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Why Bollywood should stop making remakes

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Biswadeep Ghosh
Biswadeep GhoshOct 14, 2017 | 10:08

Why Bollywood should stop making remakes

Hindi film industry is a remake-churning factory. However, Vidya Balan, an obvious candidate for playing Sridevi’s character in the remake of Balu Mahendra’s Sadma (a remake of Mahendra’s own Tamil film Moondram Pirai), showed why she is an actor with a difference.

Insisting that classics must be left alone, Balan reportedly revealed, “I would not do it (remake a film)... I was offered Sadma remake and I said ‘no’ to it.” She added, “As I feel one should not touch a film like Sadma, why tamper with it? These are timeless films. One can reinterpret it but I am not one of those who would go for it.”

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It is possible that Balan didn’t wish to invite comparisons with Sridevi, whose performance in the film is among the indelible memories of Hindi cinema. However, that is beside the point here, the quality of Hindi remakes of Hindi film classics being hardly encouraging anyway.

Even when the odd new film rises above the mediocre, the originals come across as a step or two ahead — either because there are better films or since their protagonists are the ones we first met.

Laughable

Of course, there’s been the laughable remake. Notorious for his inconsistency, Ram Gopal Varma didn’t hesitate to mess with Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay. What did he deliver? Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag, the worst remake ever. Amitabh Bachchan playing the modern-day Gabbar shocked everybody with his over-the-top mannerisms — and dialogue delivery as well. Steering the directorial ship, Varma came across as a clueless captain.

Coming up with an exciting adaptation of Sholay would have been tough for the best, but the same cannot be said about the remake of Himmatwala. Starring Jeetendra and Sridevi, the original "masala" mix with its peppy songs and absurd storyline found viewers everywhere. Attempting a remake, Sajid Khan made a hash of it, as both Ajay Devgn and Tamannah failed to recreate the chemistry that Jeetendra and Sridevi shared.

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Not always have remakes been mercilessly trashed. One that found favour with quite a few critics was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Devdas, a fresh take on a romance visited by several filmmakers. The Hindi version starring Dilip Kumar as the failed lover was an epic, and once it had been made, nobody else should have touched the subject again.

This Bhansali did; his opulent version eroding the intensity of the film industry’s most-loved romance. To his credit, however, he created a path for himself and stayed on course — which cannot be said for most makers of remakes.

Rohit Shetty, whose box-office-friendly fare doesn’t get much approval from critics, gave a tribute to Gol Maal with Bol Bachchan. He floundered, his version lacking the subtlety of the classic. Trapped in another remake, Ajay Devgn acted badly. Abhishek Bachchan’s character seemed to have been written in a hurry. The film was a commercial success. How one wonders.

Hardly anyone in today’s times can play the protagonist in Umrao Jaan with the kind of conviction that Rekha did. Because of her looks and dancing abilities, Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan had possibly suggested its antithesis. But, she disappointed, not unlike the others (except Shabana Azmi) in JP Dutta’s remake of the Muzaffar Ali-helmed classic.

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Ram Gopal Varma didn’t hesitate to mess with Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay. What did he deliver? Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.

Remakes

David Dhawan is no Sai Paranjpye. His star cast in Chashme Baddoor was not a patch on Farooq Sheikh and Deepti Naval in Paranjpye’s Chashme Buddoor. Less appalling than it could have been — Dhawan has hurled some lousy ones — the remake reminded us of the original many times over. While watching it inside the theatre, one couldn’t help thinking of how brilliant Sheikh and Naval had been.

A few remakes have been surprisingly enjoyable though. The remade Agneepath was one such film, with Hrithik Roshan giving it his everything as Vijay Dinanath Chauhan, the protagonist immortalised by Amitabh Bachchan. The difference: Bachchan’s character was the one we first saw, and it is the one we will never forget. The performance displayed superstardom at its most overpowering, not a quality Roshan can emulate.

Interpretation

Ditto Chandra Barot’s Don, which had Bachchan at his imperious best. Shah Rukh Khan, as the protagonist in Farhan Akhtar’s interpretation was a modern-day incarnation, performed commendably as the urban criminal before faltering as the country bumpkin. The sequel slipped just a little bit more.

Having said that, both Agneepath and the two Don films showed clarity of thought while treating the subjects — a rare quality at a time when the Rishi Kapoor-Tina Munim starrer Karz can be remade into Karzzzz starring a non-actor like Himesh Reshammiya. The new Zanjeer with Ram Charan at the centre is a bad memory, showing us how many Bachchan films are favoured by makers for remakes.

Among the forthcoming films is a modern-day take on the Rajesh Khanna-Tanuja starrer Haathi Mere Saathi. One anticipated release is the Sidharth Malhotra-Sonakshi Sinha film named after and based on Ittefaq, another Khanna starrer. So what if films of this genre haven’t been as successful as they possibly could have been? The idea of making them continues to motivate.

A classic is a classic because of its emulation-worthy qualities. What this does not mean is that they deserve to get remade. Too many of experiments have been conducted, most of them failures. That is a lesson in itself.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: October 16, 2017 | 12:21
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