Remakes or Rehashes?

Ram Gopal Verma Ki Aag (Sholay), Umrao Jaan, Karzzz (Karz), Nayee Padosan (Padosan), Victoria no.203, Bol Bachchan (Golmaal), Himmatwala and now Chashm-e-Buddoor... Aren't these enough reasons to permanently ban remakes of classics and cult films? As if these weren't enough, remakes of Zanjeer, Satte Pe Satta, Chupke Chupke, Angoor, Amar Akbar Anthony and many more all time favourites are also understood to be on the way. This begs an important question: "Should classic and cult films be remade?"

Should classics be remade?

I strongly feel that classics and cult films are not meant to be remade. They are supposed to be watched and admired, again and again. Such films are etched deep in public memory and remakes have a huge responsibility to live up to expectations of high quality standards in all departments of film making. While it is extremely difficult to surpass or even emulate any celebrated work of art, it is ridiculously easy to go wrong and end up with a below par product!

Of late, most of the remakes have been substantially below par products and were rightly flogged by film critics and movie goers alike. The commercially successful remakes in recent times viz. Don, Bol Bachchan and Agneepath were not even a patch on the originals in terms of sheer quality and entertainment value. In fact, ‘Bol Bachchan’ was so bad, it was an insult to Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Golmaal (1979)! It is difficult to compare Bimal Roy’s 1955 classic 'Devdas' with the 2002 remake, being made almost 50 years later...in a completely different era.

Why remakes? 

It is a no-brainer why remakes of classics and cult films are attempted. Film making is big business with plenty of crores at stake. Ideally, the producer would want a winning formula for his ‘investment’ in a business more risky than most, where no one can predict the box office outcome of a film. A proven, time tested and successful story and screenplay are therefore seen as half the battle won! Many a time, a producer thinks of this as a passport to surefire success, not realising that there cannot be a winning formula in works of art. The real reasons such as dearth of potentially good and different storylines, the producer’s inability or unwillingness to risk commercial failure with a new and untested story are usually substituted for more acceptable ones like "it is our passion to offer a tribute to original" or "this story needs to be retold to the present generation or in today's context" etc.

With corporate houses entering film making business, each film is  a ‘project’ which is planned and executed in a manner to ensure commercial success. While that has brought in a great deal of discipline and professional approach in film making, the aspects of project planning, financial control, risk management and profitability have become as important as the creative aspects.  

Why remakes do not match up? 

Cult films have always had a good story, well defined characters, intelligent screenplay with beautifully interwoven situations, good music and crisp dialogues. Remakes often go wrong in the planning or pre-production stage when any of the above elements from the classic are tinkered with to make the film more contemporary, fast paced or more in tune with the masses. Quite often, the choice of actors, quality of music and most importantly, the film’s treatment by the director and his sensibilities decide how far the remake would match up to the original. If only the storyline of a classic film is adopted without embracing its essence or spirit, the result is most likely to be a listless product simply hoping to survive on the legacy of the original and to draw crowds solely on curiosity and pre-release marketing hype.

The directors of classic films, who along with the story writer, screenplay & dialogues writer, music director, actors and other crew members had put in their skills and hard toil which led to a masterpiece, may feel justifiably enraged to see the remake years later! It is most likely to cause them a great deal of pain and grief to see their work of art mercilessly twisted and contorted in the name of creative or cinematic liberty, commercial considerations or to make the film more contemporary so that the present generation can relate to it. 

Salim Khan of the legendary writer duo ‘Salim-Javed’ has an entirely different take on this. He feels that a remake is a win-win situation for writers and says, "If it (the remake) works, it proves your story is still relevant. If it doesn't, people will say 'yaar woh original kitni achchi thi!'."  

Conclusion 

Most remakes have the advantage of hindsight to address any possible areas of improvement in the original and more importantly, of a huge budget which may not have been available for making the original. But after having endured so many remakes, why is it that years later, the original is always fondly remembered by the critics and the masses? Is there any remake which has tasted more success or found more adulation than the original? 

It only confirms that a successful story & screenplay, a huge budget, a marquee director and a never before star cast doesn't always guarantee a good, entertaining remake, just as simply having all ingredients, spices, recipes and modern cooking implements doesn't ensure a lip-smacking delicacy and transform a bumbling cook into a Master Chef!