Somehow we always think of Bollywood adaptations as inferior copycat versions of the originals. But what about the desi remakes that got it better than the orginal?
1. Sholay: Far far superior to John Sturges’ The Magnificent 7 which came in 1960. In it a Mexican village is protected from marauders by seven hired mercenaries. The bandit villain was played by the legendary Eli Wallach. He was no patch on Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh. Ramesh Sippy’s version of the story has more interesting characters and the situations of conflict between the mercenaries and the marauders was far more electric in Sholay. In short Sholay was far more magnificent than The Magnificent 7.
2. Masoom: Erich Segal’s tearjerker novel about a family man who brings home his illegitimate child was made into an insipid Hollywood film featuring the distinguished Blythe Danner and Martin Sheen as a happily married couple who face rocky weather when he brings home a son from another mom. Well, sorry guys. Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah were better .And Shekhar kapoor’s Masoom is far far better work than the original.
3. Dushman: Tanuja Chandra’s grossly underrated film features Kajol in her career best performance in a double role. When one of the twins is brutally murdered the other takes revenge. The film was adapted from John Schlesinger’s tepid thriller An Eye For An Eye where Sally Field avenged the death of her daughter. Dushman had a terrific star turn by Kajol and a truly menacing villain in Ashutosh Rana which the original did not.And what about Uttam Singh’s outstanding songs? Can Hollywood beat that?
4. Kahaani: The entire climax of Sujoy Ghosh’s film was allegedly lifted from the Angelina Jolie starrer Taking Lives. Has anyone heard of the Jolie film? It’s not about where you get it from. It’s what you do with it that matters.And the bottomline is Sujoy’s film turned out far superior to D J Caruso’s Taking Lives.
5. Dhamaka: Netflix’s forthcoming feature film with Kartik Aaryan playing a star-news-anchor who negotiates with a terrorist to prevent the city from being blown up, is a far more exciting beast than Kim Byung-woo’s Korean 2013 action thriller Terror Live. Once you see Kartik Aaryan playing the shrewd news anchor you will forget Ha Jung-woo in the original.
