The first half of 2013 is over. It's monsoon time. And it's raining hits in
Bollywood with film after film crossing the
success barrier.
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's astounding
biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, releasing on Friday, already seems to have
the potential
of being the first certifiable blockbuster
during the second half of 2013. Here's
looking at the films of 2013 that that
made it, and the ones that didn't so far:
HITS:-
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani: Ayan Mukerji's second film was charming, warm and
sometimes tender. But it didn't have much
to say about the man-woman thing, except
that guys who are popular in college, can
get away with murder in future life. And
yes, girls who are repressed, just need to throw off their spectacles and make a
spectacle of themselves to prove they have
reached the nirvana of liberation. Thanks
to Ranbir Kapoor's growing popularity, the
film escalated to beyond the Rs. 100 crore
profit mark, leaving everyone including producer Karan Johar stumped.
Aashiqui 2: Stars sell, right? Then how do we explain the phenomenal
success of this
Mohit Suri-directed drama about a girl who
wants to be a known singer, a guy who
wants to be drunk all the time, and a
relationship that hits a dead end just when
the hero hits the bottle with enhanced vengeance? Audiences loved the story of a
girl who is willing to give up her fame for
love. This film turned Aditya Roy Kapur and
Shraddha Kapoor into saleable stars.
Race 2: Well-toned girls and guys dancing, drinking, gambling and conning one
another is all I remember of this year's
first blockbuster. Deepika Padukone and
John Abraham competed to show us who
could wear their pants more distant from
the navel, while Saif Ali Khan scowled as though the last shot of the
bourbon turned
out to be not so neat. But would someone
please explain the plot?
Raanjhanaa: By far the most deserving success of 2013 so far. Aanand Rai's
Varanasi-based love story gave us an
unlikely couple in Sonam Kapoor and
Dhanush, besides a love story which made
obsessive passion more a crime of the
heart than a libelous offence. The film's exuberant celebration of
love took filmy
romance away from the metropolis into
the heartland. One USP: A.R. Rahman's best
music in Bollywood since Dil Se and Taal.
Jolly LLB: Subhash Kapoor's astonishingly well-written film on the
loopholes of the
legal system was a delight. There were no
stars in the film. There were Arshad Warsi
and Boman Irani, who are far more gifted
than some of our A-listers who do the
same thing over and over again. A true triumph of a relatively small, socially
relevant film worthy of a standing ovation.
Special 26: Here was superstar Akshay Kumar doing what he seldom does -
playing a real-life conman, and that too in
an ensemble cast where at least 15 to 18
other characters got equal prominence.
Director Neeraj Pandey broke all the rules
of mainstream cinema with this heist story, which was unadorned by half-naked
girls swimming in a sea of champagne. He
still got audiences hooked.
Other successes: ABCD: AnyBody Can Dance, Kai Po Che!, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
Returns, Chashme Buddoor, Shootout At
Wadala, Fukrey and Go Goa Gone.
The Flops:-
David: Bejoy Nambiar's brilliantly-crafted tale of three unpredictable
men who share
the same name, Tamil star Vikram, Neil
Nitin Mukesh and newcomer Vinay
Virmani were brilliant in each of the
three-layered stories. Finally though, the
failure of David proved that episodic films just don't work in any
part of the world.
Himmatwala: Film historians are still trying to figure out why Sajid
Khan decided to
remake an awful 1983 film which even
Sridevi, who starred in the original, would
like to forget.
Rangrezz: This one definitely deserved better. Far far better. A
rugged expertly-
executed film about love and elopement in
a small dusty town, where guns speak
louder than words, Rangrezz was Priyadarshan's finest film in years. Just
why it didn't work remains a mystery. It
couldn't be due to Jackky Bhagnani's
minimal star-power. Aditya Roy Kapur was
no star when Aashiqui 2 was released!
Bombay Talkies: A divine flawless journey into the heart of love, alas
felled by its
episodic format. Bombay Talkies told four different stories by four
filmmakers of
diverse filmmaking styles. Karan Johar,
Dibakar Bannerjee, Zoya Akhtar and
Anurag Kashyap took Hindi cinema to
another level. This one deserved a lot more
footfalls.
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola: We were warned by the eccentric title to expect
something entirely unconventional. Vishal
Bhardwaj took us into a la-la-land where
Pankaj Kapur turned into two different
personalities before and after drinking.
Moral of the story: not every film with a tipsy hero is capable of
becoming an Aashiqui 2 or a Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.
Aurangzeb: A superbly crafted variation on Yash Chopra's Trishul,
about cut-throat competitiveness in corporate sectors,
fuelled and surcharged by the brilliant
performances of Rishi Kapoor, Amrita
Singh and Jackie Shroff, Aurangzeb suffered a setback at the boxoffice
because director Atul Sabharwal took up a
massy subject and executed it in Shyam
Benegal's style.
Other notable thuds of the year so far: The Attacks Of 26/11, Nautanki
Saala, Ek Thi
Daayan, Ishkq In Paris, Yamla Pagla
Deewana 2 and Ghanchakkar.
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