out of sync like the late-night dubbed teleshopping ads.

But what really adds thrill and lots of screams into this thriller is a cross-dressing psycho-killer, Dheeraj Pandey (Prashant Narayanan), who loves mutilating sex workers while singing 'Bheegey Hont Tere', unmelodiously and with sadistic lyrics. Why? Because his characterization is deep fried. Oddly enough, he gets caught early in the film and even confesses to his sinister deeds. But there are so many reels left? So, just to pass time, Arjun is assigned the task to find clues and evidence to corroborate Pandey's confession by a bewildered cop (Sudhanshu Pandey). And just to double the excitement, he has to do all this over a night.

Will Arjun manage to flick his Little Richard bangs and save Pandey's last victim? Despite confessing to finely chopping several wh**es, will Pandey be let off for his odd political connections? Will Priya's lips continue moving for seconds after her dialogue completes? These questions are only rhetorical and best unanswered.

The dialogues in this film are downright tacky. An interaction between the lead pair just after a ferocious make-out session goes like this. Priya: "Khaaye, Piye, Khiskay? Arjun: "Hotel mein khaane ke baad koi baitha rehta hain kya?" But the dialogues don't even compare to the magnitude of clichs in the plot. Arjun's 'Ma-Behen-Baap' have all deceased due to poverty. Eunuchs have been portrayed as a cult that worships the devil and let's not even get into the cop with the fake Goan accent.

The film's sound effects could have you shrinking into your seat. But largely, it's less scary and more disturbing. Emraan manages a great job of letting his mouth do all the acting but his constipated expressions are only marginally different from his remaining expressions. Jacqueline is an ideal pin-up girl and those considering this film just to get a glimpse of her would be happy to overlook her lack of acting skills or inability to enunciate.

One could safely call this film as the 'Silence of the Bhatts', with Emraan almost managing the Jodie Foster hairdo. And since the penalty for several murders is the same as that for one, let's just hope the third one is a bit more premeditated.

Mahesh Bhatt's Murder 2 is off to an absolutely flying start all over India. Whether it is in the multiplexes or the single-screen cinemas, the opening response to the Murder sequel has been phenomenal. The collections in the opening shows have been in the range of 70-100% which would be considered bumper for the budget at which the film has been made and also for the star cast. After all, except for Emraan Hashmi, the film doesn't have many saleable names.

Says exhibitor Akshay Rathi, who owns a chain of cinemas in C.P. Berar, "Our entire chain is playing 'Murder 2'. Collections are house fill in Nagpur in all our cinemas, in Raipur, Amravati and Bhandara. In other centres, the film has recorded minimum 85% collections in spite of the rains. Dhamaka hai!"

Murder 2 Box-Office

The early morning show in Indore at PVR was about 95% of the capacity. Likewise, the morning show at Velocity multiplex in Indore drew around 80% of the house full, that too, in the big auditorium. The best part of the bumper start of 'Murder 2' is that the response is the same in 'A' and 'B' class centres. In other words, the film is behaving no differently in Delhi from U.P., Rajasthan or C.P. Berar. In Delhi, the collections at single-screen cinemas in the noon shows (12 o'clock) are as follows:- Delite Rs. 55,000; Sapna Rs. 40,400; Vishal Rs. 67,660; Samrat Rs. 30,801; Shiela Rs. 53,000; Seble Rs. 22,000. All these are enviable figures. And the position in Lucknow at Novelty and Sahu cinemas is no different. The story is the same even at Meerut (Nandan cinema), Rae Bareilly, Allahabad, Gorakhpur and Muzaffarnagar (where both the cinemas drew full houses).

Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt seem to have made the film on a controlled budget of around Rs. 6 to 8 crore. Add another Rs. 5 crore for the cost of promotion, marketing and release, and you have an investment of Rs. 11 to 13 crore. Keeping the satellite and audio rights for themselves, the Bhatt brothers sold the worldwide theatrical rights to Ponty Chadha who, incidentally, had also acquired the worldwide theatrical rights of the recently released hit, Ready. Chadha, who acquired the rights for Rs. 14 crore, will also make a handsome profit. Firstly, he sold the rights for some of the circuits to individual distributors while retaining the distribution rights for Delhi-U.P. and East Punjab for himself as he is Delhi-based. Not just Chadha but also the distributors of the various circuits will make money on their investments. In other words, 'Murder 2' has become an earning proposal for all associated with the film. While the producers made profits before release, the distributors seem set to reap the benefits now.

Chillar Party Box-Office

Unfortunately, Salman Khan's promotion doesn't seem to have helped Chillar Party one bit. For, the initial of the UTV production venture is poor. Audience attendance at multiplexes is said to be low. In some cinemas, there are 8 to 10 people whereas in others, there are 20 to 40 in the cinema hall. From the preliminary reports filtering in, the attendance on the higher side is 70 to 80 people per show. Seems Salman Khan and Ranbir Kapoor (on whom a song in the film has been picturised) could not do together what Emraan Hashmi has single-handedly done! Put differently, 'Murder 2' has murdered the prospects of 'Chillar Party'.

Boxofficeindia.Com Trade Network

Murder 2 took a good opening with collections around the 60-65% mark on average. There were some stations in Gujarat and CI which opened to 80% plus but on the other hand South India opened to 35-40% collections.

The film should collect well at most places over the weekend. The low collections may well come in the high end prime multiplexes where Delhi Belly is so strong especially in places like Bangalore and Gurgaon.

The other release of the week Chillar Party is a word of mouth film and had a low turnout as far as its opening shows were concerned.