Producers must be crazy!!!
Since the first Hindi movie (Raja Harishchandra – 1913) there have been hundreds of actors in a leading role. Some became big hits and had lots of success, other fell by the wayside. A number of them were and are great talents. The paying public loved to watch these guys on the screen, over and over again.
But for some reason they also took to liking some of the biggest dodos that ever walked this planet. These guys neither had any talent nor were worth 2.5 hours of your valuable time.
The list below does not constitute any hate or prejudice nor is it in any form of order. To put it simply, I could never finish their movies without going to the loo for throwing up. Might have been some kind of virus they were transmitting through the screen.
So here it goes
1. Rajender Kumar
The Phoolwala (Flower Man – Sounds like a Super Florist) as I call him. He had the largest number of super hits and the highest number of song containing the word “Phool”. Example “Ae phoolon ki rani” or “baharon phool barsaon”. What the folks of 60’s and 70’s found in him is a mystery to me. His facial expression in Aarzo (when he finds out he has lost his memory) sometimes give me nightmares. M Night Shyamalan can make a beautiful horror story on his facial and body expressions.
2. Joy Mukherjee
There was never any joy left once this dude came on screen. The guys couldn’t tell a difference between his elbow and ass, let alone acting. Most of his movies were with Asha Parkeh. During an era when female actors were in movies for academic reasons, directors didn’t show faith in him. He always played second fiddle to the leading lady.
3. Biswajeet
Being short in stature is not a sin. God has created mankind in his mould. But being short and totally moronic is unpardonable. This dude should have stayed back in Calcutta to have some more of yummy rasgullas.
4. Pradeep Kumar
Man, where did he buy the gel for his hair. Topping it is his talwar moochen. Uff, he could have given Elvis great shakes of rock n roll.
5. Kiran Kumar
I humbly thank the public for rejecting this dude as a leading actor (Jungle mein Mangal with Reena Roy). He should have stayed in Gujarat to play dandiya / garba. Or should have walked back to the jungle.
God, I can’t take it anymore. Remembering and writing about these guys is killing me. Please give me some more time to complete this post.
6. Raj Babbar – King of Hamming
This guy never completed a sentence without stuttering in between. Best is when he used to do big and loud emotional scenes. His voice used to turn completely girlish. Watch Nikaah or Bheege Palkein, you will understand what I am talking about.
7. Puru Raj Kumar
What a let down he was. Didn’t have ONE percent of the talent that his father posessed. To top it he ran over some innocent street urchins after a night out drinking. No acting ability and no humanity.
8. Rohan Kapoor
Yep this one is a tricky one. Remember Govinda’s first and Neelam’s debut hit movie. Yaa… it’s slowly coming back to you guys. Love 86. In this absurd flick Govinda and Shafi Inamdaar were the saving grace. Rohan thought he hit gold by acting with Sanjay Dutt in Inaamdar, boy he was wrong.
9. Boy Mukherjee
Like father like son. Father’s name was Joy, son’s name is Boy, grandson would be Coy. Father had a lot of joy with his toy and he got a boy. Boy fiddled with his toy and he produced Coy. O boy, what if it would have been a girl???
10. Tariq Khan
Was he born with guitar and sunglasses? Did he actually know how to play the axe? If not for his uncle / cousin (don’t know their relationship) this dude might have been playing banjo on streets of Mumbai. He was passable to watch due to other actors like Rishi Kapoor and Dharamjee around him.
I had a big itch to add Manoj Kumar to the list. What saved him were his movies like Kranti, Roti kapda aur makaan, Purabh Paschim etc.
Folks you are most welcome to add to this.
Cheers
Tags: Acting
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Suniel Anand – Dev Anand’s son – came in a few movies that should never have been made!
Shatrughan Sinha – I can never fathom why or how he became an actor adn then a star!
Sunil Shetty – why? oh why does he try to act?
“Father had a lot of joy with his toy and he got a boy. Boy fiddled with his toy and he produced Coy.”
=)) =)) =)) precious.
vishal anand comes to mind too (dev anand’s cousin).. the highlight of his career was undoubtedly the song “chalte chalte mere yeh geet yaad rakhna, kabhi alvida na kehna”.. you can’t help but laugh when you see him in the song
)
Very Good post Muzzy…actually good articles like your’s deserve much more comments/discussions. ( I dont know why that’s not happening???)
Even a mention of Manoj Kumar in this article is an insult to the great artist…really man…the guy who gave us Roti,Kapada Aur Makaan…Shor…Purabh Paschim…(I am not a big fan of Kranti) deserves the due respect….because not only he was an able actor…he was also a good writer,director,editor.
He is really was as creative as one can be.
Muzzy:
1). Rajendra Kumar: he saw best years during 60s and I read some where that a time was there when in Culcutta every single cinema hall was screening his films. Do you really find him unbearable in Mother India, Dil Ek Mandir, Dil Apna aur preet Parayee, Mere Mehboob, Aman, Arzoo, Suraj, Dhool ka Phool, Sangam, Do Jasus, Bin Phere Ham tere?
Raj Kapoor took him for his own production Sangam.
2). Joy Mukharjee
almost same question: Do you find him unwatchable in films like Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, Love in Shimla, Shagird? Please watch Shriman Aashiq( remake of Shagird) of Rishi Kapoor and Urmila and Anupam Kher to compare them with original Shagird’s star cast Joy Mukherjee, Saira Banu and I.S Johar and perhaps things become clear.
3). Biswajeet
Is he unfittable in kind of films he did? like Bees Saal Baad, Kohra, Shehnai, April Fool, Mere Sanam, Main Sundar hoon , Phir kab milogee, Ishq par jor nahin?
4) Pradeep Kumar
Can you replace him with equally befitting actor in films like Aanand Math, Chitralekha, Taj mahal, Bahu Begham, Mahboob ke menhdi?
5)Kiron Kumar
You have objections to him as an Hero or Villain? Just two of his films – Tezaab and Khuda Gawah?
6)Raaj Babbar-
Again do you doubt him as an actor or hero or villain? He may have his own style of dialogue delivery. About voice being changed and becoming girlish , pls observe that effect in voice of barritone voices Amarish Puri also when he screames or does emotional scenes.
7) Puru Raaj Kumar
He has only 8 films to his credit and perhaps only one as hero. His talent is yet to be used properly. He has talent, it can be seen by seeing his 10 minutes role in Mishon Kashmir. Give him director like Vidhu and he also can do. You are nailing him too early before given him enough chances.
10) Tariq
Name is Tariq Shah.
was he a bad choice for roles of Yadon kee barat and Hum kisi se kam nahin like films?
11) Before you include Manoj Kumar- Please watch his Shaheed.He was in several hit films.
Moreover his films which he made are seen as collective films. He never claimed to be an actor of extra ordinary talent.
We cant impose todays criteria on old film makers and actors. their motives, means were different and era was different. Why Raj Kapoor made aag in that way or why Ashok Kumar acted that way in Kismat. Its the actual history now how they evolved and how hindi cinema eveolved. Its part of evolution.
Sophocles:
Re: Shatrughan Sinha:
Have you seen Mere Apne, Blackmail, Khan Dost, Kalicharan, Admi Sadak ka, Kranti, Kala Pathar, Dostana, Naram Garam, Kalka, Aaj ka MLA Ram Avtar, Antarjali yatra etc.
All of them? Some of them? Any of them?
Incidently Buddy, whats your agnipareeksha after passing which a person can be qualified as an actor?
Arey Yaar RK, I dont have any agneepareekshas for any actors – however, my friend, as far as shotgun sinha is concerned, I will only (and I reiterate only) accept Mere Apne as a movie where he acted. The rest was hamming. Antarjali Jatra was not as good as it could have been with any other decent actor. He made a mess of this good film. Loud and peculiar mannerisms cannot count for acting.
Some other names that come to mind after reading your comments to muzzy –
manoj Kumar – ever seen Clerk, Aaj Ka ramayana (where he played Hanuman)
Puru Raaj Kumar – he was ok in LOC. But Mission kasmir – he had hardly anything to contribute. Baal Bramhachari was an experience in pain for the viewers.
Kiran Kumar – a good copy of the Big B. What was special about his role in Khuda Gawah? Zilch. He was hamming away to glory and talking about akhrot and akhrotis! His final niche is in television and thats where he has landed.
Anyway, its my personal opinion yaar.
Sophocles:
I agree after Kranti Manoj Kumar lost his touch in his later directorial ventures. Several have lost it after certain age. Thats a side of creativity where age affects it. Ramu has lost
(may be temporarily and hope so)it at much lower age. MK was more a film maker with some ideas rather than a complete actor so he has to be assesed on that basis. I cant claim that I could not watch him in Wo Kaun Thee, Gumrah, Dr Vidya, Do Badan etc. He was fine with those kind of roles.
Re: Shatru Bhaiya if a film is there where he has acted better than AB then its Kala Pathar. When he teases AB on screen then audience realise what he is doing.
Puru: 1 minut scene is sufficient if an able director is utilizing the talent of an actor. e.g AB in Paheli. A short role but what a command over the demand of the character. Puru has eyes and voice needed to become good actor. Rest things depend on chance to get roles where one’s personality matches. Irfaan was doing TV serials before Warrior and Hasil happened. Manoj Bajpai was doing Swabhiman TV serial before Satya happened. If you find mannerism of Kiron Kumar objectionable in Khuda Gawah then curse Mukul Anand.KK could not talk akhrot and akhroti without his permission. MA gave him a cartoon type villain and he did it. Khuda Gawah is a masala film and KK was one part among various kind of masala to prepare that khichadee.
I respect your personal views but do you find such remarks right when you write, why he tries to act and why he became actor etc etc? Desire does not necessarily matches with performances. Everybody cherish certain dream since childhood and its not necessary that everybody can perform with better results. If few students cant do good in studies , does that mean they should not study at all? Every engineer is able to produce best results? every doctor is best? Do we ask them why you became doctor? Non filmi background people like Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha etc atleast had guts to go there and make something whatever talent they had. They did what they liked most. I cant question their sheer presence there.
Thats my non agreement with your views.
another good one, muzzy!
“BIGGEST DODOS ON SCREEN”
however, my list would exclude the ham gods like manoj kumar, joginderr(ranga khush!!), rajendra kumar, yunus parwez(main aapko paise detaa hoon detaa hoon- shaan), nasir hussain(jaanaki, aaj tum zinda hoti to…) n the likes..
i fathom this is more of a WHO ANNOYS ME list, so u could consider these great men to be my favorites…
sanjay kapoor
aditya pancholi
deepak tijori
hrithik roshan(yes my friend! i cant hide it any longer!)
the guy who plays the guitar in all naseer hussain films
vijay arora(oh sorry! he is in the HAM GODS(HAIN) LEAGUE)
zeenat aman(judge saahab mujrim aaaap haaain aaapka insaaaf hai)
amrita arora(look at me i am so cool n tomboy)
sushmita sen(oh my urdu accent? aah its just the royal blood)
tushar kapoor(yes my man! how can i forget you!!)
shahid kapoor(sorry, no genetic laws work in your case)
uday chopra(I end up last on every list)
now, this has really got me thinking!
to be continued…
sorry, i meant amrita rao(main ziddi hoon main pagli hoon)
Guys, the post was written as I felt about an actor. As stated i had an itch to add Manoj Kumar as his work in latter part of career was very ordinary. But remebering his ealry contribution as director, writer is something thorugh which I would like to remember him. Anyone seen Paniter Babu, Clerk etc.
Shatru was a power house of acting. He is one for the few actors who actually gave tough competetion to Bachan Sr. Mere Apne, Dostana & Kala Pathar worth watching primarily due to Shotgun Sinha.
RK, everything has to evolve. Yes, we have come a long way from the Bombay Talkies days to the slick style of movie making.
But I am sure even without the contributon of some people on the list evolution in Bollywood would not have stopped.
And yes, it not necassary for my colleagues on PFC to share my views. Your constructive criticism is most welcome.
Muzzy:
No personal offence friend. Only statements in articles are discussed.
Constructive or destructive I dont know but such lines are bound to provoke reactions as comments:
“they also took to liking some of the biggest dodos that ever walked this planet. These guys neither had any talent nor were worth 2.5 hours of your valuable time”.
I can understand later part of your statement that you cant spend 2.5 hrs of your life on something you dont like but to give verdict that they did not have any talent is difficult to digest.
Raj Babbar had no talent as an actor? Not sure how many people associated with film making can say it. B.R Chopra will be knowing more about acting and film making than anyone present on PFC and Raj Babar was brought in films by BR Chopra. Several film makers of high repute have utilized his acting skill in their films.
I am not sure that on a public forum present on net we can sabotage whole life work of a professional because we personally dont like him/her. Raj Babar can be good or bad in a film like any other actor but he does not know acting at all. I am sorry friend, its not right.
Muzzy rocks, RK sucks…
“Shatrughan Sinha – I can never fathom why or how he became an actor adn then a star! ”
:o
i just completed posting in a thread dedicated to shotgun in pfc and here i’m …
what in hell forced u to write shotgun’s name..
i feel he is one of the few who has ‘originality’
u say sunil shetty, that’s fine but shotgun???
whyy???
may be by now u changed ur opinion or i have to see his old films all over again..
puru raj kumar is very good in LOC, that’s very true..but his intial film antics were an embarassing lot..
and also my father dotes upon raj kumar..can u suggest me one great film that wl make me admire him???i haven’t seem any his films:(
Producers aren’t crazy, you are! Shotgun doesn’t know how to act?? Are you serious? I can agree on Sunil Shetty,Sophocles, but Mr. Sinha??? Check your acting first. He “orignally” gave competition to Mr.Bachchan, and aside from Mr. Dilip Kumar and Shahrukh Khan, he is the only one. No one can beat his panache or flamboyance and I reiterate no one.
Dear Sally,
There was one & only one actor who gave serious competition to Amitabh in his heydays. And that was Vinod Khanna. See all the movies they acted together. He was the only actor whom Amitabh could never get the better of. Unfortunately, he screwed up his career when he joined Rajneesh.
I like Rajender Kumar, he was good actor, little shy on screen but better than lot of other actors listed here.
Hi, if anyone wants instant popularity then just don’t call a spade a spade. And, that’s what you have done. Just out of some rubbish remarks, you have made 18 (including me) people adding to this wasteful exercise.
By the way, Rajendra Kumar or Manoj Kumar could not have survived three or four decades if they were not ‘watchable’. For your information, Rajendra was called ‘Jubilee Kumar’ or the actor with Midas touch. You mean just for nothing!!!