Entertainment / Bharat box office collection Day 1: The Ali Abbas Zafar directorial mints Rs 42.30 crore

The Indian Express : Jun 06, 2019, 01:00 PM
Salman Khan film Bharat is off to a great start at the box office. The Ali Abbas Zafar directorial earned Rs 42.30 crore on Wednesday. Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh shared the box office figures of the Eid release. He wrote on Twitter, “#Bharat hits the ball out of the park on Day 1…Emerges Salman’s biggest #Eid opener, surpassing *Day 1* biz of #Sultan [₹ 36.54 cr]. Emerges Salman’s *biggest opener ever*, surpassing *Day 1* biz of #PremRatanDhanPayo [₹ 40.35 cr].”

He added, “#Salmania grips the nation… #Bharat storms the BO… Proves *yet again* Salman Khan is the biggest crowd puller… #Bharat opens much bigger than Salman – Ali Abbas Zafar’s #TigerZindaHai [₹ 34.10 cr] and #Sultan [₹ 36.54 cr]… Wed ₹ 42.30 cr. India biz.”

Bharat has received mixed critical reception. The Indian Express’ film critic Shubhra Gupta gave it two-and-a-half stars and wrote, “There’s enough conviction in these portions which carries Bharat and us through, even though Khan is given enough hero-giri moments to keep him foregrounded at all times. You get a sense of time past, of faded history in the recreation of those grand-but-tawdry circuses, and the ‘maut ka kuans’, which are now relegated to small-town fairs, and job-hungry Indians chasing the oil boom in the Gulf, as hard-working labour.”

“It’s a pity that the director-star duo don’t take this as far as they could. They had a story which had the potential to become a solid reckoner of post-Independence nation-building, and how things rolled from then on, and a free hand to craft it. But the opportunity is squandered in unnecessary songs and dances, an aiming-for-cheap-laughs comic thread which involves making a stutterer the butt of jokes, and improbable situations: want to meet Hindi-film-song-loving-sea-pirates? Step right up,” she added.

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