While we often accuse Bollywood of feeding us with formulaic potboilers, we still often fail to acknowledge good cinema – that comes forth every now and then and challenges that formula.
On one hand viewers express their disappointment over the same-old, same -old – but on the other, small-budget experimental films, with their focus being cinematic art, often face neglect at the box office.
While there certainly has been a shift in the movie-viewing pattern of Indian audiences in the last 10-15 years, wherein we’ve seen talents like – Nawwazuddin Siddiqui, Manoj Bajpayee, Pankaj Tripathi, Sanjay Mishra, etc thrive and get numerous opportunities to showcase their talents, there are still some films that have largely been ignored, despite being absolute masterpieces.
Today, we’ll concentrate on those movies.
The lesser-known gems, that flopped at the box office and were viewed by a very small number of people, but were supremely rich in cinematic quality and content.
Here are the 10 best films from Hindi cinema, that flopped at the box office:
Ankhon Dekhi
This was director and actor Rajat Bedi’s masterpiece, but it failed to do anything at the box office. But with it’s glowing reviews and word of mouth, the film has gained popularity among those who crave for quality cinema. It is without doubt one of the best films to have released in the last decade.
Tumbbad
It is astonishing to think that a tightly scripted, thriller cum fantasy cum horror film, like this – that reeked of immense originality and was overflowing with creative genius, did not turn out to be a box-office juggernaut, as it should have. For if, it was a Hollywood production, with everything else being the same – this would have been a game changer. But it still was, in more ways than one. That’s how much groundbreaking Tumbbad was.
Swades
For someone who’s long been considered the King of Indian Box-Office, it is pretty ironic that his most brilliant film is the one that wasn’t a success at the box office. Oscar nominated filmmaker Ashutosh Gowarikar’s second directorial venture, Swades is one of the best films ever made in Indian cinema. With it’s background score, it’s heart-touching story, it’s vivid characters and it’s heart and soul at the center of it all – this is SRK’s career-best movie, no doubt.
Aligarh
This was director Hansal Mehta’s cinematic achievement – for how brilliantly he put together the pieces of a real-life based story, and curated an opus that’s going to break your heart eventually. The sublimely filmed and brilliantly acted, Aligarh – is one of the most important films of Indian cinema in recent times, notwithstanding it’s poor box office performance.
Haraamkhor
With it’s peanut-size budget, Haraamkhor wasn’t exactly going to be record-breaker at the box office. But it would have been great to have seen some footfalls going into the theaters, to witness this artistic film on the big screen. Simply because the greatest achievement for any piece of artistic work, is that it is seen, heard and bought, and eventually appreciated. Haraamkhor still ranks as a beautifully put together cinematic experience, and a great example of the brilliant, genius minds of new-age filmmakers of our country.
Margarita With A Straw
One of the most powerful female performances of the past many years, in a heart-warming tale about searching for love and exploring your true identity. Kalki Koechlin won a National Award in a special jury category for this film, and when you watch this amazing little film, with all it’s heart unabashedly on display, you will understand why.
Mukti Bhawan
A little known gem, that went on to garner acclaim from audiences after viral online reviews. It was too late for it to have made any impact, financially, but Mukti Bhawan is yet again the kind of movie that is going to be watched time and again, by cinema enthusiasts as they try and understand the best that these vivid times in our films had to offer.
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Despite being such a fun-filled ride of heists and police-chases, this Debakar Banerjee directorial failed to recover it’s budget at the box office. But not only does it feature some fantastic performances, particularly that of the seasoned – Paresh Rawal, it ranks among some of the best films made in the genre.
Simran
Despite such an unusual story and protagonist, acclaimed filmmaker Hansal Mehta’s ‘Simran’ did not do any wonders at the box office, like it should have. The film was marred by negative campaigns by certain fan groups, after it’s lead actress – Kangana Ranaut gave a controversial interview against some Bollywood biggies. But putting aside all those controversies, Simran is a thorough entertainer, and a bold, brilliant film with a light-hearted humour to it. It also features one of Kangana Ranaut’s best performances yet.
Mukkabaaz
Although Mukkabaaz was made on a very small budget, it still failed to cover it’s cost – due to it’s poor performance at the box office. The Anurag Kashyap directed venture was a tightly scripted story of a local boxer, who was being pushed to the world of crime. The movie did not boast of major stars, which perhaps contributed to it’s failure at the box office – as Indian audiences still chase big-names on the big-screen, to some extent. But it features two amazing performances from Vineet Kumar Singh and Jimmy Shergil and that makes the whole films a – standout.
These are some of the films that did not make any significant impact commercially, and were mostly commercial flops – but were great, outstanding films – nevertheless.
As the audiences continues to be more accepting of arthouse films, let us hope cinematic pieces like these won’t be catering to just niche audiences soon in the future.