5 Times Bollywood Was Ridiculous But It Worked

5 Times Bollywood Was Ridiculous But It Worked

Lately, Hindi cinema has grown more serious and realistic. While this is a good thing in some measure, we do miss the good old days when Bollywood churned out ridiculous movies with crappy slapstick humour or unintentionally funny sequences. Think Akshay Kumar in his early 2000s pre-patriotic comedy era.

Back then, some Bollywood movies were so bad they were really good. They still make for a fun and entertaining watch. So here’s a list of totally ridiculous Bollywood films that worked back then and work now too!

• Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon (2003)

An over-enthusiastic Hrithik and over-emotional Kareena play a couple who fall in love only to find out that Hrithik is not the guy Kareena’s parents want her to marry. They’re trying to fix her match with an under-acting Abhishek Bachchan, of all people. This film features a CGI dog, a CGI parrot, a flying dad, and many more ridiculous things. ‘Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon’ is always good for a laugh.

• Jaani Dushman: Ek Anokhi Kahani (2002)

Featuring a big star cast with some A-list names as well, ‘Jaani Dushman’ is India’s answer to ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Terminator’. The story revolves around a college girl who gets raped by two classmates and kills herself, but not before siccing her snake boyfriend (yes, snake) on a big group of friends who she blames for her ruin. Then, the snake-man takes out the friends one by one, killing each one in a more ridiculous way than the last. If you like trainwreck films that are so bad they’re good, this one is unmissable.

• Dhoom (2004)

While the plot of ‘Dhoom’ is not ridiculous at all – a gang of thieves on high-speed bikes being chased by cops – the way things unfold in the iconic film certainly is funny. Abhishek Bachchan plays the “super-cop” trying to outsmart John Abraham’s smooth criminal character. And the best of all is Uday Chopra’s Ali, a comic character who is now a legend in Hindi cinema. Keeping aside the movie’s tendency to flout the laws of physics, ‘Dhoom’ gets full marks for factual accuracy – the heist is planned in India’s largest casino in Goa. Even in a film, they couldn’t ignore the fact that most people in India use online casinos because only Goa and a couple more states allow physical gambling. 

• Taarzan: The Wonder Car (2004)

Apparently, the early 2000s were great in terms of experimental films that tried to use CGI for no good reason. In Ajay Devgn-starrer ‘Taarzan’, a killer, self-driving, self-healing car murders a bunch of people to exact revenge on behalf of its maker (whose ghost is haunting the car). There’s a hero (the son of the ghost) and his love story as well, but they’re not important. Movies like ‘Taarzan’ make us stop and wonder where do they even come up with such stories!

• Garam Masala (2005)

If you tend to get offended at things that are not politically correct or “woke”, ‘Garam Masala’ might not be for you. This film is about the utter chaos that ensues when a good-for-nothing Akshay Kumar starts juggling 3 out-of-his-league women, despite having a fiancé, and tries desperately to keep them from finding out about each other. The cringy jokes and the slapstick comedy are truly ridiculous but they work. It may not be a classy film, but it’s super fun.