Box Office: Kaalakaandi: Saif Ali Khan in the film. (Image courtesy: Kaalakaandi Film)
NEW DELHI:
Saif Ali Khan’s latest release Kaalakaandi, which opened to positive reviews on Friday, has ‘grossed one crore net’ at the box office on Day 1, Box Office India reported. The film stars Saif Ali Khan as the protagonist, who has been diagnosed with stomach cancer. Saif’s character does not have much time in hand and he realises that he should make the most of the remaining days. Box Office India also reports that because the film is set in the backdrop of Mumbai, it has performed a little better in Mumbai and Pune as compared to other cities. Earlier, of Kaalakaandi, film distributor Akshaye Rathi told Indian Express that the film will perhaps manage a score of Rs.1.5 crores on opening day and that the first weekend collections will be limited to single figures.
Kaalakaandi released at the box office with Anurag Kashyap’s Mukkabaaz and Zareen Khan’s 1921.
1921 was the best out of the three films with collections set to be in the 1.50 crore net range, reported Box Office India while Mukkabaaz had the lowest number with around 75 lakhs net.
In his review for NDTV, film critic Saibal Chatterjee gave Saif’s film 3 stars out of 5. “For cinema trivia geeks, Kaalakaandi is strewn with interesting takeaways. The principal protagonist (Saif Ali Khan), who like the conscientious but dull bureaucrat Watanabe in the Akira Kurosawa classic Ikiru, is diagnosed with stomach cancer and given only a few months to live. The multiple tales unfold in parallel arcs. It is only in the penultimate scenes and a zany final shot that the plot connects a few of the characters but only in a tenuous manner. Kaalakaandi takes a while to warm up but when it does it sets a lively pace, especially in the second half,” he wrote.
Apart from Saif Ali Khan, Kaalakaandi also stars actors like Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz and Kunaal Roy Kapur.