An improved version of the article is published in Film Companion. . Super :) Thanks to the FC Editorial.
Remakes are tricky. To make successful remakes it is not enough if you are good at cloning, you should have mastered the art of migrating souls too. Take for instance Dayavan, the Hindi remake of Mani Ratnam’s masterpiece Nayakan. While Nayakan is a milestone in Indian cinema, Dayavan is languishing with an IMDB rating of 6.5/10. So what went wrong? In Mani Ratnam’s own words, Nayakan is a story of ‘an underdog’s conquest in an alien zone’. But the whole thing fell apart when Dayavan was set in Mumbai, a familiar territory for the characters and the Hindi audience (Conversations with Mani Ratnam by Baradwaj Rangan). The soul is shattered. Similarly, Sujoy Ghosh’s acclaimed Kahaani did not live up to its standards in its Telugu/Tamil version. Kahaani is about the travails of young, ‘pregnant’ lady in search of her missing husband, and how overcoming all odds she outwits the system filled with dangerous men. Cut out the word ‘pregnant’ and you have just one more Sathyavan-Savithri story. And that is what precisely happened with the remake. The soul went missing.
With the fairly well made Dharala Prabhu (Tamil remake of Vicky Donor, Hindi) streaming on Prime now, here is a look at a few films that took successful Tamil avatars.
Adithya Varma (Arjun Reddy, Telugu) … Taking bull by the horns
Arjun Reddy (Telugu) was a controversial, commercially successful, cult film that banked on the talented actor Vijay Devarakonda. The seasoned Shahid Kapoor too justified his part in the Hindi version, Kabir Singh. The film is about a medico who is basically a raging bull that thinks the girl he likes is his property. The movie lapped up fans and haters alike. To even attempt to use a film with this history as an acting debut is itself something intriguing. But you have to give it to him — Dhruv established right in his very first film that he is someone who has it in him, and someone who is here for the long haul. Waiting to see more of him… Also eager to watch the first version of the film, Varma, directed by Bala and abandoned.
Thillu Mullu (Gol Mal, Hindi) … Comedian Superstar
It is not totally wrong to say Rajinikanth and the aura around him was built by remakes. Some of his greatest ‘super star’ films like Billa, Thee, Naan Sigappu Manithan, Mr.Bharath, Panakkaran and Muthu are all remakes. Even his comeback film Chandramukhi was a remake. But one film that stands out is Thillu Mullu — Rajinikanth’s first full length comedy film. Until then the star was majorly into ‘action’ mode. But Thillu Mullu, helmed by the legendary K.Balachander and written by Visu, presented us an unexplored facet of the Superstar. Sowcar Janaki and Thengai Srinivasan (as the rib tickling, gullible manager Sriramachandramurthy) lend a solid support to Rajini in this film that is basically a comedy woven around the impersonation of a non-existing twin brother. The movie also has Nagesh (playing himself) and Kamal Hassan (also playing himself) in guest roles. The plot and performance made sure that Aiyampettai Arivudainambi Kaliyaperumal Chandran is remembered even to this day; And Rajinikanth stood not just for style and stunts— but for comedy too.
Sathya (Arjun, Hindi)… The angry, young Kamal
Papanasam, a successful remake of the Malayalam film Drishyam, was a treat for film aficionados who had a rare chance to directly compare and cherish the output of two masters of our times — Kamal Hassan and Mohan Lal — scene by scene. Kamal’s other important remakes are the laugh riot Vasool Raja MBBS (Munnabhai MBBS, Hindi), social thriller Unnai Pol Oruvan (A Wednesday, Hindi) and critically acclaimed, performance packed Kuruthipunal (Drohkaal, Hindi). But Sathya easily outshines as the best remake by Kamal yet. In this angry, young man story the actor with his new get-up — of short hairdo, untamed beard, steel kada and sleeves rolled up till the biceps— set the screens on fire. Sathya Kamal was a nothing less than a thunder bolt. The film has a lot of light moments too like the one where Sathya’s Keralite girlfriend Geetha takes him to her home, and soon Sathya catches her aunty off guard with his Malayalam skills. Sathya has one of the ageless melodies of maestro Ilayaraja. Even in the year 2020 Valai oosai… pours love and melts hearts. While there have been many directors who started off their careers with block busters, only a few have been lucky enough to launch themselves with cult films. With Sathya, the debut director Suresh Krissna joined the elite league.
Nanban (3 Idiots, Hindi) … Follow your passion
Director’s Shankar’s only remake yet, till its release Nanban kept the audience wondering how could a mass hero like Vijay pull off a film that does not have— an intro song, flying cars, exploding bombs, ‘loosu ponnu’ heroine and deadly villains with thick moustaches. (And the very fundamental question of how could Vijay fill in the shoes of Amir Khan?) Fortunately, for all of us the film worked. Given that Tamil Nadu has a mind boggling number of engineering colleges, Nanban was a much needed film in terms of the message it had. The film also deglamorised the stars and brought meaningful as well entertaining scripts to the centrestage. For the top heroes of the industry Nanban showed a new approach to blockbusters. But sadly, it was just an aberration as even Vijay himself got back to his comfort zone filling his box with Vijay-brand of films like Jilla, Bairavaa, Thalaiva and so on.
Nerkonda Paarvai (Pink, Hindi)… No means No!
It took everyone by surprise when it was announced that Ajith Kumar would be reprising Amitabh Bachan’s role in Pink. The wonderfully written Hindi film, directed by Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury, did not have scope for foreign songs or Yogi Babu; also the film did not exploit any of the ready-made sentiments like brother-sister bond or organic farming. The film was about how a reclusive, old lawyer takes up the case of three young women who get entangled in a series of torments that take root from the way our society perceives women. While 3 Idiots made us to reflect on our education system, Pink touched a very raw nerve of our patriarchal mindsets. Great films are the ones that present us a new dimension of ourselves; they make us see ourselves in a new light. Pink was truly a great film. It exposed us. Directed by H.Vinoth, Nerkonda Paarvai stuck to the original, even if it meant running the risk of getting tagged as an ‘urban’ film. But the movie was a bumper hit. Ajith Kumar excelled in this film that was essentially a court room drama, with a very limited number of characters. Rangaraj Pandey, a journalist, too proved his mettle as a fine actor. Though a stunt sequence was force fitted into the script, luckily, it was not allowed to run amok. The film effectively delivered a message that was very much needed; And it becomes special when the ‘ultimate star’ delivered it.
Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (Aniathipravu, Malayalam)… Pure love
Those were the formative years in Vijay’s career and he was doing 4–5 films every year. While many were also-rans, a few of them glittered. Released in 1995, Vikraman’s Poove Unakkaga is one of those initial films that made us take Vijay seriously as an ‘actor’. The very next year, the actor enriched his portfolio with Fazil’s Kadhalukku Mariyadhai — one of the most beautiful love films in Tamil. A remake of the director’s own Malayalam movie, the story is as simple as a circle: the boy and the girl fall in love, the elders object, the pair struggles and finally it ends happily for all. But the way the story is taken forward - with smooth, natural dialogues backed up with neat performance by a dozen proficient actors like Srividya, Sivakumar, Radha Ravi, K.P.A.C.Lalitha, Charle, Manivannan and others - just bowls you over. Vijay-Shalini pair had an extraordinary chemistry that sustained throughout the film. Unlike the usual love films, in KM the lead pair did not have any ‘romance’ scene; even in duet songs they maintained a safe distance. Still the pair worked magic — simply by the way they conversed with each other, by the way they missed each other, and by the way they just looked at each other. Pure love oozed. Maestro Ilayaraja carried out his routine of making a film transcendental with his compositions. But the album had two unusual things — Vijay crooned a peppy, easy-as-breeze number and established himself as a bankable hero-singer; and it did not have S.P.Balasubramaniam. Films like Kadhalukku Mariyadhai make us wonder what goes wrong as stars rise, and why they forget how they won the hearts in the first place.
Remakes are almost as old as cinema. But the early remakes were happening within the Hollywood. Like the same way Thillu Mullu was remade in Tamil, or more recently the remake of The Lion King. Though there were remakes of non-English films like Seven Samurai (Japanese) into English, what really made everyone turn towards the world of remakes was the legendary Martin Scorsese’s crime thriller The Departed (2006). A winner of four Academy Awards, the English remake tactfully migrated the plot from Honk Kong City to Boston, from Cantonese to English, across half the globe—without spoiling the fabric of the original. But if the soul is not preserved the remake of even a song might get really troublesome as seen recently in the case of the Delhi 6’s remixed number Masakali..Masakali…
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