I was just having a long argument about the efficacy of the Indian film-makers... My friend (anonymous) laid forward a point – “Indians film-makers can only copy. No Indian movie in the past three-four yrs has been an original hit. Be it Chak De or Black and the last one, Ghajini.”
Well, I agree they may have been inspired... But doesn’t it take a lot of effort to make it suitable for the Indian viewers... "Devdas" has been inspired from earlier “Devdas” but that in no way takes credit away from Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Talking of Bhansali, "Black"
may be inspired from “The Miracle Worker” but aint both movies inspired by the life of the great Hellen Keller!!! Why do we call “Black” a copy of “The Miracle Worker”? I’m no movie critic, but "Black", to me, was one of the finest depictions of the Alzheimer’s disease. This was confirmed by my sister who is currently pursuing medicine and was impressed by the meticulous chronology of Alzheimer’s followed by the script... The making... The symbolism of colours especially the interplay of Black and White... The dialogue and the monologue... Even Rani’s First (and the last) Kiss...
Movies do draw inspiration from others... but comparing them is no good for they are made for a different set of audience... Take the case of "Ghajini" and "Memento". There is no doubt that "Ghajini" was inspired by "Memento" (it’s not a remake for sure). But for all those song-sequences (which I felt needless and distracting but my mom felt good), the movie may have been too much of continuous violence (not that it was any less now) rendering it impossible for the faint-hearted Indian viewer who likes tragedy but mixed with emotions and drama and not the outright violence as is often depicted in Hollywood flicks... Try making the "Apocalypto" in Hindi and the box-office would bomb it out (i.e. if the censor board clears it first). There is very little doubt that viewers of both "Memento" and "Ghajini" might find the latter deplorable (i.e. if they understood "Memento" in the first place) in comparison to the original but then... (OK AAmir Khan Disagrees with me here... He dint find Memento as good)
There are stories and there are movies... What directors do is make movies out of stories... Is there anything wrong if the two movies have the same story...
PP
P.S. For those who did not understand Memento, I got one site that actualyl tried explaining it... I'll post it as an edit when I find that site again... I, for one, loved the movie... much more than the action packed Ghajini...
P.S. As I promised... Warning: Spoiler Alert... Do NOT Click HERE if u've not seen Memento...
2 comments:
How hard is Memento to understand? It needs a repeat viewing but I don't think you need to be a Rhodes Scholar to figure it out. The DVD has a special feature that allows you to reverse the chronology. Take that away and it feels like a regular movie.
And Agree with you on the whole flicking thing. People have been making a mountain out of a molehill. This movie isn't a copy but merely inspired by Memento. Even directors like Scorcesse flick movies (The Departed is nearly a scene by scene flick of Infernal Affairs but he has suitably modified it for the Boston Underground,giving it that extra edge)
Tul
ya I needed a second viewing... but many dont get it even after that...!!! Google it.. there are many blogs on not being able to understand memento
Even Aamir Khan apparently dint like it for this reason :)
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