68 - Hindi version of Foreign Movies
I
am a movie buff. That is to say that I
watch a lot of movies. May be 3-4 movies
a week😊😊. Sometimes it may even
stretch to about 5-6 a week!! I remember
during my college days, when there was a Mystery week at the Chanakya theatre
in Delhi where they were showing all mystery movies throughout the week. Chanakya was famous for only English movies
during those times. I was able to watch
5 movies in 5 days during my college days, of course while bunking the college😊. Saturday and Sunday, being
holidays, there was no college!!! Otherwise I would have seen 7 movies for 7
days straight!!
Now coming to the topic, in recent times, there were 2 movies that
have been adapted brilliantly in Hindi and Tamil/Telugu versions. The first movie is Badla, which is a
scene-to-scene copy of a Spanish film called Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest,
made in 2016) and the second movie is Thozha (Tamil)/Oopiri(Telugu) which was a
remake of the French film, The Intouchables (made in 2011).
Coming to Badla first, I saw the Hindi version first and was
super-awed by the film and the film’s characters. Without giving out any details of the film so
as to mention any spoilers, I was simply amazed by the characters and the story
that they weaved. Some of the scenes are
repeated in the movie to show the other character’s version of the
understanding of the scene. I was so
awed by the movie that I thought I should see the original also to see how
people have enacted the scenes in the original movie. Contratiempo, the original movie (I saw with
subtitles) was spell-binding. Even
though I knew how it was going to end, I was simply caught up in the
story. And trust me, the original is way
beyond the Hindi version!! Except the
Mahabharata connection (the stories of Mahabharata) that is made in Badla,
every scene is just a copy-and-paste of the scenes in the original film!! Even though I liked Badla when I first saw
it, having seen Contratiempo, has relegated it to the 2nd position
when compared with Contratiempo. When
you see the film, you will understand as to why the shooting had to be done in
Europe😊
and not in any part of India!! In case you are able to, see Contratiempo
also after watching Badla. In the
original movie, the Amitabh character is a Female and Taapsee’s character is a
Male. Also Amrita Singh’s character is a
Male. Rest of the story is a
frame-by-frame copy!!
Now for Thozha. A movie starring Nagarjuna and Karthi. I came to know about the movie when one of
the song scenes was being shot in the Hyderabad Yacht Club in Hyderabad. Since, that time, my daughter was learning
Sailing, I was aware that Nagarjuna and Karthi were going to be there in the
Club for the shoot. During the
shoot-break, Karthi was kind enough to pose for this photo with my daughter and
my brother’s daughter. Nagarjuna’s
bodyguard shooed me away ☹
At that point only I came to know that this is a remake of The
Intouchables movie. After a few days, I
watched the Intouchables, which was a different-kind-of-friendship between a
black person and a white person. The
white person cannot move any of his body part, below his neck and the black
person is hired as his helper. This is
actually based on a true story. The
movie was very good and I liked it very much.
Later when Thozha released, I saw it too. It was an official remake but the story was
changed to cater to Indian tastes. I
liked Thozha also to the same extent as Intouchables. Both were cleverly made and the actors’
performance in both the movies were too good.
The reason for this blog was to highlight the fact that without
these remakes we would never have come across these gems of movies being made
in foreign languages. Thanks to the
people who look out for these films and bring it to us in a language that we
can understand!! Thozha did a good
business and Badla too is doing a good business.
You can either go for a scene-to-scene copy of the film, if the
foreign film is so good, or you can adapt the story to fit-in with what the
conditions are in India. Either way, if
the content is good enough, the film will be a success!!
Cheers!!
Today’s Daffy Definition
Prisoner – A person who doesn’t mind being interrupted in the middle
of a sentence!!
PS – Next couple of blogs would be on the
best film ever made in India, according to me 😊😊
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