There is a usual ranting at chai kattas and coffee houses that sensible cinema is loved by critics but the common man doesn’t care for it much. Even though this carries some amount of truth in the Indian scenario, the picture certainly seems to be changing. And what has become a leading example of this is the Marathi film ‘Killa’ Released last Friday, the film flaunted houseful boards throughout Maharashtra and has collected 7 Crores within a week at the Box Office. With no star power or masala, the film has managed to achieve this on the basis of a powerful script & spectacular performances. It entered the theatres with 225 screens & 3000 shows at the beginning but the number has grown manifolds due to demand from the viewers. Noteworthy is that the film has created euphoria beyond the traditional territories of Mumbai & Pune viz Kolhapur, Nashik, Aurangabad, Latur & Nagpur.
Marathi Cinema has become synonymous with Good Cinema in the recent times. Strong subject is the strength of Marathi Cinema. Killa infact gives the viewer an equally powerful visual experience along with it. The director Avinash Arun, who is also the Cinematographer of the film, has elevated the beauty of Konkan to another level with his striking Cinematography. Doing the rounds of international festivals winning many accolades & awards, Killa also became the Best Marathi Film at the recently concluded 62nd National Awards of India. Whilst, whether Killa will get the same response from the viewer was a question that thronged many minds. But last Friday, this question was meted with long queues at the ticket window and houseful boards outside the theatre.
Social Media is abuzz with the Killa effect and the child actors’ performances. Even Hindi celebs couldn’t help taking it to Twitter after they were moved by the film. Vidya Balan, Anurag Kashyap, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Riteish Deshmukh, Rajkumar Rao, Amol Gupte, Swannad Kirkire, Atul Kulkarni wrote oodles on Twitter & Facebook about how they felt after watching Killa.
Reacting on Killa’s stupendous success Nikhil Sane, Business Head of Essel Vision; the company that co-produced & distributed the film said, “The success of Killa is historically very important to us & the Marathi film industry. It won’t be right to compare it to the response of films like Timepass or Lai Bhari because the DNA of the latter films is entirely different. Barring Amruta Subhash there is no famous actor in the film. In fact the rest of them are child actors. So we were wondering whether Killa will be able to pull the audience that hitherto loves comedy, love stories and action films. There definitely is humour in the film, but it isn’t a comedy. It is about love but mother & son’s. While watching the film we unknowingly get lost in our past and that is the USP of this film. That Marathi Cinema is breaking boundaries is what we all keep saying, but the response to Killa has proved how mature the Marathi audience has become. Killa in all probabilities is the first film in Marathi to have such a perfect usage of the visual language. The viewer and our team are equal shareholders in the success of this film”