Wednesday, 19 July 2017

My list of best Bollywood movies that were remake of Hollywood blockbusters

Bollywood is never short of inspiration. For Bollywood, inspiration means ctrl c +ctrl v. Dozens of Bollywood movies were unofficial copies of Hollywood flicks. From Dil Diya Dard liya (remake of Wuthering heights) to Sholay (Seven Samurais), Bollywood has presented the stories with their desi copyrights. Here is my list of the Hollywood movies that were remade into Bollywood flicks.

10) Dil Diya Dard Liya – This classic movie starring Dilip Kumar and Waheeda Rehman was desi adaptation of Emily Bronte’s classic novel – Wuthering heights. Dilip Kumar played the role of Heathcliffe while Waheeda Rehman played the role of Catherine. The movie climax had a happy ending while the original novel had a tragic climax. Dil Diya Dard Liya was one of the best movies in the career of Dilip Kumar.


9) Sholay – The most successful remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic – The Seven Samurais, G.P.Sippy’s Sholay became a milestone in filmmaking. Directed by Ramesh Sippy, Sholay was epic in every department. Amjad Khan’s epic role as dacoit Gabbar Singh made him a star overnight. From Sambha, Kaalia to Basanti, Thakur and Jai-Veeru, every role was a legend in itself. What stayed in my mind was the role of Jai played by Amitabh who takes a bullet on himself to save his buddy Veeru played by Dharmendra. Akira Kurosawa’s classic was again remade into China Gate which featured a bunch of war veterans pitted against a dread dacoit – Jagira played by Mukesh Tiwari. In my opinion, Jagira was scarier than Gabbar.

8) Karz – Karz was an unofficial remake of Hollywood classic – The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. Rishi Kapoor played the role of Monty, a pop singer who sees visuals of a man getting thrashed to death by a woman. Monty later discovers he was Ravi Verma in his previous birth who was killed by his own wife. Thus begins the vengeance of Monty to avenge his death and search for his long lost mother and sister. Karz was the movie that introduced me to the concept of reincarnation. It was one of my favorite movies that I watched countless times.

7) Ghulam – The 1998 Aamir Khan starrer - Ghulam was remake of Marlon Brando’s movie – On the waterfront. I count this movie as Aamir Khan’s best role of his career. A good for nothing boxer Sidhu decides to rebel against a gang lord Ronnie and seeks justice for an honest union leader who is killed by Ronnie’s henchmen. This movie re-launched Rani Mukherjee and made her an overnight star. ‘Aati Kya Khandala’ was a huge blockbuster song that was top in every music chart.Even the 80’s movie – Kabzaa starring Sanjay Dutt was inspired by On the waterfront.


6) Dharmatma – If Hollywood had Don Vito Corleone, Bollywood had its own desi Godfather Dharmatma. Dharmatma was the Hollywood remake of Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster movie – The Godfather. Actor Premnath played the role of desi Godfather – Dharmatma while Feroz Khan played the role of Michael Corleone portrayed by Al Pacino. Filled with typical Bollywood songs, emotions and drama, Dharmatma was a huge blockbuster in career of Feroz Khan. Even the Aamir’s delayed movie – Aatank hi Aatank was a scene to scene remake of Godfather.

7) Baazigar – Baazigar changed the typical conventions of Bollywood filmy formula and introduced an anti-hero Shahrukh Khan who throws his heroine from a building. Such plot was really unacceptable for Indian audiences. Never before had a hero killed his own love interest. A remake of ‘A Kiss before dying’, Baazigar established Shahrukh Khan as the biggest star in Bollywood. A vengeance thriller packed with drama, action and chilling suspense, Baazigar is undoubtedly the best remake that surpasses even the original.

6) Fitoor – The 2016 Bollywood romantic flick was a weak adaptation of Charles Dickens’ classic book – Great Expectations. Featuring Aditya Roy Kapur and Katrina Kaif in the lead role, Fitoor was story of love and expectations. The backdrop of story was set in Kashmir. Ajay Devgan played the role of a secret benefactor of Aditya Roy Kapur. The movie didn’t succeed as our Indian audiences were too immature to understand the literary ideas of Charles Dickens.

5) Daraar – The 1996 thriller was remake of Julia Robert’s movie – Sleeping with the enemy. Juhi Chawla played the role of oppressed wife who is tormented by her psychotic and highly possessive husband played by Arbaaz Khan.  She escapes from her horrible marital life and starts a new life. Little does she realize that her past is chasing her in form of her husband who has returned to haunt her for worse. Agnisakshi and Daraar were based on ‘Sleeping with the enemy’. Among these two movies, Daraar captures the thrill of the original. Arbaaz’s performance as the psychotic and over caring husband was award winning. Nevertheless this is the best remake of Sleeping with the enemy.

4) Gumnaam – This late 60’s Bollywood suspense flick was a huge blockbuster in its time. Based on Agatha Christie’s mystery novel – And there were none, this was a gripping suspense where a group of unknown strangers start getting killed on an isolated island. The Bollywood remake was nowhere closer to the psychological thriller novel. It was stuffed with all the nonsense item numbers, silly comedies, romantic tracks and predictable climax. Though it was a successful suspense flick, it couldn’t capture the thrilling spirit of Agatha’s writings.

3) Ek Ajnabee – This 2005 action movie starring Amitabh Bachchan was a scene to scene remake of 2004 Hollywood movie – Man on fire starring the talented Denzel Washington. There was no originality in this movie as the writers copied all the scenes from ‘Man on fire’. Though Ek Ajnabee was a decent action drama, it lacked the edge that Denzel Washington brought on screen. Based on Kidnappings, Man on fire was an intense emotional drama that revolves around a hired bodyguard who decides to track down all the kidnappers who have kidnapped his master’s daughter.

2) Naina – When Bollywood directors are jobless, they either watch Korean horror movies or a south Indian movie to get them back to work. The 2005 supernatural movie – Naina is an unofficial remake of Hongkong-Singaporean movie ‘The Eye’.
A visually impaired girl Naina undergoes corneal transplant only to see ghostly visions and horrifying future incidents. Why is Naina seeing ghostly visions? Who is the mysterious eye donor? How is the mysterious eye donor connected to Naina?
Naina was equally scary as the original. Though the Hollywood movie – The Eye also based on the same movie was less scary, Jessica Alba’s performance was sincere as the visually impaired girl. Urmila Matondkar played the role of visually impaired girl in the Bollywood remake – Naina.

1) Aashiqui 2 – This 2013 musical romantic blockbuster was remake of 1937 Hollywood classic movie – A star is born. An alcoholic, fading singer Rahul Jaykar mentors a struggling singer Aarohi and falls in love with her. Though Aarohi becomes a successful singer, Rahul starts losing his stardom due to excessive alcoholism. The movie ends on a tragic note. One of the best tragic romances, Aashiqui 2 was equally successful as its first part. Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper is working on the new remake of ‘A star is born’ along with Lady Gaga in the lead role. This new remake is scheduled for a 2018 release.   

Hope you all will like my list of these Bollywood flicks that were remakes of the Hollywood movies. I will soon be coming up with my next list of Bollywood movies that were remakes of Hollywood flicks.







1 comment:

  1. A very intriguing and interesting article on cinematic remakes and adaptations that Bollywood, with its loose creativity, has churned out with. Among all, I really admired 'Sholay' and 'Ghulam' for being very superior remakes of great films in their own right.

    I would just like to point out that 'Sholay' was not just based on 'Seven Samurai' or its direct Hollywood version 'The Magnificent Seven'. It was also inspired by the whole Western genre in general, especially the Spaghetti Westerns. That trick that Jai and Veeru play, to get deliberately arrested to earn their bounty reward, was something that we got to see in 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly' while that scene in which Gabbar Singh massacres Thakur's family is eerily reminiscent of 'Once Upon A Time In The West', which, incidentally, also featured a harmonica as a part of the soundtrack, albeit in a different context.

    Nevertheless, a very interesting list, Prashant. A few names that I would have loved to chip in would be 'Murder' (2004), 'No Smoking' (a loosely faithful version of 'Quitters Inc' and even hints of Franz Kafka) and even some of Vishal Bhardwaj's films, since this list also includes literary adaptations.

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