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Extended Work
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| REMAKING HISTORY | |
| By JohnnyD | ||
| 06 November 2006 | ||
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The current trend in Bollywood! REMAKING HISTORY History repeats itself! The saying is so apt in Bollywood as well as in Hollywood alike. Remaking a film is not a new thing in both the industries. However, the current euphoria that Farhan Akhtar’s DON and JP Dutta’s UMRAO JAAN have created with the yester year and today’s generations, make us to go back in time to see how remakes have fared in the industry ever since cinema made its presence felt in the society. Prior to DON’s remake, the first ever in Bollywood because Farhan bought the rights from Chandra Barot of the original DON, Ram Gopal Verma made a fool of himself by remaking SHIVA (Nagarjuna starrer) with Mohit Ahlawat and Nisha Kothari. The film bombed miserably and couldn’t even sustain a week’s run in many theatres. Percept Pictures burnt their fingers by remaking the cult classic JAI SANTOSHI MAA (Anita Guha starrer), which broke every record competing with GP Sippy’s SHOLAY in the mid seventies. Making a remake and that too a hit is not only a tedious task but also it takes great precision to enhance the original product. Shah Rukh Khan’s DON may have earned the moolah at the box-office and overseas, but the fact remains that Amitabh Bachchan as the original DON will always remain as the cult figure. The fact cannot be denied because as original DON, Amitabh Bachchan gave the most brilliant performance of his acting career. Even though Farhan bought the rights of the original, he did change the start and ending of his DON along with couple of songs. Farhan claimed, “I had been fascinated by DON from my early stage and it’s a tribute to remake the film I loved the most.” However, JP Dutta differs and said about his UMRAO JAAN, “Nobody questions God when He made red rose and then white and other colours. How can people presume my film is a remake of Muzaffar Ali’s UMRAO JAAN with Rekha? It is my perception and vision to create UMRAO JAAN my way.” While DON succeeded, UMRAO JAAN has failed with the audience. No wonder, Ram Gopal Verma’s SHIVA was not talked about because of non-entity star cast. SHIVA failed to even match an iota of his original debut film with Nagarjuna and Amla, which is still considered as a cult film even today. Remaking a hit or a flop film is not a new phenomenon in Bollywood or in Hollywood. In fact, in the West, films like SPIDERMAN, BATMAN, SUPERMAN, TARZAN, ZORRO, KING KONG and many others, have been repeatedly remade by various filmmakers of repute with great success. Similarly, in India films like ALIBABA 40 CHOR, LAILA MAJNU, SHIRIN FARHAD, HEER RANJHA, DEVDAS, PARINEETA, HANUMAN, MAHABHARAT, RAMAYAN and many more have been remade with success and failure by various filmmakers in their own individualistic perception and vision. Many of the readers may or may not know that Mehboob Khan’s superhit MOTHER INDIA (1957) was a remake of his own super flop movie AURAT (1940). Similarly, SHOLAY was a remake of Raj Khosla’s MERA GAON MERA DSH with Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Jayant and Asha Parekh. In fact, if one will watch MGMD minutely, one can see that in one of the wanted posters, instead of Daku Jhabbar Singh (Vinod Khanna plays the dacoit), it is written Daku Gabbar Singh! A fault may be because of the assistant director or else the man responsible for making the poster. What is noteworthy about these two epic movies is that they had big stars, minute details were taken care of by filmmakers (Mehboob Khan and Ramesh Sippy), the screenplay and performances were enhanced to a higher level, production were high class and that is why they became cult movies in their own respect. If one reminisces, DEVDAS with KL Saigal and Dilip Kumar failed with the audience but the 44 crores Bhansali’s DEVDAS with Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit became a big hit with the current generation. Rajshris are one of the experts in remaking their won films over the years with great success. HUM AAPKE HAIN KAUN with Salman Khan – Madhuri Dixit was one of the highest grosser of all time in Bollywood. The film was a remake of Rajshris’ own super hit film NADIYA KE PAAR, which had Sachin and Sadhana Sargam. Both the films were well-made films with brilliant performances by the star cast and melodious songs. However, when Rajshris tried to remake CHIT CHOR as MAIN PREM KI DIWANI HOON with Hrithik, Abhishek and Kareena, they had to burn their fingers as it flopped miserably. The simplicity of CHIT CHOR, subtle yet brilliant performances by Amol Palekar, Zarina Wahab and Vijendra Ghatge with ever lasting memorable songs, was the key to its success, unlike MPKDH. Mahesh Bhatt is another filmmaker, who has mastered remaking old classics with great success. In fact, films like DIL HAI KI MANTA NAHIN (remake of CHORI CHORI), HUM HAIN RAHI PYAR KE (HANDS THAT CRADLE THE ROCK), RAAZ (WHAT LIES BENEATH) were well-made films with beautiful songs to support the brilliant performances of the lead actors. However, when we asked brother Mukesh Bhatt, he says, “I am against remaking classics because a cult film can never be replicated.” Yet most of Bhatt’s banner’s films are straight lift of Hollywood movies. Their recent flop THE KILLER (Emraan Hashmi, Nisha Kothari and Irfan Khan) was a poor imitation of (frame to frame) of Hollywood hit COLLATERAL. Anupam Sinha’s debut film SHUKRIYA (Aftab, Anupam Kher, Shriya) flopped because it could never match the original histrionics of Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt in MEET JOE BLACK. Dharmesh Darshan was lucky to remake JAB JAB PHOOL KHILE (Shashi Kapoor, Nanda) as RAJA HINDUSTANI (Aamir, Karisma Kapoor), which became a super hit. In fact, one will be shocked to know that this year’s hit film RANG DE BASANTI is a remake of French film JESUS DE MONTREAL (1989) directed by Denys Arcand. The film was nominated for the Oscars. LAGAAN, which took Ashutosh Gowariker to the Oscars, was also a remake of BR Chopra’s NAYA DAUR and the plot belonged to Hollywood film THE AIR UP THERE (1994). However, the bet was over a game of basketball unlike cricket in LAGAAN. 2007 will surely be the year of the remakes as Sohail Khan’s AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY, starring Salman, Arbaaz and Sohail Khan (original Man Mohan Desai), Feroz Khan’s KURBANI, starring dad and son Fardeen Khan (original QURBANI by Feroz himself), Ramu’s RAM GOPAL VERMA KE SHOLAY, starring Amitabh Bachchan as Gabbar Singh, Ajay Devgan as Veeru, Mohit Ahlawat as Jai, Nisha Kothari as Basanti aka Ghungroo, Sushmita Sen as Radha (original Ramesh Sippy), Kamal Sadanah’s VICTORIA 203, starring Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Jimmy Sheirgill and Amrita Arora (his father produced the original), Rituparno Ghosh’s SAHIB BIWI AUR GHULAM and then there is GUIDE and many more. Many filmmakers will try to be in the news by announcing remaking old classics. However, what will be note worthy to see will be how many of them will succeed in their attempts? Trade analyst Amod Mehra says, “Personally I feel classics should be left untouched because remakes will never have the appeal of the originals. Remaking classics is just a trend and it will fizzle out soon.” Nagesh Kukunoor too feels the same but couldn’t resist the temptation to remake the Malayalam film as DOR. IN fact, in IQBAL, he replayed the famous BODYLINE scene of the bowler striking the coin and his TEEN DEEWAREIN was a poor imitation of SHASHANK REDEMPTION. What is interesting and amazing to note about Indian filmmakers is that unlike Hollywood filmmakers, who buy the rights of the book or novel, they simply lift it and claim their work to be outright original fiction. However, when the reality is revealed, they still defend saying the cliché, “I haven’t heard about such a film. I have never seen the film before.” Most of the hit films in Bollywood are remakes of Hollywood hits. In fact, filmmakers like late Hrishikesh Mukherjee too had remade Barbara Streisand – Omar Shariff starrer FUNNY GIRL as the 70’s hit ABHIMAAN with Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri. Feroz Khan was a die-hard fan of Gregory Peck and remade McKENNA’S GOLD as KALA SONA and DUEL IN THE SUN as JANBAAZ. Yash Chopra remade CAPE FEAR (Al Pacino) as DARR (SRK – Juhi – Sunny Deol), David Dhawan made KYUNKI MAIN JHOOTH NAHIN BOLTA (LAIR LIAR), Madhavan’s RAMJI LONDONWALE was a poor imitation of GREEN CARD, Shekhar Kapur’s MASOOM was a lift of MAN, WOMAN & CHILD, Kunal Kohli’s HUM TUM picked up from WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, Pooja Bhatt’s HOLIDAY was a poor remake of Patrick Swayze’s cult film DIRTY DANCING, Sanjay Gupta’s KAANTE and ZINDA were lifted straight from RESERVOIR DOGS and OLD BOY respectively. There are more to mention like John Mathew Mathan’s SHIKHAR was a poor remake of WALL STREET, Nagesh Kukunoor’s IQBAL was lifted from WONDEROUS OBLIVION, Revathy’s PHIR MILENGE was a good attempt to remake PHILADELPHIA, Yashraj’s MERE YAAR KI SHAADI couldn’t match the original MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, Bhansali’s BLACK lifted from MIRACLE WORKER and the list is endless. No wonder, writers and filmmakers will always claim their creation as original but once caught, they change their claim as mere inspiration. One cannot deny the fact that remaking an original is a daunting task. Like Salim Khan (Salim-Javed fame, who wrote films like DEEWAR, SHOLAY and many more hit films) says, “Originality is the art of concealing your source. Nothing is original.” No wonder, MAJBOOR was lifted from FALSE WITNESS and ZIG ZAG. With the globalization, the availability of DVDs of old classics is within the reach of a common man today, who knows from where filmmakers have lifted his next creation. However, what is surprising is that Indian filmmakers shout aloud from rooftop about being original. No wonder, Farhan Akhtar has written a new leaf in Indian cinema by becoming the first filmmaker to buy the rights of the original film to remake his DON as per his perception and vision, just like it is done in Hollywood. It is time for Indian filmmakers to realize what they have been doing in the past, is totally unethical, illegal and cheating. Hopefully, the trend of remakes will fade away even before Bollywood succeed in a big way. Because if remakes works, then new talented writers will be killed at its nascent stage, who are aspiring to tell original stories in years to come by! Johnny D 6th November 2006
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