There's a lot of talk about the epic awesomeness of Zanjeer being remade starring a Telegu actor called Ram Charan Teja (Ye Teja Teja Kya Hai? Ye Teja Teja..) which has been in news mainly because of Saleem Javed not wanting to let go of their pound of flesh in fresh royalties which they would be entitled to recieve if a certain Law is passed. Recently Agneepath too got remade, and we have had newer (and not always better) versions of Don and Sholay. However these are films that loudly and proudly taut themselves to be the Two Point O's of older movies. There are several movies (that have hit the commercial jackpot) which are actually unabashed copies of other movies. Including that money spinner 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' the success of which is directly responsible for the horrors called 'Devdas' and 'Sawaria'
4. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
The film is about an Indian man living in some place phoren who comes to learn Indian classical music from a renowned singer who lives in a Haveli in the sands of Gujarat/Rajasthan. He falls in love with his daughter, farts in front of her, romances her (etc) and in the end has to let her be because the orthodox old timey singer whose hospitality he was enjoying did not take that shit happening without his knowledge in his own house.
And then he marries off his daughter to a pre-Gangajal Ajay Devgan.
What follows in the second half is an excuse to show scenic beauty of phoren country, as Ajay Devgan tries to do the right thing and reunite his wife with her lover (wow, that's a story you haven't heard before)
Except you HAVE heard it before.
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was an indirect copy of This Film
How, you ask? Well this film had a very simple story. There was this singer
Who comes to a different city in search of fame and takes up residence there. He proceeds to fall in love with the daughter of the house
and when the Father discovers, he presses 'Let All Hell Break Lose' waala button and throws out singer fellow. Then he proceeds to marry off his daughter to an older man
who when he discovers about the existing lover of his wife undertakes a journey to reunite them (because well, fuck, he's a good man).
But Bhansali must have thought of something, right? Maybe a different ending?
Naah, in the end of Woh Saat Din, the girl decided to stay with the man she was forced to marry (because you know, love blossomed etc).
SLB is known for Grandiose movies, but not exactly for originality. Devdas was of course a declared remake. Black 'tipped its hat' to Miracle Worker, and Sawariya was based on a short story. Notice a trend?
3. Baghban
The story was about an elderly couple who live a comfortable life playing Holi etc in a huge house and are in fact living quite contend with themselves, but then because of acute money shortage (which could have been solved to some extent by selling/renting said huge house) they decide to take help from their children. But their children, all four of them are horrible human beings (played by horrible actors) and work upon a system of splitting up their parents so that they have to bear the burden of One Parent each for the duration of 6 months maximum. Also, they do not exactly treat their 'burden' well, causing the old couple pain and suffering etc.
Amit Ji and Hema Ji are suddenly supported by a Son they had adopted (but one who did not actually go out of his way to look for them) when they come across him at a car store which he conveniently owns. Thus we have the story of an elderly couple who are separated and then mistreated by their children and are later helped by an 'Outsider'. They also gain redemption in the end when a book written by Amitabh Bachchan becomes a hit and he earns loads of money, thus saying (though not exactly in these same words) Fuck you to his wayward kids.
The movie also had Mahima Chaudhary in some capacity
So where exactly has this concept of Parents being separated and kept for periods of 6 months sprung from?
This film was the story of an elderly couple played by Sanjeev Kumar and Mala Sinha (who were not quite old in 1976, when the movie was released) who are split up by their sons Naresh and Ramesh (the pre-cursors of Ramesh and Suresh) for exactly 6 months each, and are subjected to a lot of ill-treatment. They find a sympathetic soul in an outsider (their nephew Deven Verma).
But then there is no tale of F-Uing your offsprings after their neglect by minting money through some business prospect. For that the director turned to a movie that is so awesome that it's Hollywood remake is one of the highest grossing films of all time.
But then you would know that already
Avtaar was the story of a man who gets mistreated by his aulaad , which motivates him to treat them with a laat by proving to them that at an old age he can still be industrious and make money etc. Combine elements of both these films and you get Baghban
2. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun
This was a very very happy happy happy story without actually being a comedy. There's this dude who gets married to this girl and the dude's younger brother and the girl's younger sister hit off, because there is nothing better or worthwhile in their life for them to do. I mean, seriously, they have NOTHING to do all day than to romance, and yet there are no scenes of making out etc because this is a film rated even below PG. So anyway, then this dude's wife dies sadly, and the younger sister is made to ALMOST marry Mohnish Behl, but a Dog (true story this) makes things all right and makes Mohnish Behl see sense without having to beat him up. The younger brother marries the younger sister (okay that does not read right) and things go well, the audience go home and young Akshay Kumar fans seethe in anger because this movie had no villains (yes, I admit it, I have personal vendetta against this film)
Anyway, this film, one of the highest grossing movie ever to be churned out of the Indian film industry was actually a remake. And it was (sort of) an official remake, because it was produced by the same people as the earlier film, namely this
Nadiya ke Paar was a small budget Hindi/Bhojpuri film with the exact same story above on a smaller scale, and with a lower budget (also, without a Dog). I believe the reason Hum Aapke Hain Kaun got made was that one day Mr Barjatya went to a burger shop and saw fat and happy customers asking for their meals to be 'Supersized'. He replaced meal with Film, and went along and made this huge huge candy bar.
The Barjatya's tried this trick with another smaller movie of theirs called 'Chitchor', they went ahead and Supersized/Bhansalied it to make the highly irritating film 'Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon'. Thankfully that shit failed.
1. Golmaal -2
There were many many things absurd about this movie. The first and foremost being that Kareena Kapoor is constantly under a state of Shaq (in one of the first drafts of the movie, her name is Shankaalan) that her husband Ajay Devgan is looking for new and impressive ways to cheat on her.
Then one fine night Ajay Devgan does not come home, because for some reason he is stranded on a boat with Celina Jaitley. The next day when he comes home and finds his wife in a white rage, instead of telling her the truth OR some credible lie, he invents a friend called Anthony Gonsalves, because that's the first name that would come to your mind while inventing a friend.
However, it is not easy to mollify Kareena, so he pays a man (Shreyas Talpade) some money to pretend that he is Anthony Gonsalves, which does not seem to be a bad proposition for anyone, hell I would take that money if I am offered. But then there exists a real Anthony Gonsalves
whose arrival on the set scene makes for great confusion and no combination.
This whole plot, although not very ingenious in itself, was copied from an old hindi film
Which was about a man who has a very shakki wife
and one fine day, that man for some reason spends a night away from home
The husband had in fact been with a woman, but there was no hanky-panky involved. However the wifey nags his constantly asking where he was, so he makes up a hard-to-believe name Champak Bhumia and gives her a fake address where this Champak Bhumia lives. He also asks his childhood friend Asrani to pretend to be Champak Bhumia.
But then there exists a real Champak Bhumia (Paintal) who coincidentally lives at the fake address given by the man to his wife. And needless to say he shows up in the milieu to complicate things up.
Thus, Golmaal Returns was pretty much a direct lift from this film, except that they added the irritating Tushar Kapoor.
Rohit Shetty also is not a big fan of originality, his Golmaal 3 was basically a repackaged 'Khatta Meetha' and Singham was of course Singham (Hindi). Plus, he makes his movies different by having mega tonnes of cars flying in the air and exploding for no good reason.
4. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
The film is about an Indian man living in some place phoren who comes to learn Indian classical music from a renowned singer who lives in a Haveli in the sands of Gujarat/Rajasthan. He falls in love with his daughter, farts in front of her, romances her (etc) and in the end has to let her be because the orthodox old timey singer whose hospitality he was enjoying did not take that shit happening without his knowledge in his own house.
And then he marries off his daughter to a pre-Gangajal Ajay Devgan.
 |
| The Father was a cruel cruel man |
Except you HAVE heard it before.
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was an indirect copy of This Film
 |
| NOT a shorter version of 100 Days |
 |
| Anil Kapoor, before he became the Bob Christo of Hollywood |
 |
| Well, she IS cute |
 |
| You are right about that Naseer Sir |
But Bhansali must have thought of something, right? Maybe a different ending?
Naah, in the end of Woh Saat Din, the girl decided to stay with the man she was forced to marry (because you know, love blossomed etc).
SLB is known for Grandiose movies, but not exactly for originality. Devdas was of course a declared remake. Black 'tipped its hat' to Miracle Worker, and Sawariya was based on a short story. Notice a trend?
3. Baghban
The story was about an elderly couple who live a comfortable life playing Holi etc in a huge house and are in fact living quite contend with themselves, but then because of acute money shortage (which could have been solved to some extent by selling/renting said huge house) they decide to take help from their children. But their children, all four of them are horrible human beings (played by horrible actors) and work upon a system of splitting up their parents so that they have to bear the burden of One Parent each for the duration of 6 months maximum. Also, they do not exactly treat their 'burden' well, causing the old couple pain and suffering etc.
Amit Ji and Hema Ji are suddenly supported by a Son they had adopted (but one who did not actually go out of his way to look for them) when they come across him at a car store which he conveniently owns. Thus we have the story of an elderly couple who are separated and then mistreated by their children and are later helped by an 'Outsider'. They also gain redemption in the end when a book written by Amitabh Bachchan becomes a hit and he earns loads of money, thus saying (though not exactly in these same words) Fuck you to his wayward kids.
The movie also had Mahima Chaudhary in some capacity
 |
| like anyone would care |
This film was the story of an elderly couple played by Sanjeev Kumar and Mala Sinha (who were not quite old in 1976, when the movie was released) who are split up by their sons Naresh and Ramesh (the pre-cursors of Ramesh and Suresh) for exactly 6 months each, and are subjected to a lot of ill-treatment. They find a sympathetic soul in an outsider (their nephew Deven Verma).
But then there is no tale of F-Uing your offsprings after their neglect by minting money through some business prospect. For that the director turned to a movie that is so awesome that it's Hollywood remake is one of the highest grossing films of all time.
But then you would know that already
Avtaar was the story of a man who gets mistreated by his aulaad , which motivates him to treat them with a laat by proving to them that at an old age he can still be industrious and make money etc. Combine elements of both these films and you get Baghban
2. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun
 |
| The most nauseating Film made in Indian history |
This was a very very happy happy happy story without actually being a comedy. There's this dude who gets married to this girl and the dude's younger brother and the girl's younger sister hit off, because there is nothing better or worthwhile in their life for them to do. I mean, seriously, they have NOTHING to do all day than to romance, and yet there are no scenes of making out etc because this is a film rated even below PG. So anyway, then this dude's wife dies sadly, and the younger sister is made to ALMOST marry Mohnish Behl, but a Dog (true story this) makes things all right and makes Mohnish Behl see sense without having to beat him up. The younger brother marries the younger sister (okay that does not read right) and things go well, the audience go home and young Akshay Kumar fans seethe in anger because this movie had no villains (yes, I admit it, I have personal vendetta against this film)
Anyway, this film, one of the highest grossing movie ever to be churned out of the Indian film industry was actually a remake. And it was (sort of) an official remake, because it was produced by the same people as the earlier film, namely this
 |
| Notice the name of the Production House |
The Barjatya's tried this trick with another smaller movie of theirs called 'Chitchor', they went ahead and Supersized/Bhansalied it to make the highly irritating film 'Main Prem Ki Deewani Hoon'. Thankfully that shit failed.
1. Golmaal -2
 |
| Even with Kareena Kapoor in it, this has Got To be the most Homo-Erotic poster ever |
 |
| Because who wouldn't cheat on Kareena Kapoor, right? |
 |
| Pictured : Everyone's Imaginary Friend |
 |
| Nowhere close to anyone would picture someone with this name |
This whole plot, although not very ingenious in itself, was copied from an old hindi film
Which was about a man who has a very shakki wife
and one fine day, that man for some reason spends a night away from home
The husband had in fact been with a woman, but there was no hanky-panky involved. However the wifey nags his constantly asking where he was, so he makes up a hard-to-believe name Champak Bhumia and gives her a fake address where this Champak Bhumia lives. He also asks his childhood friend Asrani to pretend to be Champak Bhumia.
But then there exists a real Champak Bhumia (Paintal) who coincidentally lives at the fake address given by the man to his wife. And needless to say he shows up in the milieu to complicate things up.
Thus, Golmaal Returns was pretty much a direct lift from this film, except that they added the irritating Tushar Kapoor.
Rohit Shetty also is not a big fan of originality, his Golmaal 3 was basically a repackaged 'Khatta Meetha' and Singham was of course Singham (Hindi). Plus, he makes his movies different by having mega tonnes of cars flying in the air and exploding for no good reason.
4 comments:
Hahahah...excellent stuff, I really like the way you bring in your own element of humor. This article could have been monotonous, but with you injecting those small elements of smile made it worth reading, and yes now I feel all these movies were such a crap!
Thanks. Keep going.
And just imagine the scope of plagiarism that would and could transpire if we consider the scores of movies that are produced in other Indian languages.
You can write a very good and witty article without using expletives like fuck, shit etc. Otherwise, a good analysis though dampened by the choice of words.
Just for your info:
Anthony Gonsalves WAS an actual person. A musician from Goa who played for music directors like Naushad. He taught RD Burman and Pyarelal. As a pioneer of Indian music, he founded the Indian Symphony Orchestra. And for that very reason, his pupil paid tribute to him with the song.
Though you'd like to know. :)
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