Mohenjo Daro stayed reasonably stable on Monday as it collected 10.36 crore on Monday. The fact that it has seen some numbers of sorts on Saturday, Sunday and now Monday means the audiences as a whole haven’t given up yet on the film. Also, it isn’t as if these footfalls are due to advance booking as the Hrithik Roshan and Ashutosh Gowariker film is primarily running on current booking. That shows that the word of mouth is mixed, not out and out bad, and hence there is some recommendation at least that is going around the town for the historical drama.
While 40.90 crore have come in for the film, one wonders how much more would have been the numbers if only the VFX was much better. For a film that is set 4000 years ago and has VFX as one of the major components of its narrative, one expects it to stand out in a big way. In the past, there have been VFX/prosthetics reliant films like Baahubali/Ra. One/Paa and no one blamed at least that aspect there. On the other hand earlier this year when Fan arrived, the VFX/prosthetics came under the scrutiny big time.
This goes on to prove yet again that when an ambitious film like Mohenjo Daro is made, just about every aspect of the film (and not just the storytelling) ought to be big time competitive in order to kill any kind of voice that goes against it. In case of Mohenjo Daro, the VFX stood out (not in a good way) when the theatrical promo was rolled out. The word of mouth that spread from that point on killed the initial, otherwise the film as a whole has a lot in there which could have helped it sail on to some extent at the least.
*Final numbers awaited
Note: All collections as per production and distribution sources
Joginder Tuteja tweets @tutejajoginder