This Hindi film was neither horror nor comedy

Clearly, there seems to be a divergence of interests. Or, the end product when made ready for the Hindi market just didn't work. For, how does one explain the varying BO status of a film which released in 2011 went on to become a hit, defying critical media response yet falling short of expectations in the big movie market of Bollywood in 2020?

The film in question is ' Kanchana' also known as 'Muni 2: Kanchana' which featured dance master turned hero Lawrence as the protagonist and 'Supreme Hero' Sarathkumar and Lakshmi Rai coming up with major roles. Released in 2011, with a budget of Rs seven crore, it has a unique hallmark of having its dubbed version in Telugu getting released a week before the original one hit the silver screens in neighbouring Tamil Nadu. The film did pretty well enforcing its status as a success at the cash counters.

After a whopping run all over and being remade in Sinhala, Bengali and Kannada, in 2020, the film was remade in Hindi. Originally titled 'Laxmii Bomb', it rode on the shoulders of Akshay Kumar who was playing the special role essayed by Sarathkumar in the original. It ran into controversy when the title was objected to by a few from Rajasthan and the name was changed to ' Laxmii'.

Kiara Advani played the role which Lakshmi Rai was bestowed with in Tamil and the direction of the film was taken up by Lawrence. As the original schedule was that of May 2020, the film's release was postponed owing to the corona pandemic and it finally made it on a OTT platform in November 2020.

While the initial viewership was excellent and it broke a few records, the criticism which it encountered in Tamil Nadu continued in Hindi too with the critics calling it 'awful', 'shrill with loud story telling', ' more noise with less fireworks' etc. Till date however, it has the best viewership record on the OTT platform beating the Sushant Singh Rajput film ' Dil Bechara'. That alone does not take away the fact that its plotline didn't find favour with the upcountry audience who were unused to the excessive hamming and melodrama which was a favourite with the south Indian audience.