Why do a Worst for the year when one can do one for the decade? As the 2000s come to a close, I sit and deliberate on the ten worst Hindi movies of the decade that was—ten trashballs with no redeeming features. It was decidedly not an easy choice to make considering the mind-boggling number of movies that immediately came to mind.
So here they are , the ten worst, with special emphasis on big-budgeted and monstrously-hyped releases .
In the order of when they were dumped onto the world.
[Warning: long post]
Mohabbatein (2000): One of the 90s classics “Jaan Tere Naam” had a song ” Maana ke college main likhna chahiye. Padna chahiye. Romaaaahnce ka bhi ek lecture hona chahiye. Jo ho romaaahnce period. Love and dance period.” Mohabattein was a movie based solely on this amazing concept, the “college” of course being replaced by a “school” . Of course no one could blame Mohabbatein for dishonesty in labeling with its apposite addition of the “plural” ein after Mohabbat. Because that was what it was. One love story after another like stakes through the heart. Five of them in total. If gorefest “Saw”‘s punchline was “Yes there will be blood” Mohabbatein’s should have been “Yes there will be love” , so gratuitous it was in its romaaaaahntic torture.
It’s difficult to pinpoint what exactly made Mohabbatein so bad. Perhaps it was the theme of a man who did not believe in Love getting ultimately converted to the pink side of the force, that man being of course the grinch-like Narayan Shankar (Amitabh Bachchan), whose apparent gravitas was considered to be directly proportional to the number of times he would say the words “Anushilan” “Anushashan” “Parampara” . Perhaps it was Shahrukh Khan’s Raj Aryan, the school teacher with his head-shaking, eye-rolling, head thrown back, arms outstretched “adaayein” , a man whose primary job activity was shown to be to organize gigantic mating events for thirty-year old schookids (a dance, a Holi jamboree) all so that love may bloom that was the most grating. Perhaps it was Aishwarya Rai, the plastic dead ghost, popping out from time to time from the right of the screen and waltzing to the left as she whispered “Hum jeet gaye Raj” to a background “La La La” warbling that really drove me round the bend. Or maybe it was just the whole “counting sheep” procession of lovey doveys which was dizzying.
Perhaps the most sweeping indictment of Mohabbatein would be that even though it had Uday Chopra (the second most dangerous star-son whose-name-is-Uday, the first being Saddam-putra Uday) in one of the leading roles, he would not even find a place in a list of the ten worst things about Mohabbatein, so bad it was.
Asoka (2001): You have one of Indian history’s most intriguing personalities as the central character. Your context is one of the most glorious ages of our nation. Working from this source material and then to convert it to Asoka, the teenage love story of a king who shakes his head, rolls his eyes and yes throws his head back and keeps his arms outstretched behaving exactly like Raj Aryan from Mohabbatein, requires special talent.
As I sat through this mess of a movie, I could almost visualize the people behind Asoka burning midnight oil and having the following discussion.
“Should we just faithfully tell one of the greatest stories of sin and redemption ever told? Should we paint a huge canvas and show the glory that was India? Should we talk about a king who converted from a maniacal killer to become one of the most foreward thinking monarchs in world history? Should we? Naaahhh. Let’s just get Shahrukh Khan to take off his top, and picture him flying out in super-slow-mo from a lake in his bare-chested glory to the tune of “Roshni Se bhaare bhaare” as he embraces the bhaare bhaare Kareena Kapoor. What sir? You want more history? Let’s put in a Mauryan version of a cage-dance to make it more authentic. Lyrics? Yes sir. We have it. It’s Aaa Aaa Aaaa. Aaa Aaa Taiyyar Ho Ja. Yes very much sir. For foreigners, the subtitle will be “Come come come. Get Ready to Come”. Nice no sir?”
Conquerors and imperialists seek to rewrite the history of the land and demoralize its people by pulling down monuments and defiling works of art. Too much effort. They should just get the guys behind the movie Asoka to repeat their feat.
Yaadein (2001):
Scene 1: Rati Agnihotri lies dying after being run-over (Doctor says she has two-three minutes left). She then gives a whispering orgasmic death-speech before handing over the keys of the house to Jackie Shroff, her husband. The camera lingers on the keyrings—and what a coincidence ! There is a small red Coke bottle. [And yes, in case you missed it, there is a Coke can in Jackie’s hand (above picture) as he sings an emotional song]
Scene 2: [Business Standard article]
The real hero of the film is Pass Pass. It brings the hero and the heroine together,” gushes a senior executive of the Rs 600-crore Delhi-based DS Group, which manufactures the mouth freshner.
According to him, the heroine of the film, Kareena Kapoor, warms her way into Hrithik Roshan’s heart by offering him Pass Pass—a trick she learns from his ex-girlfriend. Rest is the stuff Bollywood flicks are made of.
Scene 3: From time to time, again not out of design, the camera focuses on the Hero Cycles extensively used in the movie.
Scene 4: Kareena Kapoor and her friends are visiting an island. A dangerous crocodile arrives. Everybody boards the boat and runs away. Not Kareena who is left behind. Along comes the crocodile. Crocodile. Kareena. The two monsters stare at each other their eyes locked. And then Kareena takes off her half jacket sensuously and throws it in the eyes of the croc. With his eyes obscured by the jacket and fearful of what he had just seen as the jacket was taken off, the crocodile turns around and starts running. Hero Hrittik Roshan comes by boat from the mainland and finds Kareena passed out on a tree. Or perhaps we should say “Pass Pass-ed”
Yaadein is a gigantic commercial helmed by the “great showman” Subhash Ghai passing for a movie. Add to it moronic ditties like “Mile mile dil mile, khile khile khile gul khile” and about twenty of the most standard Hindi movie cliches.
And oh how can I forget? Generous dollops of Jackie Shroff with streaked white hair.
What you have is one of the disasters of the decade, one whose yaadein refuses to leave you no matter how much you try.
Devdas:(2002): Oscar Wilde once said “Nothing succeeds like excess.” But then he had not seen Devdas. Like the legendary dial in “This is Spinal Tap” turned to eleven, Sanjay Leela Bhansali amps everything up to a level one can scarcely imagine. Kiron Kherr acts like a maniac who would make Hannibal Lecter fear for his life. The sheer brightness of the colors are an assault on the optic nerve. A local train carrying Devdas to his village seems to be a palace on wheels. A house of a Zamindar looks like a cathedral. The locality of “ill-repute” in 19th century Calcutta looks as lit-up as Las Vegas during Christmas.
And towering above all the hyper-melodrama and the declaration of war on the senses is Shahrukh Khan playing Devdas. Never known for subtlety and no stranger to the Worst lists (note how many times he has already appeared here), in Devdas he is firing all cannons like the Spanish Armada. Tottering and careening, eyes reddened, lips curled, eyes half-closed he is the Kalki Avatar of acting as he does “his stuff”, the Shahrukhianisms which make so many Paros and Chandramukhis go all weak in the knees.
Inured to his considerable charms I however kept on shaking my head in disbelief throughout the running time of Devdas, hoping that my sanity outlasts Devdas’s liver.
And just when I started thinking “His end will be any moment now” out would jump Chunni-babu (Jackie Shroff) and the two “ham”sters would do a Chalak Chalak jig as they touched each other’s “seeshe” leaving me groaning……..
Mar dalaa. Allah.
Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003): Suraj Barjatiya, whom history will remember for creating the greatest music video of all time and for giving me one of the motifs I have lived my life according to namely “Ek ladka aur ladki kabhi dost naheen ban sakti. Yeh to ek bahana hai, tadapti raaton main bhadakti jismon ki dhadakhti aag ko bujhaane ka” , delivered this turkey when he tried to adapt his old-world garam halwa sweet value-based cinema to the new world of short skirts and pre-marital sex.
And nowhere was this uncomfortable pact between good-old world Indian values and tittilation more brought out than in the song “Ladka Yeh Kaheta Hai Ladki Se”. Hrittik Roshan (Prem Kishen) is helping a bunch of lissome lasses jump over a wall, as grown up men and women prance and play around like eight-year olds playing Chor Police, presumably to show innocence. After he helps Girl 1 and Girl 2 jump over the fence, along comes Sanjana (Kareena Kapoor) who is in the “I hate you” phase which we we all know precedes the “I love you” one. She refuses to let the hero touch her.
The hero withdraws like a Barjatiyan gentleman and continues singing. And then Sanjana finds herself unable to cross the fence and she stands there and the hero, all the time singing and with that innocent boy-child look on his face, comes to her, holds her waist and dripping with ethereal non-corporeal love, shows his devotion and veneration by nestling himself on her…emm….I will let this fant-ass-tic picture say the rest.
Of course putting the blame of the toxic waste that is Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon on such sequences would be like blaming a small chip on the paint on the hull of the Titanic for its sinking. From a derivative plot (Chitchor) to the propensity of the actors, principally Hrittik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, to make over-exaggerated facial expressions ostensibly to show saadgi, from the “digital” red parakeet to the absence of Alok Nath (a Barjatiya movie without Alok Nath is like a sunrise without the sun), this was one painful experience.
Veer Zara (2004): According to Yashraj Movie’s official site: [Link]
Yash Chopra’s ode to unswerving love, “Veer-Zaara” was shown last year to sell out crowds and many film enthusiasts – be they Germans, Afghans, Iranians, Indians or Pakistanis were seen outside the theatre showing his film weeping because they were unable to get a seat. Both the screenings of “Veer-Zaara” saw an unprecedented response from the full capacity audience, with even the tough German men reaching for their handkerchiefs, as they all continued to clap throughout the end credits, after a 3 hour visual treat of colour, dance and fabulous performances riding on a wave of emotions that left them spell bound.
German men might be tough. But I would challenge even those who had survived the siege in Stalingrad to not break down in a flood of tears after Veer Zara, though perhaps not for the same reason that the producers of the movie would like us to think. Yash Chopra’s ode to love across boundaries, full of appeals to universal brotherhood and the obligatory hour of sarson da khet and chak de Punjab where men and women live in innocent sylvan innocence was unbelievably bad, even by Yash Choprian standards. The crowing glory of course was when a Pakistani judge releases an Indian prisoner (played by Shahrukh Khan whose age is shown by a white wig and a shaking of the head) held without trial for decades after the judge gets emotionally moved by a poem he recites— “Main quaidi Number 786”. Now if we could only get a Pakistani judge so senti so that he gives LET leaders some actual jail time.
You might be wondering whether I have something against Shahrukh Khan seeing how often his movies occur in this last. Now if you do, I would like to turn that thought around and ask whether Shahrukh Khan has something against me, and against movie-going audiences in general, that he continues to, without fail, bring us rubbish like Veer Zara.
I think I know what SRK would do in response.
He would simply sing a song from Veer Zara.
Hum to bhai jaise the waise rahenge.
Black (2005): I have never been able to figure out, just like how Kasab is still enjoying our tax-payer’s hospitality, is why this light-absorbing piece of garbage is regarded as a masterpiece. For that I suppose the theme is responsible—-having a challenged individual as a protagonist automatically insulates yourself from criticism; people are afraid to say “This movie sucks” so as to not appear insensitive.
Black is not melodrama. It is hyperdrama. Slaps, hair pulling, clanging of objects, shrieks, screams and a very creepy child artist—-Black is more a horror movie than anything else, with a distinctive disquieting spooky atmosphere which most directors struggle to create but which Bhansali does effortlessly. Of course without wanting to.
Supposedly inspired from “Miracle Worker”, Black’s singlemost grating thing is Amitabh Bachchan’s immense overacting in which he shakes, spits out dialogue and raises his eyebrows every five seconds—-a performance as subtle and nuanced as a sledgehammer on a porcelain vase.
And so yes. At the cost of sounding heartless and a philistine, I will say it. Leela Bhansali’s great masterpiece sucks. Majorly.
Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag (2007): The line between genius and madness is a thin one we are told. So is that between greatness (Sholay) and absolute decrepitude (RGV Ki Aag).
Just calling Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag as terribly bad would be like calling grass green. It is in many ways indescribable. One of the most perfect Masala movies ever made is brutalized in every conceivable way possible. Shaky, supposedly arty camera-movements that make it appear as if Surma Bhopali is behind the camera after a drinking binge. A fascination with Nisha Kothari and more appropriately her butt. Dialogs of the sort “Tum twomuch naheen. Threemuch ho.” An Amitabh Bachchan-duplicate in the role of Jai. Mohan Lal’s impeccable Hindi accent. Gabbar Singh renamed as Babban, an unwashed homeless man with a proclivity for gnashing his teeth whose signature badass gesture is blowing air and saying phoosh like an old man with flatulence.
Sholay is legendary because it was one of the rare occasions when every ingredient came together perfectly and in the right proportions. And Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag is the absolute nadir because it is also of the rare times when everything that contributes to making a movie watchable—acting, script, characterization, direction—- goes as wrong as it possibly can.
Saanwariya (2007): I don’t think I would like to say anything beyond what I said about it when I first saw Saanwariya.
Singh is Kinng (2008): The last slot. This one was difficult to fill up since there were so many contenders for the slot. Should I put one of RGV’s post-Company creations, all of them virtually identical having ugly evil men sitting in dark-rooms acting crazy? Should I put yet another SRK movie like Kabhi Kudkhushi Kabhi Sham or “Skank” ? Should I consider one of the sex-comedies like “No Entry” ? Or perhaps David Dhawan’s pathetic attempts to be hep and relevant?
After scratching my head, among other things, ultimately I settled on Singh is Kingg, perhaps because I was not brave enough to try to see Chandni Chowk to China. The reason for that being that having grown up in a CPM-ruled state, I did not want to waste my time on movie that sounds like the history of the Communist Party in India.
So why “Singh is Kingg”? , Primarily because it was less a film and more of a product. Producer Vipul Shah realized that if he made a movie that glorified Punjab and Sardars, then he would more than recover his investment from the North market as well that of US, Canada and the UK (and to make sure of that, a Snoop Dogg rap song is added). As for the rest, all he needed was Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif.
Singh is Kingg had no story. It needed none. It was not brainlessly funny in the old Govinda-school way unless of course you consider people running over roofs chasing chickens and people confessing not to have changed their kacchas as funny. Which I accept many do consider hilarious, considering the popularity that “comics” like Sidhu, Suman and Srivastava enjoy in this country.
Just not me.
As far as I was concerned, there was not one single funny moment in Singh is Kingg. Not one. Not even a small snigger. Even Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movies get an unintentional laugh or two. Not Singh is Kingg.
Of course, the real reason I hate Singh is Kingg is because I fear that it represents the future of Hindi movies—as formulaic and as unoriginal as before, but without any of the endearing warmth or innocent “dudh ka karz” kind of hokiness that I so love. Instead we will see more and more of glitzy over-budgeted soulless circuses like Blue and Kambakth Ishq made by targeting specific demographics, accompanied by a storm of public appearances by the stars as judges on reality shows and carefully-planted rumors of break-ups and link-ups (note the media tamasha that surrounds Katrina, Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Kareena, Saif just before their movies release), where more than ever before ad-men, marketing managers and media consultants will call the shots over directors and actors.
It is a future I fear more than numerically correctly spelt names, SMS Ingliss and Himesh.
| The real hero of the film is Pass Pass. It brings the hero and the heroine together,” gushes a senior executive of the Rs 600-crore Delhi-based DS Group, which manufactures the mouth freshner. |
| According to him, the heroine of the film, Kareena Kapoor, warms her way into Hrithik Roshan’s heart by offering him Pass Pass—a trick she learns from his ex-girlfriend. Rest is the stuff Bollywood flicks are made of. |
The Greatbong Blog & Podcast 
We shall overcome… we shall overcome…
I shall be 1st onedayyyy…
now off to reading the post? 😛
I am not quite sure of Ashoka, I kind of liked it…Din’t really live up to my expectations, but yes…..the love angle did ruin it
interesting list 🙂 just seen mohabbatein from this list, so must consider myself lucky.
not sure i can come up with a !top10 since i havent watched enough of them. but for me, the #1 is most definitely “Jaani Dushman” 🙂
Spot On!!
good compilation. but RGV ki aag should not have made it into the list. it’s so bad that it should not be considered as a film anymore. disgrace.
btw ‘mohabbatein’ was a romantic flick??? thanks for letting me know… all these yrs i thought it was a horror movie as Aish (who died long back) keeps coming and SRK (the tantrik) keeps manipulating others (uday chopra, jugal hansraj & co.) on her instructions!
Udya, Jimmy and Jugal is still suffering from that witch curse… *sigh*
Waiting for your take on ‘Avatar’..
More or less spot on. But will have to disagree on BLACK. It was a brilliant movie. Also even though Singh is Kingg didn’t have any story to speak of it was fun to watch and there were definitely a lot more useless movies
@pigglywiggly: jaani dushman i think falls in the “so bad, it’s outrageously good” category! can’t include it amongst films that one can barely sit through once!
And GB, i would have had Kank instead of any of the other shah rukh movies.
Hey, no one asked for an IPod!!
It is a mystery how only one Akshay film makes this list. You could have easily edited one SRK film (all of them are the bloody same) to include at least one. Also you put all Bhansali films of the decade in this. Devdas did that to you eh:) I know and I agree. Devdas was so bad that Parineeta looks legendary in comparison to it. And I have not even read Saratchandra to understand the amount of injustice Bhansali has done to it.
4 out of 10, SRK movies. You are inviting the wrath of some fanatics who consider him re-incarnation of Krishna :). On that note, where is Kisna in the list?
Spot on…I’m glad that someone else thought ‘Black’ was trash…
Its not the most comprehensive list. But then for a comprehensive list you will need much much more space 🙂 A few honorable mentions though- Namaste London, Chandni Chowk.. , Blue, Om Shanti Om, Race(how dould you miss that?),Tashan,Hera Pheri-2, Golmal & Golmal returns. I think its not surprising that most of the movies you mentioned , as well as the ones I did, were hits.Some of them quite big ones too
Hi GB,
How could you forget the inimitable Vivaah, reputedly being screened to Guantanamo residents?
Just how could you?
so r u considering only the big budget ones?…even then u have Blue , Dhoom2, KI etc…I mean 10 is a very small number for this kind of a list…
Vivaah??? ek Vibaah aisi bhi!!!! these should come before Black… Mangal pandey??
How could you forget Jhoom Bharabar Jhoom????? Yash raj banner, big star cast and the title song that kept reminding that you gotto jhoom bharabar through out the movie because your car is stuck in the parking lot!!!
I can’t fault any of the names on the list, truly. The 90s have put me off the Chopra brand of filmmaking for ever.
And Black was the absolute worst. But it takes courage to say that in India. I know many people who believe that it was one of the best films ever made in India! That makes me despair as much as Singh is Kinng’s being a hit does…
i am a die hard shahrukh khan fan so i d rather not comment on his movies but i do feel that u r being overly critical of him.
well rest of ur list is more or less true..(just feel that there shud hv been more RGV movies after company.. or as u wrote.. compilation of all of them in one)
glad that u put BLACK in there..when i saw it first time, i dint like the movie but everyone around me kept praising it. i just thought that may be i missed something great in it but honestly over the years iv really hated that movie. and just to add.. hated sawariya even more than that.
Awesome. Only that you could have had expanded to say 20 worst of the decade. There are so many more waiting to be thrashed. Would’ve got to read more as well!! 🙂
Am happy I’ve not seen 8 of this 10 listed movies!
So who takes the crown for worst contribution?
SRK with 4 out of 10, or Bhansali with all 3 that he’s made this decade?
Agree on all counts.Except Black, not a great movie, but classifying it under worst movie status, is a bit overdone IMHO.
Please replace with – Kambakht Ishq.
Agree on all counts.Except Black, think its a well made movie,strong storyline,good acting, sometimes overacting, but that is pardonable, but classifying it under worst movie status, is a bit overdone IMHO.
Please replace with – Kambakht Ishq.
tell me you dint see any of them again just to compile the list
Agree with the list. Should have included Blue.
I liked some parts of Devdas. bhansali should not have tried to make devdas in his career so early …directors like rituparno can make such movies better.
@Gyanban
KI has this tasty and catchy song!
Bebo main Bebo!!
No Prabhuji movie in this list …. SRK ki leela agaadh hai.
great list……….but vaat about “Kambaqt Ishq”? Can there be a bonus?????
Why is Mission Istanbul missing from this list or Zinda or any of Sanjay Gupta’s crapass movies?
This was a list of 7 bad movies, 2 passable movies and 1 classic movie.
Black & Saanwaria are not bad movies by a long stretch. Both movies have an element of poetry and should be viewed by suspending your sense of whatthefuck. But of course they are not good movies either because Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s sense of grandeur and his sense of *vulgar, over-the-top* extravaganza trumps the artist and the poet residing inside him.
But Asoka is sheer poetry in motion. Easily one of the top ten movies of this decade. I guess GB like everyone else who hates this movie forgot to read the disclaimer at the beginning of the movie that the film was a fictional derivative of the tale of Asoka and not an accurate historical account of his life.
GB: Should we talk about a king who converted from a maniacal killer to become one of the most foreward thinking monarchs in world history?
Anyone who missed noticing Asoka’s maniacal behavior as he ruthlessly slays all his rivals and his post-war conversion to a peace-loving forward-thinking monarch must have been too distracted by the sight of Kareena Kapoor’s midriff.
GB: Let’s just get Shahrukh Khan to take off his top, and picture him flying out in super-slow-mo from a lake in his bare-chested glory to the tune of “Roshni Se bhaare bhaare” as he embraces the bhaare bhaare Kareena Kapoor. What sir? You want more history? Let’s put in a Mauryan version of a cage-dance to make it more authentic. Lyrics? Yes sir. We have it. It’s Aaa Aaa Aaaa. Aaa Aaa Taiyyar Ho Ja
Bare-chested glorification was in vogue in ancient times, Great Bong. Everyone dared to bare in those days since there were no fans and air conditioners to keep them cool in hot, tropical climate of India. Singing songs with your ladylove was also a part of our tradition. If in a movie based on the life of Krishna, our lord was shown cavorting with Radha to the tune of ‘Roshni se’ would you have minded it so much? So what gives you the right to assume that a charismatic figure like Asoka wasn’t capable of singing and flying out bare-chested from a lake singing duets with his bare midriffed Kaurvaki? And how silly of you to assume that bar-girls of Mauryan times sang and danced to the lyrics of Harishvanshrai Bachchan’s poems. Mauryan times or Modern times, bar-girls are just bar-girls. They sing and dance to seduce inebriated men not to enthrall them with poetry.
PS: Asoka was directed by Santosh Sivan, the same guy who gave us “The Terrorist” and “Tahaan”, not Khalnayak and Tashan. Can you consider the possibility that this man has better cinematic sensibilities than most of us?
@Hari Sadu:”But Asoka is sheer poetry in motion.”
You made my coffee spill man!
how come no Himesh movies??????
hilarious ! but Black shouldnt have made it to the list…
“Blue” deserves a place in this list. It was unbelievably stupid piece of work!
lol..this is superbly written..though i would disagree on srk movies, but the way u have put it is mast!!..also read ur sawariya review..hilarious..:)
@Hari Sadu : Hahaha , u made my day man (err. evening ):D … dancing around trees and singing songs with our lady love was part of our culture is that what u said ? plzz tell me u didnt 😀 .. my lady love here now wants me too show the same kinda love for her complete with a bare chested jump ‘cos she now thinks its part of our culture and hence my duty 😛 .. i dont know about santosh shivan but u sure know ur sensibilities right 🙂
I was expecting some more sarcasm, more wisecracks – especially given that the topic had much potential for humour.
You must have endured a lot of torture to compile this list! But the girl actor’s acting in Black was so good that she doesn’t deserve such being made fun of.
Bingo! Spot on ! Haven’t seen Main Premi ki Deewani Hu & RGV ki aag but otherwise totally agree with the 3 Bhansali movies and 4 SRK movies.
Haven’t seen “Singh is Kinng” either, neither do I have the slightest inclination to do so, but my life is at risk if I reveal that in public :). I live on a land that honours Akshay Kumar with a PhD & he gets chosen as one of the 15 international representative outside of Canada to carry the Winter Olympics torch. Ouch!
Hav you checked out any of this year’s clunkers? London Dreams immediately comes to mind.
Thank you, thank you for including Black… I was beginning to think i am an oddball for disliking it so much. Utter crap and all those awards!
Dipayan, do you remember a character called Bhuvan from the movie ‘Lagaan’? He too was bare-chested all the time and also sang duet songs with his ladylove.
I don’t know anyone who has listed ‘Lagaan’ as one the worst movie of the decade on the basis of the improbability of a poor farmer of a drought-stricken village in the hinterlands of India singing romantic duets with his ladylove.
Not only did this Bhuvan sang romantic ditties, he even traveled 100 years ahead in future and learned how to compose modern tunes & sing like south Indians of the present age. How else would he have been able to create a semi-rockish tune like ‘Chale Chalo’ or sing it an anglicized, heavily accented voice of AR Rehman in the nineteenth century?
Dancing under water-falls and singing duet songs may or may not have been a part of our real culture, but it always was and is part of Indian film culture. Even the voters of academy awards recognize this facet of Indian movie culture and don’t discriminate against our movies based on the stupidity of our song-n-dance numbers.
So why is Emperor Asoka being discriminated against? In my arrogant opinion, Asoka, the great, deserves the same right to make a complete fool of himself as peasant Bhuvan. As we saw in the last half hour of the epic movie ‘Lagaan’, singing duets with his ladylove in the first half of the movie didn’t compromise his ability to win an almost-impossible cricket match in the last half. So why can’t you accept Asoka’s singing ‘Roshni Se’ with Kaurvaki in the fist half of the movie and his conversion from a ruthless warrior to a peace-loving Buddhist in the last half of the movie?
I don’t agree with most entries here.
Veer Zaara, Singh is King were both passable commercial movies which were not absolute trash.
Likewise for Devdas it had its moments, even though much in excess.
GB i sense a bias against big commercial cinema here which IMHO has its own place.
@Anuj Rathi: You made my coffee spill man!
Never drink coffee while reading movie reviews man! There is this thing called ‘Difference of opinion’ If you don’t learn respecting differences of opinion, you will spill more coffee in future.
Now put whatever liquid you are sipping aside and read the reviews here..
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249371/usercomments?start=0
What no TASHAN??? Kahan hai Asli Bhaiyajee???
“For foreigners, the subtitle will be “Come come come. Get Ready to Come”. Nice no sir?””
Sheer awesomeness 😀
u do have some kind of grudge against srk, don’t u? cuz i can name atleast 10 movies worse than u have mentioned [except aag.i haven’t seen aag, so i won’t say worse than that]. movies that made me want to pluck my eyes out.. i’ll watch mohabbatein shows back 2 back all day [not 2 say that its good] than watch movies like blue, kambakkht ishq, jhoom barabar and many many others…
Man! Hari Sadu u made my day. mwaaaaaaaaah
Great Bong, I feel that Black was a decent movie as already pointed out in some of the earlier comments. Lot of overacting and over the top craziness, but still you could empathize with the spooky child. I also agree that Big B hams like he has never hammed before. But some of the other movies like Namaste London, Vivah, Dilli-6, Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani, all Katrina movies, Illuminati films Pvt. Ltd.’s creation Love Aaj Kal, and many more could have easily replaced Black.
Also Devdas looked good to me parts. I liked SRK’s version of “Kaun kambakht bardasht karne ke liye peeta hai”, and the “Babuji ne kaha gaon chod do” seqeunces in particular. Sure he hammed but how could you over look the deeraama here!
Would love to read your take on Avatar. Also have you not reviewed Dil Chahta hai? I could not find it on your blog.
I’m surprised Welcome is missing from this list of quality films. Easily one of the worst movies ever, in the same class as Yaadein.
To the post above (AK)…There have been many such movies like Welcome,No Entry,Golmaal that are painfully bad.I think what GB has listed are movies that have taken themselves seriously and ended up being atrocious.
Well compiled list..I would actually list out all movies from the Johar-Chopra stable !!
why not main prem ki diwani hoon, kisna, jaaneman, phir bhi dil hai hindustani, hum tumhaare hain sanam? these were tortures on mankind.
This should have been a list of 50 movies rather than 10. And I badly expected Mangal Pandey to be featured on the list. May be on ranking “0” (there is no time, no space, only “0”).
@ sk: I concur what you say, but standby what I think about Black and Devdaas. Even though, they have taken themselves seriously, they are certainly not atrocious enough to appear along side this garbage.
Wow!
I have not seen any of these movies. I guess i should be proud of my judgement.
I have to disagree with about 95% of your choices…what a horrible list…not even the reasons you gave were good enough to make them the worst of the decade…
Thanks GB, for saying the way it is. It was the truth that the average film goer in india needed to hear. Majority of the hindi movies do suck. Especially if you watch hollywood movies and american TV shows regularly. Yesterday i watched Paa, some parts of the movie are really good, but the director give a death blow in the end when he made the pair to revolve around Auro. I just about manage to not throw up.
Your point well-taken for “Singh is Kinng”, but on that note I am more than glad that Chandni Chowk to China and Blue flopped
I guess 10 is too few a number… HR films? Jhoom Baraabar Jhoom? Kidnap?? Drona?
I am shocked. I found this blog from the orkut community Bollywood bakwas many years ago and have always looked forward to the movie reviews on this blog rather than the social and sports commentaries (which are outstanding nonethless). And therefore to see that I disagree with 8 of the 10 choices of yours does surprise me. The ones i agree with are Yaadein and RGV ki Aag. I am a SRK fan and there are worse SRK films than the ones listed here. The criteria of big budgets and hypes also fit with those films. A worst film list with only VZ from the YRF banner is simply unbelievable given the Tashans, JBJs and NnN in their portfolio. When it comes to hype and disappointment even Mangal Pandey has to be way up there. I will have to make my top 10 list now.
GB: You could actually spare others and pick from SRK and Hrithik’s so called great hits collection. I cant believe you left out KANK and chose Singh is king which apparently has a great story (compared to KANK). Looking beyong SRK & HR Jani Dushman is one obvious choice.
GB,
Do you eat ‘karela’ or some other bitter thing before viewing every movie?
Though I’ll agree with most of the list, some of them were good enough to be viewed at least once(Ashoka, SisK, Black). Your comments for such movies look like you are condemning these movies just for your readers as they enjoy your negative comments…
There are many more movies in the past decade that can easily make it to this list…Seriously, listing a good movie like ‘Black’ with a movie like ‘RGV ki Aag’ was too much…sorry to say..did not enjoy your blog today…did not feel like genuine reviews…
Given the comments, I think a next-10-worst list is needed 🙂
Yippee….I have seen all the 10!!!!!!!! and I am loving it.
I am bit disappointed as there is no Mangal Pandey in here….
May be GB is coming with a list of The Worst Movies of The Century(1910 – 2010) and hiding it for a Surprise No.1!!!!!
Sure, it deserves 😉
I agree with some of the people who considered Asoka a good movie.How bad can it be? It is better than say a darna zaroori hai, kambakht ishq or drona. And it is certainly has as believable a story as lagaan.
I bow to theee
Muito Bom:)
@Hari Sadu
If SRK had to make a love story of that era, he sould have done so with a fictious charecter. Saying that it was a ficticious love story about Asoka through a small disclamer does not cut it. That is where Lagaan and Asoka were different(Though they should not be compared in the first place). With Lagaan you knew you were going for a fictional story which told about that time and but with Asoka, people were made to belive with all the barrage of publicity that it indeed was a story of Asoka, The King. (Again I have my doubts on how many actually belived it)
@GB
Nice post. Though I thought Agli aur Pagli should have been there …
Good collections indeed, but you have left LOVE STORY 2050! I thought it should go to a hall of shame…:)
You had lot of ammunation but limited slots to be fired. or else how could you have missed Nana Patekar”s nonsenses, Govinda’s antics, Prabhuji”s growls, Salman’s heroics etc etc.This list is like taking out your negative thoughts on SRK.putting up a list of 25 would have given a much cleare picture of the bollywood mess that we are fed year after year.
GB, you must have never experienced love or most likely got jilted in love…that is my take after seeing this list.
@Don Ayan de Marco I agree with some of the people who considered Asoka a good movie.How bad can it be? And it is certainly has as believable a story as lagaan.
Asoka is a damn good movie! And more believable than Lagaan. Though I loved Lagaan as much as Asoka, its plot was corny, pedestrian, cliched and plain silly. Typical tale of underdogs coming up trumps. But its biggest fault was not underdogs winning, but the sheer impossibility of a bunch of no-hopers who had never played the game of cricket previously beating a club cricket team.
Asoka is not just more believable (despite the admitted historical inaccuracies) than Lagaan, its better crafted. Melodious soul-stirring music, lush art direction, exquisitely evocative cinematography, fast-paced narrative, rivetingly stylized, excellent performances from the entire star-cast, magical story-telling style, well-developed and properly sketched-out characters, funny and extremely entertaining.
It has the visual splendor of Gladiator, the poetry and style of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, romantic intensity of Casablanca, irreverence (towards cinematic conventions) and joviality of Moulin Rouge and lush cinematography of LOTR. It’s one of the few movies that makes the best use of Indian and Hollywood style of film-making, combining to create a heady, spellbinding masterpiece that satisfies completely on all levels.
To place this movie in ten worst movies of the decade is carrying SRK-loathing to extremely toxic levels!
@Don Ayan de Marco I agree with some of the people who considered Asoka a good movie.How bad can it be? And it is certainly has as believable a story as lagaan.
Asoka is a damn good movie! And more believable than Lagaan. Though I loved Lagaan as much as Asoka, its plot was corny, pedestrian, cliched and plain silly. Typical tale of underdogs coming up trumps. But its biggest fault was not underdogs winning, but the sheer impossibility of a bunch of no-hopers who had never played the game of cricket previously beating a club cricket team.
Asoka is not just more believable (despite the admitted historical inaccuracies) than Lagaan, its better crafted. Melodious soul-stirring music, lush art direction, exquisitely evocative cinematography, fast-paced narrative, rivetingly stylized, excellent performances from the entire star-cast, magical story-telling style, well-developed and properly sketched-out characters, funny and extremely entertaining.
It has the visual splendor of Gladiator, the poetry and style of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, romantic intensity of Casablanca, irreverence (towards cinematic conventions) and joviality of Moulin Rouge and lush cinematography of LOTR. It’s one of the few movies that makes the best use of Indian and Hollywood style of film-making, combining to create a heady, spellbinding masterpiece that satisfies completely on all levels.
To place this movie in ten worst movies of the decade is carrying SRK-loathing to extremely toxic levels!
“I hate Singh is Kingg is because I fear that it represents the future of Hindi movies—as formulaic and as unoriginal as before” – can not say about big budget commercial movies but not entirely true for small budget cinema. we do have films like bheja fry, dev d, khonsla ka ghosla, jail etc in different genre. not great but ya you can call them as good movies.
Greatbong,
How can you ignore Himesh Reshmiya’s movies? They are definitely worse than Mohabbatein etc… Not that I like Mohabbatein though!
@animefan:
Asoka wasn’t made by SRK, but by Santosh Sivan, who is an internationally-acclaimed director.
Do you even understand anything about film-making? It is stupid to call a movie bad because you are too lazy to read the disclaimer. A movie should be judged on its merits – its direction, cinematography, story-telling etc – not by its relation to history or reality.
Here’s some homework for you. Look up the term ‘creative license’ on google. Next, read Tulsidas’s Ram Charit Manas and compare it to Valmiki’s Ramayana. You will get some perspective of how poets and authors throughout history have used creative license to tamper with the original tale.
If historical errors was the criteria for placing a movie in worst movie list, every list of worst movies would have included critically-acclaimed movies like Gladiator, Braveheart, Shakespeare in Love, Patriot, Apocalypto etc
http://www.cracked.com/article_15014_11-movies-saved-by-historical-inaccuracy.html
couldnt agree more about Black!! that movie has become like the emperor’s new clothes…kudos for being the boy in the story who called it like it is when h said “but he isnt wearing anything” when the world and his wife were praising the “fine new clothes” 😀
definitely think Mangal Pandey should have made the list…maybe in place of one of the SRKs? I think thats the magic of the man when inspite of doing the movies he does he still manages to retain fans in otherwise-rational-completely logical-people (err, me) 🙂
asoka – are you kidding? …. seems you just wanted to make sure you had 4 SRK movies in there.
Damn! Some of you shouldn’t be commenting on movies.
Mangal Pandey should have been on this list? Are you people serious? Mangal Pandey wasn’t a great movie, but nevertheless it was good for one-time viewing. Ketan Mehta has never made a below-average movie in his lifetime. He is too accomplished craftman to ever make an atrocious movie.
There can be real reason for intensely disliking Mangal Pandey except for the irritation with the licenses Mehta takes with the character of this man. It appears that when it comes to movies made with historical themes, Indians only want insipidly narrated, text-bookish-ly told tales like ‘The Legend of Shaheed Bhagat Singh” or Attemborough’s ‘Gandhi’.
Mangal Pandey is way ahead of Gowalikar’s “Jodha Akbar” in style, aesthetics, story-telling, narrative structure, cinematography and entertainment value. Its a pity some of you are intolerant of cinematic licenses and allow inclusion of few invented characters (Rani Mukherjee & Ameesha Patel) to distract you from the overall merit of the movie.
@Hari Sadu: you know what is the most unbelievable thing in Lagaan? To me it is the British actually leaving the village and considering not to take the taxes from the villagers. When has the British become so nice? And thanks for agreeing with me on Asoka. I think it is one of the better movies I have seen in this decade along with Black Friday, Swades and TZP.
Wish you had cared to write a word about these central characters/ themes of a few movies. Here it goes….
Mohabattein – Kim Sharma, whose itsy-bitsy numbers could not save her and she paved way for other in-glorious beauties like Aarti Chabbaria, Preeti Jhangiani etc.
Asoka – Pawan – The white steed who could have easily won the ‘Supporting actor’ role.
Yaadein – Had the most hummable song of year – Cham cham cham cham cham cham chamakti raat hai….(Loop)..cham.. cham..cham…cham…(loop)
Devdas – Isssssh
Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon – That ugly bird which made shrilly noise throughout the film. Not to forget the three teeny-boppers (kareena’s friends) who would purr ”Prem Bhaiyaaaaaaaa’ incessantly. Arrrrghh.
Singh Is King – The differently-abled Javed Jafri and Neha Dhupia’s on-screen chemistry. Talk bout love is blind.
Hey how about 10 Best Hindi Movies of the Decade?
you wont have to think too hard as there could be only 10. 🙂
Just few suggestions you may like Oye Lucky? Dev D? Khosla ka Ghosla will be a shoo-in though.
Your full-of-foreboding last line sent shivers down my spine. God Save!
@ Manpreet
Your comments for such movies look like you are condemning these movies just for your readers as they enjoy your negative comments…
this name just reminds me of some staple Punjabi characters which are done to death in YRF movies. Probably you are affected too.
This list of 10 is too small. SRK’s all but 1 movie (Swades) deserve to be in 50 of 100 worst movies ever made. And yea, i liked his cameo in Lucky By Chance though. Akshay Kumar is next on the list with all movies he’s made.Crappiest decade of the movie industry frankly speaking. It has declined gradually from 80s (jitendra), 90s (govinda & Srk) & a freefall in 00s.
A big thumbs down! Respect for your own right of having choices. But undoubtedly as badly written as the direction of RGV’s AAG. Sorry!
NO HIMESSS RESAMMIYAA?
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Bong!
No Ghajini?
The rest are all fine. Including Black and Ashoka (sorry Hari bhai).
Doing a top 10 dud list by actor/ production house would be a better idea. You have missed too many YRF movies. SRK and SL Bhansali could be covered with all their muck in one point each and there would be space for Aamirs and Himesh and due justice for the likes of Akshay Kumar / Saif, etc.
By the way what no one seems to have noticed is that you have something against Bebo dearest as well.
A list with no conviction whatsoever -The compilation of such lists is always an exercise in narcissism. Trashing movies seems to be a regular blog-exercise on the web. How about you compile a list of best 10 movies of the decade and have the balls to publish what you really enjoyed rather than the safe list of Aamir Khan starrers, and the small budget likes.
Here is my list of worst 10:-
1)Mela (2000)
2)The Rising: Mangal Pandey (2005)
3)Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag (2007)
4)Tashan (2008)
5)Ghajini (2008)
6)Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic (2008)
7)Yuvvraaj (2008)
8)Drona (2008)
9)Delhi-6 (2009)
10)Kambakkht Ishq (2009)
You are back greatbong. I couldn’t agree more with your choices. Brilliantly compiled list.
You could have picked top 10 or top 20 of the decade (I dont think you cannot find more than 20 good movies). You have skipped lot of movies that could have easily made the list
I guess you have picked top 10 hyped movies that did not make good
I always wonder am I the only one who did not like Black, where as all my friends go gaga over that movie. Good to see quite a few have same thoughts on that movie.
You have no pet hangups against any actor, that is clear. Would have liked a write up on movies that were enjoyable and why.
What do you do..
I think you have let your hatred for Shahrukh, Kareena and Bhansali bias your views. I agree that most of the movies you have mentioned are a crime against humanity. But there are many more movies worse than them. Seems like you’re trying to build your own Anti-Shahrukh cult.
Btw, I don’t like him either.
spot on!
good one GB..however you should have compiled something like 20 worst movies of decade and that would have been more comprehensive and created enough space for other craps like RNBDJ,KI,CCTC,namaste london etc 🙂
Disagree on Black and Singh is King. Rest 8 deserve their place they worked their way on the top. Have you by chance seen “Heyy Baby”, it might alter your list.
Disclaimer: Anyone who reads my comment and watches Heyy Baby, is solely responsible for the mental and physical injury it may cause.
arnab – i am glad to see you reciprocate my sentiments towards ‘Black’. when this movie was released, i had made the exact same comments and the philistines had accosted me claiming that that is the way one should act. there is no diehard bachchan fan than me, however i will call a bad apple exactly that.
u are spot on with your observations on amitabh’s acting (or histrionics which in this case tantamount to acting) and the overall feel of the movie.
for the rest 9 on this list, the less said the better.
hello i think ur arguably the worst film person, who knows notting about art , vision and narration screenplay,
well ashoka , black was supposed to be the finist films made by indians, western audians wud appreciate that bastud , not u , u only look for boxoffice records, then ur right apart from that, please dont say there are hoorible movies, if people like u encourage other to watch shitty movies, then u should be thrown away into the dustbin , u r in the wrong place dick , just get ur ass out of this place
how about making a list of 10 best / watchable movies ?
I can only think about DevD and luck by chance from past year.
Damn Hari Sadu , u should be the first one to cease commenting on movies dude .. Mangal Pandey was good for one time viewing ? had a good narrative ? gosh ur one eyed fixation on any flick with a less explored historic theme and a dash of visual fanfare is worth commending .. am a big amir khan fan btw and was not the first person to leave the theatre midway playing mangal pandey .. dont wanna say nething more abt Ashoka as a eye-rolling lip quivering hopelessly in love teenagish Ashoka deserves no more mention than a biceps totting Akbar .. i wud prefer a jooth bole kawa kate anyday over watching the bolly bigwigs defecate on the pages of history in the name of artistic liberty .. and evidently u not being the best judge of cinematic excellence would expect you not to advice others to stop commenting .. to each his own right ? 🙂
“You might be wondering whether I have something against Shahrukh Khan seeing how often his movies occur in this last. Now if you do, I would like to turn that thought around and ask whether Shahrukh Khan has something against me, and against movie-going audiences in general, that he continues to, without fail, bring us rubbish like Veer Zara.”
GB, There is a saying that “Nyay (justice) hona hi kafi nahi hai, Aisa lagna bhi chahiye ki nyay huwa hai” i am a big SRK fan and i am with you on ‘Asoka’ but including his four film in this list and not a single one of your favorate star’s movie (Mela, Mangal Pandey, Fanna, Ghajani and dare i say Rang de basanti.) i am not a wordsmith like you but if you have time can you pls answer why you didn’t include these films despite this.
Mela- Aamir an his brother urinate in a bottle and johny lever drunk it.
Mangal Pandey- Aamir took 4 years of reast to prepare for this masterpiece and he did as much justice to mangal pandey as SRK did in Asoka.
Fanna- less said better.
Rang de basanti-the mordern day revolutionary killed defence minister as easley as veerappan killed rabbit in his jungle.
Ghajani- what a performence by perfectionist khan after watching this 5.4″ pocket herculies doing actin, shouting i have started to belive that much maligned sunny deol is better actor then marlin brando and robert de niro.
i can go on an on but as i say i am not a master in queens language like you.(in this front you an your faviorate writer arundhati roy is same. both of you writes so well in english that when someone read your’s article they have no choice but to agree with your viewpoint though they have so big holes in logical front that a titanic may pass through it.)
Disagree,Black,Mohabbatin,SIK,Veer Zarra is amazing films.why u r saying about this.I am not agree.
Now about 10 of your favourite Hindi movies of the decade ……
GB,
when you say srivastav, u mean raju srivastav? I agree sidhu and suman are really pedestrian. but some bits of srivastav are really good, i know good or better is subjective, but you know what i mean.
Awesome list. I would support the inclusion of Mangal Pandey — I still haven’t managed to figure out how any one-film-a-year actor would choose _that_ movie as his effort of the year. But I don’t know what I would take off the list to make room.
dj – “Rang de basanti-the mordern day revolutionary killed defence minister as easley as veerappan killed rabbit in his jungle”
Phoolan Devi, Beant Singh, Rajeev Gandhi?
“Kiron Kherr acts like a maniac who would make Hannibal Lecter fear for his life”, LOL!! But she delivered and how, the only other maa potrayal that scared / scarred me was Rakhi in Ram Lakhan in the black saree hari all about her going “Thakur yeh nyay nahi hai!!”.
Worst compilation ever
@nonamed
“Rang de basanti-the mordern day revolutionary killed defence minister as easley as veerappan killed rabbit in his jungle”
Phoolan Devi, Beant Singh, Rajeev Gandhi?
Pholan Devi is no a minister and everybody knew her past. As far as Beant Singh and Rajiv gandh is concerned both of them killed by Suicide bomber and every body knows how difficult it is to stop a suicide bomber. Ane remember Rang de Basanti was released in 2006 and in contemparory india how much security a Union minister get that to Defence minister and how easely they fleed after killing defence minister.
I’ve been one of those long time silent readers, GB, who has (on and off) seen you evolve into a blog writer. Now I never felt like shouting for ipods or vehemently disagreeing with any of your points in the comments because I think its an exercise in futility and as long as I enjoy your writing, that’s good enough for me.
But a post like this makes me wonder if you’ve become banal and predictable with your usual biases kicking in, and I kinda agree with someone who commented above that this is more of a narcissistic rant than a fun blog post. Well maybe you should really write a best-10 list like many suggested, if only to shut us skeptics up!
And since I have for once mustered up the energy to write a comment, might I suggest that you use more willing suspension of disbelief while watching some of these movies. Mainstream movies in any culture will always be caricatures in their own way.
AJ
Awesome list GB. Agree with ALL of them. I am also happy that we now see some true Rediff commenters on this site with the Rediffian English all of us so admire.
Out of curiosity, AJ, as a long-time RTDM reader do you know what “narcissism” means? When someone says ‘these are ten movies I hated’ which part of that is narcissism? You do not agree. Fine. But why the accusation of “narcissim”? Surely there was some other appropriate word you could have used. I am asking you because you claim to be a long-time silent reader and not one of the recent Rediff crowd who seem to have wandered here.
Seriously GB any way we can keep dumbasses out of the RTDM comment-space? This is one of the last bastions of intelligent conversation on the Indian part of the Web and I would hate to see the kind of comments this post has gotten become a regular feature.
Finally to the guy who compared the seven old horses in Asoka to LOTR, can you please tell me what you have been smoking? Please?
ROTFL post. To the SRK fans and haters, get a brain.
I exteremely enjoyed pieces about Mohabbatein,ashoka and yadein but after that I think you just lost the humor. it was all too sarcastic after that ….. not funny as the previousones
And I like Raju Srivastav and think him as very funny . Some perticular pieces may be over th top which I despise as well but there are too many good ones to write him off.
There are some parts, or sarcastic motifs, that are repeated in GB’s blog (which is not unacceptable. everyone has their perspective and you can’t get rid of it).
But as a long time blog writer you would know that if you attack your staple targets and use your usual ammunition your fanbase is going to cheer for you. Maybe narcissistic is a bad word for it, but it’s safe. And it starts feeling rather self-reflective. It starts to feel like you’re more interested in keeping your niche alive than coming up with interesting content.
AJ
highly biassed list.
This shud be called GreatBong’s worst list. It may not necessarily be everyones.
Needless to say, one of your worst writeups…this one
My first impression of Blue was tht its a thriller….then i heard blue… BALOOOOO? … BALOOOOO? ….blue….and i undertstood that its a faltoo attempt…why dont they hire talented directors..and do closed beta tests before releasing movies. Seems like money has no value for these producers…where do they get money for such dumb acts…
I am very happy to see Black in the list..and I want “Ghajini” to be within top 5..
“For foreigners, the subtitle will be “Come come come. Get Ready to Come”. Nice no sir?” ROTFLMAO
I must be the most unfortunate soul. Didn’t watch even one on your list above…sigh
@Dipayan:and evidently u not being the best judge of cinematic excellence would expect you not to advice others to stop commenting .. to each his own right ?
Absolutely. To each his own. That’s why I detest such lists, especially the ‘worst’ lists. Movies are works of art and no two people can judge a work of art in exactly the same manner. How you judge a movie depends a lot on what is your criteria for a good movie and also on your tolerance for experimentation, willingness to suspend disbelief, willingness to accept non-conventional formats of story-telling and many other factors.
You have right to dislike a movie, but when you start loathing a movie to such an extent that you place it in top worst movies of the decade, disregarding the fact (which can be easily verified by checking reviews on IMDB or Amazon) that there are thousands out there who not only liked the movie, but also considered it as one of the best movies of the decade, and also disregarding the fact that the movie was directed by an accomplished director who has proved his capabilities beyond doubt, you should be prepared to faced backlash of those who love the movie.
Arguing about the merits of these two movies is pointless, but reading reviews of them might give you some idea of why both the movies have a large fan base. While popularity of a movie is NEVER a good indicator of the quality of a movie, the quality of the positive reviews can give you good indication of why the movie is well-liked.
On IMDB both Asoka & Mangal Pandey have ratings of nearly 7. Surely, one of the top worst movies of the decade wouldn’t be able to garner such high ratings. Yes, even movies which I absolutely detest like Mohabattein, Veer Zara, Devdas & Saanwariya have got good ratings and received many good reviews. That’s why I won’t include them in a list of worst movies on par with universally hated movies like Yaadein, Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag or Main prem ki diwani hoon.
Check the reviews of Yaadein or RGV’s Aag on IMDB. Even the best reviews of these duds haven’t received compliments such as..
ASOKA: One of Indian cinema’s finest offerings, Spectacular Epic, Asoka should be hailed as one of the better Indian movies, An Indian “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”–incredible!, Incredible, Moving, Eye-Opening, Epic musical (“like Braveheart with singing”)Asoka is an internationally front ranking film, A must watch for anyone who enjoys cinema in its richest sense!, An Epic of the First Order, Edge of your seat suspense about love, war, family and honor., Asoka is the most brilliant Indian film ever, One of the greatest historical and romantic epics from Bollywood ever to hit the Silver Screen, An absolutely gorgeous film, A Majestic Epic On The Scale Of Gladiator and Braveheart..
BALLAD OF MANGAL PANDEY: Bollywood comes of age!Truly Inspiring ! Sweet amazing surprise, An epic that shouldn’t be missed, The Rising Rises to Unprecedented Heights, An Almost Perfect Masterpiece, Great Film! Better than most Bollywood Historicals, though not completely accurate, Fusion of history, colour, romance, mythology, love and heroism, The Best Film I’ve seen for a long time! Oscar Material, An Epic, Excellent flick – Indian movies are good to watch! great family movie!, folklore, not history, and solid entertainment, A movie worth every penny, and some more, Excellent and gripping!, Has the exact ingredient that made Braveheart a classic, Braveheart II, a thought provoking film, A Film Which Will Closen the Gap Between Bollywood And Hollywood, Too Bad it was a flop at the Box Office!, classic movie..
A top ten worst list should have truly atrocious, universally-hated movies, not movies which generate such extreme emotions on both the sides.
Wow… so many comments and consideration given to BOOM? seriously? It has to be one of the top 5 worst movies EVER made in India. GB, did you miss the movie or caught something which excluded it from the list (which, obviously, I did not.)
GB,
“You might be wondering whether I have something against Shahrukh Khan seeing how often his movies occur in this last”. Shouldn’t that read as “list”?
Also… i would like to add GajaGamini to the list or does that come under “So outrageously bad that it is actually good” category?
Maybe you should have a post on that list as well 🙂
Can’t agree with Black…though it’s bit “hyperdrama”, it sends a message which can be enough to delist it from your “worst list”…
many more movies are there to make their place in your list…like OSO, London dreams, Tashan and kinda movies….
anyway nice analysis overall !
It is not “Anushilan” “Anushashan” “Parampara”!
It is “Parampara” “Pratistha” and “Anushashan”!!
Chaps, I realize cinema is an emotive issue, but i think this discussion is getting carried way out of proportion. This is not some definitive list of worst movies, it is Arnab’s list and it reflects, his tastes and his prejudices. Though my tastes would by and large correspond to Arnab’s I may not and do not agree with every movie on this list but it’s not something warranting online crucification…
Agree with previous commenter Uday (Chopra?). It is GB’s blog and his list and he can put whichever movie he dislikes on his list. Whoever disagrees can put up his list on his own blog and gets others to agree/disagree with that. This blog is not the Bible. Don’t know what’s there to argue about it.
“Now if you do, I would like to turn that thought around and ask whether Shahrukh Khan has something against me, and against movie-going audiences in general, that he continues to, without fail, bring us rubbish like Veer Zara.”
I dont see too many of the movie-going audiences tagging the movies mentioned here as rubbish , given the level of commercial success these movies enjoyed.
However, I would not want to disagree with you, becoz u have every right to post your thoughts in your blog. So I wont shout too much about the King Khan being king here too. 🙂
However, the writing is a bit too sarcastic towards the end in general and could be a bit more funny.
Movies, of for that any work of art, when they get segmented into the finest and the worst, become very difficult to rank. I’m sure
everyone will agree individual rankings keep on changing with time, with more exposure to better or worse work and also changes in
perspective. Segments rarely do.
In this list top ten “rotten” movies of all time, one thing is clearly evident: GB is a victim of his own success. It is clearly
not enough for him to make a list of the worst movies, he has to deliberately provoke so as to get responses for the post. Why
do I write all this? Am I enraged at some of my favourite demi-gods being ripped apart at this list? No. I quite agree with GB
that all the movies mentioned here are bad; but I would argue that some of them are not so “bad” so as to merit a rank in this
list.
Why not have a “Vivaah?” Why indeed? why have a movie that has been universally panned? It does not make for a good read. No
Salman Khan? You’ve got to be kidding me; again a clever piece of marketing. Salman has lost much support in the recent years
because of his never ending streak of bad movies which also perform indifferently at the BO. Akshay represented only in one movie?
The same reason. Further, the very selection of “Singh is King” (I hated the movie and agree that probably it ought to be in the
list) is perhaps because putting a more popular and commercially successful AK movie over the other forgettable ones will give
the readers a more interesting experience.
I carefully read all the comments. Let’s all agree at this: Bhansali may not deserve all the accolades he’s got over the years,
but to relegate all his work of this decade into the worst bin of hindi cinema? That is uncharitable. “Saawariya” , “Devdas” and
“Black” were all not exceptional movies. But none of them deserve to be in the worst ten. Especially the latter.
Why pick on SRK? The guy’s pretty vulnerable. Despite having nothing really to boast about: okay looks, average and repetitive acting,
dependancy on over hyped high budget blockbusters all make him an easy target. Any list like this, if it has to be memorable in
the blogosphere, has to have his work, so as to generate some heat: although as I mentioned he is average skill-wise, he is
arguably the most successful actor of our generation (success measured by money, fame and reach)
For me, the genuine contenders in the list are “Mohabbatein”, “Yaadein”, “Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon”, “Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag” and
“Singh is Kinng”. The rest are carefully put to generate buzz.
I am a SRK fan. And I really think that some of the choices in this list shouldn’t even be there. Asoka? It frankly wasn’t a great movie but one of the worst? Definitely not. Devdas, hamming? Yes, but SRK acting as a loser and his reasons for doing so in the movie? Full points to that. He’s really not so bad as you seem to project him to be. And Singh is Kinng was humourous, I was laughing almost through out the entire movie though u definitely required to detach your brain while viewing it. And u missed so many obvious qualifiers, I can think of three as of now – Mela, Jaani Dushman, Tango Charlie.
I have seen only 3 of those. And one of them was at gunpoint. 🙂
BTW, I’ll have to disagree with your comment about Raju Shrivastava. He has had some really good moments on Laughter challenge. His own show sucked though.
I have watched Mohabbatein, devdas, Veer zara and Black. Agree with you on the first two. The later two I kind of liked them.
I know its your list and you can do whatever you want. But taking a look at your list, I am wondering what kind of movies do you like, apart from the over the top Mithun movies, that you always say you do.
Can you please list 10 best movies movies in your opinion in this decade. If you don’t have time to write a big post, may be you can just list the 10 movies.
If black is a “work of art” then Chetan Bhagat is Dostoevsky.
Have to disagree with Devdas there. I liked that movie. That grand atmosphere in that movie went well with SRK’s over the top performance. It was one of those movies where his hyper-acting actually fitted the context well.
Pretty much agree with the rest of the list. I still remember Mohabbatein and the hype surrounding it. I remember going with a huge group of frinds, and cannot remember a similar instance when I felt so frustated, irritated and cheated as when that movie wrapped up. When I came out of the theater, I inhaled deeply as if I had just been rescued from the bottom of the Pacific.
Comon.. you SRK hater…
I was expecting GHAJINI in the list. In my opinion, it has the highest ratio of being a total cr@p to hype.
Completely agree on Black as well, I think you are bang on about the theme making it difficult for “critics” to bash it. I put it in the same category as another masterpiece “No Smoking”, totally pointless and putting shocks effects in the movie just for the sake of it, of course it gets bashed by “critics” – theme being the only difference.
rather than trashing some of these movies i would rather trash this review. i have seen most of the muvs ‘cept a few and i disagree completly. i have seen MIRACLE WORKER and LE NOTTI DE BIANCHE which were remade as black and saawariya… if not as good,they are anyday good muvs.better than most we are subjected to. poetic.nd smtimes exhilirating. as for devdas kindly check any american muv site (rottentomatoes.com).even they have given it better reviews than their own classics . it was masterful and the consensus review reads”unforgettable”. i m obsesssed with the novel and bimol roy’s work too. but still bhansali’s mastery on his craft is unquestionable. START LOVING AND NJOYING MUVS rather than being so scathingly critical. though i agree with some of the other choices made. asoka though flawed still is not for this list.
The way bollywood is making pathetic movies, it is really hard to pick top 10 worst movies.
I guess what GB tried to do here is pick worst movies from different ‘style’ of bollywood movies. Only change I would have made is to switch Devadas with Main Hoon Na.
The list was an easy one, wasn’t it? Pick a few big banners and ridicule them, considering that most readers here would lap up such stuff.
While we are at it, lets also ridicule the intelligence of movie-goers who made some of these flicks huge hits.
wow!
Charged responses from across the spectrum.
People are so sincere and passionate about….
Bollywood.
Very encouraging.
@Rishi Khujur,
Are you surprised? Yeh public hai..yeh sab jaanti hai. Bollywood mein toh ch*tiyon ki baaraat hai. Aur dekhne waalon ko bhi Bollywood ch*tiya bana deti hai. 😉
If you are a true Indian, you must NEVER EVER say anything bad about Bollywood, Cricket or TV Programs. Nothing else matters, mamu !!!
@KP
“this name just reminds me of some staple Punjabi characters which are done to death in YRF movies. Probably you are affected too. ”
I think its the other way round…YRF movies picks up its characters’ names from typical names like mine… 🙂
@Tady Rox!
“I have to disagree with about 95% of your choices…what a horrible list…not even the reasons you gave were good enough to make them the worst of the decade…”
Disagree with 1, or at most 2. But 95%? Maybe you need to move to another blog whose tastes match your more.
@Anonymous:
“GB, you must have never experienced love or most likely got jilted in love…that is my take after seeing this list.”
Absolutely correct. He was jilted by all the beauteous JU engg dept girls at an impressionable age. Hence the bitterness! 🙂
@Hari Sadu:
“If historical errors was the criteria for placing a movie in worst movie list, every list of worst movies would have included critically-acclaimed movies like Gladiator, Braveheart, Shakespeare in Love, Patriot, Apocalypto etc”
You are more correct than you think. Other than Shakespeare in Love, which didn’t purport to be a historical movie at all, all the others you mention make the worst lists of many renowned critics, and the discerning public.
“Do you even understand anything about film-making?”
No, we don’t pretend to, but unfortunately for you it will not, and should not prevent us from calling a film bad, or calling you a self-inflated jerk. That’s democracy for you.
“On IMDB both Asoka & Mangal Pandey have ratings of nearly 7. Surely, one of the top worst movies of the decade wouldn’t be able to garner such high ratings.”
IMDB, eh? Check out the ratings of Gunda there.
@sachin:
“hello i think ur arguably the worst film person, who knows notting about art , vision and narration screenplay,
well ashoka , black was supposed to be the finist films made by indians, western audians wud appreciate that bastud , not u …” etc.
Wrong url for you dude. You want/need the Rediff messageboards.
___________________________
It is extremely difficult to remember all the bad films you might or might not have watched in the last 10 years. You tend to write about the ones that come to mind first – the ones that disappointed you the most. That’s what GB has done here. Have worse films than those in the list been made? Probably. ‘Mela’, ‘Kambhaktt Ishq’, and host of RGV-Nisha Kothari movies or a few Priyadarshan comedies come to mind. How does it matter? We all will have a personal worst list in our minds. Some have even put their list down in the comments. Those are as debatable as GB’s might seem.
The only problem I have is with people who say stuff like “you have no right…” or “do you know anything about cinema?”. These are immaterial, IMO and only vitiate the arguments without adding anything. The good thing is that we have a great discussion going on in the comments section.
Finally, a GB might have been jilted in love sometimes, as a perceptive psychoanalyst, Anonymous Freud noted, but at least now he is happily married and very much in love with his wife. That would account for why he doesn’t have Vivaah on his list! 🙂
Many of us are saying Bhansali’s devdas was good movie… but dont understand that it should have been made much in nuch better way…devdas was a classic novel ..and its movie interpretation should be equally flawless…
Say how would u feel if the para beauty u admired most married a average joe …wont feel cheated, bad etc.
himesh and bhansali types…undertake big things without much talent whereas people with talent dont know how to market themselves.
Is that a coincidence that almost all SRK fans here have posted in “u dun understand n e thing abt mu-v makin?” mode? 🙂
GB,
How about ten best movies of the decade ? ( not just hindi but other indian languages as well )
Sri
There was one legendary movie…Jhoom Barabar Jhoom…which also falls in the catagory.
Hari Sadu, you tend to forget that the movie are judged upon individual taste. I hate Mills and Boone collection and consider it to be a stain on the name of English literature. But try convincing a 15 year old high school girl that, you might get an egg on the face. This list must be viewed as same, not more, not less. Would you consider this a list of some desolate adolescent or, do you acknowledge it the respect of an acclaimed movie critic, is up to you to decide. As Emile Zola once said, “even if 1000 French men say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.” Therefore, just because several critics have said that Asoka is a great movie, it makes no difference to me. To force people to accept that it is great movie, is indeed a testimonial to your pigheadedness! Remember that taste is undebatable!
I think it would have been a good idea to compile a list of 10 good movies (or what ever few movies that could make that grade instead of 10 worst movies). Bollywood has become like trash garden or Deonar Dumping Ground where you would get crap in heaps but rarely a flowers. So pls compile a list of good movies and all leftover is crap anyway.
I like Veer-Zara except for the last scene. I think Garam Masala and Dev D were much worst.
Shan, if you are a lawyer by any chance, you have sold me. And I say this with noble intentions, no sarcasm in my heart. With your argument that GB only considered the ones that disappointed people the most, the list is bang-on. Having seen this comment, I just checked the list again. Everything actually does fit in.
“Mohabbatein” probably was the first movie that brought SRK and Amitabh together (I’m not very good with Bollywood history- so correct me if I’m wrong) and could have had the makings of a spectacular commercial movie. It could never have been a “poetry in motion” but could have recreated the magic of petty commercial movies that are fun to watch and have had great runs in the BO.
“Asoka” was dealing with a very complex character in history, at least if you’d believe the textbooks. Serious historical discourses claim they have found reasons that explain Ashoka’s change of heart but that’s beside the point. It could have been so much more grand, exploring the depths of a much talked about character and explain his motivations. Any attempt such as this would have been inevitably controversial but would have been a classic.
“Yaadein”, well was as far as I recall, was some sort of a Subhash Ghai comeback, and his so-called halo started slipping post this movie.
“Main Prem ki..” was coming together of Sooraj Barjatya and Hrithik- Kareena- Abhishek. I for one, expected nothing out of it but I suppose “Hum Hain Aapke Kaun” was more watchable than this one.
“Veer Zara” could have been a fitting tribute to a Romeo and Juliet kind-Titanic kind of a great love saga but failed miserably.
“Black” I don’t agree is a miserable failure but perhaps with better hands it could have been a masterpiece. “Ram Gopal ki…” had a tough act to follow but made no pretensions of doing any justice to the original. “Saawariya” was a slap to Dostoevsky. I don’t understand “Siingh is king” but that may just be GB expecting a little more from it.
I take back my words. GB actually makes sense.
Thanks everyone who think Black is trash.
If this list were about biggest disappointments .. Ghajini would top.
Yes KISNA deserves a spot here more than Singh is King.
Some may not have liked it but lots did, Black was not expected in the list.
Welcome and Dil Bole Hadippa would have made you kinder to Singh is King
I’m surprised you could come up with only 10 films. It should have been the 100 worst movies of the decade. As long as Bollywood acts as black-to-white money converter controlled by mafia/terrorists/congressmen, these turkeys will always be made with hacks like TA praising them to death and sms generation (not all though) lapping them up with their cutie bfs/gfs as the best thing happened after mom’s made halwa.
@Shan: “Absolutely correct. He was jilted by all the beauteous JU engg dept girls at an impressionable age. Hence the bitterness!”
Ha ha. Haven’t you heard the old JUngle saying – “Girls are EITHER Beautiful OR Engineers” ? 😉
singh is kingg comedy track of the sad man and javed jaffrey was very good man!!
No “worst of…” list is complete without Shahrukh Khan. Himesh has no pretensions, at least. Black was awful, but Sawariya isn’t – it’s got the most gorgeous background music I have heard in a Hindi film in years. But with Amitabh for every 10 Black type movies he stars in one Last Lear and leaves us astounded. So while the Yash Chopra machine, Ram Gopal Verma factory and Shahrukh Khan (closely followed by the Akshay Kumar/Katrina/John A/Saif Ali factory) are the horrible things about this decade, the likes of Last Lear and the emergence of Amitabh as the world’s most important actor are the better thins to have happened. As for Hollywood unless I see the last of Brad Pitt and Tarantino I simply don’t care any more.
Awesome list. Totally agree with u !
Now, could you please publish a “best of ” list?
@Abhirup Saha:
No, I am not a lawyer or an engineer. Those things take too much studying, and the girls were not pretty enough, as Bengal Voice (and GB) would testify… 🙂
@Vishy
If you are calling me a pigeonhead for forcing people to accept that Asoka is great, then you should take back your words.:) At no point I’ve said that everyone should consider Asoka as a great movie. I have only said that Asoka should not be included in worst movies list. There is big difference between the two statements.
Actually I agree with you that movies are a matter of individual taste. In most of my comments, I’ve merely given my opinion why Asoka didn’t deserve to be in the worst list, I’ve argued why Lagaan has more faults and logical fallacies than Asoka and I’ve tried to explain why a movie shouldn’t be included in the worst list just on the basis of intense personal disliking.
If I don’t have a right to give a contrary opinion, then why have a comment section at all? Every commentator can use his personal blog to make his own list of worst movies. Then we will have thousand different lists and no disagreements! The point of arguing is to communicate a difference of opinion, isn’t it?
If you are trying to say that the only people who have liked Asoka are like adolescents with no taste, then you are wrong. Several well-known critics whose opinion is respected by many had given this movie a big thumbs up. If opinion of qualified critics, who understand that cinema is art and judge a movie on its craft and not on their personal biases, is of no value, then I guess it would be okay to even include a movie like Shawshank Redemption in a worst movie list!
Try including any top 10 IMDB movie in top 10 worst movie list and justify the inclusion saying it is your personal list. If your blog has few thousand readers, I bet you will receive hundreds of comments calling you a pigeonhead for including one of the greatest movies of all time in such a list and no amount of protesting that the list reflects merely your personal taste would stop the inflow of such comments..:)
Ashoka did teach me a lesson about the history of my state, Orissa…
a) There were no Bras
b) Our princesses loved to bathe everywhere they could find a stream-let or a jharna
Shame on you GB for insulting my heritage 😀
One of the worst review about hindi cinema, couple of movies were bad but not all.
surprising that the list stays clear of “classics” like mela, ghajini(a high school kid’s take on memento),mangal pandey(4 yrs in the making) and even rang de basanti(which has surprisingly inspired all the suicide bombers in afganistan, pakistan and sri lanka)…all this coz u just dont happen to like srk’ nose?
I would say 4 of the films in the list are only there because they were a box-office success… I can really agree with Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag and to some extent Yaadein and Main Prem Ki Deewani hun…
But I do not see why Black is on the List…
Sorry… I forgot to enter my name above…
Most of the Shahrukh Khan/Amitabh Bachhan movies are big time craps! Directors tend to focus more on the “stars” than the story.. and even proudly claim that that the whole story has been written keeping Amitabh in mind.. as in the case of Black and Paa! I’ve nothing against these big stars, they are doing justice to the business of entertainment.. but not to their movies.
How about 10 worst English films of the decade?
“Come come come. Get Ready to Come”.. LMAO..
I couldn’t stop laughing at that one..
Someone on drugs only can make a compilation like this…. Black has been voted as one of the 10 best movies of 2005 across world by Time Magazine…. Non-Indian people have loved it equally, even those who have seen Miracle Worker.
People talking about taking story from another movie, shouldn’t forget that “The Departed”, “The Dark Knight”, “King Kong” and many more were based on previous works…
Also, keeping Mohabbatein, Veer Zaara and Devdas in this category, I am sure they wouldn’t have seen “Deshdrohi”, “Fox”, “Sheesha” and many more crap movies that bollywood has produced…. So before writing anything like this think twice!
So what I infer from this one is
1- Cashing in on the stardom of big fishes in the market like SRK is execrable
I Agree 🙂
2- A movie can’t be tasteful if the cast isn’t performing on the metrics of a Tarantino movie. In other words, the manner in which Bollywood has adopted the traits of ancient Indian theatre whether its traditional, folk, Nautanki or Rasleela and transformed it into a new genre of performance arts and commercial cinema is not acceptable to you.
I don’t think so buddy ! 😐
If the protagonist is raising eyebrows or stretching his arms to project the emotions in context, it is very unmindful to presume that such class of acting doesn’t deserve an acknowledgement for it is too simple or immature for a veteran movie-critic like you yourself. And also just because a movie did well on the box office doesn’t mean you have to immediately reject it unless its a showoff coz how else can you prove to the world that you have an eye for good art and how big a non-conformist you are.
As I’ve requested before, please refrain from comparing everything in India against your newly-learned Occidental definitions.
Hey G.B!
Am wondering if you would consider ‘Ghajini’ in Hindi to this list.
@dada:
“A movie can’t be tasteful if the cast isn’t performing on the metrics of a Tarantino movie.”
How do you infer that Tarantino is the epitome of moviemaking? Worse, how do you assume that GB thinks that? As it happens some Tarantino movies are pretty average.
There is no “context” that should make a filmmaker do illogical stuff. Stretching arms does not make a film bad. Making the stretching of arms the centerpiece of your acting makes the film bad. If you look at the list, you will realize that GB’s list does not fit into any categorization of GB that you might make in your mind.
We are well aware of India’s tradition of Nautanki and Rasleela. There are films that have indeed used those forms – but hello – Asoka or Mohabbatein are not among them. Trying to rationalise purely execrable filmmaking under the guise of Nautanki is just dishonest – a smokescreen.
And even if we agree for a moment that an Asoka was nautanki (you’d be surprised how many would agree. Ha!), GB still reserves the right to dislike the Nautanki art form. I certainly detest it. And that’s my right.
No amount of armchair intellectual rationalization from any dada can negate that right.
“As I’ve requested before, please refrain from comparing everything in India against your newly-learned Occidental definitions.”
Yup. GB has forgotten his roots. In India, people are very emotional and exaggerated facial movements are quite a norm, especially amongst certain communities. I come across so many people in my daily life who if they were characters in movies would have been accused of overacting. Not everyone is subtle in real life, so why should every actor try to act subtly on screen, even when the role demand theatrics? In Black, Bachchan was playing the role of a drunk, depressive failure, not a stiff-lipped professor of Oxford University. His mannerisms were appropriate for the role.
@all those tripping on the english translation of “Aa Tayaar Hoja”, please grow up. Listen to DoctorK’s hindi version of MJ’s Beat it.. “peeto Peeto”
@Hari Sadu:
“Not everyone is subtle in real life, so why should every actor try to act subtly on screen, even when the role demand theatrics?”
The problem is – why does each and every scene that SRK does demand theatrics? Is he actually carrying on the nautanki tradition as another patriotic Indian like you pointed out? Would that mean that his acting in Swades was terrible, un-Indian, and against our glorious traditions? The problem is that SRK has great screen presence that he wastes by overdoing most scenes in his blockbusters. He is a colossal disappointment to us more because of a “what could he have been” feeling. He actually has more range in acting than Amitabh, another actor who suffers from the same syndrome.
Because these guys have been steeped in the “STAR” tradition (Greek tragedy? Roman drama? Oh, of course not – Indian Nautanki!!) – they believe they have to overplay every scene, to provide tangible proof of heir stardom – how they are bigger than everything else around them. (Aamir, however, has successfully bucked this trend. That’s obviously because Aamir does not believe in Indian traditions and general mannerisms!)
“In Black, Bachchan was playing the role of a drunk, depressive failure, not a stiff-lipped professor of Oxford University. His mannerisms were appropriate for the role.”
And that explains his interjections, his shouting, his hyperactive hamming in front of his landlady for example? Please. Great actor that he is, Amitabh has hammed his “drunk” scenes since perpetuity. To see a great portrayal of a drunk, depressed person, watch Anil Kapoor’s acting in a particular scene from Pukar, where he stops at Madhuri’s home late at night and tries to have a shamed, inarticulate conversation with Madhuri’s dad about his court martial.
Trying to hide bad acting under the guise of Indian traditions is shamefully retrograde, and smacks of an illogic and a limited ethnocentric understanding of cinema.
That last sentence means that I can use big words as well as any dada.
🙂
@Shaan,
Aren’t we getting a bit sidetracked here? We are discussing the worst movies of the decade, not SRK’s overacting. I don’t have sufficient levels of tolerance needed to watch his hamming in Johar-Chopra flicks. The only SRK movies I’ve ever watched are Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naan, Asoka, Swadesh & Chak De and I think he did a damn good job in all of them. Yes, in Asoka too! Except for Aamir or Saif, not many mainstream Bollywood stars would have been able to do justice to the role the way he did. Case in point, Hrithik Roshan in Jodha Akbar. He was neither able to effectively portray the playfulness nor the ruthlessness of Akbar and throughout the movie he was one dimensional – sombre and sedate. In Asoka, SRK on the other hand was able to navigate from mischievous frolicking to grim ruthlessness with absolute ease. He could be comical in one scene and terrifying in the next and yet always believable and always in the character.
Bachchan in Black was playing a character, a character who was loud, over-emotional, hyperactive and prone to shouting. There is no single way to do a drunken scene since every drunk reacts to alcohol in his blood in a different way. By hamming, if you mean the drunken scenes in Hum/Satte Pe Satta or Amar Akbar Anthony, I agree with you that he was hamming outrageously. But for goodness sake, both the scenes were absolutely hilarious and fun. You are not supposed to critically dissect his acting in commercial capers like Satte Pe Satte or AAA. These are pure escapist movies shot in fantasy worlds which should be enjoyed by complete immersion in the worlds created by the director.
“Trying to hide bad acting under the guise of Indian traditions is shamefully retrograde”
There is really no such thing as bad acting. Even the most wooden performance is defendable, if the character being played is wooden and not given to expressions or emotions. The only way a performance by an actor can be called bad acting, is when you have something to compare it with. For example, if it is well-accepted that a particular character, like say Emperor Akbar, was moody, playful, haughty, extremely romantic, comical and also ruthless, and if the actor playing his character is unable to bring out all the shades and moods of the character, it can be called bad acting. I consider Hrithik’s performance in Jodha Akbar bad, because he wasn’t able to do justice to the character of Akbar, but if had acted the way he did while playing Tipu Sultan, Rana Pratap or Shivaji, I would have considered his acting acceptable.
And please, don’t compare the performances of present-day Bollywood actors to Nautankis or Roman dramas. Yes, in old movies of 50’s & 60’s and in Ekta Kapur’s daily soaps, we do see Indian nautanki style acting in all its glory, but definitely not in today’s Bollywood movies (with of course some notable exceptions like Rakhee’s unbearable hamming in Karan-Arjun).But by and large we see acceptable acting in most hindi movies. If it looks hamming to you, its probably because you have accepted a limited definition (probably borrowed from western critics who unfortunately have very low level of tolerance for anything that deviates from the norm) of what constitutes good acting.
Kambakkht Ishq and Blue deserve a special mention somewhere as a footnote at least..
I think for me by far the worst one is that Anil kapoor becoming CM for a day crap. After watching that I wanted to run away to Bihar and become a farmer next to Lalu’s farm and flirt with one of his daughters…… no wait that’s just my fantasy.
In fact in bollywood worst movies list is a bottomless pit, there is no end to it. 😦
I am a huge SRK fan.. but well.. what the heck… I thought I would see Kisna in the list too and when was Mela made? the amir khan, faizal khan movie…
and what about Ghajini??? what about Aap mujhe acche lagne lagey??? Please watch these if you still have not and I am sure you will spare Sing is King.. 😀
SRK featured quite a bit as I can see. RGV’s Aag I am proud to say I watched and wondered why anyone would make such shit. Good list indeed
hahahahaha… you’re one of the most entertaining writers ive ever come accross..held my tummy and laughed out loud after ages i think..keep up the crazy work!
Well, with rest of the other films I can agree with you. But, I have serious reservation about your comments on the movie “Black”. Have you ever encountered a blind person or deaf & dumb person in real life? If no, this movie will not make much sense to you. The depiction indeed has some melodramatic elements to it for the sake of the movie. But, it is definitely not a hyperdrama. It is a different issue that you did not like it. The treatment of handicapped persons on-screen has never been better depicted before “Black”. The only other movie that I can recall was in the 70’s in which Amitabh Bachchan was the elder brother of Farida Jalal who was crippled and on a wheel-chair. Unfortunately, the name of the movie slipped my mind right at this moment.
yukkkkkk thes all r jst yukkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
@soumya – the bachchan movie is “majboor”
The worst movie ever made anywhere (India,Pakistan,America,Cuba…) was
Bombay To Goa(Sunil Pal….)
Although I think in India its tough 2 say which it the worst coz the makers unceasingly pile crappier movie to crappier movie upon box office but I thot it was the only movie i watched that made me ashamed of bollywood
It is so full of cliches and exceedingly bad jokes that u will be loathing the director
Ehsaan Khuraishi’s performance was arguably the worst performance ever by any actor on the planet
the next one i think wud be jaani dushman
so
1)Bombay 2 goa
2)jaani dushman
3)boom
4)ajab prem ki “gazab” kahani-
5)main prem ki deewani hun
these muvis i consider 2 be historically bad
“kutch kutch hotha hai” gave me nightmares
well if u dont like something dsnt ment u should consider them worst movies there are some movies which are worst and have mistakes….and thats how they should b judged example…..over acting….bad acting…story script….ur list is full of ur dislikes……if i m not wrong u might have liked the 3 idiots movie but…. if u have ur brains inside ur skull u will knw the mistakes of the movie…..for me the worst movie i have ever seen is blue….sensless crap…….it should b no.1 i can bare ramu ki aag it might make me laugh but in blue its dull….
I would not suggest movies that should ve made into the list. Nor would comment on why a particular movie should not ve been there. Because I believe that you ve rightly pointed in your book “Opinions are like posterior body orifices.Everyone has got them”. All i want to say that, more than the content, it is the sarcasm and humourous comparisons that made me snigger all the way while reading this. keep up the good work!!!!
Great work, kid!!
yes every single one of them was thrash .. thank god you included black
but what about paa ? a totally pretentious nonsensical film 😡
I think 3 idiots should also be included in this along with Taare Zameen par, best movies as they give strong message to the society.
Thanks
What a great list. I agree with you completely and would put Black at the top of the list. Amitabh at his worst. At least Devdas had its fair share of songs and esthetics (apart from SRK, who is the worst nightmare bollywood has seen in the last 20 years or so). Singh is King was never pretentious and so I wouldn’t put it on this list. It was anounced as a silly movie and it turned out to be so. At least it was honest. Instead, Black, Devdas were all anounced to be masterpieces and they all turned out to be loads of crap.
Since I liked so much your worst bollywood list and essentially I agree with it, I was wondering if you have the best bollywood list. It would be interesting to know which films you consider hallmarks if Indian cinema.
dude… Veer Zara sudnt be in the list…. der r muvies worse than dese…
neal n nikki, tara rum pum,
I agree with the list… Many more films could hve been included but then this is the top 10 dude 🙂
Looooooooooovvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeee your style. Read one review, and was hooked!!!!
🙂
I think your thought process is a clear reflection of the pseudo intellectuality the Bengali’s possess.Please improve your thought process and then judge movies..If you can’t there are better things to do in the world for you like going to Nandan.
hei!!
i Like main prem ki..
i Like mohabbatein..
i Like yaadein!!
i dont Like u!!
thoose are the simpLe probLem..
and u teLL it Look Like THE BIGGEST pobLem??
huh
please!!!! I can’t believe!! i think u hate all indian movie and that is ur problem because veer-zara was a brilliant movie aloso sing is king and others!!
Wouldn’t it be better to just publish a best 10 movie list? Pretty much everything sucked.
Every actor except for perhaps Amir Khan, Abhay Deol and perhaps Himmi bhai (because he acted in < 10) can have a worst 10 list of their own.
Ok … maybe Akshay Kumar can have a worst 20.
I think Bhansali’s only cinematic triumph is the under-appreciated ‘Khamoshi’.
Shall be waiting for an update of this post with so many mega hyped movies flopping in the last few years, with Kites at the last major one.
10 is a very small number….u should have a bigger list n include many other sucky movies. I think your list is spot on. I have had the misfortune of watchin almost all the movies on the big screen.
My suggestions for an extended list are khushi(saw it on my first date with my BF), Na tum jano na hum, Kranti, any english dubbed in hindi…..[woh dekho….baraf ka pahad!!!!AAAHHHHH]
You definitely donot know how to appreciate art, the proof being this article. The most horrible critic, I have ever come across so far!
Great list barring veer zaara. But the criticisms were HILARIOUS.
Haven’t u seen movies like.. Rudraksha.. Mission Istanbul????? These should be on top of the list my friend..
erm..ya u definitely got somethin agnst srk cuz u’v left out classics lyk lemme think…tere naam..tashan..n almost all katrina kaif movies…
One guy writes his honest opinion and everyone else goes crazy. Did he ever ask anyone to agree to it, did he ask you to read at all, see the movies, if you do not agree move ahead.
One man’s gold is another man’s trash. He didn’t like it, let him be. I might agree with all his choices or maybe I loved each movie mentioned here. Maybe while watching “main prem ki deewani hoon” I creamed every time LOLO’s face twitched like someone tweaked the wrong facial nerve during a session of acupuncture. His opinion, his blog, why are you all pelleting him with your “we love indian cinema” bullshit.
This is his opinion, read it and laugh if you find it funny, if not move on to something you loved. By the way, there is another desi movie slammed here:
http://www.thevigilidiot.com/2011/10/28/ra-one/
ENJOY!!
You must add rab ne bana di jodi……Most pathetic movie i ever so..
I am agree with your list so with other guys replace ashoka with Lagaan..
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You really make it seem so easy together with your presentation however I in finding this topic to be actually one thing that I feel I’d never understand. It sort of feels too complex and very vast for me. I’m having a look ahead on your next submit, I will attempt to get the hang of it!
This is one of the worst top ten movie review i have ever read.
Most of the movies on the list not the usual jhoparpati style movies. i agree the worst top ten movie review i have ever read.
hmm you just seem like a shahrukh hater…sigh
and might i add you are nit picking!
i lvd devdas, asoka n black………….
What about aap kaa surroor…..
Surprise!!!! that this movie managed to evade from your top 10 list.
BULL SHIT CRAP.. DONT AGREE ON THIS REVIEW … SING IS KING WAS A GUD MOVIE AND DEVDAS AND BLACK ALSO A CULT FILMS IN HINDI CINEMA.. THERE ALSO A DOZENS OF HIGH BUDGET CRAP MOVIES WICH IS ALSO DOING GR8 BUSINESS. Y DONT U FIND DAT MOVIES.. A BIG DISSAPOINTING REVEIW
ok It seems u r a SRK hater…. der r more worst movies than devdas or mohabatein…. and dis list is a complete dud !! wat bout kambakht ishq or blue or tees maar khan or d most annoying movie main aur mrs khanna ???
Add Badshah to the list…
Great list. I haven’t seen Mohhobatein and Yaadein. I walked out of “Singh is King” and “Ram Gopal verma ki Aag”. i have seen the rest of them and I totally agree with your humorous take on them.