Early this week, Anil Kapoor’s younger bro, Sanjay Kapoor was splashed on the front pages in a celebratory mood. He’d never received so many compliments all his life for a performance, that too in a short cameo. Soon there was Rishi Kapoor waxing eloquent about his role in the same film, once again crowing from the same front page.

A week before that, at a special trial show arranged by Shabana Azmi and the Akhtars at Yash Raj Studios, watching the invitees (which included Juhi Chawla and Vidya Balan) falling over one another with laughter, topped with the hearty applause and the ‘great job’ thumps on the back at the end of the screening, would’ve led anyone to believe that Zoya and Farhan Akhtar had delivered the biggest blockbuster of their lives.

But the truth is, their biggest achievement lies in the fact that Luck By Chance is the only film in recent times to have got more compliments than collections. There are always several instances where a film is trashed by critics but lapped up by the audience. Ghajini would be a prime recent example. But Luck By Chance is the only mainstream film where practically every critic in Mumbai went orgasmic over it (barring one or two like the Mid-day reviewer) while the ticket sales were frigid. One is ready for a niche film like say, Parzania (Rahul Dholakia’s take on the Gujarat riots) getting an encouraging pat on the back from critics even if the audience gives it a cold shoulder. But how could a full-on, star-cast commercial film get accolades and applause from the media when the box-office figures have registered it as a failure? Luck By Chance, as feared in this column last week, remains a film that only the cloistered film industry which laughs at its own in-house jokes, and its extended family which includes a fawning press, enjoyed tremendously.

So how can anybody associated with Luck By Chance be celebrating when it has flopped? For instance, Sanjay Kapoor (Sanju to buddies) may feel good about the compliments, in the same manner that Rishi Kapoor was elated with the response from colleagues and friends to his work in Luck By Chance. But a celebration for non-success? In fact, one isn’t sure if this is the week for Sanju to be on top of the world for, not only is Luck By Chance not a hit, the other release of the week, Victory, is an even bigger disaster. And Sanjay Kapoor has a stake in that film as well since Hurman Baweja is the hero of It’s My Life which happens to be Sanju’s first project as a producer!

Unlike the Luck By Chance folks who seem to be in denial, Hurman Baweja is like the proverbial stork. He simply goes underground when he delivers a duck. And he must be getting used to the routine since he did it after his debut film, Love Story 2050 tanked without a trace. This time, Hurman didn’t wait to see Victory turn to defeat as he drove, straight from the Mumbai premiere to the airport, to catch a flight to watch the match, and thereby further promote the film on cricket. Within hours of his return to Mumbai, Hurman had packed for a trip to USA where he is shooting with ex-girlfriend Priyanka Chopra for Ashutosh Gowariker’s What’s Your Rashee? Now Ashu is a sensible, tried-and-tested film-maker which will be a change for Hurman after working with directors like dad Harry Baweja and ad film-maker Ajitpal. So you never know. It might be a case of third time lucky with What’s Your Rashee? And Hurman may eventually have the last laugh after all.

By the way, there’s no chance of the Valentine mood making Hurman and Priyanka (who has changed her status on Facebook, from committed to complicated) go all mushy and moony-eyed. They’re scheduled to leave for amchi Mumbai a day before V-day.

Psst, the inside buzz is that Victory had to be pruned from three-and-a-half hours to its present length of two hours plus.

And try and beat this. Gulshan Grover stepped into Anil Kapoor’s shoes in Victory but he turned down Irrfan Khan’s role in Slumdog Millionaire. He thought a film with topnotch cricketers and an ad film-maker’s adrenaline would work better than one on naked, slum children!

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International