5 Bollywood Films Remakes That Did It better Than The Original

Somehow we always  think of Bollywood Films adaptations as inferior copycat  versions  of the originals. But what  about the desi  remakes that  got it better  than the original?

1.     Sholay:  Far far superior  to  John Sturges’  The Magnificent 7 which came in 1960. In it a  Mexican  village is  protected  from marauders by seven hired mercenaries. The  bandit villain was played by the legendary Eli Wallach. He  was no patch  on  Amjad Khan’s  Gabbar Singh. Ramesh  Sippy’s version of  the  story has more interesting characters and the situations of conflict between the mercenaries and the marauders  was far more  electric in Sholay. In  short Sholay was far more magnificent than The Magnificent  7.

2.     Masoom: Erich Segal’s tearjerker  novel  about a family man who brings home his illegitimate  child  was made into an insipid  Hollywood film featuring the distinguished  Blythe Danner and  Martin Sheen as  a  happily married couple who  face rocky weather when he  brings home a son from another mom.  Well, sorry guys. Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah were  better .And  Shekhar kapoor’s Masoom is  far far better work than  the original.

3.     Dushman: Tanuja Chandra’s  grossly underrated  film  features Kajol in her career best  performance  in a double role. When  one of the  twins is  brutally  murdered the  other takes  revenge.  The  film was adapted  from John Schlesinger’s tepid thriller An Eye For  An  Eye where Sally Field avenged the  death of her daughter.  Dushman had  a  terrific star turn by Kajol and  a truly menacing villain in Ashutosh Rana which the original  did not.And  what  about Uttam  Singh’s  outstanding  songs? Can Hollywood beat that?

4.     Kahaani: The entire climax of Sujoy Ghosh’s  film  was allegedly   lifted  from the Angelina Jolie starrer  Taking Lives. Has  anyone heard  of  the Jolie film? It’s not  about where  you get it from. It’s what  you do with it that matters.And  the  bottomline is Sujoy’s  film turned   out far  superior  to  D J Caruso’s Taking Lives.

5.     Dhamaka: Netflix’s forthcoming feature film with  Kartik Aaryan playing a  star-news-anchor who negotiates with a  terrorist  to prevent  the  city from being blown up, is a far more exciting beast than  Kim Byung-woo’s Korean 2013 action  thriller  Terror Live. Once  you see  Kartik Aaryan playing the shrewd news anchor  you  will forget  Ha Jung-woo in the  original.