Down and Dejected
By: Shams Irfan
The year 2008 will end on a relatively low note for Bollywood as there has been no sufficient number of hits this year to set the mood for celebrations. Most of the films with strong star cast and big budgets failed to make an impression at the box-office window; even the hefty amount spent on publicity was hard to recover in some cases. Starting with Yash Chopra’s multi-starrer, multi-crore ‘Tashan’, ‘2008’ showed the signs of a year that would be hard to forget, both for producers and audiences.
Nothing managed to pull audiences to theaters except a few small banner hits that kept the hope floating throughout the year.
Here at octanentertainment.com, we have listed down five disasters of the year that let cinema lovers down; despite boosting on their stars-studded cast, extensive publicity, big-budget and even bigger banners, they got trashed.
It was hell of a task to handpick the worst five of the season as the list was really long!!!
Bumpy Ride
Drona
The Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra starrer sci-fi packed [comic] drama failed to click with the audiences. Director Goldie Behl and actor Abhishek Bachchan’s childhood dream of making a super-hero movie with swords and gizmos juxtaposed got full hands down from the critics. The movie was pulled down from the multiplexes within a week’s time. Even the mighty presence of Jr. Bachchan could not save friend Goldie Behl from getting trashed by the critics. Thus Drona is now remembered for being ‘illegitimate’ brain-child of AB’s Baby and buddie Behl. But director Behl is not the one to say ‘I quit’ so easily- nothing can stop him from making his dreams come true. Behl’s last film ‘Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai’ is finally dwarfed with Drona taking its place as biggest flop.
And finally the shocker: Goldie Behl unashamedly declared Drona sequel and vowed to torture us again with his [dream] nightmares.
Blame Game!!!
Karzzz
After watching Himesh Reshamiya in ‘Aap Ka Saroor’, we all thought that possibly enough this is the end of it. Not again this man with fake hair and torturous nasal voice would be seen on screen, at least after making a dud like ‘Aap….Suroor’. But he came back from the dead, just like the protagonist of Subhash Ghai’s super-hit reincarnation drama ‘Karz’ (1980), and tormented us with songs like ‘lut jaun…lut jaun’, for a while. Well as I already said, this was the year of duds; even the prisoners of Guantanamo Bay would not have tolerated Himesh’s acting skills and ‘melodious’ voice. Now the biggest shock: Himesh is ready to deliver another Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD), ‘Kajraare’…help us please…enough is enough!!!!
Angry Dud Men
Tashan
The year 2008 started with Yash Chopra’s ‘Tashan’ starring Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Akshay Kumar and Anil Kapoor. The hopes were high as everything was perfect: cast, banner, publicity and even the songs managed to rule the charts for most of the year. Yash Chopra banners love for new filmmakers proved costly as writer turned director Vijay Krishna Acharya failed to justify even a single actor’s presence in this multi-starrer extravaganza. ‘Tashan’ had no tashan to boast of, even the love-birds Saif-Kareena failed to save this kitschy blunder.
What a Waste!!!
Yuvvraaj
Imagine coming together of: dream-merchant Subhash Ghai, original muscles-man of Bollywood Salman Khan, new reigning queen of silver screen Katrina Kaif, the mustache man Anil Kapoor, the lady killer Zayed Khan- and a flop called ‘Yuvvraaj’. The film went down with lot more than what we expected- Subhash Ghai’s reputation as an good director, a big question on Salman Katrina’s onscreen-off screen chemistry, a complete waste of talent called Anil Kapoor, though he played his role with sincerity [but there was nothing much to do] and a good-for-nothing-good-face called Zayed Khan. Aah…too many heartbreakers…how could one expect it to be a hit…when failure was written all-over it with director Ghai’s ageing blood.
So this one dived down without a trace, though Salman Khan tried his best to save Yuvvraaj with everything he had, Sallu got the film re-edited, went out for the first time to promote any of his movies!!! But ‘Yuvvraaj’ sunk like bulky titanic and so did over-weight Sallu’s crowd pulling magic wand!!!
Flop Story!!
Love Story 2050
Once there was a director who thought of making a sci-fic movie with one of the most successful actress of the era and an actor who happened to be his son. Isn’t the story interesting? Well this story is called ‘Love Story 2050’ and you are smart enough to guess the rest. Let’s start it allover again. Once upon a time there was a Director named Harry Baweja, who by some miracle happened to be a director and by another miracle had a son [Harman Baweja] who was not so ugly. And they made a movie with son-ny’s lady love [Priyanka Chopra] where son-dad-daughter-in-law all had a role to play. And they thought that by yet-another miracle they will get away with this one too…but this time they were wrong and son-ny Jr. Baweja could not make his father proud. ‘Love Story 2050’ found itself a place among worst movies ever.
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“Slumdog is trashy” – Priyadarshan
February 3, 2009 Leave a comment
Genius Boyle!!!
By: Shams Irfan
Bollywood filmmaker Priyadarshan is upset with Indian public for giving too much importance to Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire”, Reason: movie is a complete trash according to him.
His recent outburst against “Slumdog Millionaire” came at a time when his fellow countrymen are busy celebrating the success of Indians associated with the movie. Be it assistant director Loveleen Tondon, music director A.R.Rahman or actor Anil Kapoor and Irfaan Khan, “Slumdog…” features as many Indians as any other Bollywood movie.
Than what made Priyadarshan say that “Slumdog Millionaire is nothing but a cheap trashy mediocre version of those commercial films about estranged brothers and childhood sweethearts that Salim-Javed used to write so brilliantly in the 1970s. And please quote me clearly on this. If the Golden Globe and Oscars committees have chosen to honour this trashy film it just shows their ignorance of world cinema.”
Is it copy-cat director’s frustration or prejudice towards Hollywood cinema, we don’t know for sure; but we all know how good is Mr. Priyadarshan’s knowledge of cinema!!! His filmmaking career says it all… Priyadarshan career is full of plagiarism or inspirations from Hollywood, films like “Thalavattam” or Kyun ki in Hindi [starring Salman Khan and Kareena] was a poor imitation of Oscar winning One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Malamaal Weekly [Waking Ned Devine], Garam Masala [Boeing Boeing], And the list goes on….
Even the best of his movies are lifted straight away from Hollywood, Telegu or Tamil cinema, that too without acknowledging the original director or film.
So why such a loose talk about fellow country men getting recognition, what if the director is a British filmmaker and not somebody from India, or someone ‘genius’ like Priyadarshan himself.
Or may be it’s because of the fact that Priyadarshan’s only original creation till date Kanjeevaram, which was screened alongside “Slumdog Millionaire” in Toronto Film Festival, failed to get the desired reaction because of Danny’s mighty presence.
Is Priyadarshan trying to flatter Amitabh Bachchan who shared somewhat similar thought on his personalized blog recently [which he later retracted]!!! Whatever be the case, Priyadarshan’s vision is as confined as his creative knowledge!!!
Please leave your comments below and let us know what you think about Priyadarshan’s remarks.
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