Subhash Ghai – A Leopard Changes Its Spots
Subhash Ghai, the showman of the industry, is now not-to-be-seen anywhere. The man who gave a string hits like Vidhata, Hero, Meri Jung, Karma, Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khalnayak, Pardes, Taal; and then suddenly he lost the magic touch. When you read the names of these movies, I am sure you noticed that all these were the typical masala Hindi movies which had the recurrent themes of separation, injustice, revenge and love. And most of these movies had brilliant soundtrack, good songs and nice ear for music. I am not going to write about these movies, that’s already done in a post which is a small capsule of all his potboiler movies which he made before the beginning of the new millenium. That post can be found here, and my intention was to write about his later movies.
Yaadein - 2001 : At the turn of the century, Subhash Ghai gave us this crap of a movie. This was the first time he was working with Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor, he wanted to capitalize on their popularity. The YRF banner, KJo and other makers started making movies for the NRI audience when they realised that foreign revenues coming in $$ makes a huge difference to the BO report. So, Ghai wanted to follow the trend and he set his movie in London. Since he was targetting the NRI, he based his story on a NRI disjointed family trying to retain Indian values.
The movie turned into an ‘ad fest’ with long shots of Coke in Jackie Shroff’s hands, his daughters riding Hero cycle, Ladybird I guess; Paas-Paas flavoured gutka or whatever the hell that was. We were subjected to such paid-torture; do we buy tickets or rent dvd’s to see ads, but here we were bombarded with ads. The story-telling was no good at all, even emotional scenes had ads peeking from all sides, Jackie openly declaring that Coke is his second love. Ghai lost the plot in the screenplay stage, and the final product was embarassing. Even the music of the movie was not very good, save for a couple of songs like Jab Dil Miley and the title song. The showman failed miserably, and he still has not been able to make a comeback. His downfall started from here onwards.
Kisna - 2005 : After the disaster of Yaadein, it took Ghai 4 long years before he could come out with his next directorial venture. In between, he wrote a simple story of love blosomming between a young actress and an old judge, the movie was Jogger’s Park. He produced Jogger’s Park in 2003 and Aitraaz in 2004.
With the success of Lagaan came the new trend of having a foreign face in the movie, a white actress. Lot of movies were announced with such starcast, like Out Of Control, Mangal Pandey, Salaam-E-Ishq etc. This probably prompted Ghai to write a periodical, or a movie set in 1800’s. He signed Vivek Oberoi who was the most sought after guy, back then. The story was about Kisna, a poet, and his crusade for saving the life of a British woman who is being chased by nationalists; and how he escorts her to safety and fights everyone who tries to stop them. Ghai did not adhere to his normal formula, he ventured into unknown territories and was lost.
The movie had good music, both from Ismail Darbar and AR Rahman. The performances were a shame, no one did justice to their role. Isha Sharvani, in her debut, danced well; but that’s all she did, that’s all she was asked to do. Nothing good from the foreign actress Antonia Bernath, and Vivek Oberoi did not look the part. He was so out of place. This movie was Amrish Puri’s last release, in fact he expired two weeks before the movie released.
Black & White – 2008 : After the debacle of Kisna, Ghai went into hibernation once again. He continued producing small budget movies which did well, like Iqbal and 36 Chinatown. After the success of Iqbal, he backed Nagesh Kukunoor’s next project Bombay to Bangkok which flopped.
Anyways, terrorism was turning out to be the talk of the country. Lots of film-makers were writing stories about terrorists and terror plots. Ghai, not to be left behind, also started writing his own story, much inspired by the Afzal Guru episode. He called the movie B&W, because he hoped to show both sides of the coin. Having married a muslim himself, I thought Ghai would be able to bring out the dichotomy in a sensitive manner. He made a brave attempt in trying to explain the psyche of a terrorist, but he failed in nailing the issue. I felt cheated when he declared that the protagonist came from across the border. He should have had the guts to show a home-bred terrorist. The movie climax was much like Dil Se, a terrorist taking refuge in a house and is on a mission.
The musical score by Sukhwinder Singh was impressive. Anil Kapoor gave a very restrained performance as professor Mathur and Habeeb Tanvir as the poet was marvellous. But again, Ghai’s lack of experience in dealing with serious issues of grave consequence was exposed. An attempt in vain.
Yuvraaj - 2008 : Aamir’s TZP became a hit, Apna Asmaan received critical appreciation, Iqbal also did well. As goes the trend of the industry, follow the trend, Ghai did so. He decided to make such a movie, and he went for the easiest inspiration in the form of Rain Man. Rain Man was a story straight out of the saying where there is a will, there are relatives; and Subhash Ghai added one more relative to that list. He made it a story of 3 brothers, one of them being autistic; Anil Kapoor played the part which Dustin Hoffman had played, Salman Khan was doing what Tom Cruise had done; and Zayed Khan, I still don’t know what the hell was he doing in the movie.
The only kind of relief was the musical score. AR Rahman gave some very hummable numbers like Tu Muskura and Tu Hi To Meri Dost Hai; and the background score was really good. But the casting of the movie was horrible. Salman Khan, as usual, just slept through the role; Zayed Khan mouthed the lines without any expression/emotion/feeling and Katrina Kaif was just about tolerable. Anil Kapoor tried his best, to compensate for the non-acting of his fellow artists.
I feel really bad for Ghai who has fallen into bad times. He has been trying different things, but has not succeeded at any of them. Unlike 1990’s, where he hit a jackpot with his formula movies, he is trying to re-invent himself now. He seems to have lost the touch of making his masala movies, inserting action-emotion-tragedy-melodrama-comedy-revenge-family, he is a pale shadow of his golden past. Zindagi har kadam ek nayi jung hai …
Tags: anil kapoor, AR Rahman, black & white, iqbal, jogger's park, karma, khalnayak, Kisna, meri jung, pardes, ram lakhan, saudagar, subhash ghai, taal, vidhata, yaadein, yuvraaj
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I think that he should get out of this “re-inventing himself business” just stick to his area of strength and make some pure entertainers..like Ram Lakhan
yes…tats why i titled the post as leopard changes its spots
Song picturization and choreography in Yuvvraaj, were quite good and considering the fact that different choreographers were chosen for different songs, still there was a synchronization and that should be the Subhash Ghai’s seal.
Either Mr.Ghai decides to stick to what he’s best at & make those kind of movies or else he better quit direction & just produce movies like Iqbal and Joggers Park.
I think the problem with MR.Ghai is he still believe in formulas. If he takes a gr8 script and stick to it I don’t think there will be any reason to fail. Subhash Ghai is really put of Ideas now a days
” and Zayed Khan, I still don't know what the hell was he doing in the movie.”
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ROTFLMAO… great post buddy!
A much needed article, but I am not convinced by the idea you gave here for the reason he made kisna. Salaam E Ishq??!! (I dont think even kal ho na ho was released at that point)
@Sudipto : i was thinking abt salman and his marigold[which was in talks for ages]…sorry..tat was a mistake mentioning salaam-e-isqh instead. thanx for correcting.
by the way, if u read any article on kisna or the insider talk, u will realise tat the success of lagaan spawned kisna. story setting in 1800’s, giving it a periodical look, a triangle-love-story weaved etc…
moreover, mangal pandey also was in production at tat time, with a foreign crew. i m sure he took the cue from there
@Crazy-
Nice post, i seriously dont understnad what is Mr.Ghai smoking? I met him post YYUUVVRRAAJJ, and he blatantly said that his movies are ahead of his times!
I mean,in all the movies that u have mentioned, except B&W, right from the first frame one can see that its a disaster in the making.
Eg- opening dialogue in Kisna goes
Reporter 1– “Blah blah blah…unhone sirf kahan Namaste”
Reporter 2 –” Hum sab Samajte”
Yuck!
sorry for the digression..but reading the article suddenly brought back the question..what does Dev Anand make movies for?..superstar of the past..so horribly out of place now..his must be an interesting example..
@ankur: yup…he is another strange case, will take it up some other day. he never did well after vijay anand left him, or probably he dis-associated himself with vijay anand. vij anand was brilliant, and without him dev became a movie-recluse and was handicapped :(
What man. Yuuvvraaj was panned for being too filmy and too ‘Show Man-ish’ so I don’t think his style of masala stuff will work anymore.
Yuvvraaj was pathetic and so was Yaadein. Post-Taal only B&W worked here n there.
How about doing a post on RGV or have you already?
@Vee : ramu pe bhi likhoonga kabhi, if nobody else has already done so. uske movies ‘contract’, ‘go’, ‘darling’ ne bahut sataye hai mujhe :(
Nice post!
“The movie turned into an '«ad fest'” LOL! God, your mentioning Yaadein has brought back so many bad memories of the film. hehe. The treatment of songs in the film was awful. Chanda Taare seemed like an excuse to just show off Hrithik’s muscles.
I did enjoy Kisna, though!
@Amanda : yes, very tue … it brings back ‘buri yaadein’ :(
horrible-horrible movie … hrithik’s ham speech and everybody’s over-the-top acting and the non-acting by the females … damn.
the only good thing tat came of it was kiran rathod … tamil cinema will be ever so happy for tat
omg! the speech at the end when hrithik has those folders and yells “we want love”–that was just HILARIOUS!!!
He’s smoking a bad weed
At the best of his times, he was pretty much overrated, his movies worked in the 80’s and 90’s, because the overally quality was atrocious, so it was like one eyed man is king in land of blind.
Yaar sirf subject change karne se nahin chalta, you need to change the narration to suit it towards present day times. Ghai is still stuck in the 80’s and 90’s mode of narrating a story.
One more thing, good or bad, Ghai’s earlier movies had some great pieces of dialogue writing. The dialogues in Kisna, Yaadein and Yuvraaj are plain atrocious. What in the eff does “anti family man” mean? And this in Kisna “Is gaon mein koi Bhagat Singh hai?”, “Bhagat Singh nahin hai to kya hua, yahan Shankar Singh hai”, arggghh, yaar even my 10 year old niece could come up with better dialogues than that.
Also if Ghai does not know what autism is, better he does not touch it. I mean if Anil Kapoor is autistic, i am Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
That was a good one. He created this whole aura of being a showman and now his movies turn out to be the biggest duds of the year. All previous movies of Katrnia Kaif were superhits and she was considered to be the lucky mascot who can rescue any movie. But our Showman proved to be stronger than what others had anticipated. He could give a flop with Katrina.
Movie making is a creative job and it takes huge amount of talent to succeed in various genres and generations. Ghai never succeeded in that and probably never will. RIP Showman.
@Ratnakar : reagrding dialogues…yes, spot on. his dialogues used to be really good. even in saudagar, the verbal conquest between dilip saab and rajkumar were fantastic. the lines ine meri jung were also too good. the problem is, now he tries to write like the newbreed gen-X writers, but is unable to do it bcoz of the generation gap. he may have the thought, but cannot bring it out on paper. the kind of dialogues tat we see in JWM or JTYJN etc
@Ratnakar: not just autism, its his lack of experience in general. he wants to make a period drama, make a movie on terrorism, make a movie for NRI, make a movie with autism…uff…
instead of concentrating on his script and story, he has been searching for formulas to incorporate in his writing.
@Leslie: i wud not goto tat extent, give him credit where its due.
; she cant turn around to akshay kumar and tell him tat all the movies they did together were hits bcoz of her, and cc2c flopped bcoz she was not in it 
katrina is not a phenomenon
ghai does have the talent…but its a thing of the past…
@ #1 I think this is where David Dhawan scores. I don’t mean to compare them, but look at what he does, no crap, no gyaan baazi, no reinventing business. May be as they say stick to what you do best, core competency (may be more of convenience). Though personally I don’t like the idea.
I guess Ghai has passed his expiry date. ghai’s formula hits are not based on technical excellency, rather they focussed on a 80s kind of rustic milieu… with the advent of posh yrf/johar movies, he couldnt superimpose his formula for popcorn generation… his sensibilities (formula) requires a certain kind of setting which wont work with today’s setting… i dont think karma or ram lakhan will be a hit in todays time :D
“This movie was Amrish Puri's last release, in fact he expired two weeks before the movie released.”
Correction. Amrish Puri Saab’s last release was a B-grade masala potboiler called Kachchi Sadak, which came end of 2005 / early 2006, but definitely after Kisna.
@Santosh Kumar T K : i am always in a conflict situation when i think of [a]to do wat we are best at and fail, david dhawan’s movies also flopped [b]to try something new and fail, like ghai
@Omprakash Seresta: ghai did succeed with ‘taal’ when he was transitioning himself to the new wave. but then, technical advancement happened too quickly; and his story-telling was stuck in the 1980’s type
@Ok, got it: yes, i m partially right though. he did expire 2 weeks before the release of kisna. i did not know abt this little unknown b-grade flick, so u r right that ‘kachi sadak’ was his last on-screen appearance. thanx for the info
The 80s was a pathetic period for Hindi films. However Ghai’s films had that epic tone about them. Must have been the music or the over the top acting but one always felt that a spectacle was being unfolded while watching these films. Now in reinventing himself he has lost that tone.
Let him retire from direction and concentrate only on film productions like Iqbal
Crazyrals, I think it all centers around his insecurities. Back in the 80’s & 90’s, Ghai seemed to focus more on making his kind of movies. Watch “Vidhaata”, “Ram Lakhan” or “Khalnayak” again. You can see the conviction and the passion in his storytelling. Even if it was over the top masala, audiences at it up.
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Then came “Pardes” which was the beginning of the end. You can clearly tell he wasn’t making it because he really believed in it or that it was his kind of film, but more so because he was following the trend of making an NRI film, and it even seemed that because he was working with SRK, who was super popular post DDLJ, he had to adapt his style to fit SRK’s image in the overseas. The result was a half-ass, confused film that went nowhere.
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As you’ve rightly pointed out, his last 4 films have all had this “wannabe” aura to them. Like he’s screaming “see, I can go with the times, I can make a period film with a gori/a Hritik/Kareena NRI-pleasing family film/a dark film on terrorism, etc. He’s clearly insecure of his own abilities so he’s trying desperately to mould himself into what he “should be” in today’s times. This will kill any professional in any field, and is even deadlier as far as filmmakers go.
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This is why films like “Jab We Met” work so well. Because its clear that Imtiaz Ali isn’t the least bit concerned with trends, or Shahid and Kareena’s images, or appealing to the NRI audience, or anything but telling his story and making a solid film.
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And this is what Subhash Ghai needs to do. But where will he find the confidence to pull it off?
@Tony Mera Naam : you have hit the nail on the head, its the ‘wannabe’ thing tats turning out to be his downfall. tats exactly wat i wanted to point out. when he made movies like ‘meri jung’ and ‘karma’ and the ones u have named, there was a sense of purpose, a conviction; but from ‘pardes’ onwards he just lost it.
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in pardes, he played to srk’s image and created a sympathetic character who understands true love etc
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instead of following a trend, he shud stick to his strength and ofcourse grow-up. when i say stick to his strength, i dont mean making masala movies, i mean he shud get the story and dialogues right, get the musical score right, have a fine screenplay and shoot with conviction
Problem is Subash Ghai is stuck in a kinda no man’s land, he cant reach out to the NRI audience like Karan Johar or Yash Raj, nor is he able to fully appeal to the small town hinterland junta like Rajshree, so his movies are like neither here nor there.
I think the audience too has matured(Not always ;-)). They can now make out the trailer if the movie is worth spending your hard earned money. Also by 2pm IST on friday, we have got 100 of reviews to read and decide if one has to take the trouble of going out and seeing the movie in a theatre. No wonder Yuvvrraaj had such pathetic opening weekend collection. Cant believe that a Salman starrer with hit music by AR Rahman could get such an opening.
I had this rude experience recently. I had planned to go out to see Delhi-6 with few friends on a friday evening. I called the guys in the afternoon to confirm and they all backed out. “Arre review pada .. Lagta hai picture faltoo hai.. Do din mein torrent mein aa jayega .. Download karke dekh loonga .. Not worth wasting money on”. Being a lover of cinema I felt really bad. Movies are something that needs to be experienced and seeing pirated torrents doesnt give you that. But then you cant blame people if the movie is not good enough.
crazyrals and TMN
I agree that Ghai should have stick to what he is best at and he should be sincere in his efforts. I am surprised that he didn’t learned from his failures. Suraj Barjatya also tried to do something different from MPKDH but he learned quickly from its failure and came back with a typical Rajshree movie Vivah, which was ruled out to be outdated in present times but it worked. An honest effort will always be appreciated and I think there is still audience for Ghai’s movies. Look at Ghajini, the movie was typical 80ish with some changes done to suit to the present scenario and it worked like no other movie had.
I think Subhash Ghai has stopped believing in himself and the kind of movies he makes and that’s where he is failing. Nowadays when I read his interviews he talks about the audience tastes changing and that is the reason his films are failing. I think that is all rubbish. If that was the case every Yash Raj film shot on foreign locations would be a hit. What he has to remember that his fit films were good clean wholesome entertainers which are very difficult to make.A good film will always be appreciated by audiences. Ghai needs to remember that. Only when a director believes in himself and his film then the audience will believe in it. What he has to realise is that all the films made by him were half hearted attempts at following the trend. That’s the reason for his flops. C’mon Ghai, give us a clean entertainer and I’m sure it will work.
Hey Crazyrals,
. And I find it commendable that he is still trying to make movies (which after giving 8 back to back hits – he need not). He can sit back and enjoy the history he has created. Because I see a struggle, I am sure he will come out as a winner.
I loved Kisna and I have grown up on Subhash ghai’s movies. I love his work. Every filmmaker goes through a rough phase and also feels the need to experiment (B&W). Pardes was made much before the NRI trend was set and was based on NRIs.
It will be sad if a film maker retains his spots all his life because he needs to grow and discover himself. Every film making leopard needs to keep changing his spots
Also, you have made huge assumptions in trying to see why a certain film was made by Subhash Ghai. You should have spent time doing real research on that rather than on the title given to this article.
@AK-47: when i said ‘retaining the spots’ i meant wrt story-telling, music, dialogues… refer my comment no.35
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regarding pardes being made much before NRI trend … u got it all wrong. DDLJ set the trend and pardes came much later.
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i have not made any assumptions. its a normal bollywood thing…to follow trends..
after HAHK there were lot of movies tat came in marriage-video fashion
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i m glad tat he is trying new things…but trying for the sake of it is not the way to go