Second half of 2009 is continuing to follow a similar trend as that of the first quarter of the year. With just one more release before the first half of the year ends, NEW YORK, it's just red, red and only red for the industry with PAYING GUESTS too failing at the box office.

The film opened to an all around poor response at the box office over the weekend and bad reviews, worse word of mouth and lack of patronage from even the case of the film meant that the film was doomed. In fact one wonders why some media reports indicated that the film's promotion was good because in my view, that was not really the case.

Yes, there were some interesting promos being devised but they weren't quite bombarding the TV channels enough to make people aware about the release date. In fact it's sudden release announcement after the strike being called off was more of a knee jerk reaction because except for the music release, there wasn't any major progress in it's promotion.

Even otherwise, though the film was made of an ensemble cast, there wasn't a single crowd puller actor who could lift the movie on his/her own. The music too hadn't picked up and the name Subhash Ghai (the man who has produced the film) isn't enticing enough today for the audiences to blindly walk into an auditorium.

So while they waited for the word of mouth to reach them and then take a call around giving it a dekko, whatever little segment of audiences who had seen the film weren't too kind about it. What always seemed like the most possible case, the film was completely out of circulation as the weekend was over and the weekdays didn't have any positive stories to tell.

Though the movie has been made on a medium budget, recovery still doesn't seem possible for it because there is a huge line up of releases from this Friday on. Though NEW YORK is the only major competition for the moment, things would only get further miserable for PAYING GUESTS on the arrival of KAMBAKKTH ISHQ (3rd July). In any case, it would be a miracle if PAYING GUESTS indeed manages to reach till that distance since at the moment, even a fortnight long stay at the theaters seems to be a struggle.

Downfall of PAYING GUESTS should only make film makers wake up and realise that getting together a bunch of actors and throwing in random situational gags may not always work to make a commercially successful comedy film going. Yes, there can be an occasional GOLMAAL RETURNS but the trick may not always work!

As for the other release of the week, LET'S DANCE, it is completely down and out and has nothing going for it at the moment. With near empty theaters greeting the film on it's release, this Gayatri Patel launch pad has failed to reach out to the audiences. It seems unlikely that the film will complete a one week run at the box office.

The other launch pad in the recent times, KAL KISSNE DEKHA, too has disappointed with the first week coming up with very poor collections. In the range of around 6 crores, this hugely mounted film (in the range of ~30 crores) will mean heavy losses for Vashu Bhagnani. The film hasn't clicked in any part of the country with Mumbai being the best at 80 lakhs. For Jackky Bhagnani, this would be a huge heart breaker and the young lad would have to wait for his next opportunity now.

Mithun Chakravorty's ZOR LAGAA KE HAIYA has turned out to be a disaster too with just around 10 lakhs coming in it's first week. KIRKIT, which saw a sparse release in some parts of the country, sold tickets less than the day's sales of popcorn in any multiplex and same has been the case of MARUTI MERA DOSST that had arrived a week earlier. Another disaster has been TEAM - THE FORCE that is out of the reckoning in two weeks flat with a 95% fall and a mere 2 crore total.

No wonder, disasters have continued to rule in a pathetic 2009 that has shown no respite for Bollywood so far. -Sampurn Media