9th November - 15th November:

Amitabh days are here again
Amitabh Bachchan is on a winning streak of gigantic proportions. He appears on a fashion show and makes the glitterati follow (his churidar) suit! He becomes an early televisionary, exhibits how a quiz show should be hosted and makes the idiot box respectable! And now, after it seemed as though his on screen glory belonged to the past, he returns triumphantly to the present tense as an actor-star with Mohabbatein.

The man seems to have worked out some deal with destiny. He had all but hit rock bottom. As a star, after a disastrous comeback, he was dangling dangerously from the edge of the A-list. As a businessman, he was swamped by debts. But within the last few months, what a dramatic reversal of fortunes! Just listen to that voice which bequeaths even the most mundane of lines on TV with resonance and then just listen to the crowds shout "Fifty fifty" and "Lock kiya jaaye" in full-throated delight each time he appears on screen in Mohabbatein. Capping Bachchan's achievements in the recent past is Mohabbatein which shows he still pulls weight at the box office too. For young director Aditya Chopra the film may not have won him as many raves as Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge but the box office response is positive - most of all in Mumbai and the overseas. For the second week running in Mumbai, the film garners almost 100 per cent collections. The film's success also reasserts Shah Rukh's appeal and gifts six pre-packaged newcomers to the film industry.

Mission Kashmir puts up a decent show and pips Mohabbatein to the topmost post for the second time. The Diwali holidays and heartthrob Hrithik's presence has given the film a terrific initial boost and it has already collected more than a crore and a half in Mumbai. It is a hit in the city but outside Mumbai the picture is not as encouraging. In Delhi this Vinod Chopra-directed film collects 57 lakhs, practically the same amount of money as Mohabbatein (61 lakhs) but while the latter has 84 per cent theatre attendance, Mission Kashmir's percentage is down to 54. The tax free tag puts Fiza in the reckoning once again and there are a sizable number of patrons for the 1991 Ajay Devgan superhit Phool Aur Kaante in too. Next week, the aggregate collection figures are going to soar even more as, unlike last week, a major new film, Kurukshetra, will be debuting on the charts. Kurukshetra proves that Sanjay Dutt has become very good at displaying moments of combustible anger mixed with a world-weary mien. In Kurukshetra, he plays an honest-to-good cop who slugs it out to obtain justice for a middle-class girl who has been raped and murdered, undeterred by the fact that the culprit is the chief minister's son. The story of a straight arrow police officer fighting corruption has overt cynical tones. It also has shades of Prakash Mehra's Zanjeer, including a pathan character, Mukesh Rishi (he plays the role Pran did in Zanjeer) who starts off as a foe baying for the blood of the police officer but ends up as a friend. Director Mahesh Manjrekar adds hard-hitting scalding dialogue which at times borders on the offensive to rev up the proceedings and probably to cater to the front benchers.

Manjrekar executes some tense scenes with flourish - like the one where Sanjay's pregnant wife Mahima (Chaudhary), browbeaten by some hoodlums curls up on the street in sheer terror - and a knack for drawing out effective performances. But there is more to his job definition, especially if he has Vaastav's reputation to live up to. Riding on the success of the successful Sanjay Dutt-Manjrekar combo of Vaastav, Kurukshetra has opened to a thumping 96 per cent collections in Mumbai garnering more than nine lakhs in Mumbai on its very first day.

48 HOURS FROM NOW

After the reasonable success of Bandhan, it only stands to reason that director K Murali Mohan Rao reteams the earlier film's heroes Salman-Jackie in Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye. Raveena, in a special appearance pairs opposite Salman after 10 years - she had debuted opposite him in Patthar Ke Phool. Rani Mukherjee and Pooja Batra also vie for leg space.