A warm welcome to all friends visiting the site with a loving invitation to read my personal expressions on movies, music, poetry and life.
Music and Movies are like Ears and Eyes to me and if you also feel the same, then you are going to enjoy every moment spent on my works here, for sure.
Do send in your valuable comments and suggestions as they would be my guide for all the future works.
Beginning with an honest confession, after going through this highly over-confident, loud-mouthed and strictly avoidable experience called HIMMATWALA, it was really tough to find any kind of energy to write upon the film in details. But still I have tried to do so, just to warn or save my readers here from wasting their precious time, money and efforts in watching the film in theaters, especially in the multiplexes buying those expensive tickets & snacks.
Remembering the day, when I first heard Sajid Khan announcing an official remake of Jeetendra, Sridevi starrer HIMMATWALA released in1983, I was really shocked since it was not a great film in terms of content despite of being a big hit in those tough years. Now the phrase ‘those tough years’ has been used here, since the decade of 80s is apparently considered to be the most forgettable, amateurish and indecisive decade of Bollywood in the history of its 100 years of film-making as far as the commercial films are concerned. So making a remake of a film selected from that era was quite strange and weird to accept all of a sudden. Yet considering the successful track record of Sajid Khan, I thought that probably he might have cracked some worth trying comic idea within the same storyline and maybe would come up with something interesting rediscovering the 80s in his own version.
But surprisingly it was really unacceptable to find that Sajid does nothing of that sort in his overhyped film to please the new age viewers and just sticks to the same old melodramatic script full of all clichéd plots not appealing to the present net generation at all. Now here an important question arises, that if one really is willing to see a film chosen from that forgotten era of the 80s, then he can easily opt for the original only, which at least would provide him the feeling of that ‘Pleasant Nostalgia’ watching the jumping jack, Jeetendra and the owner of thundering thighs, Sridevi along with the incomparable witty Kader Khan performing at their best. And if he can easily get to see the film on the net just for free or on a DVD for only a few rupees then why on earth he would like to see the same outdated acts being performed by the present big stars at a cost of a high priced ticket?
In other words, if Sajid simply assumed that the viewers in 2013 will really be amused to see Ajay Devgan deliberately doing all those over the top fights and emotional sequences without any contemporary touches or favourable changes introduced, then he was gravely mistaken in doing so, because the films utterly fails to make any kind of entertaining or emotional connect of that sort with the viewers in its pretty long length of 150 minutes. And the same can also be said for its entire cast too wherein Ajay Devgan looks like a clown performing in that peculiar style of the 80s hero, Tamanna just manages to look beautiful awfully speaking “I hate Gareebs” in a childish tone and one truly feels pity seeing an extremely gifted actor Paresh Rawal performing such a silly act wearing a horrible wig. To add further Sajid’s own self praised film falls completely flat in its soundtrack department too with the remixed tracks missing the required bubbly spirit and the fresh songs simply falling into the category of below average. However the cinematography does try to give you something to watch and so does the background music desperately trying to pump up the blood at regular intervals.
Further replying to the bragging statements given by the director weeks before the release of his film I would like to say that for me neither Ajay’s entry had anything exceptional to cheer for nor I could appreciate the stupid spoof played on Alfred Hitchcock’s cult classic PSYCHO. So, if Sajid is firm on his statement of paying back the ticket amount to those who didn’t feel like clapping on Ajay’s entry in the film, then probably he would have to spend a lot paying many like-minded friends disagreeing to his assurances given like myself. In addition I also have another question for the director that if he was really making a film for that common man of the interiors who comes into the theater just for his escapist entertainment, then why were the few subtitles shown in the film written in English and not Hindi?
Anyway, coming to the only silver lining in this black cloud, I would like to mention its two action sequences with the TIGER which easily transported me back to those years when we eagerly used to wait for a tiger fight in a film particularly the ones featuring the Garam Dharam. May be the kids would enjoy this more than the mature audiences which might become the only saving grace of the film to sustain in the home video market. Nevertheless, the truth remains that while watching the tiger in this bad remake, I just had the famous slogan in mind in a different form which said, “Save This Tiger” instead of “Save The Tiger” ironically.
Summing up, one really needs guts to see this HIMMATWALA made with some questionable expectations by the makers, religiously following its outdated original of the past lacking the much needed appeal for the current generation. But here allow me to end this review on a different note addressing the viewers instead, who themselves are responsible for such kind of ridiculous products served to them in the name of cinema.
To reveal the truth, no producer in the world would have agreed to the idea of remaking the 80s typical hit ever, if Sajid had not got a illustrious record of 3 back to back hits to his credit supporting him with a solid reason.
And who gave him that reason or made that shining record possible?
It was we the viewers only who quite irresponsibly converted all the three & many more mediocre and worthless films into big box office winners in the last decade. And no doubt when such second-rate films keep turning into huge blockbusters on a repeated mode, the directors are bound to become over confident of their exploitive vision, resulting in many more nonsensical products like HIMMATWALA, proudly touted as another 100 crore project even before its release.
In clear words, if this film goes on to become another major hit of 2013 in the coming days, then it will be a big shameful slap on our own faces as the viewers and if it gets rejected as it should, then it will be an alarming lesson for the makers who always tend to take the viewers as granted. So the decision is all ours.
Rating : 1 / 5 (And that too just for the TIGER who can be shown to the kids as the only entertaining part of a shameful circus.)
Tags :
Himmatwala Review By Bobby Sing, Himmatwala Film Review By Bobby Sing, Official Remakes of Hindi Films of 80s, Remake of Jeetendra's Himmatwala, Remake of Sridevi' Himmatwala, Inspired Movies, Overhyped films, Sajid Khan films, Reviews by Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bollywood Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Hindi Films Reviews By Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bollywood Movies Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bobby Sing Bollywood Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Released, New Hindi Films Reviews, New Hindi Movies Reviews, New Hindi Movies Released, New Bollywood Reviews, Bobby Talks Cinema Review, Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Hindi Films Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com, Inspired Movies, Remakes in Bollywood
In the recent times with many instances coming up of inspired posters being designed for the big, it sometimes seems that do they really make this goof up by chance or they intentionally do this to get some instant publicity for their projects.
The second possibility has certainly got more probability as everyone knows that we are now living in a very small world connected with invisible wires where loads of information is just available to us through a click. So, it doesn’t seem to be that a designing team may have done it amateurishly hiding their original sources and then the production house or the actual makers may have come to know about its inspired status later on.
Anyway the controversy has once again surfaced with the first look release of Madhur Bhandarkar’s HEROINE featuring Kareena Kapoor (which was earlier started with Aishwarya in the lead). Now one of the film’s poster is quite similar to the book cover of Siddharth Dhanvant Sanghvi's “The Lost Flamingoes Of Bombay”, published by Penguin books in 2010 and also very close to one of the promotional photos of Mariah Carey released with her “The Emancipation of Mimi” music album in 2005 (so evidently Mariah came out with it first).
Moreover the subject of the film also reminds you of Vidya Balan’s “The Dirty Picture” and one of the cult classic of World Cinema titled, “Sunset Boulevard” (1950) directed by Billy Wilder.
Tags :
HEROINE (2012) and its inspired poster, Posters inspired from book covers, Posters inspired from Music Albums Covers, Inspirational Designs, Mariah Carey Music Album Cover inspires Heroine poster, Inspiration in Indian Movie Posters
Sajid Khan’s HOUSEFULL-2 might be better than its not so related Part One. But its once again an all inspired or copied movie from its different sources on the similar lines of HF1.
The basic plot of the film of two step brothers living in adjoining houses, having beautiful daughters & looking for a rich boy to be their son-in-law is straight away taken from Telugu Comedy HUNGAMA (2005) directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy and Tamil filmBanda Paramasivam (2003) directed by T.P. Gajendran, which are both actually based on the original Malayalam filmMattupetti Machan (1998).
As the basic script and a major part of the film is exactly borrowed from these Regional Hits, I believe Sajid must have taken the official rights for the same following the right path. For instance, the marriage broker involved in an insulting incident, the plan for taking revenge, the hired person getting into the wrong home and the complete mistaken identity plot involving the two new cunning boys who fell in love with the girls is at is adapted in HF2 borrowed from the above mentioned films.
Interestingly there is another catch here about the marriage broker insult sequence in the film which also reminds you of David Dhawan & Govinda’s “Coolie No.1” released in 1995. However this Hindi blockbuster was reportedly again a remake of a 1991 Telugu film with the same title “Coolie No.1” directed by K. Raghavendra Rao.
But that is not all as another sub-plot in it wherein the couples get abandoned in a lonely beach and accidentally find out a lavish resort right there at the other side of the island is blatantly taken from the English romantic comedy "Love Wrecked" released in 2005. The way the air-boat is ruined by a shot and the manner in which they jump into a swimming pool sliding from the top of a stream is exactly there in the English flick too.
Just take a look at the trailer of the film at this link for more clarity:
If you are a die-hard fan of the Horror genre and have seen the famous classic scary films coming from the World Cinema, then HAUNTED might be a kind of amateur attempt for you. And in case you haven’t seen all those brilliant films and are only familiar with the Ramsay kind of Horror Cinema famous in our part of the world, even then HAUNTED is not going to impress or entertain you greatly with its monotonous kind of content and execution.
Vikram Bhatt, the director, after tasting marginal success with his last few horror films, sticks to the genre and comes up with another from his stable in 3D. But in simple words, it is a film which has been made with the sole motive of taking the maximum advantage of its Horror + 3D combination and has got nothing more than the routine, seen before stuff to offer its viewers. The film starts off in a laid back manner and the pace doesn’t pick up even after its initial hour. So the viewer doesn’t really feel the excitement and thrill of watching a horror movie in its first half. Post intermission, it falls back on the routine path, adding a weird kind of plot of moving back into the time-space (some 80 years back), which actually falls flat in absence of an electrifying execution.
In fact the time-travel remains the weakest part of the movie as it is neither explained properly to the viewer nor treated with the right kind of thrill and competence. For instance, the hero easily finds his places to live and spend days in, after moving back in time to the year 1936 and nobody cares who he is and from where has he come with a completely different kind of clothes, looks and style. Moreover he also reaches back in the present, just like that in the end without any proper build up and clarification.
Further, as usual HAUNTED is haunted by the ideas and visuals earlier seen in many other horror movies, which once again put it in the category of inspired movies. Starting with the same ages old plot of a haunted mansion, the film has at-least one novel plot of having two spirits in the palace instead of one. There is an evil spirit of a Piano teacher in the house who has captured another spirit of his own girl-student, whom he used to love. Now for 80 long years the spirit of the girl is being tortured by the other spirit in the house and therefore the palace has become a haunted one from many decades.
Moving ahead, the script once again has a psychic healer who is called upon but runs away looking at the powerful evil. Then there is a Sufi saint who gives the real life saving instructions to the couple giving them a bottle of pure water. There also happens to be a Father of the Holy Church who does his own prayers to save the couple but gets killed by the spirit too. As per its plot based on one sided love, the film also has scenes of an invisible spirit raping the girl, as earlier seen in “THE ENTITY” and our own version of it called “HAWA” featuring Tabu. And on top of all, the climax once again has a scary but blessed well (reminding you of the cult flick “RINGU”) as if nowadays no horror movie can be made without showing a dark black well in its end which saves everyone from the evil.
So content wise, I didn’t find HAUNTED having anything new in its 2.15 hours of lengthy duration. With a crispier edit of less than 2 hours, it could have been an ok one time watch. Performance wise too, I didn’t find anyone great other than a fine act by Tia who has got both talent and on screen presence visible on the celluloid. In fact I liked the girl and her cute smile even in her early days of T.V performances and would love to see her soon in some reputed projects. Mahaakshay tries too hard and he simply reminds me of Dev Anands’s son who also tried hard in films but later decided to quit. My best wishes are with Mahaakshay but he seriously needs to give it a second thought for sure. Achint Kaur is good and so is Arif Zakaria in their haunting roles. The musical score in the film is pretty weak and actually songs should not have been there in the first place. Even the background score doesn’t transform you into a scary world, which happens to be one of the most important requirements of a horror project.
However, technically the film has been worked upon, which clearly shows and its 3D effects are well supported by its first rate Cinematography. But still I found the 3D scenes, which at once reach out to you, quite less than what was being expected. Though the sudden attacks of spirits does scare you at times but its not a hugely scary movie at all even in its 3D avatar.
In the end, I would only like to say that as being publicized, HAUNTED is not the first Hindi 3D horror movie made in Bollywood. More than 25 years back we had a Ramsay film called “SAAMRI” released in 3D in the year 1985. And to be very straight, I still remember that we all (then students) immensely enjoyed the movie with its purely magical, scary scenes in 3D and a likable background score, much - much more than the current HAUNTED. So now the decision to watch it or not, is all yours.
Ratings : 1.5 / 5
Tags :
Haunted Movie Review by bobby sing, Haunted Film Review by Bobby Sing, 3D Horror film from Bollywood, New Hindi Films Reviews By Bobby Sing at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bollywood Movies Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com, Bobby Sing Bollywood Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Reviews, New Bollywood Movies Released, New Hindi Films Reviews, New Hindi Movies Reviews, New Hindi Movies Released, New Bollywood Reviews, Bobby Talks Cinema Review, Reviews By Bobby Sing, New Hindi Films Reviews at bobbytalkscinema.com, Inspired Movies List, Copied Movies, Bollywood takes it from the WORLD CINEMA.
The site is a collection of personal expressions of the writer to share his own views on different mediums of art, with no intention of hurting any person or organisation in particular. The site is also not responsible for any inappropriate acts practiced by the third party links added here only for information purposes.
Visit bobbytalkscinema.com for Bollywood Movie Reviews, Inspired Cinema, Movies To See Before You Die, Amazing Bollywood Facts, Articles On Cinema, Music, Poetry & Life
