Bollywood Hits and misses: 2013

The year finishes on a sad note with actor Farooque Sheikh leaving our company for good. A film of his did make it to the list of praise worthy films of the year. A look at the films that missed and those that made it to the top grade this year.

First the misses:

1. Himatwalla: To begin with, it was a bad idea to remake a bad film -- the film that got Sreedevi the ignominious adage : thunder thighs, a film that was loud to a fault was a big bet for Sajjid Khan but the film came crashing down giving people the hope that all is not lost for the cause of good cinema.

2. Zanjeer: Again a bad idea to remake a classic of that kind with a non-starter hero. Apoorva Lakhia did nothing right and obviously the audience had not yet forgotten the moment defining role of Big B and his brewing anger. Ram Charan was certainly not enough and the Prakash Mehra bet to work on an unknown name did not work.

3. Phata Poster Nikla Hero : It is only logical that your expectations are high with a Raj Kumar Santoshi film. This goes up further when it has Shahid Kapoor. Unfortunately the script went wrong and Santoshi was seen in woefully poor form. Phata poster nikla zero or even Phata Hero Nikla Poster!!

4. Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 : This sequel to a successful comicap went awry. No, not even the Santosh Sivan presence could salvage this Deol damp squib

5. Ramaiya Vastavaiya: Notice yet another film that eats the dust is a director’s failure. Prabhu Deva made bad films and thus when it flops there is enough to beat the film with. The film was the hope of a new Bobby in the making . It was soggy in reality.

6. Once Upon a Time Dobara: Milan Luthria failed to replicate the earlier success . The dobara was a dubara. No, not even the presence of names like Akshay Kumar Ajay Devgan and Sonakshi Sinha could get the audience in large numbers.

7. Besharam: Wonder Boy Ranbir Kapoor, the casting coup of his real life parents together with him on screen and Abhinav Kashyap were not enough to salvage this film. Obviously the cast and the crew drew great expectations but the film lived more to its name than its expectations.

8. Aurangazeb: This Atul Sabhrawal film had many things going its way. The film had some strong performances from veteran actors like Rishi Kapoor and some from the promising Arjun Kapoor and Prithvi from South. Unfortunately the audience did not have time or preference for the outing.

9. Shootout at Wadala: Sanjay Gupta and his assembly of stars made clear that Wadala is not Lokhandwala. Anil Tushar and John were not sufficient to bring in the magic numbers.

10. Zilla Ghaziabad: What worked for Wasseypur did not for Ghaziabad. This disaster screamed for rejection and ensured it got just that. Arshad Warsi and Sanjay Dutt working together outside the Munnabhai franchise got the rejection it deserved.

The Big, Fat Hits

1. Dhoom 3: When Aamir chooses a script you can be sure he has done his homework. There may be two views on the EQ of the film- there is none about its acceptance. For the third successive time the intense Jai and comic Alli lose out and you have a whole idea of the audience enjoying the success of evil over good.

2. Chennai Express: This was no ‘Golmaal’, it yet was. The Rohit Shetty –Shah Rukh combination made a huge noise. The film got its politics right with a lungi dance dedicated to Rajini and had Deepika who seems be the new Midas avtar at the b.o.

3. Krish 3: Yet another sequel film that has been lapped up by the audience without a murmur- to hell with the critics. As the year comes to a close and the frown on the Roshan forehead is not erased, at least the film was not the cause and thankfully unlike the Kites that did not fly this did all the right noises .

4. Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani: Aryan Mukherjee got this outing right. NO, not just Ranbir and Deepika it also had the worth noting presence of Aditya Roy Kapoor and the ever reliable space defying Kalki. The film came at a time when the audience believed that yeh jawan hero can do no wrong. ‘Badtameez dil’ was also a super selling point for the film

5. Goliyonki Raasleela Ram Leela : For sheer grandeur and effort a Sanjay Leela Bhansali film deserves attention. Thank fully the film maker’s understanding of Shakespeare was not as different as Sarat Chandra though the success story followed the same pattern. Ranveer Singh and Deepika worked magic with their on screen presence and the rest is all about counting the mega bucks.

6. Bhaag Milka Bhaag: You cannot easily think of a successful biopic in Hindi cinema. The sincerity of Farhaan Akthar and the effort of Rakyesh Om Prakash Mishra ensured exactly that. It also enabled the Indian sports loving audience to look beyond cricket.

7. Race 2: It is amazing how Abbas Mastan read the pulse of the viewers and manage to be in the limelight. The film is a typical crime thriller with all shades of evil and another of the growing examples of stories not being the conflict between good and evil but between different shades of the later .

8. Aashiqui 2: With due apologies to the lead pair: this is a musical hit . It had the kind of music – raw and gnawing that comes from the Bhatt stables and invariably touches a chord. Ro rahahoon mein could make it to a list of melodies not just for the year but for a decade.

9. Special 26: This thriller heist had many things going its way. The cast had Anupam and Akshay sharing screen space and a Manoj Bajpayee not going over board. It also had the ever reliable Jimmy Shergill. More than any thing it proved that a film well executed is often not summarily rejected by the audience.

10. Grand Masti: Surely the surprise hit of the year. Like it or not, Indra Kumar has a space of his own. ‘Dil’, ‘Beta’, ‘Ishq’, ‘Masti’ and now ‘Grand Masti’. Not a bad line up of super hits. Notice that none of the films are what the critic would recommend. Who cares. The investor is happy as are the stars which here include the likes of Riteish, Aftab and Vivek.