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DHOOM 3, its link with Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda and few more inspirational sources.

22 Dec, 2013 | Inspired Movies (Alphabetical) / D

(Spoiler : Its suggested that you read the article only after watching the film.)

Various blog-posts, discussions and reviews have quoted Christopher Nolan’s THE PRESTIGE (2006) and Louis Leterrier’s NOW YOU SEE ME (2013) as the inspirational sources of Yash Raj film’s DHOOM 3 in particular. Now no doubt the traces of both these films can easily be found in various sequences and storyline of DHOOM 3, since the magic and magician’s trick plot reminds you of Christopher Nolan’s famous classic and the raining dollars, hatred with the bank (Insurance Co.) & revenge angle make you remember the recent Leterrier’s film talking about four young magicians.

But actually the major twist of DHOOM 3 dealing with the hidden character of Aamir Khan has taken its inspiration from one of our own Hindi films featuring Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role of a Police Inspector, released decades before both the above mentioned English flicks in the year 1991. The movie is AKAYLA, directed by Ramesh Sippy which introduced Keith Stevenson as the main villain in a double role where one of the brothers was a mentally challenged one too posing as the alibi.

Now where in DHOOM 3 the plot has not been used as extensively as it should have been, in AKAYLA the two cunning brothers start teasing Amitabh right from the beginning and he gets fooled repeatedly as there is always an alibi present with the main culprit, of being somewhere else, far away from the crime scene. At the time of its release though many thought that Keith played that role a bit over the top as Tony & Jojo Braganza, but for me he was quite cunning to make you feel the irritation too and I actually still remember enjoying his performance a lot more than all the forced acts in this new age version of 2013. To add further the film was not a box office success featuring a highly famous insertion of a car named as “Ram Pyari”, but it is still rated as one of the most under-rated failures of Amitabh Bachchan from those indecisive years of his career.

Interestingly in AKAYLA, Amitabh cracks this mystery of two brothers, while watching another hindi film SEETA AUR GEETA (1972) in a scene, which was also a Ramesh Sippy directed movie having the dream girl Hema Malini in the double role.

Later there came another Hindi movie MUQABLA using the same plot in 1993 directed by Rama Rao Tatineni, wherein again two evil twin brothers were used by Shakti Kapoor to commit all his crimes, fooling both Govinda and Aditya Pancholi playing two honest Police constables fighting with each other on this very confusion.

So in reality DHOOM 3 is more a re-worked version from our own old duds of the early 90s than being another inspired big budget venture taking it mostly from the west and the film has Abhishek playing exactly the same character as his father played in AKAYLA.

(Note : Though Amitabh’s AKAYLA too had references of Sylvester Stallone’s COBRA (1986) and Clint Eastwood DIRTY HARRY Series, but I am still searching if the twin brother plot was also taken from some other film or not. So if you do have any clue about the same, then please let me know through comments, mail or FB and I would be glad to update the article with your valuable input provided at the earliest.)

Cheers!

Tags : Dhoom 3 inspired from, Dhoom 3 & Amitabh Bachchan, Dhoom 3 & Govinda, Inspired Movies, Inspired Cinema list at bobbytalkscinema.com, Dhoom 3 & Akayla, Dhom 3 & Muqabla, Dhoom 3 and The Prestige.

22 Dec 2013 / Comments ( 8 )

Prakash Bhatia

submitted on 23 December 2013

Hi Bobby ji,
Amazing Sir! Hats off to you. Kahan se itni research kartey ho bhai? You are not only a true film critic but also a film historian.
Keep it up Sir.

Bobby Sing

submitted on 26 Dec,2013

Hi Prakash Bhatia Ji,
Thanks for your kind words and its just the passion of movies which is the main spirit working behind such efforts and this site.
So Keep Visiting and Writing in.
Cheers!

Neel Trivedi

submitted on 08 August 2014

Hey Bobby,
That twin storyline goes back to a lot of different sources. One of the earliest times it was used was in an episode of The Million Dollar Man. I remember the story vaguely; Steve Austin (played by Lee Majors) tries to catch the villain multiple times, not realizing that there are two of them until the end.

Bobby Sing

submitted on 12 Aug,2014

Hi Neel,
Thanks for writing in and I will surely try to watch this episode if its available online soon.
Keep Visiting and Writing in.
Cheers!

Neel Trivedi

submitted on 03 October 2014

Bobby,

I don\'t know if you\'re still interested, but the The Six Million Dollar Man (that\'s right, I forgot to add the \"six\" in my last post), episode is called Eyewitness To Murder and it\'s online.

Check it out if have the time. It came way before Akayla and Muqabla, in 1974.

Bobby Sing

submitted on 19 Oct,2014

Thanks a lot Neel for the precise info.
I would surely chek it out and let you know about my views soon.

Cheers!

Harish Parekh

submitted on 12 October 2018

I knew Steve personally when he used to do anchoring for HMV Star show in English.A good good freind of mine and I think Akeyla was most surprising failure of Bollywood.I am yet to see a better screen play than Akeyla.Ramesh Sippy at his best and I think Kieth did his job admirably well being his first film.There have been worst performances from reputed actors from Bollywood which have gone in punished.

Harish P

Bobby Sing

submitted on 04 Jan,2019

Thats great to know Harish.
No doubt he did his job in an admirable manner.
Keep Visiting and Writing in.
Cheers!

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