How did 2004 treat Bollywood?

Article Updated 06 January, 2005 09:40:42 AM IST

How did 2004 treat Bollywood?

The end of every year set the critics analyzing which Bollywood flick worked and which didn't! Rather than treading the conventional route of the Top 10 (which is also quite predictable and by now common), we will mainly highlight the way 2004 treated Bollywood altogether.

Movies that worked
When one looks back at the genre of movies that set the box office on fire, there is no fixed trend that one visualizes. If 'Murder' was the first all-India hit, primarily due to its no-holds-barred publicity as a skin flick, there was a 'Veer-Zaara', which ended the year as the film that went on to gross box office sales to the tune of 40 crores plus, just in India. While ‘Murder’ primarily titillated, ‘Veer Zaara’ was a true Chopra-SRK-Preity-Rani combo that was never meant to fail!

King Khan also had a runaway hit with 'Main Hoon Naa' that would win the trophy for the best 'masala' movie of 2004, with action/emotion/drama/ comedy and everything else that is required for a potential blockbuster.

On the other hand, there were comedies like 'Masti' and 'Mujhse Shaadi Karogi', which excited viewers from all age groups, primarily because their directors (Indra Kumar and David Dhawan) tweaked their style of direction and hence more than lived up to the audiences' expectations.

'Hum Tum' and 'Hulchul' had a fair mix of romance, comedy and emotions and these ingredients helped in making these small movies bring a wide grin on the faces of their producers and distributors. Another way these movies helped was by establishing both Saif Ali Khan and Akshaye Khanna as sole heroes. Abhishek Bachchan too got his first big hit with 'Dhoom' where he had to share the screen with John Abraham and Uday Chopra. A surprise hit of 2004, it was a cheerful season for Yashraj films with ‘Hum Tum’, ‘Dhoom’ and ‘Veer Zaara’ hitting the bull's eye!

'Garv - Pride and Honour' was the sole hardcore mass-oriented action flick to meet with a good response, mainly due to Salman Khan's pull at the box-office. To end the year on a positive note, Bollywood's version of 'Disclosure' - ‘Aitraaz’ went on to become a sleeper hit 7 weeks after its release, with a continued good run at several centers.

Sex and horror flicks
Apart from 'Murder', four other small skin flicks that brought in good money were ‘Julie’, ‘Tauba Tauba’, ‘Hawas’ and ‘Girlfriend’. Neha Dhupia, Payal Rohatgi, Meghna Naidu, Isha Kopikar and Amrita Arora gained the most out of these flicks. While Isha and Amrita have vowed to move on, the others are still sticking to the similar genres. But there were also setbacks for Mallika Sherawat and Diana Hayden when ‘Kis Kisi Kismat’ and ‘Ab Bas’ didn't even manage to have a 2-week run. Horror was definitely not the favor of the season with none of 'Rakht', 'Krishna Cottage', 'Hum Kaun Hai' and 'Vaastu Shastra' working with the audience.

Cop and patriotic flicks
With an excessive dose of cop films, it was very obvious that some would click while others would not. The result of this was that big-budget 'Khakee' somehow managed to stay afloat and cover its investment. The same held true for the small budget 'Ab Tak Chappan' that held up well in most of the territories. But that wasn't the case with 'Bardaasht', 'Charas', 'Aan', 'Dev', 'Asambhav', 'Jaago' or 'Satya Bol', most of which even struggled to recover their investments. Patriotic films didn't fare any better with 'Lakshya', 'Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo' and 'Swades' barely breaking even, while 'Deewar' ended up being a resounding flop.

Romance
The genre of romance, which normally has the highest ratio of success, suddenly found itself pushed up against the wall with successive failures of 'Paap', 'Kyun Ho Gaya Naa', 'Fida', 'Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jao', 'Shaadi Ka Laddu', Kaun Hai Jo Sapno Mein Aaya, Tumsa Nahi Dekha, 'Dil Ne Jise Apna Kaha', Dil Bechara Pyaar Ka Maara and 'Rok Sako To Rok Lo'. One can't really blame the audience, as the culprit was either the script or poor direction! To rub salt into the wound, in the middle of all this came the timeless classic 'Mughal-E-Azam', which did business very near to the

Critically acclaimed but mixed results
Quite a few movies impressed the critics but didn't necessarily get the same response from the 'aam junta'. Case in point being 'Phir Milenge' that would have the dubious distinction of the most acclaimed film of the year with minimum dividends in return commercially.

'Yuva' too got rave reviews in certain sections of the industry with similar trends in terms of results as well. 'Ek Haseena Thi' was a brave attempt at film making and in spite of all its strengths, it met with an average success. 'Morning Raga', 'Raincoat' and 'Khamosh Pani' were screened only at select multiplexes with only 'Raincoat' fetching some decent box office figures.

Crossover films
Now this is one genre that turned out to be the least exciting of 2004. While everyone pined their hope on 'Bride and Prejudice' to be THE ONE movie that would form a bridge between Bollywood and the rest of the world, it was disheartening to see the movie turned out to be a failure in India.

And then came the crashing of all hopes - at least for the near future! ‘Hyderabad Blues - II’ was a non-starter while 'Where Is the Party Yaar', 'Let's Enjoy' and 'Flavors' went completely unnoticed.

Small movies that were always non-starters
The lesser said the better about movies like ‘Smile Please’, ‘Bhola In Bollywood’, ‘Chot’, ‘Silence Please..The Dressing Room’, ‘Thoda Tum Badlo Thoda Hum’ and ‘Stop’. The verdict was crystal clear - there needed to be at least bare minimum hype created and in the case of all of these movies, it was just missing.

One just hopes and prays that 2005 starts off on a positive note with varied movies like ‘Vaada’ (musical drama), ‘Black’ (social), ‘Elaan’ (action) and ‘Kisna’ (period drama) hitting the screens. We will soon be talking about the movies to watch out for in the year 2005. Till then, happy viewing!!

Print this Article

http://www.bollyvista.com

http://www.bollyvista.com/article/a/34/3951