Originally yours, plagiarized

Is the lack of good, new tales driving Bollywood to hang old classics by their tails?

Partha Chatterjee Delhi

Of late there is a craze of late in the Hindi cinema industry of Mumbai for remaking old hits. This perhaps hints at the total bankruptcy of fresh ideas in an industry which anyway is not exactly known for originality. That apart, the huge success of self-seeking, frivolous remakes of beautifully made old Bimal Roy films like Devdas and Parineeta in recent years by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Pradip Sarkar, has also made producers sit up.

The general belief in Bollywood these days is that success is smiling on those who dare to make garish but aggressively packaged remakes of old hits. The quality of the film be damned, state of the art technology (or something close to it) and an octopus-like marketing strategy spreading tentacles in all directions will set the cash registers ringing. Or, so it was believed. Has the lukewarm success of two recently released films, Don and Umrao Jaan, put a question mark on this strategy? 

Farhan Akhtar, who made his debut four years ago with Dil Chahta Hai, a sensitive coming-of-age story, suddenly lost confidence and did Lakshya, a routine jingoistic film on the Kargil conflict, written by his famous father Javed Akhtar. To put it mildly, its reception at the box-office was tepid. So, in an apparent act of desperation, he turned to an old 1978 Amitabh Bachchan super hit called Don, directed in the original by Chandra Barot.

Similarly, J.P. Dutta, a director of male-oriented, even macho films, had been feeling footloose after a string of so-so films in recent years. Although Refugee, with Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor in their maiden starring roles, was well made, it was not really a hit. He needed to do something different in order to get the audiences to look his way. What better way to be different in Bollywood than to conform? Dutta decided to remake Muzzafar Ali's Umrao Jaan, a huge hit from 1981.

Mirza Hadi Ruswa's eponymous novel about decadent Lucknawi aristocracy and hapless courtesans, set in 1857 and published in the 1890s, was the source of Muzaffar Ali's film. The novel is tough, at times poignant, though not well constructed. Ali's film had an affecting charm and was on the whole moving, despite being soft in the centre. Its success hinged on Rekha's thoroughly convincing performance as Umrao Jaan, the courtesan kidnapped in childhood and sold to Khanum, a leading kothewali of Lucknow who groomed her over nearly a decade into a leading courtesan. Khayyam's music from the film has endured. Songs rendered by Asha Bhonsle, particularly "Dil cheez kya heye aap meri jaan lijeeye" and "In aankhon ki masti ke parwane", continue to be hummed by listeners.

J.P. Dutta's Umrao Jaan is a strange mixture of a fashion designer's fantasy and an adman's understanding of the feminine psyche. It is designed like a fashion statement. Aishwarya Rai, purportedly the most beautiful woman in the world, is completely out of place as Umrao Jaan. And since both J.P. Dutta and she are completely innocent of the subtle intonations of Urdu, both her diction and pronunciation are inaccurate.