Rajkumar Santoshi is one director whom I hold in very high regard. He has made some of the finest movies of Indian cinema across diverse genres. He could make a hard hitting film followed by a goofy comedy.
If we look at his filmography he has made
Ghayal
Damini
Andaz Apna Apna
Ghatak
Pukar
Lajja
Legend of Bhagat Singh
Khakee
Ajab Prem ki Gajab Kahani
Halla Bol
Even some of his films which didn't fare that well 9r films that are not considered great films are decent enough films like China Gate or Barsaat were decent enough films. He has resurrected the career of Sunny with Ghayal (both the National awards won by Sunny Deol are courtesy him), launched Bobby with Barsaat, gave Meenakshi Seshadri his career defining role in Damini, got Anil Kapoor and Ajay Devgan National awards for pukar and LOBS respectively, and made an entire film with character artists in China Gate.
But then he was asked to launch another son of a producer and he faltered badly. I believe he has made 3 bad films in his career, starting from this film- Family (2006)
Family starts with Amitabh Bachchan unleashing violence. Cut to Akshay Kumar and Bhoomika Chawla at the centre stage, romancing with Akshay having a younger good for nothing brother that the audience don't care about. Except the fact that this newcomer will emerge as the lead actor of the film as you will be cheated because stars like Amitabh, Akshay , Bhumika, etc will be treated as a prop to showcase Keshu Ramsay's son Aryaman Ramsay as the hero. Except he isn't.
Akshay Kumar's character is k*lled in the first half only and after that it is Aryaman taking revenge. The good things first- Akshay was good, the climax was well acted and Amitabh acted really well. That's it. The film lacks the trademark Rajkumar Santoshi touch. We don't have great dialogues, breathtaking confrontation scenes, heightened emotions and convincing screenplay. No wonder the film was a massive disaster and it ended the careers of both Aryaman as well aa the father Keshu Ramsay.
The second bad film of Rajkumar Santoshi is Phata Poster Nikla Hero. Honest opinion but Shahid Kapoor despite having good acting abilities overacts like anything in comedy roles. The story belongs to 80s and the songs appear as music videos with no integration with the plot. And there are basic continuity errors. In the climax Shahid Kapoor goes on a bike he has short hear and clean shaven face. He returns after 15 minutes with long hairs and rugged face!! And as he enters the building he is clean shaven and short haired again!! Ileana disappointed big time after a good performance in Barfi, the humour was hit and miss and logic was absent. All in all a below par film by Rajkumar Santoshi.
After the failure of this film Santoshi didn’t direct a film for many years. And then he returned to launch another star son- Namasri Chakraborty. And Bad Boy is the worst film of Rajkumar Santoshi. The film has no rhyme, reason and logic, and it is bad in all aspects- acting, direction, screenplay, music etc. And the film failed badly.
I haven't seen Gandhi Godse and Batwara but I guess they are not trashy bad. After launching half a dozen actors he launched his own daughter in Gandhi Godse but that attempt also failed.