Bollywood: Pirates of the first order
Like it or not but 2007 seems to be the year of rip-offs. After Bheja Fry and Partner even Chak De India is directly in the line of fire. Debates have been raging about Chak De being a remake of Miracle.
Ripping off Hollywood films hasn't been a new phenomenon. Everyone at some point has done it –including the 'cerebral' Shekhar Kapur. Here's presenting a handful of films and filmmakers who 'just forgot' to credit their Hollywood originals.
Masoom
For a man who pretends to be cerebral and outspoken this film of his stands out as a sore thumb. A remake of the Martin Sheen-starrer Man Woman and Child, Masoom tells the story of a love child finding his way into his biological father's house. The plot revolves around the struggle of the boy, the father and the rest of the family as they try to accommodate this uninvited guest. Agreed, Masoom is a landmark in the history of Indian cinema. Very few films have been so sensitively made. But then again, not many filmmakers have been so prompt in lifting from their Hollywood counterparts. Both films were made in the same year – 1983.
Daraar, Agni Sakshi and Yaraana
In 1995-96 Sleeping with the Enemy caught the fantasy of three filmmakers. In a span of barely a few months, Daraar, Agni Sakshi and Yaraana hit the screens and the critics had a ball. Everyone worth his or her salt went to town telling audiences about the Julia Roberts-starrer. Never before in the history of Bollywood had three rip-offs released in such a short span. What made it worse was Rishi Kapoor played the same character in two of the three films (Daraar and Yaraana). Daraar starred Juhi Chawla, Arbaaz Khan and Rishi Kapoor, Yaraana had Madhuri Dixit, Raj Babbar and Rishi Kapoor and Manisha Koirala, Nana Patekar and Jackie Shroff starred in Agni Sakshi.
Masoom was made from eric segal's novel man wooman and child. Altough it was made in hollywood a few month back i donot think shekhar kapoor palgarised from it.
Mohabbatein : calling it a copy of dead poet's societ, well that fills me with nothing but laughter. Only a cynic would say so.
rest of the movies mentioned here ... Yes they according to me were more copy than inspirations ... And were not made properly as well
Chak de india & miracle : i have seen bothe movies. To be honest, the similarities in the two are exactly what should be in a by the book sports movie.A typical underdog story being led by an able leader, fighting all odds and coming out triumphiant.
masoom : i have not seen the claimed "original". But the movie was one of the finest made in india according to me. If a story which has been told before, is told again to people in their language this beautifully, then i guess its very right to tell it.
chachi 420 : again i have seen both original and this one. I have to say just like masoom, this movie was also intelligently made and even though i had seen(and liked) mrs. Doubtfire before, i enjoyed chachi 420 even more.
These are just a few. The blockbuster dhoom was also a total rip-off of ocean's 11. What is even more irritating is the fact that this plagiarism is rampant in the hindi film industry and yet these actors feel insulted if people refer to the hindi film industry as "bollywood". Such hypocrites! There a very few original films which are really good but they are very very rare.