Quentin Tarantino was inspired by Kamal Hassan's ABHAY for a sequence in his cult movie KILL BILL.
17 Jul, 2012 |
Inspired Movies (Alphabetical) / Hollywood Gets Inspired
After a long time, read something exceptionally encouraging about our Indian Cinema in a recent news article talking about the conversation between one of the most innovative directors of the west, Quentin Tarantino and our own representative of new age cinema, Anurag Kashyap.
As revealed in the link given below, renowned director Quentin Tarantino saw an animated action sequence in a 2001 film which happened to be Kamal Hassan starrer Tamil-Hindi film “Aalavandhan” aka “Abhay”, directed by Suresh Krishna, wherein Kamal played a double role of twin brothers. Taking inspiration from that animated fight scene in the film, Quentin conceived a major sequence in his famous cult classic “Kill Bill” released in 2003-04 (in two parts) and also admitted this himself during his personal talks with Anurag.
Taking into account the director’s body of work which includes films such as “Pulp Fiction”,“Jackie Brown”,“Inglourious Basterds” & “Death Proof”, it’s indeed a great encouraging compliment for not only Suresh Krishna but also for all those talented Indian film-makers who are willing to introduce more such innovations in our Indian films. Moreover it also proves the fact that there is no dearth of world class creative talent in our own Industry and the only thing these artistic minds need is the solid backing of a visionary production house and nothing else.
With a hope to get more such energetic news on a regular basis….!
Tags :
Quentin Tarantino gets inspired from ABHAY, Quentin Tarantino And Kamal Hassan, Abhay & Kill Bill, Hollywood Gets Inspired, Hollywood takes the Inspiration from Indian Films.
I cant believe that a well movie-knowledged guy like u believe this article.
Quentin Tarantino did not even mention Kamal or the film by name. It is Anurag\'s understanding of what QT said!
I don\'t think Quentin Tarantino got inspired that sequence from Abhay.
Actually, Kill Bill is a homage film to hongkong action films, spaghetti western, and Japanese Manga/animation films.that Kill Bill Manga/animation sequence we r talkin abt, is homage to Japanese Manga action films and that Kill Bill Manga episode\'s intention is not to
portray violence through animation, its intention is to show the character\'s backstory through Japanese Manga,as that lady assassin
character\'s nationality is Japanese/chinese.and the use of animation is not the first time in Abhay.its used in Natural Born Killers film which is written by QT and it released before Abhay and Abhay might hav copied that idea from that film.
Iam a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino and i hav watched almost all of his interviews. He talks abt all world language films but QT never mentioned even a single word about Indian cinema and i think QT doesn\'t watch indian films.QT must hav said that out of respect to impress Anurag to giv him a feeling that he watches indian films.why does QT watch an utterflop film Abhay? Even i didnt watch it.
Hi Zanzeer Ramcharan,
Its ok if you cant believe this as you are free to feel that way but the mention was there as per the news, may be for whatever reason.
And if a director like Quentin Tarantino doesnt have any ego hassles to name or admit it then I also dont have any issues or inferiorty complex to not believe him. I take it as a compliment for our film-makers and felt great reading it.
However regarding ABHAY being flop and a bad film........I strongly disagree with that too as it might have been a flop but was never ever a badly made or below average film.
Thanks for writing in and Keep Visiting,
Cheers!
HIS BLESSINGS
Hi Sandeep with many thanks for your request and your waiting for my write-ups.
However, I am sorry for the gap as I really cannot write deliberately, after a dear artist of mine takes his final leave from the planet.
In fact I really hate writing Obituary Articles suddenly after a dear artist passes away..
Honestly speaking, I take it as a huge disrespect and rather an insult for my love for the artist if I can suddently sit on one fine morning just to write about him after he is gone.
It makes me feel as if - What were we doing when he was alive and breathing right amongst us..........Why we didnt find any time to wrtie about him in those days........Had we forgotten our dear artist then OR we were all waiting for his death only to write about him.
So I really take it as a deep dis-respect for the person gone when suddenly everybody simply seems to remember all the anecdotes and interesting instances about him just after he is gone..............In other word it seems..We really need only DEATH to remember all this......
I take its as a great SHAME for the whole mankind which never allows me as a true fan to write something just after my dear artist dies.
But I will surely write about him someday, when I would feel like after watching any of his movies again but I myself dont know which day it would be.
And I hope you would understand the feeling rightly.
Cheers to HIM for his peaceful journey up above,
HIS BLESSINGS
Hey bobbysingh, u misunderstood me.hav i said that Abhay is a bad film? I said that its a flop film commercially and critically when the film released.kamal fans might like it,i dont know.but that film is definitely not a popular film.international directors mostly watch popular films,how QT wud hav known abt it if its not popular film and QT even didnt mention the name of the film.and even Anurag kashyap isnt talking and responding abt this in twitter.if u know well abt QT and his films,u can feel what iam saying.i too love indian cinema,iam not makin it inferior.iam just tryin to explain the facts.
1. Regarding people watching only popular films, I would like to say that when you are talking about CINEMA freaks or People who are just MAD about Cinema like myself then - these kind of people do not watch movies classifying them into hit or flop or popular..
On the contrary they more watch movies taking into consideration the makers, director or actors.....
For instance If I am a person living in the other part of the world and I am told about an actor par excellence calld Kamal Hassan or ace director Akira Kurosawa then I will be interested in watching most of his films whether they are Hit, Flop or Popular whatever.......
So ABHAY might have been watched by many due to the reason that it was a KAMAL HASSAN film and rather an unusal or out of the routine film from the veteran.
2. Regarding no one mentioning the film or Anurag not responding to the news, I would like to say that it doesnt matter if Anurag responds or not. But what really matters is that why QT is quite even after this news has made it HUGE in Indian papers and media.
Now If this was all false then the ONLY MAN WHOSE REPUTATION IS ON STAKE IS Q. TARANTINO.
So he should come out and deny this himself if he really wishes to correct it......
and untill he doesnt come up and deny it saying or getting inspired from, it will all be taken as truth.....undoubtedly.
First of all, judging by your comment I take that you are a huge QT fan. That makes the two of us! But then again you are missing the body of work QT is involved in and I don\'t think you are aware of this other wise you surely must have understood the point by now. The fact that QT is an encyclopedia of cinema. He watches cinema from all around the world regardless of them being popular or not. As a matter of fact he even watches B-grade exploitation movies for inspiration hence \'Grindhouse\'.
So please do not think you know the man (and his body of work) just on the basis of all the interviews you have seen and honestly I think I don\'t know much about him either inspite being a huge fan.
As far as the claims that QT being inspired by Kamal Hasan or any one else I must say that he is a film-maker...an artist. An artist draws inspiration from anywhere he or she can. And when an artist does that its momentary. Later on the artist can choose to declare the source of the inspiration. But after that there are no boundries and there are no names.
It is just an Indian thing that as soon as we hear an Indian name on the international circuits, a feeling of proudness is triggered which is natural but we Indians tend to embrace it more than anyone else. It is in our DNA. When Martin Scorcese says Satayajit Ray was one of his inspirations we immediately go and watch a Ray film trying to figure out what was so special about Ray films. Its a shame that we need a Martin Scorcese comment as an excuse to watch a Ray film. No offense to Martin Scorcese as his works are my favs...but I am trying to make a point here.
Now about \'Abhay\' - It is one of those rare gems which our Indian cinema is previleged to have. But this is also one the films which paid its price of being way ahead of the time. It happened with \'Dil Se\' and it happened with many others.
What is the meaning of a \'Flop\' film in these times where we have all kinds of cinema around us catering to all sorts of audience? I mean if you think it that way then I guess \'DDLJ\' is a \'so called Flop\' film in the books of the person who is more into films like \'Gandu\'
The concept of flop and hit has crippled the art of cinema and people tend to miss out the point. We have become so critical about the art itself that it has lost its innocence.
you are such a kid. ppl like us only see the money and say , the movie is hit or flop.. alavanthan ( abhay ) was a class movie.. { if u didnt watch it i request you get a dvd and watch now } its one of the finest examples of kamals brilliance in film making.. i exceptioanlly like the way kamal potrays hallucination scenes in the film... no wonder quentin inspired from alavanthan ( abhay ).
this is what kamal said after receiving comments form QT
Reacting to this, the Ulaga Nayagan (means world class actor ) said, When I did the animation action sequence 12 years ago it was seen as self-indulgent and odd by a lot of people. Now that it has been endorsed by a filmmaker of such brilliance, critics will be kinder to some of the things I attempt in my films.
ppl from India dunt respect the legends living with them.
ppl like QT dont watch popular films like \" dabaang \" ( just mocking ) they see brilliance.. and alavanthan ( abhay ) deserves that. better watch the movie and comment.
you will also deny that kamal is teaming with Barrie M. Osborne ( producer of LOA series and matrix )
but fact is a fact. you need to get ur facts rite.
What i can is just an armature talk all-round... I personally worked as an assistant to the editor in the movie... we have full record of how the movie has been shot... the movie took around 2 years to get complete... i have personally seen the shooting... Abhay released in 2001... it was in the making for 2 years and before Kamal started his work... he has the habit of making the movie in a 2D format small movie... so that he know how the work flows and what things need to be done... it is exactly as movies shot in hollywood... when a movie is shot in 2D movie format it is easy to keep track and even easy to explain and edit... you might have heard about scenes where drawn and explained before had to stunt directors and actors so that they can work with ease... same way kamal shot the Abhay movie in 2D... it is done in an animation inc. in kerala... then when they proceed to start the movie shooting... they had lot of setback... first thing did u noted the physio path kamal is bulky and the major is slim... so while creating the sets, they have to first shoot the normal kamal... but the sets should be in an destroyed condition... they shot that first, when kamal became bulky they have to build huge sets and they again shot things.... so just to cut shot few portions and to cut shot more violence scenes kamal ji adapted to the 2D version of the movie...
What am try to say is... He never copied that idea from anywhere and that movie might not a commercially successful... but that was a great learning experience for everyone... most of the directors dont know even use the various technologies... Kamal is the first guy to introduce Red one digital cam in movie here in india... he is just an encyclopedia... he is a visionary... yes i agree he has movie which got inspired from hollywood movies... i accept it... In my opinion that was to stabilize his finance... he is the person who experiments a lot and even loses lot of money in it... A classic example is "Mahanadi" see with subtitles it was a bold effort but not appreciated... after 10 years people still wants to study about how that was made... Do you know in germany... History students "Hey Ram" is a important part of their history studies and they also watch the movie to know the history...
Kamal Hassan is just a school drop out, i have spoke to him and worked in the at movie... in my personal opinion you can take any subject and you can speak to him... you will have the proper answer... you wanna speak about music, dance, cameras, graphics techniques, editing, stunt, literature, politics... you name it you get it....
When technicians we get doubt on any techniques the first person we wanted to call is kamal hassan...
That movie Abhay was a ground breaking effort by him... the director of the movie dosen\'t have a clue what he is doing.... kamal sir just had him for support... major part of the work has been done by kamal hassan... directors job is nil... you can take all experimental kamal hassan movies... if it has any other director they are just names... but major portion of the movie will be taken care by kamal hassan...
Vetri vila was his movie which was released in in 90\'s, bourne ultimatum is inspired from it... can you accept it... you wont... at times some ideas will hit here and there... we cant blame everyone....
all i wanna say is... kamal has a caliber that is exceptional... if u compare Quentin Tarantino with kamal... Quentin Tarantino is a very bad acter you can name his acting in few movies.... ya he is a good director... kamal hassan as i told you he is got a black belt in martial arts, professionally learned katak, he is an actor, director, screen play writer, singer, stunt coordinator ( Abhay stunts few scenes are his ideas), music director too...
i am just a guy who just happened to work with him for just one movie.... but if u allow me i can speak about him for a month... but i know i know less about him... he writes poems that i came to know when some writes told me in a book release function... he writes songs.... he can speak as many languages in india, where no one can... he is the only indian to act is any many language movies.... i belive he acted in a marati and bengali movie... this one i am not sure... but he acted in a marati or a bengali movie... that i need to ask my friend...you name it you get is from him.... just to remind you he is a school drop out...
Hi Manoj,
Thanks a lot for visiting and writing a detailed and very valuable comment in this thread.
I really loved reading it with all the trivia information and hope all friends here would appreciate it too.
Thanks Pritam for your comment here but would like to add that Mr. Kamal Hassan is a reputed & renowned name here in the Indian film industry who has been associated with many meaningful & landmark projects in our Indian Cinema.
But you are free to have your opinion and we respect that too.
Hi all,
Daisy a 1988 malayalam film directed by Prathap Pothen, and Kamal Hassan in a very important role.. then recently i watched a movie named A walk to remember... 2002 film... believe me western writers sometimes watch and copy our films.
Hi Sreerag,
Thanks for this valuable information regarding the inspiration. I will soon try to see it myslef and then get back.
Till then Take Care!
HIS BLESSINGS
Most of Kamal Hassan\'s films are made by himself. The directors are de facto. The credit should go to Kamal Hassan. Suresh Krishna is a lacklustre director who has had partial success with Batsha with Rajinikanth and some other movies. But it is Kamal Hassan who is the genius here.
abhay is a great film & i love it very much......but acc. to critics iys a flop........its fight scenes were awesome.
... it can inspire any director...so y not qt...
Recently I came to know that Liam Neeson\'s Taken is inspired from Kamal Hassan\'s 1994 film Mahanadi. Taken\'s director himself has admitted this. But interestingly Kamal Hassan said earlier that Mahanadi was inspired from Victor Hugo\'s epic novel Les Miserables.
I believe it is just impossible to create a 100 percent original art work now a days. Not just films, we can see fair share of inspirations and influences in literature, painting, music and what not. There is nothing wrong about that as long as it does justice to the original work.
Yes Prince Jacob, there is nothing wrong about that as long as it does justice to the original work...........but along with mentioning the source too giving the original creator his deserving due as per my personal opinion.
