Rather early in the year, two fond traditions have been overturned. In a world where Salman is Tiger, Devgn is Singham and Rani is Mardaani, it’s rare to find a 60+ couple establish itself as the face of a franchise.

“I felt a dhad-dhad in my heart, wondering if it would be accepted,” disclosed 62-year-old Sanjay Mishra, who teamed with Neena Gupta, 66 to head the killer-franchise Vadh (2022). Initially,Vadh did not even recover its cost of ₹4 crore. But with critical applause and appreciative viewership on Amazon Prime, by the time Vadh 2 was made,writer-director Jaspal Singh Sandhu’s crime-and-conscience drama had grown into a brand.

Interestingly, Vadh had begun like an orphan, lying unsold for three years. “We even forgot about it,” said Neena Gupta. “Until (producers) Luv Ranjan and Ankur Garg walked in and we got a Mai-Baap.”

Vadh was not even its original name. “We were so used to calling it ‘Gwalior’ that when Luv Ranjan changed it to Vadh, we resisted,” recalled Sanjay Mishra. “He had to explain to us that a line in the film, ‘We haven’t committed a murder, humne vadh kiya hai,’ justified the new title.”

Thus was born Vadh, a franchise driven by two unlikely “heroes”. A smartly made second edition comes with much expectation around it.

“I was so excited at how well Vadh 2 has been edited that raat ko mujhe neend nahi aayi,” remarked Neena. “It’s a satisfying feeling that films are made on life after 50 or 60. I call it ‘Drama after 50’,” chuckled Sanjay.

Bucking the trend is also Valentine’s Day, which is no longer about chocolates and candlelight dates. Vishal Bhardwaj’s O Romeo arrives with trademark abuse, crotch humour, bloodshed and rawness, wrapped around a love story that has a magnetic cast, lively music and pelvic moves. Playing Shahid Kapoor’s mother is 76-year-old Farida Jalal who still has a bucket list. She told me that she had ticked off Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s name after he cast her in Heeramandi. “Now I’ve ticked off Vishal’s name. But when he came to sign me, the first thing he asked was, ‘Will you give a gaali in one scene?’” she laughed. She agreed to the ‘chu…’ word. High on energy, O Romeo is unlikely to serve soft romance this Valentine’s Day.

In the 70s, Raj Kapoor’s Bobby had featured the song ‘Hum tum ek kamre mein band ho’ with a line that said, if a lion were to come in, ‘Sher se main kahoon tumko chhod de, mujhe kha jaaye’.

In a reversal of such romance, comes another V Day release Tu Yaa Main, the remake of the Thai film The Pool where a couple finds itself in a pool with a crocodile. During their battle for survival, barbs flung at each other chip away at the lovey-doveyness of February 14. The producer is Aanand L. Rai whose love stories come with a helping of darkness.

“We leaned on Date Night Fright and a love story, hitting both themes at the same time,” said Bejoy Nambiar, a competent director thus far known for dark thrillers. Without watching the Thai original, Bejoy signed on, going only by the narration he got from writers Himanshu Sharma and Abhishek Bandekar. Which worked well because the survival part with the croc which had not been detailed in writing, could be imagined afresh by Bejoy without referencing it to the Thai original.

Besides the crocodile, Bejoy’s film has the curious pair of Shanaya Kapoor and Adarsh Gourav, who got global recognition with the screen adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger.

Like Vishal’s Romeo, this too is not regular V Day mushiness but has its own chemistry. For Shanaya whose debut film with Dharma was shelved midway and was followed by Aankhon Ki Gustaakhiyan, which bombed last year, will it be third time lucky? Maybe she is the overlooked Ms Kapoor who’ll draw attention this year.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author