52 crores at the end of first week (as confirmed by the co-producers of the film – EROS) means that Akshay Kumar as well as Deepika Padukone have now enjoyed the biggest starts ever of their career, with ‘Housefull’ surpassing the first week collections of ‘Kambakkth Ishq’ and ‘Om Shanti Om’ respectively. While it is quite clear that the film will surpass the collections of Akshay Kumar’s biggest money spinners till date – ‘Welcome’ and ‘Singh is Kinng’ – both of which crossed the 70 crores milestone, chances are bleak that Deepika Padukone’s ‘Om Shanti Om’ record of 88 crores would be beaten.

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‘Housefull’ has taken a huge opening all over and early indications are that at the least, the film would be tagged a HIT status. The film has benefited everyone, especially its leading ladies Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta and Jiah Khan. While the actors – Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Arjun Rampal – already share a great personal and professional relationship with director Sajid Khan and producer Sajid Nadiadwala, the heroines can be expected to work in many more films with the makers in near future, considering the kind of mileage they earned due to ‘Housefull’ enjoying such a bumper pre-release and post-release promotion.

Due to this very reason, one can’t help but ask Nadiadwala if there is a ‘once-much-in-vogue’ three film deal that he has got into with the Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta and Jiah Khan?

“I hate the deals thing. Period”, comes a quick reply from Nadiadwala, “Suppose I sign a person into a deal but later one of us doesn’t like each other, we would still have to work together. For corporate houses, something this may work but sorry, this is not the way I operate.”

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Movie lovers can heave a sigh of relief with the release of ‘Bird Idol’, ‘City of Gold’, ‘Kuchh Kariye’ and ‘Muskurake Dekh Zara’. Why, one may ask, since none of these films survived even a week at the box office? Well, that’s because majority of these were the ones that belonged to ‘come today gone tomorrow’ category and barely managed to find a slot for themselves before biggies starting arriving with ‘Housefull’. Now that each of these films is finally out, it’s a matter of celebration for the industry because hopefully, collective failure of each of these films would be the last leg of the disastrous 2010 that Bollywood has been exposed to so far. 5 minutes before start

Did each of these films deserve to be total washouts though? Not really because ‘City of Gold’ did carry enough merits to at least manage face saving collections. However, just as it happened in case of ‘Lahore’ a few weeks back, sometimes a few good movies too get totally ignored due to lack of awareness and too big a crowd and same happened in case of ‘City of Gold’ as well. One wonders if the film would do anything good on home video front as well since it doesn’t belong to the kind that promises family entertainment.5 minutes before start

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‘Housefull’ has released and other than a dozen odd things for which the film has been noticed, loved and seeing repeat audience, it is the crackling chemistry between real and reel life friendship of Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh which is for all to see. The ‘jodi’ has been unanimously acknowledged and loved by one and all and it is remarkable to see even the junior actor turning out to be a scene stealer here.

Looks like it’s the Sajid Khan brand of humour that has rubbed upon him, right Riteish?

“I will tell you what – Sajid Khan has his own brand of comedy”, says Riteish, “There are various aspects of film making. There are some comedies where it all looks critically cool and fantastic. Then there is another kind of humour where you say that maza nahi aaya. And then there is another where something might be critically unfriendly but audiences would enjoy it. In your review you may say that this it is not something that goes with the sensibility of good comedy.”

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Bollywood has not had an eventful year so far. A majority of the films have done average business, with My Name is Khan being the only major hit. As such, a lot is expected from Sajid Khan’s Housefull. The comic capers stars a host of celebs like Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal, Jiah Khan and Retiesh Deshmukh. It released on 30th but has run into troubled waters. The Kolkata High Court has issued a restraining order against the song Aisi to jaise taise used in the film.

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Housefull- Succeeds in entertaining

Rating: 3 out of 5*

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Ritesh Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan, Boman Irani and Randhir Kapoor

Director: Sajid Khan

After a long painful drought (thanks to the exam season and IPL matches) of plain boring to irritating films arrives Sajid Khan’s Housefull. While in totality it does fall short of being the big great summer entertainer that it is been claiming to be, it however manages to bring many laughs for you. However, eventually it settles down in familiar territory.

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In what could be seen as a radical departure from the norm, producer Sajid Nadiadwala has decided to do away with any press screening of his new summer biggie, Housefull, which releases tomorrow.

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Housefull is all set to take the second best start of last six months after 3 Idiots. Period. In the interim we have seen releases like ‘My Name Is Khan’ and ‘Veer’. As far as the weekend collections are concerned, the former worked in multiplexes while the latter scored in single screens. However, Housefull is destined to work in both the markets. The reasons are manifold.

First and foremost, it is coming with a ‘family entertainer’ tag and has been promoted extensively. Second, it is a multi-starrer and has the kind of star cast that cuts across segments. Third, and most important, this is the first major commercial release of the year and comes straight after the conclusion of IPL. No wonder, it would be surprising to see anything less than an 80% opening here.

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The IPL fever is finally over and now cine-goers are looking forward to some serious fun (pun intended) at the cinema halls. At such times when there is such a dearth of good entertainment, any ‘well packaged’ film has the chances of becoming a potential ‘hit’. This week’s release ‘HOUSEFULL’ is one such movie which could purely be a case of ‘naam bade darshan chhote’ but will sweep the box office in the initial days and will be termed as a ‘success’ story. Our very own celebrity astro numerologist Bhavikk Sangghvi finds why HOUSEFULL may prove ‘lucky’ at the box office.

“The title HOUSEFULL adds up to Number 46 – this octave of Number 1 has a distinct potency of its own. It is a number of good and fortunate friendships in love, and in combinations connected with the opposite sex. It is also good for partnerships of all kinds. It is a fortunate indication if it appears in connection with future events. ” explains Bhavikk.

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