Remakes

I love remakes. Sometimes I think watching a remake is even more enjoyable than watching an original movie. As a viewer, I feel a special excitement in establishing parallels between the original and the remake and identifying the manner in which the basic story line is being delivered in an entirely different time and space.

But I can imagine how making a remake is far more difficult than it seems. For one, there are the inevitable comparisons with the original. And if the original is a classic, the task becomes even more ominous.

I recently saw Ram Gopal Varma ki Aag – a remake of Sholay. My first reaction (which was 10 minutes into the movie) was to write a scathing blog about how bad the movie was. I saw the rest of the movie with the sole intention of gathering material for what I was going to write. But the next day, I saw several reviews and blogs on the movie which were voicing exactly what my thoughts were. So then there was no point in repeating the same sentiments. Instead, why not talk about a remake that did work?

Maqbool. A remake of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, made by Vishal Bhardwaj. Right from the name itself, we can see the parallels of a classic remake. Shakespeare’s classic tale of a man’s ambition and passion ultimately allowing his dark side to take over with the inevitably disastrous consequences. The story is about kings and lords of Scotland in the 1400s. The remake is about ganglords and gangsters set in the underworld of Mumbai in the 1990s.

Having known that the movie is a remake of Macbeth, I was extremely curious about several things about the storyline. How, for example, would he portray the pivotal characters of the three witches? Mr Bhardwaj’s masterstroke can be seen in just this example – it is played by two cops – Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah who keep dabbling in astrology and making predictions about Maqbool which systematically fuel the evil inside him.

Another classic example is towards the end of the film – the part where the witches make a cryptic prophecy about how Macbeth will meet his downfall. They predict that he will "never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane Hill shall come against him". And towards the end, the enemy army does camouflage itself with trees cut from Birnam wood and reach his castle, ultimately leading to his death.

The parallel of this incident in Maqbool is also a mark of genius. The prediction in the movie is that no harm can come to Maqbool until the “sea enters his house”. And then there is a beautifully crafted scene of white uniformed coast guard men entering Maqbool’s house to arrest him.

There are several such instances in the movie which are nothing short of brilliant. The movie is absolutely loyal to the original story and at the same time it is extremely relevant in its own time and space. I can’t think of another remake which has managed to achieve this, bar Omkara, which is again by the same auteur and a remake of another Shakespeare tragedy – Othello.

Coming back to Aag. Just how could Ram Gopal Varma do this? It would have been a relatively simpler job to remake Sholay in an urban setting. But he has failed miserably. I for one, had such high expectations from this film and this director. All the ingredients are there – a brilliant story, an extremely talented cast, a setting that is his own personal trademark and above all the sheer talent that he himself has as a director. Maybe he just got too overwhelmed by the task and let it all go to pieces. It probably would have worked better as a spoof – at least one expects the inspiration to be torn apart.

It really is tempting to go for the movie’s jugular and rip it apart piece by piece. But then I don’t have the heart to do so. Maybe I will just wait for the next Shakespearian remake by Vishal Bharadwaj. I believe it is going to be Julius Caesar.