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Honest movies that failed
So KANK is a super duper hit! And so are Phir Hera Pheri (rip off of Lock, Stock and 2 smoking barrels), Krrish and a bunch of other crappy stuff! While the producers guild goes about tom-tomming the resurgence of movies, i wanted to talk about a bunch of films that - according to me - had soul! Not just lovely locales and big stars - backed by marketing hype worth crores! Here goes in random order,
1) kagaz ke phool - immortal film that was beyond the mere mortals that wanted commercial masala.. even in those days! A classic in every term that can be thought of.
2) Lamhe - was India not mature enough for Lamhe? we will never know. But, probably one of the finest love stories ever made in India. Yash Chopra at his best. ( and no sarson ke khet for a change…)
3) Main Azaad Hoon - what can you say about this film. Amitabh Bachcan the actor proved why he towered above everyone else. Pure class. But, again, I guess people wanted to see him rise like the phoenix and tower over everyone else. “Azaad” died. And audiences could never expect a hero to die. The scene where Amitabh sits with the villagers at night talking to them about life…his first speech in the auditorium..his interactions with Shabana, the scene where he sees a half eaten apple and his hands are itching to pick it up…. can never believe that this movie failed.
4) Ek doctor ki maut - pankaj kapoor was absolutely brilliant as a frustrated doctor fighting bureaucracy and the system which ties us down….
5) Aalaap: Amitabh and rekha - Amitabh as the tragic singer who leaves his father’s house to drive a “fittan”. Sanjeev kumar, sitara devi ( i hope I got the right name), rekha, asrani and amitabh. I loved the songs in the film.
6) saher - I think that this was one of the best films to have been made in the last 2- 3 years. Arshad warsi in a role that he added so much substance to…crisp, short and with a soul.
there are many more…many many more…lost in the annals of history..forgotten..
and while we gloat over the (richly deserved perhaps) millions made by third grade crappy films…how about sparing a thought for these gems….
write and let me know of films that you feel deserved success and never got it…
18 Responses to “Honest movies that failed”
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Good job Sophocles (you might wanna change your display name) :) Saher deserved so much more like many of those in your list. I think Pankaj Kapoor in Ek Doctor ki Maut gave one of his best performances.
Yeah sophocles. Actually the list is much much longer…. Here’s another entry -
Sadma - What was wrong with this film ??? Why did this film flop ??? It came after the immensely successful Ek duje key liye. Kamal and Sridevi have probably given their best performances in a hindi film. And if u don’t weep after seeing the climax scene, u deserve a big spanking on ur ass
Yes, I have often myself wondered about ‘Main Azaad Hoon’ - such an honestly made film, with a novel story structure, why didn’t it work? I think that films with stories a bit different didn’t work well in those days (of course, even now they are not sure to do well, but there’s a better mathematical possibility nowadays).
There’s one more Amitabh film in this class - ‘Saudagar’ (not to be confused with the 1990s blockbuster). I love the film’s pace, the Crusoe-like pace of the story itself - as Robinson Crusoe does nothing but keep on drying raisins and yet keeps us hooked, so does AB keep on climbing date palms, as tension slowly builds up in the film; it feels as if you are also some invisible person sharing space with AB and Nutan. Many others honest films have not done well - in recent times, ‘Seher’, ‘Ahista Ahista’, and ‘Gangster’ (not as a hit as it should have been).
It sounds so unusal and wrong to say that Alaap seems to be a weak film by Hrikesh Mukherjee (from his standard). He could have given better film. Amitabh had played such depressive roles in few films at that time. Role was not matching with his physical appearance. He is good actor so can convey the emotions. Only surprise thing I found was singing by Asrani, he sung well the prelude of the song (while on Ghora-Tanga with Amitabh), sung by Manna de. Sanjeev Kumar was not at his usual best in the role of Raja Sahib, he did not look like an old man he was supposed to look. Performance wise also Farida Jalal, Om Prakash and Gajanan Jagirdar were better than our Hero and Heroine (AB and Rekha). I cant recall who played the role of old singer(some bai). Gajanan Jagirdar was wonderful in the role of devoted lover of this old singer. HM could not keep the right balance of entertainment and nice visual story telling in this film” Alaap”. Like he did in Bawarchee, Guddi, Abhiman etc. Alaap misses something somewhere and cant be a successful film. Music was good but not that good that can match with the title Alaap. It was good to listen Mein gata wo so jata. Even Mili had two wonderful songs from Kishor Kumar which one can recall and can hum any time, but Alaap was lacking here. Story line was poor. one does not need to join ghora tanga business to continue his passion for music. It could have been better conflict between father and son but AB’s living in poverty under his stubborn nature that he would not do what his father wishes does not go well with audience’s mind. Rather Rekha looks far more ordinary when she insists that she would go to Om Prakash to take right of her son as its not genuine that grandfather owns so much money and grandson cant have even milk. That shows that Rekha knows the value of money but Amitabh does not. In last what AB got? neither he could live for long, so could provide good life to Rekha and their son and nor he could live for singing. Its a desperate story where Hero is so confused. Such stories dont work in real world.
Lamhe: I remember I took 3 friends to watch Lamhe though they wanted to watch some other film of that time which was doing good at box office. They complained me and did not allow me to sit comfortably for 20 minutes because initial 30 minutes of Lamhe are so slow. I had liked the film so much that I had gone again next day to watch it one more time. It was facinating visually. SriDevi was at her best. Music was great. Story was unusual. But after watching it several times over the years story looks faulty as far as psychology is concerned especially in Indian context. Yash Chopra managed it very well the whole show minus the story. Its a confusing story. I wonder if he had shown that Anil Kapur could succeed to convince younger Sri devi to understand the situation and she goes ahead in her life rather than to stick with Anil Kapur. Becasue from Anil Kapur’s point of view it was kind of incest. He treated her like a daughter since childhood. It does not matter if director made younger sridevi to speak that it may be true that AK loved her mother but she loved her father only. AK loved Senior Sri Devi, how can he love daughter Sri Devi with same kind of love? Love can be a same term but for ordinary people its different towards lover and others. For Saints love can be only one type. But for ordinary lovers love has passion of lust towards its lover. AK should have loved younger Sridevi just becasue of the fact that she was having similar face and body as his desired woman?
Here Yash Chopra failed to justify the story or rather Honey Irani could not solve this angle wisely.
Yash Chopra could not solve the threadns entagled in Silsila and film was not as successful as AB’s others films were going in that period and Karan Johar changed the end of Silsila in KANK according to prevailing mind set of todays youth and film is doing good business.
Silsila is another beautiful film which did not succeed as we think now after seeing its quality in every department. I doubt if Rekha is the reason for this failure. She was and is seen associated with AB with great charm and it was not good to shwo them departing and still living with other partners. Yash Chopra should have taken another heroine in that role. When film is released then mass does not go deeply in to the technical matters like acting etc but the overall impact of the movie. Micro analysis comes after few watchings and it has been true with so many films like pyasa and Kaghaj ke phool. Their initial collective impact might not have been good on viewers and when we see these films without any expectations then we are able to see through the layers shown in the film.Initial wide appeal can be the basic factor where critics become failed often when they declare a film as crap and film becomes massive hite.g. Sholay and HAHK.
Its kind of incest if we use rude language.
My list of honest(?) movies that failed(arguable term), would be:
Dil Se
Thakshak
Earth
Khosla Ka Ghosla(didnt get the deserved recognition)
Teen Deewaarein(Kukunoor)
My Wife’s Murder
Naach
Raincoat
Tushar, you definitely list some movies that sadly did not get their due.
As for “Dil Se”, the initial audience reaction in India was poor for several reasons. First of all the film was hyped to unreal levels. I don’t think any film in the history of Indian cinema was hyped as much as “Dil Se”. After all it was Mani sir’s first film in Hindi and it had Shahrukh, put together with one of the most famous soundtracks of all time. More than anything, Hindi audiences were expecting a Shahrukh entertainer: something the film was anything but. “Dil Se”, a beautiful, innovative, film with a shocking ending, was the kind of film audiences could not figure out how to react to. I think it was way ahead of its times. But if you see now, 8 years later, every Hindi film enthusiast has the DVD in his/her collection.
“Thakshak” in my opinion was disappointing because by the time it released, audiences had already seen a string of gangster films, a trend kickstarted by the success of “Satya”. “Thakshak” I think also failed because of an inconsistent script, but more so because it was not marketed properly either.
“Earth” was a decent film, but again, the marketing was simply pathetic. Additionally, the release was delayed so long, that most people had already seen it on a pirated version on cable. It was all over India. The film had screened in so many festivals around the world, that pirated copies had leaked out in no time.
“Khosla Ka Ghosla”, I must disagree with you on this one, because it did not fail. The film is actually declared a success. It was made for, and sold for a very low price, and released only in urban centers. It has in fact played very well, and UTV, its distributors have called it a profitable venture.
I felt extremely sorry for Kukunoor when “Teen Deewarein” failed. It was one of the best films of that year, finely crafted. But he got such a raw deal because to begin with, the release was delayed by almost 7-8 months after the film was complete. The longer it sat on the shelf, the lower its value went, until it got to a point where they just had to go out and release it in a rush, not leaving any time for marketing it.
The last 3 films you mentioned, I cannot say, because personally I did not like them. Some other well-made films that flopped however are:
1942 A Love Story - Suprisingly flopped despite tremendous marketing, a popular star cast, and phenomenal music.
Agneepath - Bachchan’s greatest performance, a cult classic. But the film bombed at the box office because 1989-90 was when cable TV started sweeping India. Everyone saw and loved the film on cable, but the makers couldn’t quite figure out why the film was doing badly. They thought audiences couldnt relate with Bachchan changing his voice. So they re-dubbed the film with his original voice, and still it never picked up. Needless to say, it’s a cult classic.
Parinda - Another well made Vinod Chopra film, perhaps his best film to date, bit the dust, because cable TV was just too strong, and piracy became rampant. People had no clue how to deal with it. It won numerous awards, even the popular ones, but box office revenue was disappointing.
The fact remains that though filmmaking may be an art, it is also a business. You can make a great film, but if you don’t know how to protect your assets, and if you dont know how to sell your product, the effort goes down the drain.
right said fred. film making is an art yet a business too.
you could add benegal’s Bose also to the list, but frankly i dont even know what the makers position their films as.
I agree that some films look doomed from the word go. Thakshak was one of them. However, I put it and few others on the list because they stay close to my heart for one reason or the other.
I would be happiest if you call KKG a hit, cus i feel it is one of the best of not the best films of the year, i somehow felt it didnt get the public eye much, as deserved.
Tushar,
I think I agree with what you say on most points - takshak, my wife’s murder, khosla ka ghosal, (the brilliant) teen deewarein were gems. However, you point out a film which most people had written off - naach. I think naach was a very good film exploring relations in a very differnt angle. I also think that this was abshishek and ritesh’s best performances. I only felt that antara maali was a very sore point in the whole film. I also thought that her character was not etched out properly and looked confused. Anyway, it didnt do well and thats waht people remember.
I also forgot to mention - Aks in the initial article. Maybe a film that was ahead of its time in concept but brilliant in execution.
Sophocles,
Glad that you share similar veiws on Naach. It is one of the films that I have seen many people rate very high in fact.
We had discussed it in the RGV thread few days back….
I loooove naach!! I loved everything about it-soundtrack, camera, AB of course(one of his best after yuva and sarkar). Agreed it went bad towards the end but it was gem given the pace and the anti-climactic narrative. Where I could happily digest every elaborate song sequence or long shot in naach, I just could not bear it in shiva. Naach has ‘soul’ written all over it. Just watch the scene where AB is watching the TV while drinking and gets a call from Riteish. Riveting. Rewind-worthy. The amazing sequences where they learn n teach dance atop the roof are also brilliantly shot and executed(the very start is so drugged it tells you something is coming your way).
http://passionforcinema.com/my-obsession-with-ramu/
agree with you on Aks.
SWADES:
This was one film which genuinly have some strong scenes. And this is the film you can see Shahrukh Khan as an Actor not as a filmstar ( except his Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa). Check the scene in which sharrukh khan drinks water from the clild at the station.We can literally see him having pain looking at that boy. And you can see Kabhi Haan KABHI naa for his amazing energy and spentenity in acting..He was on his toes all the time..
Check these two movie..for sheer pleasure..
very true, rakesh
the only few movies where I liked were swades, dil se, KHKN, asoka, don….
or you can go back any day to the good old Fauzi to catch an un-starry SRK.
I also liked him in Raju ban gaya gentleman & whatever lil bit he did in saathiya.
@ Rakesh… I definitley do agree one of the really touching scenes from Swades was where SRK buys water from the kid. Another interesting point here, and how much i loved the continuity of this scene was:
Remember SRK gives away “all” the money he has to the farmer…meaning he has no money now…next scene the buying water one…guess who gives the 25 paise(cents) to the kid…nope not SRK..but his co-passenger…i was like wow…Ashutosh..did pay attention to all small details in here…this scene really blew me up on the honesty of the movie…
One another great scene is during the dussera give-aways..where SRK responds to why India is not the best country and the hypocrisy of people trying to associate everything that we dont have but, can easily take the shades of Culture..the pure pain in his eyes..god damn…so touching and so true…Dude..SRK…Do, some movies like this and not those bloddy KANK’s DOn, etc… You do have talent hidden somewhere deep down there..un-earth it.
Vijay,
I think you have got some facts wrong. parinda was a super hit, Agneepath was a silver Jubilee.
Ankur,
Mai Azaad Hoon was good but it flpped because (1) It got released without any publicity, newspaper ads etc because it was Amitabh’s way of getting back at politicians after his failed political experience (2) It was complete copy of Meet John Doe
Lamhe - The only good thing this movie had was music and choreography. Story, acting, editing, look all were flawed
Jwalant
I think we are both partially right in our own ways. Your comment pushed me to research the facts a little more. Check out the following facts I pulled from boxofficeindia.com and screenindia.com:
Agneepath was declared a flop. (http://www.boxofficeindia.com/1990.htm)
However, you’re right in that it may have been a silver jubilee film. It grossed about Rs. 80 lakh per major territory, which in those days would have been considered a super hit. However, the film was made on such a huge budget and sold to distributors at such a high price that despite doing the business that it did, the movie did not even break even! So technically it was a flop. But scale of revenue itself deceives otherwise.
(http://www.screenindia.com/april25/cover4.htm)
Parinda was not a flop but neither was it a super hit. This list shows that it was only an average earner. Often this classification means the film has broken even.
(http://boxofficeindia.com/jackieshroff.htm)
1. Basu Bhattacharya’s Teesri Kasam
2. Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker
3. Nana Patekar’s Prahaar
4. Krishna Shah’s Shalimaar
5. Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades
6. Shyam Benegal’s Mammo
(almost all his films are good but they
keep bombing at d b/o)
7. Yash Chopra’s Silsila
8. Imtiaz Ali’s Socha Na Tha
9. Govin Nihalani’s Dev
Can’t recall more at the moment..
Kaagaz Ke Phool n Lamhe are both classics
released ahead of it’s times..
The flopping of both films have had a great
impact on Indian cinema..
Guru Dutt never directed any other film
after the bombing of Kaagaz Ke Phool.
And Yash Chopra stopped experimenting after
the box office failure of Lamhe,and has
stuck to making sugar sweet romances
(read crap)
Where is the Yash Chopra who once made films
like Dhool Ka Phool,Dharamputra,Waqt,Ittefaq,
Daag,Deewar,Trishul and Mashaal ?
He seems to have allowed the producer in him
to take over the director that gave us some
classics..
what else justifies d regular trash churned
out by his production house ?
Fanaa,Neil N Nikki,Salaam Namaste,
Dhoom,Mujhse Dosti Karoge,Mere Yaar Ki
Shaadi Hai.. the list is endless..
Most of these films were heavily copied
from Hollywood films..
And this is the same Yash Chopra who learned
d art of filmmaking from his elder brother
Mr B R Chopra who had a prod house where they
had an entire story dept for films and
came up with a lot of good subjects,which the
audience remember till date..
Can’t he hire some good writers for his
prod house ? or is there a serious lack of
talent in our country today ? ? ?
Main, meri patni and woh…
// 3) Main Azaad Hoon - what can you say about this film. Amitabh Bachcan the actor proved why he towered above everyone else. Pure class. But, again, I guess people wanted to see him rise like the phoenix and tower over everyone else. “Azaad” died. //
cant believe some one is writing this in PFC..
check out in the internet for “Meet John Doe”.. Javed Akhtar saw this hollywood film and translated the dialogs into Hindi so tht Amitabh cud mouth them..
It was so bad a “copy” that Amitabh is made to wear an overcoat in a rustic Indian place just because “John Doe” wears one in the hollywood film..