There are hit movies, flop movies, romantic movies, action thrillers, meanwhile, there are some unforgettable movies. Bollywood has been playing an important role in our life, colouring half the weekend holiday we rarely get ever now and then.

These are the days we see protagonist jumping off the plane to hit the villain, or rising from the ground hearing his loved ones’ scream when everyone thought he was almost dead.

We people are habituated to get used to such movies, our boundaries are limited to such an extent that any movie that appears natural will shock us now. Despite such orthodox strategies, there are some cult movies that sweep you off your thinking limits and look at the life the way it is. But, unfortunately, almost most of them are underrated and has low box office collections.  

Some movies suffer from low occupancy release meanwhile, some lack in popular artiste.

Here are some spell-bound Bollywood movies that performed average at the box office even though they deserve a throne in 300 Crore Club:

1. Pink: This is easily one of the best courtroom dramas to have come out of Bollywood in recent times. Directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, the film is a smack in the face of those who question the way modern women choose to live or dress. While Pink has its share of flaws, the movie’s greatest strength is its strong stand against gender inequality and sexual violence. The performances of Tapsee Pannu and Amitabh Bachchan has recieved wide critical acclaim.

2. Udta Punjab: Being based on the real scenario in Punjab, the movie is critically acclaimed and the actors such as Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt did some amazing work. This is certainly an eye-opening account of the ongoing drug crisis in Punjab that is fast engulfing the youth of the state. While it succeeds in tackling the controversial subject of cross-border drug trafficking with great conviction, it also serves as a potent case study that dares to question the relevance of adhering to obsolete censorship norms in modern India, perhaps giving a new lease of life to Hindi cinema.

3. Aligarh: A biographical drama film directed by Hansal Mehta, based on the life of an Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) professor, Dr. Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras. After successfully challenging his suspension in Allahabad High Court, Prof. Siras was found dead in his house under suspicious circumstances. Aligarh tackles the highly misunderstood subject of homosexuality with considerable subtlety. Wrapped underneath its complexities and subtexts, Aligarh is a simple film about a common man who suffers at the hands of an inconsiderate society.

4. Masaan: Ghaywan’s directorial debut, a winner of two awards at Cannes this year, is a surprisingly accomplished film. Set in Varanasi, it touches upon various aspects of small-town life in North India via three concurrent stories. Richa Chadha is fantastic as a young woman who has been shamed for exploring her sexuality, while Vicky Kaushal makes a sensational debut as a young engineering aspirant who spends his nights cremating corpses at the holy city’s ghats.

5. Margarita, With a Straw: An easy film to dislike, given its inherent critic-baitiness, but Bose’s sophomore feature deserves its due for tackling difficult subjects — disability and sexuality — with enough sensitivity. Playing the self-centered, cerebral-palsy-afflicted Laila Kapoor, Kalki Koechlin gives it her all and, despite hitting a few bum notes here and there, delivers an admirable performance. The real star of the show, however, is Revathy, who becomes this film’s emotional core and helps make the whole story work.

6. Piku: Director Sircar and writer Juhi Chaturvedi team up once again after 2012’s Vicky Donor to deliver a delightfully breezy road movie about relationships by way of gastric problems. Amitabh Bachchan plays a cantankerous old Bengali man with reasonable verisimilitude. In the commercial Hindi film format, it’s rare to see a film like this, which has a lot to say about life, old age, and death even as it deftly side-steps the sand-trap of excessive melodrama.

7. Highway: Imtiaz Ali’s unconventional kidnapping saga was a breath of fresh air, not just because of its treatment but because leading lady Alia Bhatt turned in a performance that lifted the film several notches up. Randeep Hooda as the gruff kidnapper who finds a friend in his captive also did an excellent job, and the pristine landscapes of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh made for some lovely frames. Ali said he wrote the film as he shot it, often on the day of the shoot, because he wanted to capture the true emotions of the characters’ journey. That unusual style paid off.

8. Queen: Most Bollywood films end with the wedding and the happily ever after. Vikas Bahl’s “Queen” turned that around and chose to tell the story of a meek woman who finds her voice and confidence after she travels to Europe alone after being ditched at the altar. Kangana Ranaut was perfect as Rani, and she used her comic timing perfectly to deliver a light-hearted message about women’s empowerment that couldn’t have been timelier.

9. Lunch Box: Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox may not have collected hundreds of crores but recovered more than its budget. The Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur-starrer was a fresh departure from the routine romantic films of Bollywood. A heartwarmingly engrossing tale of two individuals, both of whom find that elusive spark, missing from their lives, in each other’s words. The Lunchbox is about hope, it’s about loneliness but above all, it’s about the everlasting desire of every human to be loved.

10. Talvar: One of the most controversial Hindi films and also one of its best. Gulzar takes on the infamous 2008 Noida double murder case with a gripping and well-acted procedural starring fine actors like Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma, and Neeraj Kabi. True, its Rashomon-like aspirations are thwarted by Khan’s towering screen presence; despite all claims to the contrary, Khan’s Ashwin Kumar comes across as the film’s hero, especially since Vishal Bhardwaj’s smartly-penned script gives him the best lines. No wonder, then, that a petition to reopen the case and free the parents spread like wildfire soon after its release.

Here is the complimentary one, which didn’t do well at the box office even though the script and the actors did quite well. The reason behind the movie becoming a ‘commercial failure’ might be the lack of simplicity. The subject and the way the director pulls the story is quite analytic which resulted in terminating the reach.

Tamasha: Though the movie has some astonishing casting like Ranbir and Deepika, the box office results ended up under the expectations. The actor’s struggle against the orthodox norms his passion for the offbeat profession like ‘Storytelling’ made it the masterpiece. Despite the reviews from critics and giggling numbers from AR Rehman, everything about the movie ended up underrated. This movie is directed by the noir maestro Imtiaz Ali.

 

 

There’s a lot to love in Ali’s latest spin on his favourite story: a tortured, sensitive soul searches for and find the path he/she was always meant to take. Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone, whose meet-cute in Corsica is a delight to watch, turn in fine performances but it is Ali’s gentle hold on proceedings that helps make this a warm and memorable story about a boy who loves stories.

Note: Despite the above-mentioned movies, there are many amazing movies which can be mentioned here. The list strictly features the movies from 2013, just because, hitting the 300 crore club has become a tip toe task from then.

Verdict: Let us just forget about the numbers, being a part of 300 crore club alone cannot make the movie ‘a masterpiece’, directors who choose to make an offbeat film are often rare and they always crave to send a message through their movies. Bollywood is so diverse that there are some reckless movies that barely possess a story plot but backs some hundreds of crores casting some leading Bollywood actors, on the other side, there are movies that are shot in extremely low budget with less or unpopular cast and only thing such movies has to showcase is ‘the story line‘.