First, as this article marks the 2nd Birthday of Kismat Talkies, I would like to thank everyone individually for the support, encouragement and love given to this portal. To everyone who had made this portal a success, a huge big thank you from Kismat Talkies!
I particularly had chosen this topic as it’s a rarely conversed topic and usually seen as a grey area on the discussion of remakes. Filmmakers of Hindi cinema for years have either lifted, borrowed or been inspired from various foreign language films especially from Hollywood, the complete ‘lift-ment’ of Hindi films from Hollywood cinema in conversed is usually in a embarrassed tenor. Remakes are super-verse when pitched to originality – it’s the idea of plagiarism that implements a sense of stigma on certain films. Plagiarism is the devil’s source of success – neither hard work or creativity contributed into implementing the product as your ‘own’.
This isn’t the case with some particular handful-few films. There have been exceptional cases in which the creators of the remake have completely foreseen a different product from the base root, some which have done well and some may even still be seen in the light of a plagiarist manner.
Every Film Industry in the world has its fair share of bad films – like so, Hollywood been the running giant, the audience tend to look over its fair share. There have been many films made in Hollywood that did not find an audience or possibly the filmmakers have made the film in the wrong industry. For example, in 2014 Lionsgate had approached Dharma Productions giving them the remake rights of their film Warrior (2011). Jon Feltheimer, CEO of Lionsgate said “We felt the film had a life but not an audience. Despite the appreciation , no one showed up at the theatres. When toying with the idea on make the film again our eyes went straight to Bollywood – that’s when we got the ball rolling”. Brothers (2015) released and didn’t exactly become a profitable venture but according to Lionsgate it had triple the amount of sets of eyes in theatres than Warrior (2011).
The idea that we barely speak about remakes especially the ones that were remade from Hollywood – as many easily judge the Indian filmmaker as an effortless and bad plagiarist – it would be wrong to place all of them in the same frame and to say that there is definitely is a whole window of creators who knew the craft of remaking. Remaking too an art which requires a skilful set of strokes.
Hollywood in the 80s and 90s, had made many easy cash-ins for the VHS period which did not do well which were ridiculed by the audience and critics. Some of these films were picked up by India and some in a sense were corrected and suited the taste of the Indian spectator – most from that era are spoke on in this article. This article explores such films that were either better than the original or somewhat special in its own blossom, either way, these films were remakes that were definitely done right.
For this article, I have to give a big thanks to two people in particular. First, Miss Saxena, the mind behind the final section of this article – indeed was a great way of articulating the opposing of the main body. Thank you! Also, Panks Badal for the new logo of Kismat Talkies launched with this article. Thank you for the time and effort in making it happen.
Aitbaar (1985) – Remake of Dial M For Murder (1954)
Firstly, would want to start the article with this film in particular. With all fairness and respect to Hitchcock as a filmmaker – no denying his film Dial M is decent fare but isn’t as remembered as his other greater films. My issue with Dial M has always been that it never had the potential impact as a Vertigo or a Rare Window. The subtle yet high on substance thrillers that entertained and didn’t let one fiddle in their seat – somehow Dial M lacked that for me personally. Dial M for me has its issues, firstly I could not never place its genre, it was neither a thriller, drama or a whodunnit but it felt more-like a daytime MGM watch. The characters in Dial M too did feel little off edge – was it because Hitchcock had not used any of his seasoned actors like James Stewart or Sean Connery? Maybe. But a director like Mukul Anand must have one day felt that maybe Hitchcock may have missed the bus on this one? No doubt Dial M had won hearts at the time and even influenced many directors down the years, but was Anand’s vision a betterment of the Hitchcock’s thriller?
Aitbaar not only had implemented the mood right but almost corrected what should have been made to the original. Dial M ‘s plot was about a man trying to murder his wife – in the original, neither any character seems negative, neither is it edgy and there isn’t really a murder that takes place. Mukul Anand’s version made a gritty atmospheric thriller, with his central character Jaideep, the evil protagonist in which the spectator convincingly supports his vision throughout – the first sign of Anand’s direction and characterisation. The character of Tony Wendice was no Jaideep, the conniving husband that Hitchcock seemed to wanted to portray but Babbar’s portrayal of Jaideep was absolutely substantial. Everything was evil about Jaideep’s character and even the end (not giving out spoilers) is a betterment of the original ending in which gave the underline message which Hitchcock somehow failed to highlight – the ending in Dial M is somewhat laughable. Mukul Anand took the blueprint of Hitchcock’s original and painted, polished and finishing it with a new frame.
Agni Sakshi (1996) Remake of Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
To start with, straight after the release of Sleeping with.. three filmmakers from the Hindi film industry got into production in unofficially remaking the film. Yaarana (1995) and Daraar (1996) were released around the same time as Agni Sakshi and other than Agni Sakshi both of the other two films had bombed at the box office. Sleeping with… itself had bombed at the American box office at the time of release and was labelled by the critics as ‘the worse film of the year’ even entering the raspberry awards.
Agni Sakshi spins the original screenplay to an aspect of 180 degrees in the narrative. The film opens with protagonist who marries a rich established man – then being stalked by peculiar person on their honeymoon who claims that she is his wife. The narrative pushes the audience into a suspense on wondering if the antagonist is the righteous or a victim of mistaken identity making their audience feel uneased. Partho Ghosh’s (rumoured that Nana Patekar had ghost-directed some portions) direction was the strongest force behind Agni Sakshi working as a film – Ghosh arguably made his best film with Agni Sakshi. The force behind the narrative and the characterisation in moving the film forward made it a winner, it was true example of replanting a bad seed.
Darr (1993) Remake of Dead Calm (1989)
Okay, we cannot say Darr is an entire remake of Dead Calm but you certainly know the makers had taken the germ of Darr from Dead Calm. A piece of trivia, Darr was conceived by Hrithik Roshan and Uday Chopra when they were children after seeing Dead Calm one night on a VHS and wrote this entire kiddy script about an obsessed lover which leads to the climax on a boat. Yash Chopra, for some reason drew towards this script and discussed the idea with his then assistant Naresh Malhotra (Yash Raj at the time were venturing more into production with newer directors) but as Darr grew as a script, Yash Chopra became inclined to direct it himself.
There is no doubt when watching the finale of Darr one is reminded of Dead Calm, and one cannot run away from the idea of Darr when watching Dead Calm. In-fact, the entire film of Dead Calm is actually squeezed into the last 30 minutes or less of Darr which somewhat make you feel how empty of a film Dead Calm is. Dead Calm is a film that isn’t at all remembered, not even by Nicole Kidman – but Yash Chopra took the source and inspiration of Dead Calm and made a memorial film and a character out of Rahul Malhotra – neither one needs to say more.
Mohra (1994) Remake of Death Wish 4: The Crackdown (1987)
We all Hindi film watchers are aware that Mohra is a film that has gone done in recent years when action films are mentioned. But hardly anyone remembers, and that too for the right reasons, that the film was remake of very bad C-Grade action packed Death Wish 4. The Death Wish series which starred an aging Charles Bronson was a successful franchise when began in 1974, where the first film won hearts at the box office. In fact, the original Death Wish was remade in Hindi as Aaj Ki Awaaz (1984).
The franchise became a quick and easy VHS cash in by the mid-80s where the production got cheaper and the direction of these films got weaker. Shabbir Boxwala, an associate of Rajiv Rai, had suggested to Rajiv about remaking the film after he had seen Sunil Shetty working out in a gym the morning after he had seen Death Wish 4. Rajiv Rai made Mohra such a memorable affair for everyone, even till now we still associate the film with the music and the ‘cheez badi mast mast’ still fresh in our minds – Mohra became a benchmark for action directors for years to come establishing the action genre to be a huge money-spinner.
Avvai Shanmugi (1996)/Chachi 420 (1998) Remake of Mrs Doubtfire (1993)
Kamal Hassan had made his debut into direction with the Hindi version of his Tamil Hit Avvai Shanmugi (directed by K.S Ravikumar) which itself was a remake of the Hollywood hit Mrs Doubtfire with Robin Williams. Comparing the Hindi to the Tamil isn’t the question, as the similarities were evident, but how the Hindi remake compares to the Hollywood original. In all fairness, Chachi 420 is actually a complete rewrite of the Hollywood original – that too a better one. So how did Kamal Hassan victoriously do outright a Hollywood blockbuster?
Simple, the writing. Crazy Mohan (story and the writer of the Tamil version), Kamal Hassan (Screenplay) and Gulzar (Dialogues) the team in which made and completed an entertaining comedic yet emotional take on the original film. The small details and the addition of the subplots that were implemented into the screenplay of the Hindi remake – for example the confusion with Chachi’s numerous husbands around the city or the dumb Muslim chef in Amrish Puri’s home all added a new and entertaining layer to the film’s totality. And of course, one cannot doubt how Kamal Hassan handled each scene so well in the direction department – the simplicity of the humour and the weight of the emotions were so fine balanced.
Main Khiladi Tu Anari (1994) Remake of The Hard Way (1991)
Whenever I stumble across The Hard Way, I tend wonder what talented actors like Micheal J Fox and James Woods were doing in this film? Both seriously miscast in a buddy cop film which was a genre from the 80s that was dying out in the West – the 80s in Hollywood had an overload of buddy cop films which eventually by the time Hard Way had released, the audience had washed their hands off the genre. Main Khiladi…came at a time with a certain freshness, action thrillers had just become new in-thing by this point. Mohra, released a few months ago and had set the box office on fire, Akshay now with this new image on the block with Yeh Dillagi also being out several months ago in which marked a new on-screen male duo of Akshay and Saif.
Main Khiladi opened at the box office for its image and became a success story because of the film itself. Although adapted, Main Khiladi had everything that a successful Hindi commercial film had. Humour, style, light-heated moments, the emotional family aspect, melodious music and the strong chemistry the two lead heroes had shared. Film historians for years had argued that Main Khiladi worked strong on the merit of the chemistry of Akshay and Saif, how a serious fitness fit cop and a frustrated film star tolerated each other eventually became the crux of the film, it was those moments in the film between the two leads that makes it a repeat watch even till date.
Yes Boss (1997) Remake of For Money or Love (1993)
Not sure if many remember this forgettable flick of Micheal J Fox in which he plays an employee trying to make his fortune till he discovers his boss is having an affair with the girl he likes. What was so forgettable about it? Well it just the run-of-the-mill romantic comedy that came around the early 90s with Micheal J Fox for some reason doing anything at the time. But Yes Boss on the other hand, being its remake is still remembered. What makes that still remembered? Well, it was more to do with the timing – the time of the release and the peak of Shahrukh’s Stardom.
These are the commercial aspects in what made the film work – but Yes Boss as film spoke about ambition and aspiration in a fast moving Bombay-now-become-Mumbai in the late-90s. The city of Mumbai where people come with hopes in their eyes and dreams in their hearts – that too during the period of the rise of the population of a now-becoming metropolitan city. Yes Boss dealt with two characters played with Khan and Chawla- two strugglers aspiring for a better life but end up going down the wrong path with Siddharth Chaudhary (played by Aditya Pancholi), later leading the couple to realise they are selling their morals at the price of their blind dreams. It was deeper layer of a connect that Yes Boss had which many failed to connect with in For Money or Love. Well we all cannot forget the connect we had with the melodious soundtrack by Jatin-Lalit which makes songs like Chand Taare still relevant today.
Ek Hasina Thi (2004) Remake of Double Jeopardy (1999)
Completely unaware if the act of ‘Double Jeopardy’ even exists in any country in the world, but the premise is if a convict is proven innocent after completing their sentence, they are forgiven for a crime as the term has already been served. Sounds bizarre but so was the film. The Bruce Beresford directed film at the time was labelled as a ‘snoozefest’ and ‘bore score’, not to be that radically as the film wasn’t as bad as the media had made it out to be but it was fairly okay – one-time fare.
Ek Hasina Thi, a remake or plot similarly treading on the same line, however you see it, is far better treatment of the premise. Ek Hasina Thi wasn’t exactly seen by many at the time of release despite being praised by the press – it became a prey to the dark genre not being a seller to the average ticket buying Joe. This happened to be Sriram Raghavan’s first feature film after his work on television – and a fine debut he had gave. Sriram and many of his colleagues had recently mentioned how Ek Hasina Thi still feels contemporary and relevant so many years later, the film geared Raghavan for a long running in the Hindi film industry.
Dushman (1998) Remake of Eye for an Eye (1996)
To begin with, neither film did wonders at the box office. In fact, both films were declared as a ‘flop’ by its distributors but the Tanuja Chandra’s directional debut was a level notch higher in terms of quality of the film. Eye for an Eye was released to negative reviews by the critics, in which one critic mentioned “Overwrought, thinly written, and all-around unpleasant, Eye for an Eye crudely exploits every parent’s nightmare with deeply offensive results”, many critics arguing the film does not serve its sole purpose in fact a pseudo-intellect crime drama. No critic spared Eye for an Eye leading to its death at the box office.
Dushman on the other hand had something right to offer – made on the simple Bhatt camp formula, Dushman worked on the sleek on the toned down violence and disturbia which the Hollywood original had – but the Hindi remake was riding on thrills. The performances were the highlight of the venture, Kajol (shunning out one her better performances) as the vengeful sister, the film shows an interesting graph of what the actress was capable of. One cannot forget, the industry had gained a thespian in the form of Ashutosh Rana as the disturbed postman, gaining him a Filmfare award at the end of the year, the performance of Rana stuck out for everyone. At the film was well received by the general media but sadly and possibly during the time of its release it didn’t get the audience it wanted.
Taare Zameen Par (2007) Remake of Love, Mary (1985)
A relatively unknown TV movie – Love, Mary was a film made specially for Network CBS with almost a complete unknown starcast and crew behind the name. During this period, very many independent filmmakers who found their platform on television due to the fall in cinema moviegoers because of video piracy in the 80s, many television channels like CBS and NBC began to make low-budget productions exclusively for their channels and later selling the video rights for the rental stores.
Surprising, no one at the time had come across Love, Mary the time Taare Zameen Par had released where Amol Gupte had basically adapted the TV movie for the Hindi screen – Aamir Khan who took up the director seat and his infamous dispute with Gupta in public, was not aware the film was a remake or so called adaption as Gupte had claimed his script was based on his personal experience with working people who had Dyslexia. Love, Mary and Taare Zameen Par both dealt with the unawareness of dyslexia and it being not being addressed in educational institutions, Taare Zameen Par was an attempt in also keeping the commercial element in tact by sugar-coating the topic.
Aitraaz (2004) Remake of Disclosure (1994)
Disclosure opened to a fair amount of positivity on release and even scored big at the box office. Some mentioned the feature had turned out far superior to the criticised ‘sexist’ novel which poked the theme of the ‘glass-ceiling’ into a computer-savy thriller. But many may or may not agree, that Disclosure is a one-time-watch affair, one wouldn’t either take it too seriously or find it memorable. Aitraaz on the other hand, followed a similar suit to the original but being an updated ‘mobile-savy’ thriller.
Aitraaz still dealt with the similar issue of the ‘glass-ceiling’ with a tenor of anti-feminism, was toned down to make it the family-friendly affair for its Diwali release. Aitraaz wasn’t the usual Abbas-Mustan thriller, it was more of a courtroom drama with the male protagonist dealing with his honour in his work place and the society he lived in. Aitraaz had a more entertaining streak over the original while it was attempting to fit the masala genre of the time for it attempt at being market-friendly.
Jurm (2005) Remake of Deceived (1991)
Either I being the only person that has seen Deceived or the only person to have seen Deceived and Jurm other than Vikram Bhatt, but I had come across this feature around a year ago. Deceived being a low-budget, small theatrical and bigger VHS release at the time did miss the eyes of many. But this John Heard starrer (famously known as the father from Home Alone) caught the eye of Vikram Bhatt at some point. Of course, Vikram Bhatt known for his remaking abilities didn’t hesitate in leaving this one out too.
Deceived almost lacked in everything, for a thriller it neither was gripping, neither had a performance worth remembering and the film in general slogged and direction was incredibly weak. Surprisingly that I have to say this, as Bhatt’s version itself is not great cinema but his remake did tick the boxes in its relevant space – being a gripping thriller. Jurm isn’t exactly remembered as the Bhatt could have easily polished major areas in the film and even if he gave better second half but nevertheless, the film is a decent thriller for a re-run on a Friday night.
Ajnabee (2001) Remake of Consenting Adults (1992)
A fine example of content on paper just executed badly. It made me wonder while watching the film why actors like Kevin Spacey and Kevin Kline seemed so disinterested in the film? To be honest, as the film progresses, everyone gets disinterested. The writing of the film had potential, which wasn’t fulfilled properly by the director. The film turned into a depressing, slow-paced pseudo thriller that fell straight on its face with the lack of conviction in almost every department.
Abbas-Mustan, knew how to represent their thrillers. When adapting their films, either it working or not the director-duo are aware on how to get their thrills right. On adapting Consenting Adults, firstly they certainly had got the cast right – secondly getting the screenplay right. The writing and the plot of Consenting Adults itself was decent enough, Abbas-Mustan just happen to be the right people is using the material appropriately. Ajnabee was well received by the audience and critics at the time and still is remembered for being the entertaining thriller it was. This was new curve in Akshay Kumar’s career – the risk of taking on the negative role at this point in his career surely paid off and still people remember the film for Akshay as the cunning so-called ‘mastermind’.
Symmetrically Proportional…
Kaante (2004) Remake of Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Its an infrequent situation when a director of a Hollywood original voices his opinion on a Hindi remake, most of the makers would be unaware that their film was remade in a foreign language before Google became a portion of their lives. Tarantino had mentioned he loved Sanjay Gupta’s take on his film but Gupta himself voiced that his film wasn’t just inspired by Reservoir Dogs but also he borrowed from Lam’s City of Fire. The reason why Kaante is a somewhat equivalent, similar stance in terms of content to the original is because it wasn’t heavily reliant on the original – it lead its own life through the scripting, living through each individual character and warmth over the bonding of the characters made it what it was.
Sanjay Gupta, known as the ‘Yash Chopra for men’, mounted and wrote Kaante differently but didn’t let it leave the boundaries. It wasn’t high in commercial value but yet it was a commercial seller, it broadened its values of being an Indian film set in a foreign country with the heart in its right place – the spectator being sceptical of the characters at first but the confusion was won over with Gupta showcasing that his characters are not bad people – just a bunch of men who have taken a wrong decision leading to a bad situation – but at the same time Gupta didn’t sugar coat his characters , he let them be. In fact, Kaante still seems contemporary today making its appeal still stand what it was set out to be.
Milan (1995) Remake of She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949)
Both films indeed are completely different in terms of scale and the treatment, one dealing with John Wayne, a captain carrying out his last patrol when being prepared for an attack by Native Americans, on the other hand we have Jackie Shroff, a Goan gangster taking out his last task before marrying his beau – both films dealing with the protagonist dealing with his final job later putting them to the test of time departing them with their loved one.
John Ford’s tale deals with the frontier and the heat of the attack on Native American in smaller areas at the time, Wayne’s character being a veteran almost losing his ways – the sense of loss and defeat by the lead character. Milan on the hand, despite borrowing from John Ford’s plot, deals with the hard luck of the protagonist and the controlling nature of the ways of the system – his colleagues and friends the ones leading to his fall. Sadly, Milan sunk without a trace at the box office in 95’ despite a good soundtrack and Manisha Koirala being a popularity peak – the film didn’t find any takers, possibly because the film wasn’t for the faint-hearted (Akash Khurana’s track was found way too disturbing for the audience at the time). Plus, Mahesh Bhatt’s career wasn’t going too smooth at the time with critics saying he had lost his touch – either way both films were vastly different and can be merited in their own perspective.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1992) Remake of Breaking Away (1979)
It’s hard for any director to emulate the same emotion of the original, keeping the same feel intact. JJWS isn’t an imitation of Breaking Away but an entity that lives in a different world. Both films, from the filmmakers, mounted a soul which connected with the spectator – the graph of the film spoke louder than the basic outline of the film. Often misinterpreted as a sports film, both JJWS and Breaking Away are films about belonging. The sense of belonging to society, to a school, a group or to a particular someone.
JJWS, for me personally is a special film, a film which you leave watching with a tweak inside. A film which in rarity brings a smile with a sense of comfort. On remaking the film, Mansoor Khan had his mishaps with the casting and production in which he at several occasions wanted to abandon the project – but the people involved knew the film was in the process in becoming a landmark film. It goes without saying that JJWS lands on par with Breaking Away and both films excel in their own zones and is case where both excelled in areas where the prior may have not.
On The Contrary…
We couldn’t complete the antecedent without the remarks on the films that deserve a special mention. The remakes where the original films were either average or bad films to begin with and newly produced remake still turning out to be bad, making us wonder why these films were ever remade in the first place.
Bang Bang (2014) Remake of Knight and Day (2010)
The moment you hear that a Tom Cruise flick gets remade in Hindi, the doubts begin to occur but in this case on the launch of Bang Bang had some curiosity despite the original was panned for being lazy but some Indian critics speaking about how it got the emotional core right. The segment in the latter half of the film in which focused on Roy Miller’s (played by Cruise) private life and the angle with the parent still presuming their son is gone – this long segment established in many minds how ‘Indianised’ the film already was.
Siddharth Anand could not get a better replacement for Cruise and Diaz than Hrithik and Katrina, that too being officially remade by the same production house now backing the remake. So, what went wrong? Well a lot. Anand seemed to have kept his focus on the high-octane action sequences than the actual soul of the film. The emotional core of knowing the protagonist which struck in the original here was shortened, the sequence which could have been the trump card for the remake in connecting with the Indian audience comes too late in the day and seems like forced input into the screenplay – by this point, the audience were already too invested into the action. The addition of the brother angle with Jimmy Shergill even makes you wonder why they had even bothered making it seem too hollow. Nevertheless, Anand and the makers went on ringing cash registers for the film with the numbers bringing Anand in the elite club.
Players (2012) Remake of Italian Job (2003)
Before anyone asks, just to underline that Abbas-Mustan had based their remake on the 2003 ‘modernised-mess’ than the original Michael Caine classic. The 2003 remake was a ‘post-Matrix’ marketed film, where the studio attempted in to cash in on the trend of ‘slick-action’ genre, but what was made was barely passable film diluting the original’s style and substance entirely. It was conspicuous that the Men-in-White seemed to have their eye on the 2003 remake when officially making Players and what could one do when the source itself was damped.
Players, was a mess from the word go. It made one wonder that the duo in the past were good at remakes – with not only remaking good but bad films with such a substantial technique, but here the tower of cards crashed. To begin with, the casting seemed to the first problem – not for the choice but the disinterest every actor had showed on screen. Sonam Kapoor being the first miscast, Bobby Deol who seemed invisible throughout, Vinod Khanna didn’t seem as if he was well enough and the annoying combo of Omi Vadiya and Sikander Kher. It seemed Neil Nitin Mukesh was the only actor who had put in some effort for the film – but the problem doesn’t finish here, it goes on. Its surprising to know the film had taken somewhat of six and a half months to edit but it still seems of shambles. Needless to say, the film bombed at the box office of course for the right reasons.
Tees Maar Khan (2010) Remake of After the Fox (1966)
If many are not aware, but After the Fox at the time of its release was abandoned by the general public and media resulting it becoming a commercial disaster. Being criticised for abrupt screenplay, over time it gained a cult status from the fan base of Sellers over time. Personally, I have seen far better from Peter Sellers. After the Fox was just another formulaic Sellers slapstick comedy in the routine procedure, a way of comparing After the Fox is what Govinda did when he stepped out of the David Dhawan formulas, they just didn’t work. Similarly, Sellers tried his routine with various different makers and only a handful could get it right.
Only someone like Farah Khan would pick up something like After the Fox, a film itself that was a charade and try to add to its farce. Attempting to bring in her opinion of the Indian critics, her perspective of the Oscars and her possible jealously over the Slumdog Millionaire admiration. She truly made a mess of something that almost ruined mostly everyone’s Christmas that year, Tees Maar Khan is shining example how bad commercial cinema can get when the gimmicks and highlights completely ruin the totality of the film.
Brothers (2015) Remake of Warrior (2011)
As mentioned earlier, Lionsgate had approached Dharma Productions with the idea of remaking Warrior. On understanding the economics of current market-climate of Hindi film industry with benchmarks of the 200 Crore club – with Fox also coming on board for the project- the budgeting wasn’t an issue, but sadly smart budgeting wasn’t visible in a near distance. Costing around 112 Crores which eventually made a net of 70 Crores, the expected benchmark was one of the crumbles of the film. Lionsgate and Fox’s contribution to the film’s budget made the film too heavy where more was spent on the film than necessary (goes without saying that the starcast were given very generous paychecks) which went against the film’s economics.
But, as a film Brothers went wrong in many ways. For starters, nothing of the film looked ‘Indian’, it seems like a straight cut-and-paste job keeping the essence of the original, one would ask the director, excuse me, the point to remake this film was to deliver to the right audience – you have repackaged the wrong parcel to the right receiver. In attempts of adding item songs and a slow romantic track by Sonu Nigam didn’t remotely engage with anyone. But the choice of casting Siddharth Malhotra to be pitched against an Akshay Kumar did at all seem convincing, it seemed director Karan Malhotra (recently riding high on the remake of Agneepath) botched up and got carried away with his non-existent formula.
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