The Best Hollywood-Bollywood Remakes (Copies) Ever – Part III

8. The Westerns

Yes, we’ve always had our own brand of ‘Curry’ Westerns, complete with guns, horses and the barren landscape. Feroze Khan was the poster-boy of this genre in Bollywood, but once in a while, every star worth his salt has tried his hand at it. One desi equivalent of the Western Outlaw, the ‘daaku’ genre, was also immensely popular in the 70s and 80s (the genre merits a list of its own, having spawned scores of exploitation movies like Daaku Hasina and Phoolan Hasina Ramkali)

First the Big Daddy of ‘em all…

Sholay

Mera Gaon Mera Desh

Here comes Feroze…

Kaala Sona

Khote Sikkay

Kachche Heere

Wanted

Joshilaay

Zalzala

To be continued…

The Best Hollywood-Bollywood Remakes (Copies) Ever – Part II

3. The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

This relatively lesser known film is the only one in the list that has the distinction of ‘inspiring’ a classic in Bollywood, which in turn, was ‘remade’ several years later, in 2008. To add to the confusion, our dear David Fincher is working on an official ‘remake’ of the original.

Karz (1980) Dir. Subhash Ghai, Starring Rishi Kapoor, Tina Munim, Simi Garewal & Pran

Karzzzz (2008) Dir. Satish Kaushik, Starring Himesh Reshammya, Urmila Matondkar, Danny

4. A Better Tomorrow

Aatish Dir. Sanjay Gupta, Starring Sanjay Dutt, Raveena Tandon, Atul Agnihotri

5. On The Waterfront

Kabzaa Dir. Mahesh Bhatt, Starring Sanjay Dutt, Amrita Singh, Raj Babbar, Paresh Rawal

Ghulam Dir. Vikram Bhatt, Starring Aamir Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Rajit Kapur, Sharat Saxena

6. An Affair to Remember

Ok, a footnote here. The above film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, widely considered a classic, was itself a remake. Actually, both the films were directed by the same man. Leo McCarey. He made Love Affair in 1939, and 18 years later, made An Affair to Remember, based on the same script. One wonders why.

Mann Dir. Indra Kumar, Starring Aamir Khan, Manisha Koirala

7. West Side Story

Mere Apne Dir. Gulzar, Starring Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha, Meena Kumari, Asrani, Danny, Mehmood, Yogita Bali

( Mere Apne was an official remake of a Bengali Film called Aponjon, which itself was heavily influenced by West Side, with political undertones)

Josh Dir. Mansoor Khan, Starring Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Chandrachur Singh, Sharad Kapoor

To be continued…

The Best Hollywood-Bollywood Remakes (Copies) Ever

Have been unable to post much in the past weeks. Life has been throwing some nasty surprises. Anyways, let’s get down to business. Today’s list will cover Bollywood remakes/ (ahem) adaptations of Hollywood movies. Our filmmakers have always been inspired by Hollywood. Right from Raj Kapoor’s Chori Chori (1956) which had ‘elements of’ Frank Capra’s Clark Gable starrer It happened One Night (1934), to the more recent Kareena-Shahid Kapoor debacle Milenge Milenge (2010) which was a shoddy copy of John Cusack-Kate Beckinsale blockbuster Serendipity (2001).

Here goes:

1. The Godfather Inspirations:

Dharmatma (1975) Dir. Feroze Khan, Starring Feroze Khan (Michael Corleone), Prem Nath (Vito “The Godfather” Corleone) , Hema Malini & Rekha

Zulm Ki Hukumat (1992) Dir. Bharat Rangachary, Starring Dharmendra, Govinda, Shakti Kapoor, Paresh Rawal & Kimi Katkar

Aatank Hi Aatank (1995) Dir. Dilip Shankar, Starring Aamir Khan, Rajinikanth (Sonny Corleone), Juhi Chawla, Pooja Bedi

Aamir Khan and Rajinikanth in Aatank hi Aatank

2. James Bond Fan Club:

Golden Eyes Secret Agent 077 (1968) Dir. Kamal Sharma, Starring Sailesh Kumar, Mumtaz, Helen

Sailesh Kumar as Agent 077 in Golden Eyes Secret Agent 077

Aankhen (1968) Dir. Ramanand Sagar, Starring Dharmendra, Mala Sinha, Mehmood

Dharmendra as Agent Sunil in Aankhen

Inspector (1970) Dir. Chand, Starring Joy Mukherjee, Helen, Rajendra Nath

Joy Mukherjee as Agent 707 in "Inspector"

Agent Vinod (1977) Dir. Deepak Bahry, Starring Mahendra Sandhu, Asha Sachdev, K.N. Singh

Surakksha (1979) Dir. Ravikant Nagaich, Starring Mithun Chakraborty, Ranjeeta, Jeevan

Mithun as Agent Gopi/ Gunmaster G-9 in Surakksha

Wardaat (1981) Dir. Ravikant Nagaich, Starring Mithun Chakraborty, Kaajal Kiran, Shakti Kapoor, Kalpana Iyer

Bond 303 (1985) Dir. Ravi Tandon, Starring Jeetendra, Parveen Babi

Mr. Bond (1992) Dir. Raj N. Sippy, Starring Akshay Kumar, Sheeba, Pankaj Dheer

And, finally…this one’s more of a Jason Bourne clone:

Prince (2010) Dir. Kookie V Gulati, Starring Vivek Oberoi, Nandana Sen, Neeru Bajwa & Aruna Shields

…..to be continued

Tintin and the Golden Fleece/Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d’or

Tintin and the Golden Fleece/ Tintin et le mystère de la Toison d’or (1961) is one of the two live action films ever made on the eponymous adventurer, the other being Tintin and the Blue Oranges/ Tintin et les oranges bleues (1964). Steven Spielberg nursed dreams of making a live action version of his own for more than 25 years, until Peter Jackson (LOTR, King Kong) convinced him that a Weta-Digital-branded-motion-capture-animation is the way to go.

Thomson and Thompson

The film is an absolutely enjoyable action-adventure spectacle. Anyone who grew up in the 70s/80s, especially the Bengalis, will be reminded of all the children’s detective novels and comics that used to be an integral part of growing up those days, with regular doses of the Feludas (a Holmes-like super sleuth created by Satyajit Ray)  and the Tintins, and a little bit of Hardy Boys and Famous Five thrown in. Tintin and the Golden Fleece is very much a part of that space. And it hardly matters that the language here is French. Snowy is Milou, Thomson and Thompson are Dupont and Dupond, so on and so forth… but to Tintin aficionados, the characters are so recognizable, the changed names don’t take away from the experience (after all, Tintin IS a French/ Belgian character).

Captain Haddock in action

It’s a regular Tintin adventure in  celluloid. Period. Conscious effort seems to have been made to ensure that the characters, the settings, the milieu, the plot, everything looks straight out of a Tintin comic. In that sense, I’m not sure how it’ll appeal to those not exposed to that world. Georges Wilson as Captain Haddock does a hell of a job – especially the scenes where he goes absolutely nuts with his name-calling and all that (again, those who’ve followed the series know what I am talking about). Jean-Pierre Talbot makes a great Tintin (albeit a bit too cold and unfunny for the character maybe); this film along with its sequel, are his only claims to fame as an actor. Ironically, he remains the only actor who’s ever depicted the character on screen, in its live-action-flesh-and-blood avatar. Ditto for the Director Jean-Jacques Vierne, who’s probably only directed three other features in his lifetime (surprising, considering he assisted the illustrious Jules Dassin, on the even more illustrious Rififi).

The plot is simple. One of Captain Haddock’s old pirate friends leaves him a rusted old ship before dying. To honor his wish, Captain flies to Istanbul, Tintin and Snowy in tow. The vessel, apparently of very little value, is sought for an astronomical sum by a shady businessman. Why? That, friends, is the mystery of “The Golden Fleece”, which is what the ship is called.

And for the Billions of Billious Blue Blistering Barnacles!