Hindi
Barkhaa…Who?
MUMBAI: Barkhaa is an old fashioned story revisited. It is about a city lad on a visit to a picturesque location where he falls for another visitor. As a modern version, the theme is about one sided love, an obsession and about his love ending up in a dance bar.
Taaha Shah, a reputed and wealthy lawyer’s son, is on a visit to Haryana, where he spots Sara Loren and falls in love with her. She is not aware of his feelings or scrutiny. But, soon, Sara has vanished from the scene and Tahaa does not know where to look for her.
Back to routine, he is asked to run an errand for his lawyer father, Puneet Issar, to meet a dance bar owner client of his. Taaha is invited by the bar owner to come visit his bar. When Taaha does so, he gets an unpleasant surprise. Sara is one of the bar dancers at the joint. Now, Taaha may be obsessed with Sara but, for a reputed, traditional Tahaa, son of a renowned lawyer, a bar girl is not supposed to be an ideal object of romance.
Since Taaha is in a quandary as his love for Sara is overpowering, he is drawn to the bar constantly. He lands up there and takes to drinking. He drowns his sorrows and shock of his love being a dance bar girl by just looking at her every day without communicating.
Sara is not a mere bar girl, she is talented too and has penned a book, which Taaha is invited to inaugurate. After reading the book, Taaha learns the story of Sara’s life, her betrayal by Taaha’s own friend and her having been left with a child out of wedlock. The book mentions no author’s name but Taaha somehow connects it to Sara.
It is time for the old-fashioned melodrama. Taaha is summoned to his hospitalized mother. Meanwhile, Issar is plotting to get Sara out of Taaha’s life. As a reputed lawyer, he can’t have a bar girl as his daughter in law. But, such films are all about happy endings. So be it.
Sara acts well and has a good presence. Taaha does well. The direction is fair and the film has a pleasant musical score.
But with no face value and a lack of promotion, Barkhaa will only add to numbers, nothing to box office.
Producer: Shaban Hashmi.
Director: Shadaa Mirza.
Cast: Sara Loren, Taaha Shah, Puneet Issar.
Hindi
UFO Cine Media Network unveils ‘India’s biggest cinema moment ever’
Dhurandhar 2 and Toxic tipped to deliver rare pan-India scale for brands
MUMBAI: UFO Cine Media Network is pitching an upcoming dual-film release weekend as what it calls the largest advertising opportunity cinema has offered in India, banking on an estimated 100 million cumulative footfalls nationwide.
The initiative, branded “India’s Biggest Cinema Moment Ever”, is anchored around the simultaneous release of Dhurandhar 2 – The Revenge and Toxic, two high-profile action films expected to dominate screens across regions and languages. Trade projections, supported by cinema measurement tool Procat, suggest the combined lifetime theatrical run could deliver one of the widest audience concentrations seen in recent years.
Dhurandhar 2 – The Revenge, an India–Pakistan spy thriller, is set to release in five languages, broadening its appeal across northern and southern markets. The franchise has already built a sizable multilingual following through theatrical runs and streaming platforms. Toxic, fronted by pan-India star Yash, is expected to draw heavy footfalls across southern circuits and beyond, buoyed by the actor’s proven box-office pull.
UFO, which operates an in-cinema advertising network spanning more than 4,100 theatres, is positioning the release window as a rare moment of synchronised national attention. Its footprint covers multiplexes and single screens across over 1,500 towns and cities, allowing advertisers to deploy campaigns at scale during a single weekend.
Executives at the company argue that cinema’s value lies not just in reach but in attention. Unlike digital or television, audiences are captive, emotionally engaged and free from distraction, they say, translating into stronger recall and measurable returns for brands. With advertisers increasingly focused on performance-led media planning, UFO is framing the dual release as comparable in scale to India’s largest broadcast and sporting properties.
Industry observers note that as theatrical exhibition expands deeper into Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, such tentpole weekends are becoming anchor moments for annual media strategies. If Dhurandhar 2 – The Revenge and Toxic deliver as expected, the weekend could set new benchmarks not only for box office numbers, but also for cinema’s evolving role as a high-attention advertising medium.
