There were movies in 2014 that left us with enduring images, characters and moments, to be savoured over and over again. Then there were the semi-cooked and the undigestibles. Here's our potted list.
Recipes for disaster
Salman Khan as Salman Khan in Jai Ho. Salman Khan as Salman Khan in Kick. Salman Khan as Salman Khan in _____ (add random film title).
Sajid Khan’s Humshakals, spilling over with “mental people” jokes, references to golden showers, and three Saif Ali Khans, three Ram Kapoors, and three Riteish Deshmukhs. Kapoor even attempted to seduce his lookalike in drag, giving new meaning to the practice of autoeroticism.
With a double role in Happy Ending after his triple role in Humshakals, that was five Saif Ali Khans too many for a single year.
Only-in-Bollywood rope tricks, such as setting a movie in Manipur and casting non-Manipuris in key parts (Mary Kom). The social concern movie that was an excuse to offer vigilante solutions for tangled social problems. Case studies: Jai Ho (everything that is wrong about India), Mardaani (trafficking of girls), Ungli (corruption). Also, the fine art of borrowing darkness and light from Korean cinema and passing them off as home-grown genius (Ek Villain.)
“Mother, chod” jokes, “pussy cat” lyrics and their ilk, coming from a deeply repressed and eternally nine-year-old space occupied by far too many dialogue writers and directors.
Ali Zafar, the Man from Mumble. Perhaps we will know what he is all about when we finally understand what he is trying to say.
The sequelitis disease, calculated to destroy the good sense lobe of the brain. Did we need Shaadi Ke Side Effects? Ragini MMS 2? Will Bhootnath’s ghost be interred for good?
Also from the same medical group, the remake virus, manifested as The Shaukeens this year and poised to return next year with reboots of fondly loved films such as Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Katha and forgettable ones such as Ram Lakhan.
To even out the good work by some heroines, Sonam Kapoor’s clotheshorse-trying-to-be human in Bewakoofiyan and Khoobsurat. Shraddha Kapoor’s continuing efforts to perfect the degree to which her eyes glaze over whether in sadness or mirth, romance or death. Flying female vigilantes in colour co-ordinated clothing in Gulaab Gang, sailing through the air and giving feminists new campaign ideas.
People with disposable income and kids of powerful producers, faded stars and pushy parents foisting their acting ambitions on us through such money-guzzlers as Youngistaan, Dishkiyaoon, Heartless, The Xpose, Purani Jeans, Heropanti, Lekar Hum Deewana Dil and Tamanchey. No thanks.
Let it simmer longer
Into the undercooked pot goes Vishal Bhardwaj’s third adaptation of a William Shakespeare play in an Indian context. Haider, partly Macbeth and partly Curfewed Night, Basharat Peer’s lovely memoir of growing up in Srinagar in the nineties in the thick of militancy, is a case of “could be but wasn’t to be.” It’s honest in its attempt to expose the role of the state and the army in the disappearances of Kashmiris and unstinting in its production values, but it’s also a mishmash of too many ideas and characters and guilty of a preposterous climax.
Abhishek Verman’s 2 States could have been a smart adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name, rather than the cliché-ridden clash of cultures drama it was. That said, the movie’s humdrum depiction of the tensions between the families of a Punjabi man and his Tamilian girlfriend made many, many crores, so what we do know anyway?
Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny hit many sweet spots – its eccentric casting, its cock-eyed humour, the locations in Goa – but it needed more work. The yarn of an old codger who sets out to find his one true love stretched on till it ripped. But it succeeded in making a case for more Indian films to be made in English.
Rajkumar Hirani’s sincere but simplistic PK wagged its finger at the ills of organised religion from over the shoulder of an unblinking alien speaking in a Bhojpuri accent. It doesn’t get more high concept. Charlatan godmen are up to far worse in real life, and only God will forgive the abuse heaped on Anushka Sharma’s upper lip.
All it needs is a bit of salt
The year’s better films were by no means perfect. Some of them sagged by the end (the third act continues to defeat many filmmakers). Some of them were having so much fun just being that they forgot the thousands of eyes patiently glued to the big screen. And some of them were too cocksure for comfort.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Shashank Khaitan’s entertaining homage to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, was blessed with whippersnapper dialogue, incredible chemistry between the leads, and smart updates on the original. The third act came undone and the climax seemed miles away, but this was one the more watchable films of 2014, full of fun and youthful romance.
Vinil Mathew’s Hasee Toh Phasee sauntered down the beaten track of mismatched lovers who finally get together. Mathew’s confidence in his confection was certainly infectious. He captured the wistfulness and ambivalence of young love and handled his cast admirably, especially lead actor Sidharth Malhotra.
Vikas Bahl’s Queen needed trimming, especially after its lead character Rani lands up in Amsterdam for the honeymoon she gifts herself despite being ditched by her groom-to-be. The movie played it too safe and had about three endings. We picked up our bags when Rani tells her fiancé that she thinks it’s over, and then laced our shoes when she heads off alone for a music concert, finally comfortable in her own skin. But no, there was more.
Abhishek Chaubey’s Dedh Ishqiya, his follow-up to Ishqiya and featuring the new romantic and criminal adventures of the lovable scamps played by Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, provided a superb spin on Urdu poetry. The sly comedy was set in a familiar universe of pleasure-loving Muslim noblemen, beautifully appointed women, Urdu, kathak, and the love of a good verse and a convivial gathering. On closer scrutiny, this universe, and the genre it represents, revealed frayed robes, crumbling homes, nobles on the skids, and raunchiness and profanity rather than gentility. The main cast – apart from Warsia and Shah, Madhuri Dixit, Huma Qureshi and Vijay Raaz – sparkled and the lines popped, so it was a shame about the Mexican stand-off, of which Chaubey can never seem to get enough, and the overly busy plot contrivances.
Imtiaz Ali’s Highway goes down a road less frequently travelled by the poet of adolescent romance. Ali’s latest rendition of the road movie brings together a sexually abused young woman and a kidnapper brutalised by life itself. The ambiguous relationship between the two characters – sexual, filial, need-based – resulted in many striking scenes between actors Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda.
The ripe and the overripe
Fawad Khan, Pakistani television star and recently minted heart-throb of Indian women, appeared several kilos slimmer and in full Christian Grey-mode in Shashanka Ghosh’s Khoobsurat. What Khan does will determine whether he matches his estimable acting work on the small screen. For now, female viewers are simply content to look. Hence the immortal line from Khoobsurat, which could be straight out of Fifty Shades of Grey. It translates as, “I am having many dirty thoughts at the sight of you.”
Abhay Deol fans watched in dismay and sadness as the talented actor flubbed his return to the movies in One By Two. Rekha admirers tried to pretend that Super Naani never happened. Nagesh Kukunoor’s backers weren’t encouraged by Lakshmi. Subhash Ghai’s constituents didn’t have much to say about Kaanchi, not surprisingly.
Madhuri Dixit Nene landed with better grace, wielding her limited acting skills and her still magnetic presence well in Gulaab Gang and Dedh Ishqiya. Nobody could match the panache of Govinda, who reminded viewers of his impeccable comic timing in Kill Dill and Happy Ending. The capricious comic genius seems to be having the time of his life, knowing that he can walk into a movie for a few minutes and become its main talking point.
Off the menu
Every year presents its fair share of unsung actors, and 2014 was no exception. Bit-part actors who stand around the glittering beauties in focus have to work doubly hard to get noticed. Some of them made it seem very easy. Rajkummar Rao shone as the ungallant fiancé who ditches his bride-to-be in Queen. Zakir Hussain and Piyush Mishra more than justified their pay cheques in Revolver Rani. Vir Das was actually convincing in the thankless part of “Etawah’s Aamir Khan” in Revolver Rani.
Manoj Joshi set aside his tendency to ham and gave a lovely performance as a harassed father in Hasee Toh Phasee. Nawazuddin Siddiqui had a blast clicking his tongue in Kick. Irrfan Khan, as a cop in Gunday, and Manav Kaul, as a calculating security guard in Citylights, were far more impressive than anything else in these movies.
Every year now seems incomplete without Brijenda Kala, the fabulous cameo artist whose appearance in PK endured in the memory over much else.
Whatever else the movies might get wrong, they don’t stint on their packaging and production values like they used to. A shout-out for the fine work by cinematographers KU Mohanan in Miss Lovely, Pankaj Kumar in Haider, Setu in Dedh Ishqiya and Sanu John Varughese in Hasee Toh Phasee.
Recipes for disaster
Salman Khan as Salman Khan in Jai Ho. Salman Khan as Salman Khan in Kick. Salman Khan as Salman Khan in _____ (add random film title).
Sajid Khan’s Humshakals, spilling over with “mental people” jokes, references to golden showers, and three Saif Ali Khans, three Ram Kapoors, and three Riteish Deshmukhs. Kapoor even attempted to seduce his lookalike in drag, giving new meaning to the practice of autoeroticism.
With a double role in Happy Ending after his triple role in Humshakals, that was five Saif Ali Khans too many for a single year.
Only-in-Bollywood rope tricks, such as setting a movie in Manipur and casting non-Manipuris in key parts (Mary Kom). The social concern movie that was an excuse to offer vigilante solutions for tangled social problems. Case studies: Jai Ho (everything that is wrong about India), Mardaani (trafficking of girls), Ungli (corruption). Also, the fine art of borrowing darkness and light from Korean cinema and passing them off as home-grown genius (Ek Villain.)
“Mother, chod” jokes, “pussy cat” lyrics and their ilk, coming from a deeply repressed and eternally nine-year-old space occupied by far too many dialogue writers and directors.
Ali Zafar, the Man from Mumble. Perhaps we will know what he is all about when we finally understand what he is trying to say.
The sequelitis disease, calculated to destroy the good sense lobe of the brain. Did we need Shaadi Ke Side Effects? Ragini MMS 2? Will Bhootnath’s ghost be interred for good?
Also from the same medical group, the remake virus, manifested as The Shaukeens this year and poised to return next year with reboots of fondly loved films such as Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Katha and forgettable ones such as Ram Lakhan.
To even out the good work by some heroines, Sonam Kapoor’s clotheshorse-trying-to-be human in Bewakoofiyan and Khoobsurat. Shraddha Kapoor’s continuing efforts to perfect the degree to which her eyes glaze over whether in sadness or mirth, romance or death. Flying female vigilantes in colour co-ordinated clothing in Gulaab Gang, sailing through the air and giving feminists new campaign ideas.
People with disposable income and kids of powerful producers, faded stars and pushy parents foisting their acting ambitions on us through such money-guzzlers as Youngistaan, Dishkiyaoon, Heartless, The Xpose, Purani Jeans, Heropanti, Lekar Hum Deewana Dil and Tamanchey. No thanks.
Let it simmer longer
Into the undercooked pot goes Vishal Bhardwaj’s third adaptation of a William Shakespeare play in an Indian context. Haider, partly Macbeth and partly Curfewed Night, Basharat Peer’s lovely memoir of growing up in Srinagar in the nineties in the thick of militancy, is a case of “could be but wasn’t to be.” It’s honest in its attempt to expose the role of the state and the army in the disappearances of Kashmiris and unstinting in its production values, but it’s also a mishmash of too many ideas and characters and guilty of a preposterous climax.
Abhishek Verman’s 2 States could have been a smart adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s novel of the same name, rather than the cliché-ridden clash of cultures drama it was. That said, the movie’s humdrum depiction of the tensions between the families of a Punjabi man and his Tamilian girlfriend made many, many crores, so what we do know anyway?
Homi Adajania’s Finding Fanny hit many sweet spots – its eccentric casting, its cock-eyed humour, the locations in Goa – but it needed more work. The yarn of an old codger who sets out to find his one true love stretched on till it ripped. But it succeeded in making a case for more Indian films to be made in English.
Rajkumar Hirani’s sincere but simplistic PK wagged its finger at the ills of organised religion from over the shoulder of an unblinking alien speaking in a Bhojpuri accent. It doesn’t get more high concept. Charlatan godmen are up to far worse in real life, and only God will forgive the abuse heaped on Anushka Sharma’s upper lip.
All it needs is a bit of salt
The year’s better films were by no means perfect. Some of them sagged by the end (the third act continues to defeat many filmmakers). Some of them were having so much fun just being that they forgot the thousands of eyes patiently glued to the big screen. And some of them were too cocksure for comfort.
Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Shashank Khaitan’s entertaining homage to Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, was blessed with whippersnapper dialogue, incredible chemistry between the leads, and smart updates on the original. The third act came undone and the climax seemed miles away, but this was one the more watchable films of 2014, full of fun and youthful romance.
Vinil Mathew’s Hasee Toh Phasee sauntered down the beaten track of mismatched lovers who finally get together. Mathew’s confidence in his confection was certainly infectious. He captured the wistfulness and ambivalence of young love and handled his cast admirably, especially lead actor Sidharth Malhotra.
Vikas Bahl’s Queen needed trimming, especially after its lead character Rani lands up in Amsterdam for the honeymoon she gifts herself despite being ditched by her groom-to-be. The movie played it too safe and had about three endings. We picked up our bags when Rani tells her fiancé that she thinks it’s over, and then laced our shoes when she heads off alone for a music concert, finally comfortable in her own skin. But no, there was more.
Abhishek Chaubey’s Dedh Ishqiya, his follow-up to Ishqiya and featuring the new romantic and criminal adventures of the lovable scamps played by Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, provided a superb spin on Urdu poetry. The sly comedy was set in a familiar universe of pleasure-loving Muslim noblemen, beautifully appointed women, Urdu, kathak, and the love of a good verse and a convivial gathering. On closer scrutiny, this universe, and the genre it represents, revealed frayed robes, crumbling homes, nobles on the skids, and raunchiness and profanity rather than gentility. The main cast – apart from Warsia and Shah, Madhuri Dixit, Huma Qureshi and Vijay Raaz – sparkled and the lines popped, so it was a shame about the Mexican stand-off, of which Chaubey can never seem to get enough, and the overly busy plot contrivances.
Imtiaz Ali’s Highway goes down a road less frequently travelled by the poet of adolescent romance. Ali’s latest rendition of the road movie brings together a sexually abused young woman and a kidnapper brutalised by life itself. The ambiguous relationship between the two characters – sexual, filial, need-based – resulted in many striking scenes between actors Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda.
The ripe and the overripe
Fawad Khan, Pakistani television star and recently minted heart-throb of Indian women, appeared several kilos slimmer and in full Christian Grey-mode in Shashanka Ghosh’s Khoobsurat. What Khan does will determine whether he matches his estimable acting work on the small screen. For now, female viewers are simply content to look. Hence the immortal line from Khoobsurat, which could be straight out of Fifty Shades of Grey. It translates as, “I am having many dirty thoughts at the sight of you.”
Abhay Deol fans watched in dismay and sadness as the talented actor flubbed his return to the movies in One By Two. Rekha admirers tried to pretend that Super Naani never happened. Nagesh Kukunoor’s backers weren’t encouraged by Lakshmi. Subhash Ghai’s constituents didn’t have much to say about Kaanchi, not surprisingly.
Madhuri Dixit Nene landed with better grace, wielding her limited acting skills and her still magnetic presence well in Gulaab Gang and Dedh Ishqiya. Nobody could match the panache of Govinda, who reminded viewers of his impeccable comic timing in Kill Dill and Happy Ending. The capricious comic genius seems to be having the time of his life, knowing that he can walk into a movie for a few minutes and become its main talking point.
Off the menu
Every year presents its fair share of unsung actors, and 2014 was no exception. Bit-part actors who stand around the glittering beauties in focus have to work doubly hard to get noticed. Some of them made it seem very easy. Rajkummar Rao shone as the ungallant fiancé who ditches his bride-to-be in Queen. Zakir Hussain and Piyush Mishra more than justified their pay cheques in Revolver Rani. Vir Das was actually convincing in the thankless part of “Etawah’s Aamir Khan” in Revolver Rani.
Manoj Joshi set aside his tendency to ham and gave a lovely performance as a harassed father in Hasee Toh Phasee. Nawazuddin Siddiqui had a blast clicking his tongue in Kick. Irrfan Khan, as a cop in Gunday, and Manav Kaul, as a calculating security guard in Citylights, were far more impressive than anything else in these movies.
Every year now seems incomplete without Brijenda Kala, the fabulous cameo artist whose appearance in PK endured in the memory over much else.
Whatever else the movies might get wrong, they don’t stint on their packaging and production values like they used to. A shout-out for the fine work by cinematographers KU Mohanan in Miss Lovely, Pankaj Kumar in Haider, Setu in Dedh Ishqiya and Sanu John Varughese in Hasee Toh Phasee.
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