Aishwarya Agarwal got her Diwali gift from dad Rakesh a day after Diwali: a first day, first show ticket to catch Shah Rukh Khan and his Indiawaale dance troupe in Happy New Year. “Nothing compares to the emotion and excitement of watching the first show on the release day of a Shah Rukh Khan film. I knew I just had to be here to watch Happy New Year,” smiled the 27-year-old “die-hard” SRK fan who slept at 3am on Diwali night but was at INOX (South City) at 9am on Friday to catch her favourite Khan in action.

Like Aishwarya, scores of SRK devotees battled Diwali hangover to arrive bright and early at multiplexes for the Farah Khan biggie that mixes heist with revenge and dance. “We expected the first few shows on Friday to be a little slow after the Diwali festivities, but the audience response has been phenomenal. Right from 8.45 in the morning, all our shows have gone almost houseful,” said Swaraj Sadhukhan, regional general manager, PVR-Cinemax.

At the nine INOX plexes, the crowd count remained on the higher side through the day and peaked for the evening and night shows. “The footfall has been very good and the best thing is that the reaction from the audience has been very positive. That should push up numbers further over the weekend,” said Subhasis Ganguli, regional director (east), INOX.

The four-member Chatterjee family at INOX (Forum), for instance, loved the 4-M formula — “music, masala, melodrama and Mohini (Deepika Padukone’s character)” — so much that they plan to be back for a show on Sunday with more members of the family.

That sure should make SRK ‘happy’. “My goal is to make Happy New Year the ultimate Bollywood film. It’s got everything that a Bollywood film should have but on a scale never seen before,” the man had told t2 in the run-up to release. And in trademark style he had added: “I want to make every Indian proud of Bollywood with this film.... When they make ‘Ocean’s 14’, they should aim to try and make it bigger than Happy New Year. This one has all the tech-savvy bits but it is also funny and entertaining. Even the lady of the house will go: ‘Kamaal chori kiya hasaate hasaate!’”

That was the dominant fan response on Friday. “The audience is loving the fact that it is a fun family film with something for everyone,” said Pritam Jalan of Jalan Distributors, regional distributors of the film that reunites Farah Khan with Shah Rukh after their blockbusters Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om and also brings in Deepika who made her Bolly debut with Om Shanti Om, delivered a smash hit with SRK (Chennai Express) and is the current box-office darling.

With SRK doubling as producer for the Rs 150-crore film, make it large has been the HNY mantra. Hitting close to 5,000 screens in India and 1,000 screens overseas, the dance-and-drama caper is being shown on around 300 screens in Bengal alone, beating Salman Khan’s Id blockbuster Kick, that opened in around 290 screens across the state.

In the run-up to the release, SRK the marketing man has pulled out all the stops – brand tie-ups to song ’n’ dance tours, television appearances to social media initiatives - to ensure that his big release of the year has powered into cinemas all guns blazing. “The film’s universal rating has also helped widen its audience base. That it is a family film with the promise of clean, wholesome fun should considerably push up Happy New Year’s numbers,” said Mumbai-based trade analyst Kumar Mohan. Add to that Farah Khan’s trademark blend of masala and humour, Vishal-Shekhar’s chartbusting music and a strong ensemble cast comprising Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood and Vivaan Shah, and Happy New Year has ‘blockbuster’ written all over it.

But it is the power and pull, charm and charisma of one man that will play a pivotal role in determining whether Happy New Year becomes the biggest hit of the year, edging past Salman’s Kick (Rs 242 crore) and eyeing Aamir Khan’s all-time blockbuster Dhoom:3 (Rs 260 crore). Shah Rukh Khan the superstar is what is proving to be the biggest magnet for Bolly buffs this weekend. “He has a style and attitude of his own. There is no one like Shah Rukh. We are here only for him,” smiled SRK fan Md. Faizan and his gang of three friends at INOX (Forum).

Priyanka Roy

Additional inputs: Ratnalekha Mazumdar

VOICES

INOX (South City) and INOX (Forum)

“Shah Rukh is the king of romance and I was waiting for Happy New Year for a long time. The film has all the ingredients to make it a super hit”

-- Chinmay Bhandari, class VII La Martiniere For Boys

“The film was too long, but Deepika was spectacular. Her song Lovely kept me glued to the screen”

--- Sahil Sethi, medical student

“I worship SRK and watch all his films on the first day. Happy New Year is a fantastic festive family entertainer. I plan to watch it three-four times”

---- Vivek Shah, financial planner

“Deepika mast lagti hain! We love watching films on the first day to feel the thrill of posting our take on the film on Facebook before anyone else has managed to watch it” --- Harkirt Singh, class IX, St.Helen School and Satnam Singh, class XI, St. Lawrence High School

“Happy New Year is a big budget film that has action, drama, dance, music, and comedy… it is the best way to have fun with friends. Look at SRK’s fab abs!” chorused this girl gang.

“Like Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan is an evergreen star. I liked him in the film”

--- Akash Choudhary, B.com student, St Xavier’s College

Happy New Year

180 mins

Acting: 7

Direction: 7

Script: 6

Music: 6

Tech: 8

Shah Rukh Khan never disappoints in Diwali. Barring Ra.One, King Khan has had nine Diwali blockbusters in his 21-year-career. Happy New Year, the big reunion movie with Farah Khan, is going to complete the decalogue.

If you can get past the seemingly impossible plot, there's much to enjoy about Happy New Year. The good thing is that all the convenience in the plot is taken care of very early on. Charlie, played by Shah Rukh, wants to take revenge on the man who put his father in jail. That man Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff) not only owns Shalimar Security, guarding Rs 300 crore worth of diamond from the Mughal dynasty, he also hosts the World Dance Competition at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. So, you have to dance for the diamonds!

In true heist film structure Charlie goes about hiring the people he needs. Not people who can dance. Not even people who can steal. Because this is a Bolly heist film, people seeking revenge on Grover. 'No motivation, no crime,' we are told.

So there's Jags (Sonu Sood) who used to work for his father. He is all muscles and one ear, which lets out steam every time he gets angry. The aurally challenged man with the paanch kilo ka haath is also a little too touchy about his mother.

Then there's Tammy (Boman Irani), who used to design safes for Charlie's father and is also a master safe cracker. The 50-year-old Parsi 'stud' can fish out just about anything from his sling bag but often goes into 30-second epileptic fits.

Everything that Charlie and his team (read: Farah and his writing team) can't work out by logic or tact, hacking into computer systems is the instant easy explanation. And playing that 'hack god' is Rohan (Vivaan Shah).

Now, the security at the Atlantic vault is biometric and only Charan's son Vicky's thumb impression can get them through to the safe. So, the Don plot is introduced as the sub-plot because the neighbourhood drunk Nandu (Abhishek Bachchan) looks exactly like Vicky. Only he can't speak Eeenglisss and often breaks into a snake dance, reminiscent of Vrijesh Hirjee's serpentine moves from the Golmaal films.

Now how will Charlie's angels - 'mota, behera, bewda aur bachcha' - with their 10 left feet take part in the World Dance Competition? Enter bar dancer Mohini (Deepika Padukone), who is a 'chalti firti item song' looking for some 'ijjat' in life and she will teach the men how to move to the music and also fall in love with Charlie in the process.

The film's first half - in India and with a bearded SRK - breezes through but the second half - in Dubai with a clean-shaven SRK - overstays its welcome and makes you realise you are watching a three-hour film. The fight with the Korean team, the Christmas plan going wrong, unnecessary twists about the backstory... all have their separate clap-traps and tear-jerks but as parts of the whole, they only add time.

The edge-of-the-seat climax - using the team members' strengths and weaknesses - does redeem things quite a bit, though. And perhaps only Farah Khan could achieve the impossible task of not only celebrating dance but making it finish ahead of the heist element at the end of the film.

Farah was the original Rohit Shetty in the unabashed celebration of Hindi cinema and it's quite a thumping return to form after the miserable Tees Maar Khan. The signature Farah humour is written all over the scenes but never does she let all the references or the intertextuality come in the way of the storytelling. In fact, Shah Rukh's first three dialogues in the slightly overdone appearance scene are reworked from DDLJ, Devdas and Main Hoon Naa. Deepika does a 'Saat minute' version of the 'Sattar minute' Chak De! speech. There are also subtle allusions to Bachchan Sr in many of Bachchan Jr's lines. But all of this are seamlessly folded into the screenplay.

To call the film's mounting huge will be an understatement. The grandiosity of the stage acts of the Dance Championship especially are eye-popping. Red Chillies also has the best VFX team in the country and this may be no Ra.One yet the intelligent use of graphics is impressive.

The best thing about the Happy New Year performances is the bona fide bonhomie that the ensemble cast shares. It look likes one big family and so you don't have second thoughts of laughing and crying with them, cheering and clapping for them.

Not just in that facial hair in the first half but also in his coaching and leadership style, Shah Rukh is in Kabir Khan mode in the movie. And while Happy New Year is not played with the same hockey stick as Chak De!, SRK makes personal vengeance look oh so sexy! He doesn't have a full blown love story with Deepika, but the lady-who-can-do-no-wrong comes in after one hour of the film and gives some much-needed oomph-oozing balance to the all-men's world.

Boman's always good and Tammy is no exception. Sonu Sood holds his own really well against the more seasoned stars. Vivaan is adequate as what is clearly the least written character. But if there's one actor you go back with, it's Abhishek Bachchan, who is a riot as Nandu. Comedy is clearly AB's game and given the scenes and the lines, he can dhoom machao on his own.

Overlong yes, a little implausible for sure, but Happy New Year is also a lot of fun and is peppered with long, clean laughs. This is how a big mainstream Bollywood superstar movie should be - a true 'bang' for your bucks. The film also introduces someone in motion for the first time. Watch the movie to find out and stay right till the end. Till Farah's legendary dancing credits come to a close.

Spot-the-face game in HNY

Sajid Khan: Maybe because he made the SRK-Farah reunion happen, he's there as an arrogant filmmaker - autobiographical, maybe - who shouts at the stunt guy Jags, played by Sonu. By the end of the film, Sajid is reduced to a stunt man himself. Yes, cheers to that!

Malaika Arora Khan: She is seen doing a dance number in the film Sajid is shown directing in one of the early scenes of the film.

Anupam Kher: Called an 'emotional appearance', he plays Shah Rukh's father in a couple of very brief flashbacks.

Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Dadlani: Strange combo as dance judges at the local auditions and that's what makes the duo so much fun. We also get a glimpse of what they do inside the make-up van. Check out yourself.

Sarah-Jane Dias: The former beauty queen plays the team co-ordinator for Charlie's team in the World Dance Championship.

Dino Morea: The former model-cum-actor plays the host of the World Dance Championship.

Prabhudeva: Of the many teachers who try to teach Charlie's angels how to dance, one is our desi Michael Jackson himself.

Kiku Sharda: The funnyman on TV plays a lady choreographer, again trying to teach the men to move.

Geeta Kapoor: Farah's assistant turned reality show judges plays herself as the judge of the World Dance Championship.

Ali Morani: In Shah Rukh's appearance scene, the Cineyug guy is put there as this super rich guy who's paid Charlie to lose the fight.

Karuna Badwal: Shah Rukh's manager for a long time and now also the co-producer of Happy New Year, she plays one of Boman's suitors in the film.