A Quick update on 2nd quarter of 2015 in Bollywood

The second quarter of 2015 was much better than the first quarter in terms of box office business. There was the first 100cr film of this year in this quarter. Mostly small budget movies made it big with their wonderful content.

Lets have a quick month wise recap of the Hindi movies in second quarter of 2015.

April

This month was quite low at box office in comparison to the last two months of the 2nd quarter.

The first big release of April was "Detective Byomkesh Bakshy" , a detective thriller directed by Dibakar Banerjee and produced by Yashraaj Films. Everybody was eagerly waiting for the film because of the director and production house. Another attraction was of course Sushant Singh Rajput in the title role. The film got a good opening but the mixed reaction from critics as well as from the audiences limited its final run at the box office to just near about 26 crores. 

Another big movie of this month was Sunny Leone starer "Ek Paheli Leela". It had a good

enough dose of adult entertainment provided by the leading  lady of course  and also  the music was quite good and popular, all these factors worked for the movie and it helped the movie to gain around 26 crores which is big enough for such a small movie.
There were several other releases including Paresh Rawal's religion confusion drama "Dharam Shankat Me", Emraan Hashmi's invisible act in "Mr. X" and Kalki Koechlin starer festival favorite "Margarita With A Straw". None of these movies can bring any luck to box office.

May

The month of May got a good start with Akshay Kumar's "Gabbar Is Back". With the star power of Akshay Kumar this movie got a business of 40 crore in first weekend and a overall collection of around 86 crore. As a result it became Akshay Kumar's second hit in a row this year.

The success of "Gabbar" was followed by a small sweet and simple film about a father daughter relationship "Piku". It was directed by Shoojit Sirkar and the main cast has three talented actors Amitabh Bachchan, Irrfan and Deepika Padukone. The heart touching emotions, simple story telling , funny dialogues and wonderful acting by the whole cast made this film a favorite among audiences as well as critics. As a result in spite of getting only 5 crore opening it earned a total of around 80 crores at the box office and became a big hit.
The third successful film of this month was "Tanu Weds Manu Returns", the sequel to the

2011 rom-com. This time they back with the same team but with more humor and more entertainment. The acting by Kangana Ranaut in her double role grabs everyone's attention.
This movie was loved so much by the audience and critics that it became the first 100 cr hit of this year and the biggest hit so far with a collection of 150 crore.
There were some disasters in this month like Sunny Leone's adult comedy "Kuchh Kuchh Locha Hai" and Vasu Bhagnani's yet another attempt to relaunch his son Jacky, "Welcome To Karachi". But the biggest disaster of this month and probably of this year was "Bombay Velvet", the dream project of Anurag Kashyap featuring big stars like Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma.

June

The month of June started with a much awaited film "Dil Dhadakne Do" directed by Zoya Akhtar. This was a multi starer which was dealing about the problems of a super rich family. 
The film got a good start mostly because of the high level expectations but later the collections kept dropping as it was not up to the mark with the sky high expectations. Still it worked and became an average earner with around 76 crore , mostly because of the performances by Anil kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ranveer Singh.

The second release was "Hamari Adhuri Kahani" , yet another movie with high expectations because of the last big hit by the director Mohit Suri. Unfortunately  this time Mohit could not create the magic at the Box office with this romantic movie. It also proves that both Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan have lost the golden touch at the box office.
The third release was "ABCD2" , the sequel to the sleeper hit "ABCD". This 3D dance drama

got the highest opening day collections of 2015 and became much bigger hit than the first part. Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor were once again proved lucky at the box office. The wonderfully choreographed dance sequences worked in favor of the movie and it became a hit with a collection of around 90 crores in just two weeks. even there is a possibility that it can enter in 100 cr club.

On a whole the second quarter have provided some good movies and good amount of money at the box office. We are hopeful about the next quarter which have some big releases lined up to release specially in July on Eid. 


Best Films of Q2 2015

• Piku
• Tanu Weds Manu Returns

Top Performers of Q2 2015:

Actors:

• Sushant Singh Rajput - Detective Byomkesh Bakshy
• Akhshay Kumar - Gabbar Is Back
• Amitabh Bachchan - Piku
• R. Madhavan - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
• Ranveer Singh - Dil Dhadakne Do
• Neeraj Kabi - Detective Byomkesh Bakshy
• Irrfan - Piku
• Deepak Dobriyal - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
• Anil Kapoor - Dil Dhadakne Do
• Raj Kumar Rao  - Hamari Adhuri Kahani

Actresses:

• Kalki Koechlin - Margarita With A Straw
• Deepika Padukone - Piku
• Kangna Ranaut -Tanu Weds Manu Returns
• Priyanka Chopra - Dil Dhadakne Do
• Revathy - Margarita With A Straw
• Sayani Gupta - Margarita With A Straw
• Shefali Shah - Dil Dhadakne Do

Top Songs of Q2 2015:

• Desi Look, Tere Bin, Saiyaan Superstar - Ek Paheli Leela
• Teri Khushboo, Tu Jo Hai - Mr X
• Journey Song - Piku
• Teri Meri Kahani - Gabbar Is Back
• Banno, Ghani Banwari - Tanu Weds Manu Returns
• Dil Dhadakne Do, Galla Gooriyaan - Dil Dhadakne Do
• Hamari Adhuri Kahani - Hamari Adhuri Kahani
• Bezubaan Fir Se , Sun Saathhiya - ABCD2

Review of ABCD2

Three years ago Ace choreographer Remo D'souza had made India's first dance film that too in 3D taking no big stars but only genuine dancers from reality TV show, and we got a surprise hit ABCD. Being overwhelmed with the surprise success of the  movie  the  same production house and director's team is back once again with its sequel ABCD2. This time it has bigger stars, big sets, larger scale dance performances, larger scale of technology, but the only thing which lacks this time is a story about the bonding of the characters of a dance troupe.

The story is loosely based on the struggle of Suresh and Vernon from Mumbai who made a dance group and became the finalists of big Hip-Hop competition at Las Vegas. The story

starts with a dance competition where Suresh(Varun Dhawan) and his dance group are disqualified for the charges of copying the dance steps from an Youtube video.Very soon Suresh decides to reform his team and to take part in world dance competition for Hip-Hop with his team including his lady love Vinni(Shraddha Kapoor). Very soon they find a mentor in the form of Vishnu Sir (Prabhu Deva). Later their team is joined by other DID stars Dharmesh and Punit(Who were there in the first part too). As expected they win the competition at India level and went to Las Vegas for the world level competition. Here after having some predictable twist and turns, the too much predicable story reaches to its finale after a long 155 minutes. 

Overall the story has nothing new to offer. Even the screenplay is also weak and cliche, there is hardly any interaction between the characters specially in the first half. It seems while

writing the screenplay the main motive was to insert song and dance one after another. At one point it may look like you are watching Dance reality show videos on Youtube one after another. Although there is a twist just before the interval which is good. In the second half the story is better than the first half but towards the end again song and dance keeps popping up one after another in a very short gap, which makes the film even lengthier in running time.
But in spite of this if the film grabs your attention that is solely because of the  brilliantly choreographed dance sequences , which have been performed by equally brilliant dancers.

As a director Remo D'souza had nothing much to do , rather it was just choreographing more dance sequences for him and he has successfully done that.

Varun Dhawan has proved he is one the finest dancers of today's generation. He shines with his moves even in the group of professional dancers. Shraddha Kapoor too surprises with her wonderful dance moves. She has maintained really well in the group dances, also she impresses in her solo dance in "Sun Sathiya" song. Prabhu Deva once again proved his dancing abilities with his high energy which is hard to match by the other actors who are of half of his age.

The other actors who are mostly professional dancers have danced really well and provided good support in acting department too.

Among the technical team it can be said the cinematography is very nice. The picturisation of the dance sequences is breath taking. The editing could have been much sharper and its length could have been reduced by at least 20 minutes.

Provided it is  dance film the music by Sachin-Jigar is not that impressive. The only two songs which are good are the original songs from the first part that is "Bezubaan" and "Sun Sathiya". The other songs have no potential which will make you remember those when you will be out of the theaters.

Overall ABCD2 is a movie which is only about dancing. The story is weaker, the emotion and humor quotient is much less than the first part. But the dance is bigger and better here. So if you love dance then it is a must watch for you.