Oh boy! A good post for me to write while I am feeling like a bit of a Grumpy Gus. If I try really hard, I might be able to come up with 3 directors I truly dislike. Maybe even 4!
Shoot, I can’t think of a single director where I dislike everything they have made. I am too nice to write this post. I’m gonna have to settle for directors where I generally dislike their films and dread having to watch a new one.
Shankar
Blech, Shankar. Regressive views of female characters that largely revolve around shame-based virtue, incredibly superficial concept of relationships, black and white ethics with no space for the real world. And massive big budget sequences that only work half the time. Hate hate HATE Indian, kind of like Jeans and Boys, neutral on Robot/Enthiran, I is just so weird I can’t decide how I feel.
Bhansali
Bhansali, my nemesis! As I am trying to get the world to take Indian film seriously and look beyond the stereotypes, Bhansali is fighting just as hard to keep those stereotypes going and prevent any critical thought. A flood of rich visuals in support of fairy tales of tragic love, idealization of suicide, female characters that revolve around romantic love as their single virtue, motivation, everything. Hate hate HATE Devdas, Padmavat, Bajirao, kind of like Khamoshi and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, neutral to bored distaste for Ram-Leela and Saawariya.
R. Balki
Balki, the blowhard you put up with because you like his wife but wonder why she is still with him. Thinks he understands people but is really just repeating some basic concept of human nature someone else mentioned once, especially related to women. Interesting initial concepts that never move on to any higher level of character growth or complications, twee film style that quickly becomes bland without a strong cinematographer to support him, incapable of questioning or having an original thought about anything. Hate hate HATE Ki & Ka and Mission Mangal, kind of like Cheeni Kum, neutral on Paa.
Rajkumar Hirani
The guy with some good ideas who just got lazy. King of the simple moral, the easy lesson. High concept film idea, followed by over the top cartoonish performances, and a moral repeated again and again and AGAIN until it loses all meaning. Nothing to challenge the audience, nothing to make them work to understand, and nothing to challenge the filmmakers either. The easy answer, all dressed up and put on the plate before you. Hate hate HATE Sanju, kind of like Munna Bhai MBBS and 3 Idiots, neutral on Lago Raho Munna Bhai and PK.
Okay, that’s my deal. Who are your disliked directors, and what are your “hate hate HATE” movies?
dontcallitbollywood 
I still hate Bhansali with a burning passion. Not because he’s bad, but because he is just so overrated. However, the more I think about it, he’s done some good. He gave Madhuri and Rani more fans as he showed they can be serious actors. He technically gave us DeepVeer. He gave us Supriya Pathak in RamLeela and Priyanka Chopra in Bajirao Mastani (I respect the fact that you don’t like her but I love her. She made me enjoy a Bhansali film). Strangely, I think the most important thing he did was the towel dance in Sawaariya. It was like the first proper item boy song. Before item boys just had the boy wear an open shirt or take their shirts off. Here, Ranbir was just wearing a towel. Other item boy songs would still have girls in sexy clothing surrounding the item boy. Not this one.
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Well, Govinda wore a speedo with a modesty flap once and he did another one wet in his underwear but that didn’t start a trend, sadly.
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Also a towel but with underwear, sadly.
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I have never liked Govinda. Even with comedy it’s not enough to be an entertainer, you also have to be somewhat of an actor. That’s why I support Varun Dhawan despite the hate he gets, because he tries to be a proper actor.
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Well, if you don’t think he can act in his comedy roles, probably you won’t like his dramatic acting either, but one of the things critics and fans agree on with regard to him is that he is an excellent dramatic actor. I probably won’t change your mind and maybe you have seen these already, but some examples are Hatya, Swarg, and Maharadja or even his small parts in things like Salaam E Ishq, Raavan, and Kill Dil, as well as basically most of his early work (pre-Coolie No1). Actually, if you like Varun, I would absolutely recommend watching his stuff from the early 90s because then you can see how much of his image Varun is basing on him, which will provide you with a deeper understanding of that.
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Yaaaay! Join me in the Bhansali hate!
On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 1:17 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I only dislike most directors, because if something looks bad or I’ve seen something and hated it, I will never watch that director again if I can help it. So I have to enjoy some of their stuff or I won’t really know anything about them to hate them with. Even David Dhawan, who I only watch for Govinda, also made Swarg.
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Ready for my silly opinions?
I don’t like Farah Khan at all. During my first years with Bollywood I was watching and liked almost everything I found except Main Hoon Na. I still don’t understand why but I was very disappointed with the movie. And it was the time when I was watching and enjoying Aitraaz, Humko Tumse Pyar Hai, MPKDH and others. I don’t remember my reaction to OSO, but HNY was so bad I couldn’t finish it. We should never say never but I don’t think I will waste my time with Farah’s movies anymore. The same with Rohit Shetty. Man how I hate his style! And thinking his movies are blockbusters really irks my nerves.
From tamil industry I avoid Selvaraghavan.
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Rohit Shetty is a problem if you give him money. Keep him restrained with a small budget and he will do fine.
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That’s so weird! that immediate dislike for Farah, that is consistent with every movie.
On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 5:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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There are a lot of directors I dislike because of their style of films like Rohit Shetty, Mohit Suri, Vikram Bhatt, Sajid Khan, plus whoever directs those mindless John Abraham action movies, and those stupid multi-starrer comedies etc. etc. But these people are very clear with what they are making and who their audience is…they never claim to be anything more…
My hate hate HATE is reserved for
Raju Hirani (like munnabhai 2 but hated everything else, 3 idiots was especially insufferable)
Rakeysh Mehra (like Mirzya but hated everything else, especially Rang de Basanti)
These two people take themselves so seriously…think they are the next Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor rolled into one…but their movies are just trite platitudes served with melodrama…I don’t need lessons on patriotism/life/career from a 50 year pretending to be a college student…which Aamir and these two directors love to serve up…no thanks!
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Oh, thank you for the clarification! Yes, I feel the same way. I don’t super love the work of a lot of directors, but that doesn’t mean I hate it either. Sometimes it’s just not for me.
On Sat, Aug 1, 2020 at 8:53 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Least favourite?Probably KJo and Farah.
Rohit Shetty too,but he makes movies that can be terribly entertaining on a bad day.Kind of movies that I hate-watch to snark.
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I don’t hate him, per se, but I have problems with Prakash Jha, although his heart seems to be in the right place. He always assembles a stellar cast and then just has them sort of stand around.
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But they stand around with such quietly good hair and costumes.
On Sun, Aug 2, 2020 at 5:17 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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That’s true, and Arjun stands around looking quietly hot.
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How much does your dislike (I hesitate to use the word Hate with regards to people) colour your opinion of their new work? For e.g. would you already go into a R Balki or Hirani movie deciding to ‘hate’ it? I’m not writing Bhansali here as I’m not sure you would give his movies a chance. Unless SRK was in it maybe. Oh, conversely do you go into an SRK movie already deciding to find at least some good in it?
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So, you are questioning my morals and ethics, and that’s a hard thing for me to respond to. Kind of like asking someone “how many bribes do you take?” I’m gonna assume you are being sincere and answer sincerely. Of course I am a moral ethical film reviewer and look at each work initially in isolation. Thus in this post, for every director here I have a handful of movies from them that I like. If I was blindly prejudiced, that would not be the case.
Having a history of liking or disliking a director just helps you put the film in context when you are analyzing it, it doesn’t effect your overall response. When you watch a movie, there is that first feeling of “I am not enjoying this” or “I am enjoying this”, right? For anyone I mean, you are sitting in the theater either captivated by what you see onscreen or not. And then it takes more work to figure out WHY you are or are not enjoying it.
If I am already familiar with the creative team behind the film, that helps with the second step but has no effect on the first step. So when I am watching Sanju and really really disliking it, I start to think “okay, what have I disliked in other Hirani movies? Are some of those same things here?” Conversely, when I am watching Robot 2 and kind of enjoying it I am thinking “what have I disliked in other Shankar movies? what is different here?”
I go into every movie deciding to find some good in it. If you read my reviews, you should see that. I will always find one performance I enjoyed, one moment that was interesting, even just liking the costumes if nothing else. Shahrukh is treated no different. I could go on and point out reviews where I disliked his films and why, but I am going to assume your comment was not harmfully meant and that you will take my word for it.
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SLB obviously.
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No duh, he’s the WORST
On Tue, Aug 4, 2020 at 8:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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