Jaane Tu... races ahead of Love Story 2050

Young college drama "Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na" left sci-fi thriller "Love Story 2050" far behind on the first day of the release on Friday.

As Vikas Mohan, a senior film critic who runs a trade magazine analysed: "'Jaane Tu...' is definitely a hit."

"The film got a huge response in the opening shows, as impressive as 45-50 percent compared to 'Love Story 2050', which could gather only 12 to 15 percent collection from the same shows," Mohan told IANS.

Even before the release of the two films, the excitement generated by "Jaane Tu..." - the debut film of Aamir Khan's nephew Imran - was phenomenal and bookings began five days before the release, an official in PVR multiplexes told IANS.

Both films starred newcomers. While "Jaane Tu..." introduced Imran, "Love Story 2050" is the debut film of producer-director Harry Baweja's son Harman. "Jaane Tu..." continued to maintain its pre-release momentum on the first day of hitting the big screen.

"The first show of 'Jaane Tu...' was houseful. The response to 'Jaane Tu...' was definitely better," informed Sachin Shah, manager, KT Multiplex in suburban Mumbai.

Adlabs is the co-producer of "Love Story 2050" but the advance booking for "Jaane Tu..." in many of its multiplexes is till next week. "Love Story 2050" is booked only till the weekend.

Kavita, supervisor of operations at Adlabs Delhi, said: "The response to 'Jaane Tu...' is overwhelming vis-à-vis 'Love Story 2050'. The story line and the music is too good and we have advance bookings till the mid of next week while the latter has bookings only till the weekend."

The audiences seem to be floored by Imran, who is touted as the new chocolate boy on the block, but seem to have shunned Hrithik Roshan look-alike Harman.

PVR and Adlabs had even arranged a paid premiere for "Love Story 2050" on Thursday, the response to which was not impressive.

"We had a very cold response for the paid premiere of 'Love Story...' last night. The Imran Khan-starrer is going houseful, giving Harman's movie a tough competition," manager of PVR multiplexes in North Delhi Nitin Sandhar said.

Not only experts and traders, the audience is also praising the storyline and music of "Jaane Tu...".

"'Jaane Tu...' is our movie. It is about college fun and the youngsters can pretty well relate to it," said Tenzin, a student.

"It is a peppy young movie, a lot of fun, is very fast and doesn't drag at all. You don't realise how it gets over. Imran is adorable," she added.

Manish, a call-centre executive, went ga-ga over the movie. "Imran has acted very well in the film. It is a very good start for him. No other movie could have given him such a good base to start with."

The audiences didn't respond so overwhelmingly to Harman.

"Harman does not have an expressive face and hence he fails to make an impact," said Sachin Gandhi, a student.

Neelam, a homemaker, said: "Harman Baweja was just trying to copy Hrithik Roshan."

Businessman Ashish Agarwal couldn't get tickets for "Jaane Tu...", so he settled for "Love Story 2050" and seemed to be very disappointed with the film.

He said: "'Love Story...' is not an interesting movie. It is similar to the Hollywood movie 'Time Machine'. It has a predictable story line. It is very long and tiring."

Special effects was the USP of "Love Story 2050". However, they did not seem to have gripped the audience.

"It looked like they have taken many shots from video games. The film was not as I expected," said Anuj Bunde, another student.

Indo-Asian News Service