Films.......Make .....remake !!!

A news item in the paper today “Twenty two years on and it’s….. “, and again remake time for Shahrukh Khan’s Darr that got me thinking.  Why would a director or an actor attempt to recreate magic that’s immortal on celluloid? Can anyone other than King Khan go K..K…K…Kiran again?? The list of remakes, however, is endless as Zanjeer becomes Zanjeer, Hero becomes Hero, Mr.India becomes Mr. X, Himaatwala becomes Himaatwala again, Golmaal becomes a Bol Bachchan, Don becomes Don again and again. Have creative juices really disappeared from the industry or is it just pure laziness or is it just let’s try it one more time. Sometimes I think yes and sometimes I think it’s neither of these and wonder.

Inspired or otherwise!!! .A remake is a remake no matter how much of mix and match you do… and hey we are still around. We are those very people who have seen the earlier version and will be around to see the new one too. Besides the remakes are claimed to be “different”  with the songs choreographed differently na, and I am expected to dance with joy?  Really, when I am sitting there thinking the steps of the song is so unconnected to the words!!! So what if the hero is singing “chunaari chunaari” and there is no chunaari seen for miles.. I ask why, oh why does the ever melodramatic sick mother, or villain taking the sister hostage, two best friends fighting over one girl and illogical sequences that is so Bollywood go missing….. And either use the original songs to revive the magic (we are alive you know yet) otherwise please do spare us unnecessary tracks and definitely do not add item numbers.  It’s too repetitive, distracting the storyline, boring and a waste of time and today everyone is in a rush.

If makers do not understand the heart of the film and what made it tick, obviously a remake is bound to fail. After all it’s we, the audience that kept the memories alive of favourite bits of the movie you chose to rehash, re-cook and serve it up again.  You should realise, that a movie in its totality is very rarely loved. It’s a song, a dance move, a dialogue, a scene, an actor that make it all a success and memory, so  careful when you cut, edit  or try to visually recreate the magic. Then there is that belief that the actor will use his own mannerisms,  his style and persona to give a dialogue/film a new look but that too, my friend, can fail miserably. Remember what “Jab tak baithne ko na kaha jaaye sharafat se khade raho ... yeh police station hai ... tumhare baap ka ghar nahi” sounded like when Amitabh Bachchan said it (shivers down the spine) and then here comes Ram Charan Teja… and need I say more!!!!

History sometimes however does repeat itself too and remakes do perform superbly such as Agneepath, Don, Devdas. Why? Simple, it was Hritik and Shaharukh !!!!! These films did justice to the characters and the story of the originals and the casting was just right. Then we have the disastrous ones, remade from English movies such as a Kante/Reservoir Dogs, Ek Ajnabee/ Man on Fire, The Killer/Collateral, God Tussi Great Ho/Bruce Almighty. Obviously the makers think “kaun dekhta hoga yeh sab English, Korean, Japanese films” and that too in the far flung remote areas of our country, but guess you forgot about that up to date net savvy urban audience.  I somehow do believe, remakes are for sharing with the younger generation the magic of cinematic success in a revised format true to times of today….but if you are thinking that you have cracked it then just don’t forget with the advent of the internet every movie is out there and being watched and so easily connected to what is being seen on celluloid.  Imitation is the best form of flattery and re-hashing the drama just because the film is in another age and time zone justified. Yes, I got that, but at end of the day I am going to compare?

That is when I begin to question and ask, what is the need for me to watch the same old wine in a new bottle?  Why would I want to see some young actor rehash and crush my memories of say an Amitabh Bacchan in Zanjeer or Don?  So what if the hero is singing in the valleys of Switzerland instead of the Film City sets or cars are flying into the sky instead of rolling down a hill …and so what if hero is throwing twenty people into the air to fall in slow motion instead of breaking through brick walls in the studio……End of the day, a remake is a remake…..is a remake.