Old Wine in a New Bottle

Do you want to make a name in the big bad world of Bollywood? Is facing the camera or delivering dialogues or garma garam action sequences not your cup of tea? There’s no reason to lose heart. For all that you know you may become the next Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali or ahem Ram Gopal Verma. Make superstars dance to your tunes and deliver innumerable heart rending acceptance speeches at awards ceremonies. Just go behind the camera, pull up your socks and shout ‘sound, camera, action’! Oh yes, turning director is the easiest way to climb up the celebrity ladder.
And nowadays the job has turned easier. You do not need to spend sleepless nights in search for the perfect story. The perfect recipe which is going to set the box office afire is right there, ripe and ready to be plucked by you. All you have to do is change a few scenes here and there, remix the music and if possible arrange a casting coup with the biggest names in the industry. Lo and behold you have arrived in Bollywood. Remakes or old films in a new avatar are the current fad doing the rounds of the Hindi film industry. Here’s a look at the revamped films in recent years, some of which have set the cash registers ringing, and others being damp squibs at the box office.
Devdas, the classic tale of the biggest loser [ahem, lover] has been the favourite of many a Bollywood director. P.C Barua’s tale of the star crossed trio of Paro, Devdas and Chandramukhi was revamped by Bimal Roy with Dilip Kumar cast as the doomed lover. The film catapulted Kumar to instant stardom. Then Sanjay Leela Bhansali had the ingenious brainwave to take up this eternal saga of lost love. Shahrukh, Madhuri and Aishwarya’s presence in the film assured a good opening at the box office. Melodious music by Ismail Darbar also contributed to the film’s success. Stellar performances by SRK and Madhuri had the power to put into background ludicrous overacting by Jackie Shroff {Chunilaal), Kirron Kher {Paro’s mother}. Bhansali failed to capture the simplicity of rural Bengal, or the subtle nuances of love. But this visual extravaganza succeeded in capturing the audience’s hearts, with Devdas being the biggest blockbuster of the year.
Bengali literature seems to have been a source of inspiration for many a Bollywood filmmaker. First time director Pradeep Sarkar chose Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s tale of love ’Parineeta’ for his debut film. The setting of the film was changed to the 1960’s. Music by Shantanu Moitra, strong performances {Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt} and the nostalgia of erstwhile ‘Calcutta’ made Parineeta a favourite of the new generation as well as the old. Moreover Parineeta gave film lovers an extremely talented and vivacious actress in the form of Vidya Balan.
The success of Pradeep Sarkar’s film turned remakes into a rage. The year 2006 saw two blockbusters of yesteryears being revamped. The seventies thriller ‘Don’ set filmmaker Farhan Akhtar’s imagination to fire. Farhan's "Don" was a gadget-friendly hi-tech film and he changed the milieu as well - if the original was shot with Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai, the new version starring Shah Rukh Khan was filmed in Malaysia. An unexpected, startling twist in the tale, Kareena Kapoor’s sizzling dance number ‘yeh mera dil’ and King Khan dancing to ‘khaike paan banaraswala’ helped lure audiences to theatres.
Unfortunately J.P.Dutta’s remake of the classic tale of the infamous Lucknow courtesan Umrao Jaan failed to recreate the magic of the original. The journey of this love starved woman was brilliantly essayed on celluloid by Rekha. But Aishwarys, despite being one of the biggest Indian beauties failed to capture the essence of Umrao, her pain, the angst of unrequited love and hurt by the ingratitude of family members. A disinterested performance by Junior Bachchan did not help the film to gain the favor of film lovers.
Ram Gopal Varma may be touted as the king of remakes. First, Ramu decided to revamp his own creation ‘Shiva’. But the film failed miserably to match up to the intensity of the original which had Nagarjuna in the lead. A critic went as far as suspecting Ramu of suffering from some mysterious mental ailment. But the worst was yet to come. Obsessed with his ingenuity, RGV decided to venture where angel has feared to tread. ‘Sholay’, the biggest blockbuster of all times inspired Ramu to give it his own colour. Cries of protest went up in the industry where Ramu was castigated for blasphemy. But Amitabh Bachchan[part of the original] decided to lend moral support to the talented and courageous filmmaker and agreed to be part of Ramu’s project as the fearsome Gabbar Singh. The makers of the original went up in arms and Ramu had to change the title of the film to ‘Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag’. But the aag turned out to be a damp squib. Amitabh Bachchan as Babban hamming away to glory could not hold a candle to Amjad Khan’s portrayal of the most fearsome villain in Indian cinema. The ravines of Chambal gave way to the dinghy suburbs of Mumbai. The vivacious tangewali Basanti gave way to the skimpily clad, profanity spewing Ghungroo[portrayed by Ramu’s current muse Nisha Kothari]. Even Urmila Matondkar gyrating and pulsating to ‘mehbooba mehbooba’ with AB’s baby for company could help the film from sinking without a trace. Ramu earned more brickbats in his attempt to remake Sholay than he has in his entire career.
The hit thriller ‘Victoria 203’ with Ashok Kumar and Pran was remade by failed actor Kamal Sadanah. Lackluster performances, unconvincing storyline and insignificant music helped the film turn into a disaster. Vinod Mehra’s daughter could not rekindle the fire of Saira Banu’s smouldering sensuality.
The dismal performances of these films however have not deterred filmmakers from joining the remake bandwagon. Pritish Nandy chose to remake the classic ‘Saheb Biwi Aur Ghulam’ but the project has finally been taken up by the ace director from Bengal, Rituporno Ghosh. Filmmakers are being smitten by the tale of the unfortunate lover Devdas. Sudhir Misra and Anurag Kashyap have announced to make revamped versions of Devdas with Shiney Ahuja and Abhay Deol respectively. The Rishi Kapoor-Simi Gerawal starrer Karz is to be remade with the singing/acting sensation [albeit nasal] Himmesh Reshammiya. More and more filmmakers are turning to remaking films as an easy way to instant success. But a thought should be spared for film lovers across all ages. Just as instant coffee fails to satisfy the tastes of connoisseurs, remakes fail to satiate true film lovers. If all films are remade, then nothing new will ever be manufactured to be remade in turn by our next generation. So here’s some food for thought for the ever increasing remake machinery of Bollywood.