Movies Of 2018 So Far Which Took Risks That Did Not Pay Off
Updated : July 30, 2018 06:38 PM ISTAs a Bollywood fan, one of the most common complaints we have with Bollywood is its inclination towards playing safe and going with tried and tested formula. Time and again history of Bollywood have been re-written because some director or actor took a risk and it did pay off. Given cinema is a creative process, it is only understandable that taking risk and crossing boundaries will only enrich the landscape of Bollywood and bring innovation in films. However, there are also many instances in Bollywood where taking risks has not yielded dividends in terms of box-office and sometimes even critical acclaim.
Here are a few releases of 2018 that took risks that totally failed to pay off either at the box-office and/or critical acclaim. Here are the ones we are talking about.
Directed by Akshat Verma, starring Saif Ali Khan, this film tried to explore the genre of comedy in a quirky way. It was a story of a man who has lived his life with restriction and discipline learns that he has a fatal disease and he does not have too much time to live and decides to have a wild night. In a haze of psychotropic substances he encounters many quirky characters and spends one heck of a wild night. Although the film had its quirk and idiosyncracies spot on, but it gave them a film a very niche appeal and the risk that nicely executed even, failed to yield dividends at the box-office.
This was the first time Anurag Kashyap who can always be trusted for taking risks that no one else would, took yet another risk by going mainstream this time. Although Mukkabaaz was not the exactly what we call mainstream, but my Anurag Kashyap’s standards it was. For the first time he took a major risk by trying to fuse a sports drama with a love story, but unfortunately, the gamble did not pay off and despite being a splendid watch Mukkabaaz failed at the box-office.
Neeraj Pandey has become synonymous to fast paced thrillers with masterpieces like A Wednesday and Baby. He also usually likes to work with the actors he has worked with before and choses from a particular genre of actor. He took a major risk by casting Siddharth Malhotra in his espionage thriller Aiyaary, who has mostly worked in rom-coms. It was a risk that bombed at the box-office and we hope this is one combination that we never have to endure again.
Horror is one genre that Bollywood still grapples with and it is rare for any horror movie to be a clean hit at the box-office. Thus when Anushka Sharma decided to produce Pari and act in it, she was surely in for a major gamble. Despite a valiant effort by debutante director Prasit Roy and a good performance by the cast and a solid script, Pari somehow felt flat in its overall impact. It is surely one of the best attempts of Bollywood at horror, but even then it was not simply good enough.
This film was on the thin ice on many levels. Director Chakri Toleti ran the risk of having an unusual pairing by casting Sonakshi Sinha and Diljit Dosanjh in the lead but also tried to almost attempt a shoddily written spoof of the popular Bollywood award show IIFA Awards. On paper what must have looked like a quirky idea, fell face flat in execution and became one of the worst films of the year so far. Even the cameos by a plethora of Bollywood stars could not save the film from sinking at the box-office without a trace.
If the history of Bollywood releases in 2018 would be written someday, this film would surely find a place in that. One of the worst torture of the year, this film was a total catastrophe. Firstly director Faraz Haider attempted one of the most dicey genres in film, horror-comedy and tried to execute it with an unlikely pair of Abhay Deol and Patralekhaa.The result was a two-hour long torture that scarred us in other ways but failed to evoke either horror or comedy, of the right type of course.
Director Rahul Dholakia has never been the one to make movies for the box-office success. His other films like Shahid and Aligarh, although not a box-office success created a lasting impression on the audience who like films with social relevance and raw appeal. However, with Omerta the director tried to tell the story of terrorism from the perspective of a world re-knowned terrorist which was surely not an easy job to do. Plus the research that must have gone into the film could not have been easy either, but even all that hard work, thought and research along with Rajkummar Rao’s usual pitch perfect performance the film not only failed at the box-office but did not even garner much critical acclaim.
Superheroes as a concept is fairly dicey in Bollywood, couple that with social drama and you have a cocktail that can either give you a pleasant relaxing high or upset your system. Unfortunately, the latter happened with Bhavesh Joshi. A super cool idea on paper, director Vikramaditya Motwane who has given us gems like Lootera or Udaan, went totaaly astray with this one. Plus it ran the huge risk of clashing with Veere Di wedding which had stars like Kareena Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. As a conclusion, the film did terribly at the box-office.
Directed by the supremely talented Harsh Chhaya, the films had a splendid star cast with actors like Vinay Pathak, Manoj Pahwa, Seema Pahwa and the national award winning Dolly Ahluwalia. It was film that reflected the idiosyncrasies of middle-class Indian family with a fresh perspective. However, the film lacked majorly in its star appeal and the content was also perhaps a little too niche to make an impact on the box-office. Thus, despite being a thoroughly entertaining film, it failed to work at the box-office.
The classic tale of the flag bearer of tragic heroes, Devdas has been adopted into movies by various director over the year and although people like Anurag Kashyap put an entirely new spin on it, Sudhir Mishra’s Daas Dev went a notch further and tried to re-create the tragic tale of Devdas with Indian politics as its backdrop. Even though the idea was fresh and new, it ran a major risk as classic are best left untampered. His brave attempt and a decent performance by the star cast that included Rahul Bhatt, Richa Chadha and Aditi Rao Hyadri totally tanked at the box-office.
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