Some premiere dates I’m keeping an eye on in the next week include the Tamil film Kadaikutty Singam on August 13 and the music documentary Harmony with A.R. Rahman on August 15 over on Amazon Prime, followed by Bhavesh Joshi Superhero on August 16 on Netflix. There’s a chance the Amazon Prime dates are for India only, which is why I’ve not included them on my Amazon Prime streaming list. If they are worldwide release dates, I’ll post links to the movies as soon as they are available. Have a great weekend!
No new releases made for a lackluster weekend at the North American box office for Bollywood films. While Avengers: Infinity War set opening weekend records and the Telugu hit Bharat Ane Nenu crossed the $3 million mark, October quietly led the way among Hindi movies with $22,384 from 21 theaters ($1,066 average), according to Bollywood Hungama. The Varun Dhawan drama has total earnings of $498,484 after three weekends in the United States and Canada.
Other Hindi movies still showing in North America (no data for Baaghi 2):
Blackmail: Week 4; $7,196 from ten theaters; $720 average; $294,060 total
Beyond the Clouds: Week 2; $1,102 from five theaters; $220 average; $40,898 total
Hichki: Week 6; $900 from one theater; $766,979 total
Raid: Week 7; $564 from one theater; $1,088,345 total
No new Hindi movies release in Chicago area theaters the weekend beginning April 27, 2018, which is just as well since every bit of available screenspace is seemingly allotted to Avengers: Infinity War. Beyond the Clouds gets a second week at MovieMax Cinemas in Niles and the AMC South Barrington 24 in South Barrington, which also holds over October, Baaghi 2, and Blackmail.
Other Indian and Pakistani movies showing in the Chicago area this weekend:
Achari America Yathra (Telugu w/English subtitles) at MovieMax and Cinemark at Seven Bridges in Woodridge
Bollywood films didn’t stand a chance against the Telugu behemoth Bharat Ane Nenu, which earned more than $2.5 million in its opening weekend in North America. The lone new Hindi release — Beyond the Clouds — earned $26,166 from 32 theaters ($818 average)* during the weekend of April 20-22, 2018, according to Bollywood Hungama.
October held up reasonably well in its second week of release, hanging onto 40% of its opening weekend business. It earned $94,549 from 65 theaters ($1,455 average), bringing its total earnings to $438,978.
On the other hand, last weekend’s other new release, Mercury, lost over 90% of its opening weekend business, taking in just $4,799 from ten theaters ($480 average). Its total stands at $76,762.
Other Indian movies still showing in North American theaters (no complete figures for Baaghi 2):
Blackmail: Week 3; $16,051 from 13 theaters; $1,235 average; $282,652 total
Hichki: Week 5; $5,700 from four theaters; $1,425 average; $763,091 total
Raid: Week 6; $1,510 from two theaters; $755 average; $1,087,195 total
*Bollywood Hungama routinely counts Canadian theaters twice in its weekly reporting, at least for a movie’s first few weekends of release. When possible, I try to verify the correct theater count with other sources, like Box Office Mojo. The above figures represent what I believe to be the actual theater counts. Bollywood Hungama’s reporting technically puts Beyond the Clouds in 41 theaters (making for a $638 per-theater average).
A complex blend of heartbreak and hope, Beyond the Clouds examines the role family bonds play in making poverty survivable, while showing us that the concept of family needn’t be limited to blood relations.
Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s first Hindi picture takes place in Mumbai. An arresting opening sequence filmed by cinematographer Anil Mehta follows Amir (Ishaan Khattar) as he receives a bag of drugs from a car on a highway overpass. The camera sweeps down as he crosses under the roadway, and then it turns to watch Amir and his friend Anil (Aakash Gopal) speed away on a motorbike.
Amir and Anil are small-time drug runners, young and brash enough to overestimate the amount of power they really have. The don they work for, Rahoul (Shashank Shende), decides to put them in their place after Amir shows up at Rahoul’s brothel unannounced. He sets them up to be nabbed in a police raid.
During the course of a thrilling police chase, Amir happens upon his estranged older sister, Tara (Malavika Mohanan), and then hides out at her house. The encounter gives them a chance to hash out the reasons for their estrangement, perhaps setting the stage for a healthier relationship going forward.
Their reunion is short-lived. Tara is arrested the next day for seriously injuring her employer Akshi (Goutam Ghose) during an attempted rape. It falls on Amir to nurse his sister’s assailant back to health so that Akshi can testify to his part in the assault, the only way to free Tara.
Perhaps the saddest aspect of Beyond the Clouds is its depiction of how tenuous even modest notions of comfort and security can be on the bottom rungs of society’s ladder, especially for women. Amir’s association with illegal drugs can bring his wild lifestyle to a halt at a moment’s notice. And his rising of the ranks of Rahoul’s organization comes at the expense of drug addicts and women forced into prostitution.
Then again, Amir is more morally flexible than the average Hindi-film hero, able to pivot from making silly faces at a child to threatening a paralyzed Akshi with a knife without blinking an eye. It’s less a factor of his youth than his having grown up reliant upon such flexibility to survive. Khattar does a creditable job in his debut film.
Mohanan is less successful in her depiction of Tara, who acts zombified in her conversations with Amir after she’s imprisoned. Yet, when Amir isn’t around, Tara seems well-adjusted to prison life, looking after Chotu (Shivan Pujan), the young son of an ill fellow inmate (played by Tannishtha Chatterjee). Tara’s relationship with Chotu embodies the movie’s theme that our “family” is made up not just of blood relatives, but also those we choose to care for.
Chotu is one of many examples in Beyond the Clouds of kids living in places distinctly not child-friendly because their mothers are poor and have no one who can help them. Dozens of little ones run underfoot in jail, an arrangement permitted in some Indian prisons for children under six years old. One worker at Rahoul’s brothel shoos her daughter out of their room when a client arrives. Amir himself becomes a reluctant babysitter when Akshi’s impoverished elderly mother and two daughters arrive from South India and mistake him for one of Akshi’s friends.
The surprising weak point in Beyond the Clouds is A.R. Rahman’s soundtrack. Though the tone of the film isn’t dour, Rahman’s score is still too upbeat for the circumstances. Nevertheless, Beyond the Clouds is a thought-provoking, heartfelt exploration of our shared humanity.
