Rajiv Vijayakar does a recap of Bollywoods hits and flops and dazzling debuts by actors and directors in the year gone by.
Five biggest hits
Om Shanti Om- Director Farah Khan
Farah Khan set a world record of being the only woman director to have two global hits to her credit. OSO took the Indian filmgoers by storm, drove the NRIs crazy and proved that pure SRK entertainment with a dash of nostalgia was the best prescription for healthy revenues. It has netted over Rs 90 crore and still running.
Chak De! India- Director Shimit Amin
Shimit Amin made a film that transcended every kind of audience and made both India and the box-office counters proud. It was the biggest money-spinner at Rs 65-plus crore net profits till OSO took over, but may have bettered it if the overseas business had not been shockingly poor.
Partner- Director David Dhawan
Dhawan cast both his favourites Salman Khan and Govinda together and made his biggest hit since Aankhen 14 years earlier. At Rs 60-plus crore net it was Salman's saving grace and first hit after the 2005 No Entry.
Jab We Met- Director Imtiaz Ali
Whatever (low) expectations had been there had plunged after the Jab We Broke Up news of Shahid Kapoor-Kareena Kapoor. But the film, still running, has even surpassed OSO’s collections this week. Business-wise, it is at Rs 40-plus crore - and counting.
Heyy Babyy- Director Sajid Khan
It’s all in the family— Farah’s brother Sajid debuted as director with this not-so-impressive comedy, that closed its first run at a net Rs 55 crores, that JWM is expected to cross if it runs for a month more.
Important note: Welcome has taken a bigger opening than OSO and may make it to the Top Five. Bheja Fry in terms of the ratio (Rs 4 crore gross for a Rs 70 lakh film!) and Taare Zameen Par (which may end up with the same ratio as Jab We Met) might come in too!
Five biggest disasters
Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag- Director: Ram Gopal Varma
He remade, he bragged, he sank — this er..Sholay recycle is not the debacle of the year, but of the millennium.
Salaam-e-ishq- Director: Nikhil Advani
Seven stories, fourteen Indian stars and a firangi heroine - all for nothing in a blunder(buss) of a script, though Priyanka Chopra, Govinda and Ayesha Takia stood out.
Ekalavya-The Royal Guard- Director: Vinod Chopra
Before it was nominated for the Oscars, Vinod Chopra did not know what hit him. The taut thriller was not only a flop but critically ripped apart.
Cash- Director Anubhav Sinha
It was projected as Sinha’s superb Dus on steroids. Maybe that’s why it exited at top speed!
No Smoking- Director Anurag Kashyap
At a 18-crore budget, all profits were extinguished as the message spread: ‘No Smoking is injurious to health!’
Five most memorable films
Taare Zameen Par- Director: Aamir Khan
Simply it is the movie of the year. Indian cinema can hold its head high yet again.
Chak De! India- Director Shimit Amin
As an aspirational, inspirational movie, it involved you even more than Lagaan, Iqbal and Dor.
Johnny Gaddaar- Director Sriram Raghavan
Original, concise, with twists galore and the master-stroke at the end, Johnny Gaddaar combined the best of both contemporary and retro Indian cinema with James Hadley Chase.
Bheja Fry- Director Sagar Ballary
An adaptation of a French film, this was the most side-splitting comedy of the year - minus a multi-star cast or conventional masala.
Dus Kahaniyaan- Directors: Sanjay Gupta and others
The experiment that went right - six directors spun out ten stories from which six were better than good - check Strangers In The Night, Matrimony, Zahir and Lovedale in particular.
Five most forgettable films
Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag
No explanations needed.
Fool’n’final- Director: Ahmed Khan
Was this a film? Even Sunny Deol and Shahid Kapoor failed to salvage the complete full-and-final mess!
Cash- Director Anubhav Sinha
What a disastrous Anubhav (experience) - no story, weird action and weirder animation. Saving grace: A few songs.
Marigold- Director Willard Carroll
This one proved that while we can make decent or better Hollywood spin-offs, the filmmakers there (like the arty ones here) cannot cope with mainstream cinema. Cheers!
Kaafila- Director Ammtoje Mann
No film must have gripped completely in the first 20 minutes and lost it completely later. We too lost - count of the people butchered.
Five best performances:
Harsheel Safary (Taare Zameen Par)
Shah Rukh Khan (Chak De! India)
Neil Nitin Mukesh (Johnny Gaddaar)
Tabu (Cheeni Kum)
Vinay Pathak (Bheja Fry)
Five worst performances
Amitabh Bachchan (RGV Ki Aag)
He growled, he hammed, and he repulsed. What was the Big B thinking of when he accepted this one?
Shiney Ahuja (Khoya Khoya Chand)
Cast opposite Soha Ali Khan was a wooden block loaded with a narcotic! Was this the Shiney of Gangster and Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi?
Konkona Sensharma (Aaja Nachle)
Can Konkona stop being the monotonous Konkona please and get into the innards of her role?
Bobby Deol (Shakalaka Boom Boom)
Weird. We can't say more.
Juhi Chawla and Vidya Balan (Salaam-e-Ishq)
Bad though the film was, it could have done without their cloyingly irritant performances.
Five best things that happened in/to Hindi cinema
Aamir Khan debuted as director with Taare Zameen Par.
Om Shanti Om did better business than a Hollywood blockbuster in UK.
Sonu Niigaam was invited to sing Mahatma Gandhi’s Vaishnav jana to in Gujarati and English at the 28th Harvard Presidential Installation.
Shah Rukh Khan’s waxwork was installed in Madame Tussaud's, while Salman Khan was signed up.
Sonu Niigaam also recorded for a tribute project (by the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra!) for the latter’s 18-track album of songs by the legendary Mohammed Rafi.
Five hypes of the year
Dharm by Bhavna Talwar: Sure, a thought-provoking film, but no classic. And it could have been made mass-friendly.
Gandhi- My Father: Where was the emotional connect?
Saawariya: Why did Sanjay Leela Bhansali of all people choose form over content?
Aaja Nachle: Too much expectations from too little content, starting with the poor music. What could Madhuri do?
Himesh Reshammiya: He was hyped for his acting debut but in a twist this time the hype was justified - and worked!
Five Box Office toppers
Shah Rukh Khan (Om Shanti Om, Chak De! India - the two biggest hits of the year - and no flop)
Akshay Kumar (Namastey London, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiyaa, Welcome and no flop)
Salman Khan (Partner and 3 flops)
Despite this record, Salman Khan has reportedly signed two films at Rs 24 crore and Rs 35 crore respectively.
Kareena Kapoor (Jab We Met)
This one hit and terrific performance has put her right at the top.
Katrina Kaif (Namastey London, Partner, Apne, Welcome and no flop) It's been a meteoric rise both as star and actress for someone who was largely known only as Salman Khan’s girl.
Five BO.bottom of the heap
Ajay Devgan: Ruled the flop roost with Cash and Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag
Rani Mukherji: Despite an average Ta Ra Rum Pum, Rani Mukerji, till last year the Numero Uno, has lost her position even in the Top Five!
Preity Zinta: Jhoom Barabar Jhoom was yet another downer for a star who was in the Top Three.
Esha Deol: Lost gained ground completely with Darling, Just Married and Cash.
Vidya Balan: Both her hits (Heyy Babyy and Bhool Bhulaiyaa) are credited to other factors, including Akshay Kumar. The rest was a flop show in every way.
Best-selling music albums
Aap Kaa Surroor- The Moviee at no.1 has sold almost twice as much as Om Shanti Om at number two! Jab We Met (phenomenal in the North), Partner and Saawariya (the only non-T-Series album here) completed the top five selling soundtracks.
Sohail Khan more or less confirmed that Katrina wouldn't be a part of the film recently, he said, "The core team of Partner is Salman bhai and Govinda. The story will now move forward with them. We hope to start as soon as the dates of the other heroines are worked out." This comes right after the Salman Khan - Katrina Kaif break up news.
