I had been searching a lot for a very highly recommended movie of Rahul Bose by the name “Shaurya”. I had heard very rave reviews of the movie and was overjoyed when I caught it on TV yesterday. Needless to say I watched it completely but in about ten minutes or less, it struck me that it was almost a total copy of the Hollywood flick “A few good men” starring Tom Cruise and Demi Moore. Yes the story has been Indianised to help people relate to it but the overall plot, scenes, characters were all picked up directly from the Hollywood movie and the picking up was so complete that I could almost predict the next scenes with surprising accuracy!!
Being somewhat a movie buff, I watch English movies a lot and in between, whenever I find myself watching a Hindi movie, some or the other English movie strikes in mind as its original. So Hitch becomes Partner. Reservoir Dogs becomes Kaante. Murder by numbers becomes Samay. The whole nine yards combined with The Matrix series and the Mission Impossible series becomes Awaara Paagal Deewana. Three men and a baby becomes Heyy Baby. Bruce Almighty becomes God Tussi Great Ho (note that the beard of Amitabh Bachchan is exactly same as that of Morgan Freeman) the list is almost endless.
Is it the case that some kind of virus has infected Bollywood? Why is it that there is such a great dearth of ideas so suddenly and so completely among the entire fraternity that you have to make a choice if you want to watch the movie in English or Hindi (the difference boils down to whether you want to hear songs during the movie or not)? To a certain extent, it was understandable that some very old Bollywood films are reconstructed in the present scenario (Nadiya Ke Paar becomes Hum Aapke Hai Kaun) but taking complete Hollywood films and making your own film and marveling on your own creation is out of my scope of understanding as a rational and fair man. Is it the case that anyone and everyone who has watched a Hollywood movie and found it interesting will come up and make a Hindi movie out of the same concept and marvel at his own creation? If such is the case, then why don’t these people directly employ the Hollywood people to make these remakes for them? At least it will be done with more efficiency than what we see endure these days!
4 comments:
This is where a genre of movies called "Contemporary cinema" wins hands down.. Just because it is contemporary!
Of late, movies in this genre have done quite well.. A few of them are Lakshya, Rang de Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, Dil Chahta Hai, Astitva, Zakhm, Swades, Jaane tu.. Ya jaane na ;)..Viruddh, Lagaan, Tahaan, Iqbal, Being Cyrus, The Blue Umbrella, Maqbool (it is based on Macbeth, but is original in its own way) and quite a lot more.
I enlisted a few movies, not all of which belong to the contemporary genre, but all of which are original.. (Someone correct me if I am wrong)
Rock On!, which is the current rage is also a contemporary youth-oriented movie doing well at the box office, but that too is a rip-off from the 1996 Hollywood flick "That Thing You Do"... And we can still call it "contemporary"!!
*If you want pure original stuff, watch Mira Nair movies..*
Marathi cinema, with respect to dishing out original movies, is better off. Even the comedies that are produced nowadays are original! I consider Nital, Shwaas, Dombivali Fast etc are among the better Marathi movies that I've seen in recent times..
On second thoughts, although Bollywood thrives on remakes, there are countless (yes, countless) movies that are released which are seemingly original. Only because they don't succeed commercially, we tend to forget about them.
Yes. Thankfully, some movies that are a class apart from the "commercial cinema" that is being dished out at the moment. I do feel that originality exists only because of this genre and I sincerely hope that more and more artists make the transition to this genre in the interest of our minds!!!
Hi Tejas,
Before coming to a conclusion, we must also understand the Indian market conditions. Today you just can't make a movie to win critical acclaim, rather the project should have some commercial viability also.Hollywood has 'entire world' as a platform to showcase its talent but if you talk bollywood, only US and UK are the prominent overseas territories where we can release our prints (that too because of high density of indians residing there). In such conditions, most of the producers go for the tried-n-tested receipes and sprinkle them with our 'desi' salt n pepper.
Here, i am not justifying the 'copy-cat' mechanism but just trying to put forward the constraints that creativity is facing in India today.
Also if you look at recent flicks like 'wednesday' and 'mumbai meri jaan', you will realize that there's no dearth of potential in the country. All we need is a better platform and an intelligent pool of audience.
If deriving idea from a 'bestseller' is considered 'original' then why "re-making" doesn't commands any acclaim?
Hey Nitesh,
Take into consideration the fact that only those movies that have been made with an original concept have survived the real test of time. The copy-book flicks have only been short time wonders. Also, why do you think the Indian movies fail to make a mark at the international stage? Why do you think Taare Zameen Par was selected for the Oscars ahead of Om Shanti Om? See the fact is, quality alone survives the test of time. We have to grow up. We must learn to move on. Why did Rock On!! do so well? It was originality. Why did Shaurya do well? It was because very few people were aware of its original. Any movie made with even a little fresh stuff is instantly accepted by the present Indian audience. It just goes to show that the audience is at a higher maturity levels than the film makers think they are. The sooner they realize this, the sooner we will be getting fresh movies with fresh concepts. That's exactly what I am imploring to the film makers. The market is there for your original ideas. Bring them out. Break out of the nutshell. The "tried and tested" tag has got the "outdated" tag attached to it. Get rid of it and get rid of it fast. Then see the response.
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