To make or to remake…
(Second part of the story The Remakes-Same Old Story)
Regional films coming to Bollywood screen and vice versa have acquired such a proportion that attempts to make a catalog of it have been already shelved. Sheer number of such projects is so huge that anybody trying to keep a record of it might feel ridiculous. A large number of films in such category have been represented in fairly good manner. An exception here or there will sound justified with the numbers involved. Now, these films have been in the circuit for a very long time and nobody cared a damn for them. Only now have people started to talk actively and in high decibels that makes it sound like it has come into fashion only recently. Or is it that they have been induced to talk in such a way.
Hoopla created at the time of making Devdas, Parineeta, Don and many others has only substantiated this suspicion. There is Priydarshan who can be credited with really most successful remakes in recent times. Since 1992 is remaking his old Malayalam and Tamil hits into Bollywood blockbusters and he has never talked about it. His foray into Bollywood was with the movie "Muskurahat" (1993). This was a remake of the original Kilukkam. His first successful Hindi film was "Gardish" 1994), that was a remake of the Kiridam.
Then again He made his second foray into hindi films with the remake of the acclaimed Kamal Haasan" starrer "Thevar Magan" Tamil) in Hindi. The film was titled "Virasat". He later directed a string of remakes including "Hera Pheri" a remake of Ramji Rao Speaking, "Hungama" , a remake of "Poochakkoru Mookkuthi", "Hulchul", a remake of "Godfather and "Garam Masala" 2005)( remake of "Boeing Boeing"). Priyadarshans has also made Saat Rang Ke Sapne, a remake of "Thenmavin Kombath" Malayalam, 1994); "Kabhi Na Kabhi" 1997), "Doli Sajake Rakhna" (1998) a ramake of Aniyathi Pravu; "Yeh Tera Ghar Ye Mera Ghar" (2002) a remake of Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam and "Kyonki" 2005) a remake of "Thalavattam". Some of the these remakes of Priyadarshan however failed to achieve boxoffice success. Some of these movies originally featured Mohanlal as the lead actor and any retrospective of this Malayalam Superstar will be incomplete without these. But only a handful of the Hindi moviegoers might know this fact. They take these movies as the originals ones. Still they are successful. So why this hype only over Don and Umrao Jaan.
One answer might lie in the statement given by Anandji Shah, one of the music directors of the original Don. Terming the remake of Don as purely a commercial act, he has said on record that makers of the new film had exploited the loop-holes in the Copyright Act to make money. “Listening to the remake of my song ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ has hurt me immensely,” said Anandji of the Anandji-Kalyanji fame. “The first time I heard the remake of my song, I could only laugh.” The director of original film Chandra Barot has said that such remakes act as ‘nuisance value’ for the original filmmakers. “I would personally never go for a remake of any film. Why opt for a remake?” Barot questioned. He added that new film was aimed at making money and nothing else. Barot said, “I am worried if more and more Bollywood classics are remade. It will be a sad day when low budget remakes of classic films like Mughal-e-Azam are made.”
As a movie buff, personally I will say that bringing various regional films into Hindi or its reverse trend is a healthy practice. That gives a chance to viewers to appreciate artworks in another regions, which in India can be a tedious thing to do. One more thing is that movies that usually are remade go not only through the regional-Hindi mode but also one regional language to another one. That’s why Mohanlal’s Thenmavin Kombath was remade into Hindi as well as Tamil. In its Tamil version, Muthu, Rajnikant was the hero and this remade version was a bit different in its storyline as well as presentation to suit to Superstar’s image. This remade version superceded all the collection records of the original one and still has a unique reputation of being the biggest Indian hit in Japan. Though they did not give an ample idea of the talent that the original artistes, writers, music directors or any other who made the film tick, they give a reflected glimpse of the currents in the respective film industries. Many Hindi films in the 1980s and 90s were imported from the South and those movies provided enough indications of the film genre in vogue at that time.
As in Hollywood, many remade films also provided a base for the new crew to improvise on the original films and they did well. Money factor, a bane of Bollywood, for many decades, played an important role in the refurnishing of new creations and it showed in the films as well. That’s why some original regional movies fail to cast a spell to the extent that new, Bollywood hits could. Sometimes, a persona or an actor like Amitabh Bachchan would made it very difficult for others to recreate the magic. With the exception of Rajinikant, many others who tried to do such a trick paled in the effort.
Regional films coming to Bollywood screen and vice versa have acquired such a proportion that attempts to make a catalog of it have been already shelved. Sheer number of such projects is so huge that anybody trying to keep a record of it might feel ridiculous. A large number of films in such category have been represented in fairly good manner. An exception here or there will sound justified with the numbers involved. Now, these films have been in the circuit for a very long time and nobody cared a damn for them. Only now have people started to talk actively and in high decibels that makes it sound like it has come into fashion only recently. Or is it that they have been induced to talk in such a way.
Hoopla created at the time of making Devdas, Parineeta, Don and many others has only substantiated this suspicion. There is Priydarshan who can be credited with really most successful remakes in recent times. Since 1992 is remaking his old Malayalam and Tamil hits into Bollywood blockbusters and he has never talked about it. His foray into Bollywood was with the movie "Muskurahat" (1993). This was a remake of the original Kilukkam. His first successful Hindi film was "Gardish" 1994), that was a remake of the Kiridam.
Then again He made his second foray into hindi films with the remake of the acclaimed Kamal Haasan" starrer "Thevar Magan" Tamil) in Hindi. The film was titled "Virasat". He later directed a string of remakes including "Hera Pheri" a remake of Ramji Rao Speaking, "Hungama" , a remake of "Poochakkoru Mookkuthi", "Hulchul", a remake of "Godfather and "Garam Masala" 2005)( remake of "Boeing Boeing"). Priyadarshans has also made Saat Rang Ke Sapne, a remake of "Thenmavin Kombath" Malayalam, 1994); "Kabhi Na Kabhi" 1997), "Doli Sajake Rakhna" (1998) a ramake of Aniyathi Pravu; "Yeh Tera Ghar Ye Mera Ghar" (2002) a remake of Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam and "Kyonki" 2005) a remake of "Thalavattam". Some of the these remakes of Priyadarshan however failed to achieve boxoffice success. Some of these movies originally featured Mohanlal as the lead actor and any retrospective of this Malayalam Superstar will be incomplete without these. But only a handful of the Hindi moviegoers might know this fact. They take these movies as the originals ones. Still they are successful. So why this hype only over Don and Umrao Jaan.
One answer might lie in the statement given by Anandji Shah, one of the music directors of the original Don. Terming the remake of Don as purely a commercial act, he has said on record that makers of the new film had exploited the loop-holes in the Copyright Act to make money. “Listening to the remake of my song ‘Khaike Paan Banaraswala’ has hurt me immensely,” said Anandji of the Anandji-Kalyanji fame. “The first time I heard the remake of my song, I could only laugh.” The director of original film Chandra Barot has said that such remakes act as ‘nuisance value’ for the original filmmakers. “I would personally never go for a remake of any film. Why opt for a remake?” Barot questioned. He added that new film was aimed at making money and nothing else. Barot said, “I am worried if more and more Bollywood classics are remade. It will be a sad day when low budget remakes of classic films like Mughal-e-Azam are made.”
As a movie buff, personally I will say that bringing various regional films into Hindi or its reverse trend is a healthy practice. That gives a chance to viewers to appreciate artworks in another regions, which in India can be a tedious thing to do. One more thing is that movies that usually are remade go not only through the regional-Hindi mode but also one regional language to another one. That’s why Mohanlal’s Thenmavin Kombath was remade into Hindi as well as Tamil. In its Tamil version, Muthu, Rajnikant was the hero and this remade version was a bit different in its storyline as well as presentation to suit to Superstar’s image. This remade version superceded all the collection records of the original one and still has a unique reputation of being the biggest Indian hit in Japan. Though they did not give an ample idea of the talent that the original artistes, writers, music directors or any other who made the film tick, they give a reflected glimpse of the currents in the respective film industries. Many Hindi films in the 1980s and 90s were imported from the South and those movies provided enough indications of the film genre in vogue at that time.
As in Hollywood, many remade films also provided a base for the new crew to improvise on the original films and they did well. Money factor, a bane of Bollywood, for many decades, played an important role in the refurnishing of new creations and it showed in the films as well. That’s why some original regional movies fail to cast a spell to the extent that new, Bollywood hits could. Sometimes, a persona or an actor like Amitabh Bachchan would made it very difficult for others to recreate the magic. With the exception of Rajinikant, many others who tried to do such a trick paled in the effort.
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