January: Not jinxed any more

It is a new year and Hindi filmdom, the biggest producer of movies in the world, is poised to deliver a robust box-office report card in January, breaking an age-old jinx.

January, not April, has been the cruelest month for Hindi film trade or Bollywood for some years now.

Films released during this month routinely flopped at the box-office and trade watchers display an almost weary resignation to the fact that the January jinx is stronger than any product the industry comes up with.

But it looks as if January is no longer the graveyard shift. The last film of 2004, Dil Maange More, has set the cash registers ringing and more action is slated for the days ahead.

The teenybopper love story with a boy - Shahid Kapur - pitted against three girls has the usually grave film critics nearly raving. His boyish charms are winning him fans by the minute.

Adding to his appeal are the recently publicised images of Shahid and real-life girlfriend Kareena Kapoor locking lips.

The film, directed by Anant Mahadevan, and its music by Himesh Reshmmaiya are gaining popularity with many touting Shahid as the next Shahrukh Khan in the making.

The box-office success of Dil Maange More will usher in a new beginning and this January will not prove to be the proverbial jinx for Bollywood.

Dil Maange More breaks the jinx

Incidentally, cine-star Kareena had tried to keep the box-office smiling last year in January when the over-hyped

Chameli

was released. She created a stir with the film in which she essayed the role of a foul-mouthed sex worker.

In spite of the propaganda, Sudhir Mishra's film found favour neither with the dress circle crowd nor with frontbenchers. At the most, it added to Kareena's portfolio.

It provided an arty way out, still firmly within the commercial ambit, to a mainstream actress like Kareena, who ordinarily would have gone on accepting inconsequential Barbie doll roles despite a string of flops.