Remakes Remade

Today saw the promotional clips of “Umrao Jaan” and “Don”, two much talked about remakes of the originals. My opinion? Both are going to be big flops. They might recover the money invested but no great hits.

Umrao Jaan- Agreed, Aishwariya Rai is extremely beautiful but she is no match to what Rekha was in original Umrao Jaan. I don’t have anything against Ash. She must have played her role with all honesty but I can’t think of anybody else close to the character of Umrao Jaan other than Rekha. The character of Umrao was of a dusky girl from a middle class family. I feel that Ash looks too regal to even look like that character, leave alone playing it.

Also, the evergreen songs sung by Asha Bhosale “Justjoo jiski ki thi, usko to na paaya humne”, “Dil cheez kya hai, aap meri jaan leejiye” and “In aankhon ki masti” are still so admired and full of emotions that they can’t be overlooked (heard) by new songs sung by Alka Yagnik. The magic of Asha Bhosale’s voice is missing completely.

Don- Though I am an out and out fan of SRK but sorry to say that this role doesn’t suit him at all. I am an ardent fan of Amitabh Bachchan also. The original Don had something so macho in his character.. the voice, the physique, the way he walked & talked.. The whole thing is missing from this remake.
I am not talking about the height or the voice only; the whole persona of Don is missing.

Poor SRK has to resort to other methods to mach that Don of yesteryears. Neither he has voice nor the height of senior AB to do justice to the role. Ok, ok, don’t say that even Godfather was of medium height but then he was THE Godfather with other adjectives attached to him.

Lots of close-ups of SRK in the movie to concentrate on his plus points to make him look like a Don e.g. SRK has to twist his fingers in a particular style while smoking/holding ciggie, show his angry eyes to give the scene an appeal or the way he puts on his sun-glasses etc. The director has tried hard by showing only SRK’s moving feet with supporting background music because the moment he’s shown in full, the very effect of being a Don goes away.

Again, the famous song “Ye mera Dil Pyar ka diwaana, Diwaana diwaana, yaar ka diwaana” sung by Asha Bhosale is filmed on Kareena & SRK. It looks horrible.

I don’t think this dialogue “Jeetna meri zid hi nahi, meri aadat hai” of this generation’s Don will save the film.

Again, nothing against new singers, new actors but remake of a good movie is just not right. Why do they have to spoil the charm created by originals?

Current song- Woh ho Kagaz ki kashti, Woh Baarish ka Pani – Jagjit Singh