Year after year we as Bollywood fans have been bearing remakes... remakes of movies of bygone era, remakes of South Indian movies, remakes of Hollywood movies, and the ones who are really different, remake the Asian movies, like Anurag did, Cavite into Aamir. And I somehow understand the phenomenon of remake of movies of different cultures, different languages. I can understand Munnabhai's South version, or Ghajini's north version, what really confuses me is when an old movie is remade.
1) Its always a losing battle, no matter what you make, people are always going to say that the older version was better, more to do with human psyche, I think. We humans are seldom welcoming to a change, something new, different. We feel comfortable in our old PJs, old blankets, now there might be hole in some not so decent areas, but we still like to wear those. We connect better with those, new clothes, might be fancy, but they are never as comfortable... So, when you try to remake something, sorry, its not going to replace the comforting feeling of the old one, and the shit will eventually land on your face only. You can see this phenomenon everywhere, those who use Windows, will stick to that only, even if they change to Mac, they will still be comfortable on Windows, no matter how superior Mac is or could be. Toothpaste, soaps, mineral water, examples can be countless, no point in trying to convince people that you can make a version of their old favorite which might be better.
2) You also need to understand that generation changes, one generation might look alike their previous generation, but seldom they think the same. They have different values, ideas, views, and they may or may not appreciate someone else's. Again see point 1 for further explanation. Now I can imagine that 70s was the time for Vijay, the angry young man, fighting against the system, society, his own economic condition for the sake of his widhwa behen and andhi ma. But then 90s came which was about Rajs/Rahuls looking for love, his one and only one love, while trying to hold the traditional values, chachis, chachas. uncles aunts, all extended family. But now is the time of guys and girls for whom everything is about friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, buddies, fuck buddies, friends with benefits, how a person of this era going to appreciate Vijay of 70s, just because now he drives newer model of Mercedees? No matter how many logical holes you can plug, psyche of today's audience is lot different than that of 70s, now they might respect the culture of 70s, but are they going to endorse it? I do not really think so. I might like Don, when I saw it last time I did, which was some years ago, but I am not going to come to my home and plug in the CD to watch Amitabh killing people with a briefcase bomb.... I don't think I will connect.
3) By remaking something, you are somehow giving a classic status to the older version, for example,Devdas, I never saw that movie, I mean the old one, but then when newer Devdas was going to come, suddenly there was a feeling, OMG the older one has to be classic. And suddenly you create a pitfall described in point 1.... you can never win against a classic. Moreover its hep to say, dude, I love the oldies... right now everything iscrp. It suddenly marks you as intelligent. How can you win against this mentality?
How tough is it to make something fresh? Something suitable for today's time and culture? And no, shooting in Newyork or Europe doesn't make anything new.... I bet something can be written which might smell fresh rather than stink stale and culturally alien. If there is really a dearth of writers in BW, why not consider something out of the box? Male movies on games for a change, HW is doing that and making millions, and funnily enough, acquiring game rights is easier than acquiring movie right, not to mention cheaper.
Consider this as a movie....
*Mind you, all these are real game plays, not movies....
Now these are games... with a storyline which can make anyone's mind go WTF just happened, in a good way OFC. Coming in sequels, all brilliantly linked, I bet better than any BW writer can imagine, buy these ones if you have to, but Stepmom? Really? Even HW didn't exactly love that movie.
Now when we are running to BW for scripts, best HW writers are running towards gaming industry, thats how lucrative it has become, and OFC, 3-4 game contracts, wider reach, unimaginable money involved.... and the best of the best till date those best game script writers have come out till date???
Oh didn't know that assassin is coming back with his britherhood this time, updated the video, see the quality not just of the graphics but the way story is being told....
ReplyDeleteKunal - games being made into movies is LAME IMHO. Look at Lara Croft! Remakes will happen all the time - even the classics like Sabrina were remade. My first concern is - is the remake a thievery or legitimate? Aamir and Bheja Fry were to and out plagiarized. Let us first set the house in order and get official rights. Then see if the film can be made decently. Why blame remakes only - it is not like we are making stellar "original" films! Taking an entire official story line and somehow not being able to deliver is better than taking 50 story lines, stealing bits from here and there, cutting and pasting and STILL NOT being able to deliver!
ReplyDeletePardesi, a lot of things. Lara Croft for one was a huge franchise, and a pretty successful one, the story pretty laid out, and TBH it was no way connected to the game. Just the character Lara Croft was, but not the story of the movie.
ReplyDeleteSecond, there are so many other examples, Hitman, Prince of Persia, Resident evil, look at the stories of these movies, not Hitman OFC because its not story specific game, but PoP and RE have exceptional story lines and OFC big time franchises.
OFC I agree that the rights should be bought officially, but lets just see the stories being liked world over, games can be seen as genuine cross over products, and none is set in NY, Sydney or Cali, except GTA, and its nothing like KJo movies.
Fact is that they are messing up by "remaking" movies more suitable for western sensibilities and very halfheartedly trying to adapt them for Indian audiences, and its clearly not working.
I think they do not have the cultural understanding of their own nation forget about the globe which they are trying to go for. Look at AC game for instance, swept over the globe for 5 years now, based in middle east....
What they are trying to do is show us western locales, show weird western sensibilities and then dishing out the product on us. OFC we have a choice to reject them and rather go for something more interesting, that is HW... but then fears of SRK himself will become real about BW falling prey to HW
I do not believe that stories are WESTERN. If that was the case then we would not have successful adaptations of Shakespeare - a Westerner who told good stories NOT western stories. Any story can be adapted - it had to be an adaptation that moulds it into the native mould.
ReplyDeleteSetting films outside India cannot be bad in itself. Look at Namesake...
Pardesi, you can not compare the writing of Shakespeare with other lesser mortals, and you can even see the number of "remakes" official and unofficial, and consider the impact they make. TBH very very few remakes have worked, whicvh in itself shows that its not easy to adapt a screenplay for a different culture, people with different sensibilities altogether.
ReplyDeleteI did not like Namesake TBH so won't comment on that, but I think there was a time when India was not too confident on itself, today the case is not the same actually Indians are too much in love with themselves, they will prefer the movies set in India, actually it becomes a selling point, so setting mocvies abroad is not longer the right thig to do IMHO
Ok I stand corrected, Mihirfanavis has reminded me that franchise rights are not really any less expensive..
ReplyDelete@Filmy_Shilmy Nice article, however, acquiring the rights of a game franchise is *not* less expensive than that of a film franchise :)