On Monday, actor Akshay Kumar and Kiara Advani’s Laxmii was released online, and the Disney+ Hotstar streaming platform said that within hours of release, the film broke viewership records. The film is a remake of his Tamil movie Kanchana, directed by Raghava Lawrence, and also features Ayesha Raza Mishra, Sharad Kelkar, Tarun Arora, Ashwini Kalsekar, Manu Rishi Chadha, Rajesh Sharma, and others.
The movie “broke all previous records set by any other Bollywood blockbuster within hours of its release,” a social media post from the platform said. Previously, after Dil Bechara’s release, Disney+ Hotstar had made a similar announcement. A movie that will always be burned into the hearts of all the fans of Bollywood. Your love turned Dil Bechara into the biggest opening film. Ever,’ it said.
An excited Akshay thanked the supporters and said in a press release, “I am overwhelmed and overjoyed by the response received by Laxmi.” It’s heartening to know that within hours of its release, audiences and fans from across the country logged on to Disney+ Hotstar VIP to watch the movie. Who doesn’t like beating records, whether it’s on streaming services at the box-office or opening night? Nothing is equivalent to this euphoric sensation.
The film opened to adverse reviews and it was panned by most critics for being disrespectful to the transgender community. “The review of the film by the Hindustan Times said,” The film has no business calling itself a horror-comedy. It’s not especially funny either, nor is it all that scary. Lawrence may have called it a drama as well. It’s of such low quality, talking about humor, that you crave some real laughs. With the reviewers, Laxmii didn’t go down well though. Even judging by the Bollywood standard of ‘brainless comedies’ Laxmii falls short miserably, The Quint’s Stutee Ghosh wrote,’ Laxmii falls short miserably. It makes a mockery of the very things it appears to be celebrating, neither humorous nor motivating and horror in the most literal sense. A hero with a scientific disposition happy with his misogyny and a film where transgender characters have to bear the burden of nausea
