Despite a known star cast, both 'Chalo Dilli' (Lara Dutta, Vinay Pathak) as well as 'Shor In The City' (Tusshar Kapoor) were expected to open on a low note. However the kind of box office reception that both these films received was shocking to say the least. Agreed that such small films take time to settle in and then grow with word of mouth. Still at least 30%-40% opening was always on the cards. What happened on the contrary was something that one couldn't see coming, what with not more than 10% occupancy for both these films on the first day.

There was slight improvement over the weekend but that wasn't enough to make the investors smile. The only silver lining for both these films is low cost which should be ideally recovered from satellite and home video. However theatrically both films have turned out to be no-shows with 'Chalo Dilli' being slightly better but that's about it. Since coming weeks would continue to see flurry of releases, none of the new released are expected to stay on for more than a fortnight.

The only silver lining is for 'Shor In The City' that has seen glowing reviews coming it's way. Ditto for 'I Am' which has fetched the best reviews for itself for any Hindi film since the release of 'My Name Is Khan' last year. However sensitive direction didn't quite result in any moolah whatsoever with negligible collections over the weekend. Both these films would have to further travel internationally to gain more visibility and catch attention of the discerning audience. However closer home there isn't much to cheer about.

As for the other release of the week, 'Naughty @ 40', it could have turned out to be a decent success for Govinda had it released a decade and a half ago. That was the time when such risqué comedies of Govinda used to work. It may just have worked today as well had there been an iota of interest shown by the makers in promoting it. However zero promotion and zilch hype meant that the film struggled to complete a weekend at the box office. As for the telefilm 'Men Will Be Men' (which saw a sudden big screen release) and offbeat 'Queens! Destiny of Dance', they have been mere formality of a release and that's about it.

All in all, a forgettable week for Bollywood from commercial standpoint.