Party spoilers of 2018

2018 has been a heartwarming year for the content lovers. Movies like ‘Badhaai Ho’, ‘Andhadhun’, ‘Tumbbad’ and ‘Padman’ to name a few had a different content to show. These were stories written and executed with great creative intent. After the largely dull 2017 it was like Bollywood was delivering a great form of apology to us audiences and for such movies going to theaters in 2018 was a heartwarming and exciting exercise. For a lot of us ardent movie lovers it was like 2018 might become a kind of benchmark year for makers when different content like ‘Parmanu’ and ‘Padman’ worked at the box office.

Then came the A-listers with their hyped over budget good for nothing cinema and literally crashed the party, like a mannerless chief guest landing on the party cake. This has been the sad part for those who once literally held Bollywood together and could be trusted for entertaining content in their own defined genres were the biggest villains of drag and failed cinema of 2018.

The first one was Salman Khan himself, the man who has been running on fire at the gold office for so many years now. A golden run, which started with ‘Dabangg’ almost ten years ago seems to be ending in an ironic manner. ‘Race 3’ is the benchmark of duds this year and probably for some years to come. Salman’s cinema never really runs on logic but this one had things gone bit too far. Over priced tickets, large screen count and a 3D format could not save it because audiences wanted content. Salman led the charge of garbage in that sense from A listers this year.

Then came Yashraj Films with ‘Thugs Of Hindostan’. As a Bollywood follower the failure of this gigantic directionless ship of a movie would not have hurt you so much had it not been such a historically significant movie. This was the coming together of two of our greatest content superstars. Amitabh and Aamir. We expected a lot and the first mistake was to trust an average director like Vijay Krishna Acharya with a good watchable movie forget a classic. 

The hype about the making did not really show on the screen, in fact this one had careless execution and rank arrogance written all over it.‘Two Point Zero’ came and as of now the good news about it is that at least it will make money at the box office. Made at a gigantic budget of 550 crores its box office numbers as of now, however celebrated they are with certain section of the media – are no great shakes. 

Having said that at least the makers of this movie cannot be labeled as flop. Still, when you look at it with the perspective of hype, the fact that this one was helmed by director Shankar it is another very average screenplay riding on luck and a gigantic worldwide screen count of 10500 plus screens. Having said that this one too was a disappointment from an A lister team. The arrogance comes from the fact that its makers still compare it with ‘Baahubali’ and it is nowhere near ‘Baahubali’ on pure content value.

The problem of our better-known makers can be traced to Manmohan Desai, once a ruler of box office he did not realize that audiences were slowly getting bored of his lost and found themes. His drama content was getting repetitive and dragged. The first warning signal came when ‘Ganga Jamuna Saraswati’ bombed at the box office. Legend has it that when ‘Toofan’ was being released Amitabh pointed out to Manmohan Desai that final product was not looking good. To which Desai replied audiences will watch what I will show them. ‘Toofan’ was a tragedy at box office.

Our current A listers are not really learning the lessons. Look at the trailer of ‘Simmba’, it is rape and revenge. A theme that I guess properly worked at the box office last time in ‘Aakhiri Raasta’?  Sure, ‘Simmba’ could work at the box office because the makers will ensure we don’t get to see anything else during the new year weekend.  Is this what they are all about? The party spoilers of 2018 Bollywood?

- cinemawaalebaba. blogspot.com