"The Godfather" remade

More often than not, remakes are a soft target for criticism. Viewers can’t refrain themselves from drawing comparisons with the original. While many a times, remakes fail to recreate the magic, sometimes they give an interesting twist and are better than the original. Sometimes the twists itself weigh the movie down whereas sometimes the movie fails just because viewers are devoted to the original. Let’s take a closer look at some remakes of The Godfather.

The first one to remake in bollywood was Feroz Khan, way back in 1975. He modified the story and made Dharmatma, 3 years after its hollywood debut. He picked up only the main characters from the original, the father and the son. In fact, only the son. The godfather portrayed by Premnath does not have a role.  Some characters from the original that were merged and the dialogues translated to hindi were lost in translation. The scenic locations of Italy were replaced with the equally scenic but rugged terrains of Afghanistan. Overall, it was a stylish movie coupled with good music. You can appreciate the movie, only if you do not see it as a remake of The Godfather. But, the moment you start watching it as a remake of The Godfather, the movie starts to lose its charm.

Mani Ratnam toyed with The Godfather in his Tamil remake, Nayagan. Although, the movie is the true story of the underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar, Mani Ratnam peppered it with a few elements from The Godfather (trilogy). The moral center of The Godfather was ‘family’ and it was changed to ‘anything that can help people is not wrong’ In Nayagan. The movie maintained a realistic narrative style. The protagonist Velu (Kamal Hasan) never tried to play a ‘larger than life’ character. The realistic portrayal of his fight with the police inspector is a perfect example of this. Kamal Hasan’s brilliance can be seen many times including the famous scene of Velu’s interaction with his grandson in the climax. When the grandson asks “Are a good man or a bad man?” Velu replies (after a pause) “I don’t know.”  Use of camera and lights are also worth mentioning, especially the one where little Velu asks the fisherman, “You pray every day and go to the mosque, you donate to anyone who asks. But at night, you smuggle goods. Isn’t it wrong?” He replies, “No. Anything that can help people is not wrong.” The complete scene is shot against the sunlight and in silhouette.  The audience also witnessed the deft use of camera in another scene. Velu’s interactions with his daughter at the ACP’s house, when he finds that the ACP’s wife is his daughter. His daughter’s half face is visible during the whole conversation. It signifies that the daughter finds herself in the tussle between her father and her husband. On one hand, she wants to meet/greet him while on the other hand she knows that her father is involved in illegal activities whereas her husband is a police officer.

There were quite a few forgettable remakes. Dayavan, a failed remake of Nayagan by Feroz Khan. Remake of remake of The Godfather. The only thing that remained in popular memory was the sensual song with Madhuri Dixit and Vinod Khanna. Next was Zulm Ki Hukumat with Dharmendra as Vito, Govinda as Mike and Shakti Kapoor as Sunny. Viewers stayed home with the original and the movie flopped. How badly one can go with Rajnikant and Aamir Khan in a movie can be learned from Aatank hi Aatank.  Although the movie went through financial troubles and was delayed, but that was not the only reason for its failure. With dialogues like “Paisa gale ki nas kaant ke bhi kamaya jaata hai aur Pajame ka naada khol kar bhi” and “Revolver se zyada khatarnak cheez agar koi hai ... toh woh hai tumhari aankhen,” it tried to deliver The Godfather. Another failed attempt was with Sapoot, featuring Kader Khan as Vito and Akshay Kumar as Mike.

RGV paid tribute to The Godfather with Sarkar. He cleverly framed the movie in his own style, with his trademark dark shots and camera angles. He moved the story from a mafia family to Maharashtra politics. The Bachchans played the Corleone’s.  Amitabh brilliantly essayed the role of Subash Nagre. He does things which he feels are right even though they might be illegal to the outside world. He also gave smart advices just like Vito – “Nazdeek ka phayda dekhne se pahle ye soch lena chahiye ki kahi door ka nuksaan to nahi ho raha.” The momentous scene in the original where Vito refuses to deal in narcotics, was also adapted perfectly by RGV, but in his own style. Viewers can feel the goosebumps when Subash Nagre says – Main nahin karunga… A pause…. aur tujhe bhi karne nahi doonga. Overall, it was a good attempt from RGV.

The Godfather met a modern day adaptation of Mahabharata in Rajneeti, set against the backdrop of politics. The characters from Mahabharata were given shades of The Godfather. Like Arjun with shades of Mike in Samar and Lord Krishna with Tom Hagen in Brij Gopal (Nana Patekar). The screenplay had plenty of turns like when Suraj (Ajay Devgn), a Dalit leader, plans to contest the elections against Samar’s political party, Brij Gopal makes Suraj’s father as his party’s candidate, even before Suraj (Ajay Devgn) announces his candidature. Quite a shrewd move and an interesting twist that leaves audience with a ‘wow’. The movie tries it’s best to include all the elements for a compelling political drama but fails at many places. The characters at times neither resemble the ones in Mahabharata nor The Godfather.

When one remakes a movie, there is no need to copy the original frame by frame. Director has the creative liberty to use his own interpretations but he must make it with sincerity.  It is not easy to decide what to tweak and what to keep. Add sub-plots, more spice, and melodrama but don’t lose the essence of the movie. In some of the above, the cast itself was not good to pull it off, in some there was nothing to add and there was no convincing reason to see the movie after admiring the original. Some missed most of the nuances, the complexities, and the subtexts from the original. Nevertheless, movies like Nayagan stood out primarily because of its vision and sincerity and Sarkar to some extent for being a true tribute.

The debate on whether we need a remake or not will always be on.

Photo Source - Wikipedia, movierulz, webmusic

The opening scene from the movie "Dil Se"

Mani Ratnam made his bollywood debut with Dil Se (from the heart), a love story set against the backdrop of insurgency in North East.  Another masterpiece from him on terrorism after Roja and Bombay. It won critical acclaim but failed at the box office in India, largely due to its unusual theme and the lead actress portraying a suicide bomber.

Many scenes from the movie stood out for me but one particular scene left a lasting impression - the opening scene of the movie. The movie starts off with a taxi (with shahrukh inside) approaching a police barricade. After the police check, the taxi drives away to the railway station. Shahrukh has to take the barrack valley express; the train is late and he decides to wait on the platform. It’s a cold and windy night. He wants to light a cigarette and calls out to a passenger who is sitting on the adjacent bench, “Bhaisahab, machis hai?”  The camera pans out at an angle such that we are asking for the matchstick ourselves. The other person remains silent. Shahrukh continues talking but there is still no response. The camera remains besides shahrukh and doesn’t take us to the next bench to see who the other person is. This camera technique makes you feel that you are a part of their conversation. While shahrukh is talking, a sudden gust of wind pushes him and at the same time, the shawl falls off the other person. To our surprise, it’s a woman, the lead actress – Manisha Koirala. Shahrukh looks at her and is at loss for words. 

The camera now starts bridging the gap and moves towards manisha, giving us a closer look. She looks fresh.  Her face is covered but there is a hint of smile in her closed eyes.  Now, the camera pans across to give the viewer, the feeling that they are with manisha and watching Shahrukh. Shahrukh walks towards her and again asks “aapke paas machis hai?” She doesn’t reply. There is no sound other than the howling of the wind, adding to the screenplay. Shahrukh is talking continuously. The scene is refreshingly different from the usual boy meets girl situations, I have seen in the past. Shahrukh’s charm is at work. A smile slowly spreads on manisha’s face and she covers her face again. She can’t resist looking at him. And, when he asks, “mai tumhare liye kya kar sakta hoon?” Her lips part and she quietly says, “Ek garam chai.” The camera doesn’t move. And there, standing beside manisha, we see shahrukh going away to get a cup of tea. As he gets to the tea stall, he hears the sound of the incoming engine. He is in a dilemma. Should he run to manisha as she might take the train or wait for the tea? He waits for the tea, takes it and runs back to the platform. He sees three men alighting the train, picking manisha’s baggage and boarding the train with her. One will notice similar conflicting emotions quite a few times in the movie - shahrukh will try to win her heart, she will avoid him, later she will surrender herself, then she will avoid him again and will go away.  Coming back to the scene, shahrukh watches her from the platform. Train leaves and manisha remains an unknown.

It is raining and the drops of water are falling into the tea making a tinkling sound. Shahrukh says almost to himself, “Duniya ki sabse choti prem kahani.” He drinks his tea and “Jinke sar ho ishq ki” starts in the background. The scene cuts to the train and the most famous song of the decade “Chal Chaiya Chaiya” begins, seamlessly transitioning from the opening scene.

This is one of the best openings, I have seen in movies. This scene gives a sneak peek into the storyline. If you watch the movie and come back to the scene, you will notice that this scene, in a way summarizes the movie. The police barricades signifies the tense situation. The protagonist tries to win the love of the actress. The actress, shrouded in mystery, runs through bouts of cyclical emotions – avoidance, liking and avoidance again. The howling of the wind suggests a stormy relationship. Was this scene a coincidence or intentional?