what the heck is wrong with you folks. Yes Zinda is a great film. But so what? Is it ok to copy a movie scene by scene shot by shot just because the indian audience doesn't have exposure to foreign film? If anyone thinks that Sanjay Gupta made these remakes so that Indians could be "enlightened" about the existence of foriegn cinema is naive. Lets face it, hes ripping these movies off and not adding a cent of originality because its easy. He doesn't have to use his brains and come up with a tight script, cause they are already available. I for one can't stand such plagiarism. And i'm not a huge Oldboy fan either. Frankly, its incest theme disgusted me. grow up indian audiences and stop defending a product just cause its been made by an Indian. And if you think that you don't have access to foreign film, nothing is stopping you from gaining access. All DVD libraries carry foreign film now. Quit whining.
Raja Sen, you rock man! I am so glad you wrote this piece. Tell this man the way it is. I am so tired of the Sanjay Guptas of Bollywood. They think they are clever to write and direct films like Kaante, Zinda and Ek Ajnabee. How so very arrogant of them. And what's with the other critics in India? Why don't they challenge these so-called filmmakers.
Here is piece of advice to Rediff readers. Go rent Oldboy. You will be stunned by the power of that film. And please boycott Zinda.
I read ure reviews in Rediff off and on. Daresay, they are not the best.
If u dont want to watch, why do u have to comment abt the movie ? I am no big Sanjay Gupta fan. Agreed that it is a rip-off of Oldboy, but dont expect the 'real' audiences in Bihar, UP, Rajasthan to watch the original.
Why dont u try directing an 'original' movie all by ureself, we have seen some other great 'critic' try it.
BTW, I hear Kill Bill is a rip off of some Japanese movie. U might want to verify it.
Out of interest, why wld somebody who resides in India (or is it NYC ?) watch Kaante in London ? R u in trauma because u had spent some 10-12 GBPs on the movie ?
PS: Mr Gupta should have acknowledged Chan-wook Park in the movie. And go WATCH THE ORIGINAL, its awesome.
Well done Mr Sen.U are absolutely right.Now u must write a letter to the Tamilian director Mr P.Vasu who makes tamil movies remade from malayalam and hindi movies and as the audacity to claim "originality" for the script.His latest movie paramasivam is remake of Kartoos and the director explains how he came up with this racy script it seems.his chandramuki also was remade of mallu movie
Dont pick on one guy, remakes are done everywhere, even in ur 'worshipable' hollywood. For me it doesnot matter if its a 'inspired' or 'remake', but how well its done and how well its done. Are you going to stop someone from re-making Don or Sholay.
And rediff.com, please dont be like other indian website where anyone and everyone can write (I seriously dont follow rediff for movie reviews) and as like the writer of this article I wanna spend money on basis of review and not on personal feelings.
Well, its obvious from 5 pages of replies that people don't mind watching stolen material, after all its convinent for them. But lets be honest we really don't care much about intellectual property and its copyright, its pretty evident with the amount of software/audio/video piracy done in our country. However there are people who take offence to it, even we might if something of ours is stolen (i.e American company trying to copyright Neem Tree and its use). What is true is that Sanjay Gupta maybe making slick movies for Bollywood standards, but they are completley stolen material, and finally someone might take offence to it. Btw all ppl complaining for hollywood remakes of japanese horror movies, those movies rights of remakes are bought not stolen.
Completely agree with the author of this article (Mr. Sen) that people like Sanjay Gupta should desist from making copies of foreign movies (lifting frame by frame from the original) and then have the audacity to put their names on the movie (Directed By : Someone_Who_Cant_Come_Up_With_An_Original_Idea_Ever). We already have enough of these lifters like Anu Malik, etc who plagiarise tunes without any conscience at all. Add to this filmakers like Sanjay Gupta and the others who have no qualms about making copies and then selling them as originals. 'Kaante' is a prime example of this. And the excuse i heard from some people on this post that most indians do not know of these films and so the copying is justified as this gives them a chance to see these movies is ABSOLUTELY RUBBISH. You cannot take the creation of one man (or men) and copy it without even giving credit to the original creator. People like Sanjay Gupta exist because of the creative ability of other people. The least he could do is honestly ackowledge his plagiarism and not pretend to be an original. Completey agree with Mr Sen that more and more people do not want to watch these copies. They rather see the ORIGINAL
Okay okay. Seeing the response of a very truthfully written column, I would like to suggest something. 1. Let us remake all the hit films in the history of the world. Dont forget to change the writers and directors credit by putting your name. (hail to you guys who support zinda) 2. Stealing should be legalized in India. Cultural degradation is so much that we cant produce a decent story now a day. (Please take your time and read something useful other than newspaper) 3. Make MTV, VTV, Star Movies, HBO etc. our national channel. Just watch some movies and copy that frame by frame, put some stolen tune (Thats why you need the MTV etc.) and put a made in India stamp. By 2010 everybody in this country should be a film director. I have some American friends and colleagues, some of them are very interested about different world cultures. They continuously ask me about good Indian movies, and by god I am very scared to offer them something. Apart from Aparna Sen, Sandip Ray, Budhhadeb Dasgupta, Rituparna Ghosh, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalni, Adur Gopalkrishnan and few others you can bet your months salary that it would be a very badly made copies of other noted works. No wonder that our mainstream film industry is running at a loss.
