| Author | Message | ||
     Jambalahaart_raja Side Hero Username: Jambalahaart_raja Post Number: 3479 Registered: 07-2008 Posted From: 206.208.180.240 Rating: |
Very well written. kathalu anni okkate, desa-kala-maana paristhitula batti presentation maarchukuntu povaali. Evolution is a tough task, it's a constant learning process. The Captain of the Ship is the one that is right in the middle of this mess. Davirector maaruthunna kaalam batti, change avuthunna audiences pulse batti trend-setter ayithe, automatic gaa hits padathaayi, stars survive avuthaaru. "Best lesson for life - Keep Calm and deal with it, one day at a time!!!" - Charles Peckham Charlie Day, It's always Sunny in Philadelphia. | ||
| Teluguhero Comedian Username: Teluguhero Post Number: 1175 Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 24.129.108.164 Rating: |
http://bomodel.blogspot.in/2013/09/on-bachchan-remakes.html On 'Bachchan' Remakes EDITORIAL Another remake bit the dust with Zanjeer opening to empty theaters and underwhelming critical reception. While remakes are always tricky propositions, it is an artistic impulse to create a re-imagined version of any significant work of art. Such ambitious urges usually bring about self-destruction (Ram Gopal Verma is still recuperating from his Aag disaster, while Amitabh Bachchan has not ventured into playing a 'villain' since then). However, a rare successful remake does offer interesting thematic re-interpretations of timeless concepts. In that sense, the following two Bachchan Remakes are good fodder for the intellectually stimulated. Lets re-examine both of them ... DON (2006): Amitabh Bachchan's image of an 'angry-young-star' was defined by the writing skills of scriptwriter duo of Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan in the mid-seventies. Some 30 years later, Javed Akhtar's son Farhan Akhtar decided to remake the personal favorite of his dad's work Don (1978), after finding his feet as a director through critically acclaimed Dil Chahta Hai and Lakshya (both considered cult classics in the genre of buddy films and coming-of-age films respectively). Farhan in his own wicked way, not only aspired to recreate his dad's work - but wanted to go beyond it. To fully comprehend Farhan's vision, we need to look back at the history: Amitabh Bachchan's rise as a Superstar was primarily due to the support from the masses. Through cleverly crafted scripts written from the mid to the late seventies - Zanjeer, Majboor, Deewar, Sholay, Trishul, Don and Kala Patthar among others (all penned by Salim-Javed) - Bachchan emerged as a rebellious voice, who went beyond the prevalent feel-good cinema that cherished the simple ethos of the middle-class (epitomized by Rajesh Khanna's work in the early seventies). The oppressed angst of the masses found ample entertainment in the fairy-tale land created by Salim-Javed, where the lanky hero could beat the pulp out of the capitalists and their pet goons. Helped considerably by the competition - which comprised of a bunch of soft-male stars, who found great pleasure in only romancing ladies with weird expressions and mannerisms - Bachchan forged his own unique signature. From the mid-eighties, Bachchan lost his touch and became a pale shadow of his former self - slowly fading away. After 15 humiliating years, he managed to make a comeback in elderly patriarchal roles that shockingly patronized capitalism, institutional values or bourgeois ethos. His success in movies like Mohabbatein, Waqt, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Baghban, etc did bring him back to financial success and fame - only at the cost of his own image. This subversion and self-deconstruction of the 'Bachchan Signature' was well reflected in Farhan's twisted climax of Don - the winner now is not the paan-chewing, working class Vijay (as Salim-Javed had envisioned) - but the power-hungry, megalomaniac Don, who can compromise on any level for his own glory. The new Don, however, suffered due to poor casting choice. When Farhan conceptualized his Don, Shahrukh Khan was the reigning Superstar of Bollywood. It made commercial sense to go for the biggest cast possible - but it just did not fit in. Farhan wanted to retain his dad's golden dialogues from the original. Unfortunately, Shahrukh's romantic voice is no match for Bachhan's baritone and the movie suffered on this account. While Farhan's rendition came out conceptually more twisted, reflectively more cerebral and laced with slick, sophisticated look-and-feel - it still could not replicate the former's Superhit success at box office (although it was minor Hit in its own terms). AGNEEPATH (2012): After Farhan Akhtar, it was Karan Johar's turn. And once again, Agneepath 2.0's success cannot be perceived without glancing back at the history: Karan's late father, Yash Johar had founded Dharma Productions in the late seventies and his first production was Dostana (1980), featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha. The movie was a box office hit. The early eighties were the peak of Amitabh's stardom from the box-office standpoint and he was often referred to as 'one-man-industry'. However, his movies had become increasingly formulaic to the extent of today's random masala-entertainers. Continuous en-cashing on the 'angry young man' image had already made it stale but was commercially very lucrative. The gravitas of his personality was becoming increasingly inconsistent - and in some of his self-indulgent attempts at buffoonery, he was at par with the dancing sensations of the eighties - Jeetendra and Mithun Chakraborty. The Bachchan magic was finally lost in the mid-eighties, which coincided with his political misadventures. By the time Yash Johar collaborated again with Bachchan for Agneepath (1990), Amitabh was way past his prime. Going for the low hanging fruit, director Mukul Anand made a 'hero-worship-of-a-movie' that had poor plot, no narrative but only bizarre plot twists, loud over-the-top acting, cacophonous dialogue-baazi, poorly sketched lead and supporting characters. Overall it was a terribly embarrassing rendition of Brian De Palma's cult crime classic Scarface (1983). It was not a surprise that Agneepath failed at the box office, and was severely panned by both critics and audience alike - causing heartbreaks for its makers. In those days, films opened in limited number of screens (due to infrastructural limitations) and a good opening neither implied large number of footfalls nor any substantial collection (as in today's market dynamics). Films needed to run for weeks before the investors could recoup their investment, and Agneepath could not sustain beyond the initial week, even with all its hype. [ However, over the years the fans of the megastar have been able to sympathize with Anand's childish hero worship, rendering the movie as a cult classic within that demographic.] Karan Johar's Agneepath (2012), concentrated on making a better 'film'. The Kuch Kuch Hota Hai director refrained from directing such material (most fortunately!) and brought in debutante director Karan Malhotra to do the honors. The idea was to pay tribute to the silent, brooding and subtle Amitabh (from the seventies) rather than the loud, over-the-top and larger-than-life Bachchan (from the eighties). The 'key' moments were recreated with livid imagination and integrated synchronously with the narrative-driven storytelling. The iconic poem got seamlessly merged with the revamped script, while the most iconic dialogue became surprisingly coherent by focusing on the revenge theme. The unnecessary supporting characters were not carried over (including those embarrassing song and dance routines) from the original, which was a compromise made by Anand in order to compensate for Bachchan's waning star power. The resultant was not only a better film, but an artistic triumph. While the original had collapsed under the burden of its formula-driven, generic and stale film-making; the new one is a sharp contrast to the southern-style, bastardized-masala movies that are currently being made on a regular basis. The only problem here was the over-the-top villain with a ridiculous Voldemort-like getup. The violent and brutal tone of this version was true to the crime film genre - a rarity for a commercial high budget film. But it also unsettled the family and female based audience of Dharma Productions, as well as the happy-go-lucky audience of bastardized-masala. As a result, the movie did not exhibit great legs after taking a bumper opening (considering the genre); but did enough to become a Superhit - that too a critically acclaimed one. [ Not a small deal considering it reconstructed a megastar's so-called iconic role] Obviously, there is still market potential in reconstructing the 'Bachchan Signature' (India is still widely divided into the 'haves' and the 'have-nots'). But our lazy current filmmakers are too formula-driven and star-worshiping types to invest in venturing into that trajectory. As a consequence, the industry does not have not a single 'man' among its current bunch of boyish A-listers, all in their forties ... |
