6 Great Filmmakers Who’ve Sadly Forgotten How To Make Good Movies!
Updated : October 21, 2017 11:51 PM IST
Iqbal, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Page 3, Company, Vaastav, Lagaan! Every film mentioned is a prized creation of filmmakers we haven’t mind bestowing the title of legends. What’s also to be noted that each of these movies has come out post 2000 barring Vaastav (1999) and it really feels like it has been long. While we associate the craftsmen behind creating these movies as active flag bearers of Hindi cinema, I’m afraid we are being mistaken. The cinema has changed, some filmmakers have evolved with the times but some of the greatest we really admire have perhaps conceded defeat.
Here are 6 great filmmakers who we fear we have have seen the last of (well at least their best)
The name behind some of the most riveting work of social dramas (Ghayal, Damini) in the 90’s, Raj Santoshi had last directed the rather forgetful Phata Poster Nikla Hero starring Shahid Kapoor in 2013. The last of his work that truly did justice to his class is Ajay Devgn’s The Legend of Bhagat Singh that released way back in 2002. Going by the times we are living in, waiting for him to get back in the same form doesn't look like happening.
The filmmaker who gave India one of the first urban school tales in the looks of Rockford has somehow just vanished. He kept announcing his strong hold on the nerves of viewers as he made movies like Dor and Iqbal but soon faded away leaving his audience expecting some more of his absorbing dramas. While he may have involved himself in some of the other creative stuff, we just hope we haven’t seen the best of his work yet.
It’s astonishing to realize how Bhandarkar got carried away so easily by the success of his works like Page 3, Satta or Fashion. Despite being hailed as someone who would dwell deep into a world of his own to give us something exciting, Bhandarkar failed us bigtime post Fashion. With movies like Heroine and Calendar Girls, his repetitive execution of similar plots went far too many. Would he make a comeback? A hard call!
The delightful fella having made something like Vaastav and Astitva post that lost his grip over evolving Hindi audience pretty soon. While he chooses to stick to the realm of his Marathi cinema, Mahesh Manjrekar was someone who we deserved to see more of. Having been closely involved with two industries and all big names in the business, Mahesh deserved to helm at least a few more dramas than what he did.
While many gave up on his cinema a long time ago, he kept surprising viewers by resurfacing again and again by delivering films like Bhoot, Company and Sarkar. However, RGV made the gravest mistake of taking his audiences for granted on more occasions than one. As a result of what we see of him today, we don’t really see an accomplished director who once used to make movies to convey story, we see a failed director who keeps throwing stuff at us expecting to get lucky at least once.
The most difficult name to have been put on the list is this one. The explanation to Gowariker’s repeated failure is changing sensibilities of viewers. He has a natural artistic sense to his filmmaking and the moment he attempted to fusion with modern sensibilities, he failed. I just think we should let Gowariker be on his own and give him the license to make movies in his own style even if they are four hour long for we know he’s not just an ordinary director. But seeing him make cinematic creations like What’s Your Raashee, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se and Mohenjo Daro, you can’t help but feel a but sad for him.
As much as we’ve loved these remarkable filmmakers for treating us with some of the most unforgettable movie watching experiences, there’s no infamy in accepting their time is perhaps over.
On a concluding note: we really really hope this view of ours comes back to make us bite our own words. Let’s just hope these figures prove us wrong for we know they are no ordinary gentlemen! We’d love to be proven wrong!