R. Balki, who has either produced, directed or written some meaningful films since he left advertising and joined Bollywood with Cheeni Kum in 2007, made a startling statement at the MIT World Peace University in Pune the other day. The filmmaker boldly called out blockbusters of recent years and said they were the “worst films” ever made. “Not only from an intellectual or artistic point of view but also from the old entertainment, ‘masala, paisa vasool’ kind of a feel. Also, they’re damn boring. The fun has completely gone from our blockbusters,” Balki said. He’s not the only one feeling this way. But Balki also brought about an interesting comparison between blockbusters today and the silver and golden jubilee hits of filmmakers like Manmohan Desai in the 1970s. They were fun. But today, there’s an economics. Filmmakers want to recover their money and are pumping the marketing to drive people towards believing something is good. By the time people realise it’s bad, the film has made its money, Balki added. Hear! Hear!