Remakes are seen over and over again in India, with formulas being taken from films in every language possible — English, Spanish, French and even Tamil and Telugu. When it comes to a successful formula, nobody thinks twice before making his or her own version of it. A simple case in point is the recently-released movie Dinner For Schmucks, which many in India will remember better as the foreign version of Bheja Fry, which in turn was also an adaptation of the French movie Le Dîner De Cons. But while some remakes work well, some fall flat. Many would remember Aag by Ram Gopal Verma, which turned out to be a damp squib at the box office. So what is it about remakes that attracts so much attention and do they ever live up to the standard set by the original? Metrolife talks to the people in the City and finds out.
“Remakes fall flat for me, simply because they are an attempt at remaking the same movie,” says Nikhil, a marketing professional. But jokes apart, many feel that well-known remakes have huge expectations to live up to. “The fact that a movie is a remake of some other movie is highlighted so many times that more often than not, everybody is aware of it. And if the original is really good, the expectations increase monumentally,” says Abhinav, a marketing professional. Sudhin, a student adds, “Those who have seen Stepmom will definitely think twice before going for Karan Johar’s mishmashed version of it.”
Dramas and romantic comedies are often remade because it is up to the actors to bring out some kind of twist to the original story. “Look at Partner. It was a scene-by-scene copy of Hitch but it still worked because of the chemistry between the main leads,” says Avin, a student. “Even Sholay borrowed significantly from the Seven Samurai but then, it remains a classic because each actor made his or her role special,” says Jomon, an IT professional.
But the same is not true for action flicks and murder mysteries. “It would be like remaking The Sixth Sense, which would never work because everyone knows what happened,” says Savita, a student. “Remakes with twists, on the other hand, would be better,” says Nikhil. The case in point is Don, whose end was completely revamped from the original version of the 70s. But most importantly, the remakes that work are the ones that take into account the change in culture but don’t destroy the basic storyline. “In Dinner for Schmucks, the main lead was changed to an upstanding good guy which completely destroyed the character. Thankfully, the same mistake was not made in the Hindi version,” says Sudhin.
