It’s hard to find flaws in most of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s performances. From Kahaani to Gangs of Wasseypur to The Lunchbox and now Sacred Games, every performance is textured, layered and memorable. But an actor’s filmography is incomplete without some misses. So, on his birthday we take a look at some of Nawazuddin’s ‘so bad that they’re so good’ movies:
1. Munna Michael
When it’s a Tiger Shroff film you can’t expect too much logic, but when they put a solid actor like Nawaz in their film as a viewer it makes your blood boil. He plays this gangster who is taught to dance by Tiger, and he makes the most he can out of the lousy script presented to him. In fact, he’s the only watchable thing in the movie but the movie chooses to focus on Tiger, erm actually his muscles...
Next time we hope director Sabbir Khan takes a genuinely bad actor when he decides to make an awful film like this.
2. Kick
It seemed like Nawaz was the only person in this film who was not taking it seriously. This was a film that also saw Jacqueline Fernandez play a psychologist who believes in locking people up in a room to treat them.
Nawaz appears in the second half as the villain Shiv Gajra who breaks into peals of laughter after saying the most evil things. In one scene he chokes someone to death with bubble wrap paper and then proceeds to burst the bubbles on it like nothing ever happened. I wanted to ‘KICK’ someone after I saw this film, but watching Nawaz enjoy himself in this outrageously silly film is worth it.
3. Genius
It takes someone with seriously low IQ to make a film like this, that is ironically titled Genius. I still haven’t figured out what the plot of this film is but here’s my attempt at explaining it. So, Utkarsh Sharma (son of director Anil Sharma who made this insufferable film) plays Vasu who is a ‘genius’- he is a student but, wait for it....a part-time RAW agent (how exciting would life be if one could be an astronaut, doctor, secret agent part time!). Anyway, so Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the other ‘genius’, but he's evil. Nothing else, just pure evil.
Nawaz makes a hundred different types of facial expressions ranging from constipated to just confused. He probably couldn't deal with the idiocy of the script and this film. If you’ve had the misfortune of watching this film, all I can say is amen.
4. Freaky Ali
The story revolves around an undergarment seller with a talent he is very good at - golf - and can ace every shot. His talent is spotted by a caddy and he’s immediately catapulted into the big league (in the swiftest manner) from the gali. Nawazuddin is earnest and gives his character some depth, but director Sohail Khan sticks to the regular Mumbai cliches. It also helps that the supporting actors like Arbaaz Khan and Amy Jackson are terrible.
The film’s climax is like a slow track back to the 80’s but the only difference is, it doesn’t do it well and you’re left wondering if you should’ve just watched Sholay again. It’s not as bad as some of the other movies on this list. Watch it if you’re a die-hard Nawaz fan and if you have too much time on hand.
5. Aatma- Feel it Around you
Firstly, it’s hard to take a movie seriously that is called Aatma- Feel it Around You. But that’s not even the biggest problem with this ‘trying to be a horror’ film. Nawaz plays a divorced man who dies and comes back as a ghost to his ex-wife’s house to spend time with his daughter. The film has the usual Hindi horror movie tropes of things flying, reflections in the mirror moving etc. which after a point just becomes unintentionally funny.
Again Nawaz tries his best to salvage the film and is quite earnest, but it’s hard to take him seriously when the story is so slim. Bipasha Basu, his co-star, spends most of her time with a tensed expression, albeit looking like she’s out of a magazine cover.
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