Filmmakers who missed the mark
In 2007, some of our biggest and most promising directors had to eat crow. While they had promised spectacular films, they delivered unbelievable flops. Was it over reaching, over confidence or just plain overdoing the creative hats bit? We are not too sure. But here's looking at the ones who failed to live up to the hype they generated.
| Sanjay Leela Bhansali Bhansali is on a quest: to find great stories for great cinema. But perhaps his steed dropped him on his head midway because his 'magnum opus' Saawariya certainly does not hold up against any standards of greatness. In fact, the 'blue' film, which was touted as one of the biggest releases of 2007—because of its story line, its execution, its launch of star kids and its collaboration with the Hollywood studio, Sony Pictures—was anything but poetry in motion. Bhansali was unable to go beyond the minutiae to deliver a gripping story line. Even the characterisation was hidden behind mists of mystery. |
| Ram Gopal Varma He broke upon our collective consciousness as a master technician, one of an endangered species—a director who actually thought creatively. Then power corrupted. He took on too much, too fast. And the flops piled up equally fast. First came Nishabd. Though the film was well executed, the Lolitaesque storyline failed to capture the audience. However, we realised the rot had set in when a done-to-death theme was resurrected in Darling only to be followed by the ' big tribute', RGV Ki Aag. Not only did the director name the film after himself, he also had the audacity to think grime, goons, grey backdrops and facial tics could fool the audience into thinking they were watching a masterpiece. |
| Mani Ratnam He made a mark as an intelligent man's director. And he is trying to stick to the part. In Guru, he delivered for most part. The pre-release hype was incredible, the storyline was credible (if predictable, considering the Gurubhai Dhirubhai connection) and the acting was good. But despite selling out to blatant commercialism—Mallika's Maiyya maiyya item song, Ash's introduction in a sopping wet sari in Barso re—the audience gave it a mixed response. The plodding pace and the barely fleshed out secondary plot (between Madhavan and Vidya Balan) didn't help much either. |
i thought that guru,Saalam-E-Ishq,Tara Rum Pum and Aaja Nachle was hit. |
| Nikhil Advani When Nikhil Advani directed Salaam-e-Ishq, he certainly did not think he was offering up the first big dud of 2007. The film was ambitious—six love stories, 11 stars and, above all, it was a tribute to love. But though it worked in parts, it was clichd and melodramatic in the rest. The film proved that Akshaye Khanna and Govinda know their beans, that Juhi will never lose her charisma and that Anil Kapoor should stick to 'adult' roles. It also proved that Nikhil should return to his Kal Ho Na Ho experience and regroup before venturing out on anything so adventurous |
Pradeep Sarkar A girl dreams of 'donning the pants in the family', goes to Mumbai to find work, is disillusioned by the first nay she hears, sells her body and saves her parents and sister. And all we can think is: if Rani Mukherji's character in Laaga Chunari Mein Daag can learn English overnight, then why on earth didn't she get another job—at a call centre, perhaps? Pradeep Sarkar seems to have been caught in a time warp and not realised he is living in the 21st century. He should stick to films like Parineeta, which certainly belong to the era he seems to be familiar with. |
| Siddharth Anand After the success of Salaam Namaste (a silly but entertaining film), we expected Siddharth Anand to have matured into a good director. Instead, he came up with an out-of-date, amateurish film like Ta Ra Rum Pum. Worst of all—he actually thought the film was 'realistic'. Sigh! Here's all we have to say about the director and his ode to racing: what were you thinking of with the title; how could you let Saif and Rani get away with such mediocre acting; did you really hope to score with the NRIs by naming the kids Champ and Princess? Our last word: movies inspired by the genre of Tom Cruise's Days of Thunder should not see the light of day in the noughties. |
| Shaad Ali Here's another director we expected a lot from. After all, we thought, with films like Saathiya and Bunty Aur Babli in his kitty, how could Shaad Ali give us a dud? But it seems it is not always third time lucky for directors. With Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Shaad decided to sacrifice good screenplay at the altar of gloss and gimmicks. So at the end what we remember about the film is not its dialogues, locales or acting, but rather its outlandish clothes, bad humour, and yes, Preity Zinta's pouts! Poor recommendation indeed. |
| Anil Mehta We would not like to call it an outright flop. But Madhuri Dixit's comeback film Aaja Nachle certainly did not wow either. The pre-release hype was tremendous. After all the dhak dhak girl had disappeared completely after Devdas. The film also got its fair share of publicity when it got into trouble in UP and Haryana over objectionable lyrics. But what killed it was that it was, simply put, boring. Anil Mehta built up a lot of plots, but left them unexplored or wrapped them up too hastily or too naively. There was nothing in the script that made us sit up, nothing that deviated from the predictable. At the end, even Madhuri's smile could not save the film from being mundane. |
i thought that guru,Saalam-E-Ishq,Tara Rum Pum and Aaja Nachle was hit.
Enjoy😊 |
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