Remakes - I

Its déjà vu time in Bollywood as old classics are being upgraded and brought back to the screen for the new generation. Farhan Akhtar’s Don, with Shah Rukh Khan, has just been released while Ram Gopal Verma has started filming his version of Sholay (this one’s supposed to be set against the backdrop of the Bombay underworld, RGV’s favorite subject). No such remakes have been announced yet in Tamil cinema too but there has been talk of remaking old Rajni movies like Billa. Vijay has supposedly even picked Murattu Kaalai as his choice if he were to star in a Rajni film remake.

Remakes ofcourse aren’t new to us. Just that so far, remakes meant remakes of films from other languages. Our directors have been looking to other languages for inspiration for a long time. And a number of our actors and actresses (some more than others!) have relied on remakes to give them box office success.

It’s easy to see why remakes are so popular. The source films, usually successes, provide a pre-packaged stories(and often screenplays, scripts and songs too!) that have been accepted by a sizeable number of viewers. Viewer tastes are difficult to judge but the director of a remake already has in hand, a story that has been accepted by viewers. So his job comes down to changing the screenplay to suit his target viewer sensibilities. The size of that job varies depending on the language of the source film. The task becomes pretty simple when remaking films from other South Indian languages since the culture and hence, viewer tastes, are pretty similar. So the changes that need to be made when adapting it to a film from one of those languages are pretty minor.

But these minor changes play a big factor in the remake’s success. While what viewers enjoy is probably similar from one state to the other, how they want it presented differs widely. For instance, loudness, whether in the heroism, comedy or sentiments, are a trademark of Tamil and Telugu films while Malayalam films are known to be more natural and subtle. Remakes made without these considerations in mind are bound to fail.

And then there are the people involved in making a film. Everyone (the actor, the actress, the director and the music director to name a few), plays a significant part in the film. They bring in their style, their experience, their connection to the audience, etc. to the film. In other words, each of them adds their own unique touch to the film. Additionally, there are the dynamics of the team when these people work together. But the remake replaces one or more of these people. The new people are ofcourse talented and have their own style but it is not necessary that they fit the film or its characters and they work as well together. When they don’t, the remake fails.

I cannot think of a single remake that I liked better than the original. The remake could be a very good film on its own but when compared to the original, there is something that keeps it a notch below. Naayagan, Avvai Shanmugi(yes, I do consider it to be a remake, whatever Kamal may say!) and Perazhagan would probably qualify as very good remakes. Seenu, Engirundho Vandhaan and Rishi would count among the worst. Chandramukhi and Ghajini would fall somewhere in the middle. They definitely didn't recreate the magic of their respective originals but managed to include other things not found in the original, that made the films work as a whole. And then there are movies like Pattiyal, Gilli, Jayam - remakes that I really liked but whose originals I haven’t seen. I'm not sure how much my opinion of these movies would change if I saw the originals.

So go ahead and let me know the movies you consider the best and the worst remakes. And yes, I'd like to know if there are any remakes you think are better than the original...

To be continued...