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V. Shantaram inspires the west with his landmark masterpiece.

28 Oct, 2007 | Inspired Movies (Alphabetical) / Hollywood Gets Inspired

V-Shantaram - Bobby Talks Cinema.com

V. Shantaram is one of the most respected and well known names in Indian Film Industry who have majorly contributed in the progress of Indian Cinema. His movie were always based on new & innovative concepts, which had a social message for the society along with a high entertainment value for the viewers. And one of his famous and widely appreciated movies probably inspired Hollywood filmmakers too.

A US Army Officer is assigned a duty to train 12 convicted murderers for a mass assassination mission. This is the plot for “The Dirty Dozen” a film made in 1967 directed by Robert Aldrich. Sounds very familiar to “Do Ankhen Barah Haath” made by V. Shantaram in 1957 which was exactly on the similar lines, but based on real life story as mentioned in its titles. Though the English Classic is said to be based on a novel by E. M Natanson, which was published in the early sixties. But still Shantaram’s Classic came much earlier than that in 1957.

One argument in this context can be given that Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai” was made in 1954, which may be the main inspiration source for both the above mentioned movies. However apart from being based on a true story “Do Ankhen Barah Haath” also has a significantly distinctive feature in its theme, wherein the convicts are not fighting with anyone or saving a village from any dacoits. But are only being transformed to be good, law biding citizens by the officer through his own means. So a fresh & socially relevant angle is there in the Indian Masterpiece which might have also inspired the makers of “The Dirty Dozen”.

Interestingly in the later years two of India's own leading film-makers Ramesh Sippy & Subhash Ghai, got inspired with the same thought of "Do Ankhen Barah Haath" and came up with their own classic versions as "SHOLAY" and "KARMA", wherein the only difference was that in "Karma" there were 3 and in "Sholay" there were 2 convicts used instead of 6.

And there was only one person responsible for all above mentioned masterpieces and he was The Legendary V. Shantaram.

Tags : V. Shantaram, Golden Classics of Hindi Cinema, Do Ankhen Barah Haath, the Dirty Dozen, Seven Samurai, Karma, Akira Kurosawa, Subhash Ghai, Inspired Movies, Inspired Cinema, Hollywood Gets Inspired, Hollywood Gets Inspired, Inspiration in World Cinema, Inspired Movies, Inspired Cinema, Bollywood Plagiarism, Plagiarism in Hindi Cinema, Copied Movies, Movies Inspired From, Borrowed Concepts, Inspired Plots, Bollywood & Hollywood, Reviews by Bobby Sing, Bollywood Gets Inspired, Cinema Gets Inspired,

28 Oct 2007 / Comments ( 6 )

RAUNAK

submitted on 19 April 2011

Well it seems that there are cases of hollywood getting inspired from our very own indian film industry.

I can give you few more examples.Ritwick Ghatak\'s ajantrik has inspired the english herbie films which came later. Also Mel Gibson\'s Apocalypto seems to be inspired by Mrinal Sen\'s Mrigaya.

And F. truffaut\'s famous film 400 blows has a theme very similar to Ritwick Ghatak\'s Bari Theke Paliye which came earlier.

Bobby Sing

submitted on 19 Apr,2011

Thanks Raunak for your valuable input.

I would sure look into this soon and get back to you.

Cheers! and KEEP VISITING.

HIS BLESSINGS

praveen dhawal

submitted on 04 November 2011

but.....sholay and karma may be inspired from seven samurai... bcoz of similarity b/w themes ..

Bobby Sing

submitted on 04 Nov,2011

Dear Praveen,

The point here is that both Sholay and Karma were inspired by the same THOUGHT - which was no doubt based on "THE SEVEN SAMURAI". Infact Kurosawa's classic remains the main inspiration behind all such films undeniably all over the world..

But at the same time, the fact remains that this brilliant plot or thought was for the first time incorprated in Hindi Cinema by V. Shantaram and then the rest followed. And that too with a new and different social angle in it without any villian as such.

However as far as SHOLAY is concerned it was based on a lot more inspirational sources mentioned in my dedicated post to the topic. (So do read it too)

Cheers!
HIS BLESSINGS

avik

submitted on 20 February 2014

Was guided to this post via link provided in a diff. thread. :)

@ Raunak & Bobby : good to go thru\' all the enriching posts from both of u on the history/world of cinema.
Anyways this is just FYI, in case u are not aware of, both Ajantrik and Bari Theke Paliye are based on two great Bengali short stories by Subodh & Shibram.. :)

Bobby Sing

submitted on 28 Feb,2014

Thanks Avik for joining in and for sharing another valuable information about these two films.
Keep Visiting & Writing in.
Cheers!

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