HUM/ BAASHHA

So I saw Baashha today. Yes The Rajnikant starrer. Remake/ revision of the Amitabh Bachchan comeback vehicle Hum. Incidentally, Rajnikant played a role in that one too. I know that in my mind, I would be comparing the two movies but before that, a review of the movie in question itself.

I came to this movie only after having heard a song in Sivaji where the three movies Billa, Ranga, Baashha are mentioned. I also know that Rajni Sir has played almost every role in Tamil cinema that AB played in Hindi. Don=Billa I even caught a glimpse of this one. I caught Baashha just now and yes it is a revisitation of the Hum plot. I have not found anything on Ranga except that it is a 1982 movie…but I digress..

This movie begins with introducing us to Manik who is a do-gooder and well-wisher of the public in general. He is also portrayed as a righteous, non-violent somewhat cowardly man who is trying to fulfill his father's wishes pertaining to his step-siblings. Needless to say he does so but as with every movie, this movie wouldn't be one if he didn't have a deadly secret. He does which gets revealed to us post interval…that he was once a feared gangster in Mumbai who became one only to wipe out the truly cruel and negative character Mark Antony played very well by Raghuvaran. He succeeded and faked his own death to carry out his promise to his dying father.

Antony comes to know of this, escapes jail and kidnaps his whole family to exact revenge but as always the hero wins. Somewhere in between he also manages to charm a rich girl who happens to be the daughter of the person who betrayed him in Mumbai on Antony's orders and then killed Antony's family and looted his home.

That said the movie itself is not bad. In fact if you don't know the story beforehand, (and even if you do) it is entertaining enough to hook you. Needless to say Rajni sir steals the show all the way. Raghuvaran is good the way only he can be. Music leaves a lot to be desired. Except the chant of Baashha whenever Rajnikant is on screen, nothing really suits either the movie or the mood. Naghma is beautiful but her role was not really needed. She is there just to justify the song sequences which jar the pace of an otherwise slick enough movie.

Now to the comparisons. Perhaps these are not objective as I had seen Hum when I was about eight or nine years old. And I remember fondly as Jumma chumma became the anthem of the nation. Despite being ripped off from Mory Kante's Tama Tama and the whole brouhaha over composition (which I was blissfully unaware of at the time…and I believe LP did a much better job than Bappi Da) the song was catchy, and involved you when you saw it or heard it. I even remember the theme played whenever Amitabh lost his temper. Yes it is safe to say that the movie had an impact on me. Despite starting off grim and boring, I ultimately liked it.

So which was the better one. HUM period. Although an enticing thought is whether HUM would have been more effective had it been presented as Baashha…non linearly. I try to imagine it and find that yes. Just imagine…you're expecting to see AB as angry young man. Instead he starts off as an ageing patriarch who is cowardly as cowardly come. The family is happy among itself when the youngest brother is revealed to be in love with the General's daughter. At the General's place, he is spotted by Girdhar (Anupam Kher) who is trying to sell sub-standard tanks to the army. The middle brother's family gets kidnapped and that's when he receives a phone call for Tiger….It gives me goose bumps.

Hum had a much better production design despite being made 4 years earlier. Better music which is catchy even today. The plot is convoluted better and is more cathartic than Bashha. In Baashha there is no real sense of sacrifice for the step-family. No real emotionally charged desperate sequence as when the parents get murdered. Danny comes across as more menacing than Raghuvaran and Anupam Kher is brilliant…and the best part of the movie….Kadar Khan in a double role..

All in all, both movies are good but Hum is better.  

Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein/ Minnale

I have always been watching hindi remakes of tamil/ telugu/ english movies and always wondering how the two compare. One of the things which baffles me at times is why the remake is not successful. But usually not too much. However, RHTDM was an issue which had been on my mind for more than ten years. Maybe because it was a movie from my prime youth. But I always wondered why did RHTDM not work despite the same director, same lead actor and the same wonderful music. I have searched on the net many times in vain but no-one really gives any reason regarding why Minnale worked and RHTDM did not. This is my attempt after recently having seen Minnale. I would really appreciate it if Tamil bi-lingual people would share their opinions regarding the two movies.

Well. This has been a movie which played its part in one of the happiest periods in my life. The thing which helps it the most is the music. I had seen RHTDM first. I did know even then that it was a remake of Minnale but never really bothered to watch Minnale. I was almost forced to see RHTDM movie by one of my seniors. He happened to love it. And I didn't exactly hate it. In fact I might have liked it then.

The movie had been a flop already but the music was very good. It was one of those rare non-A.R. Rahman albums that I had liked. And that had been my primary interest in watching the movie (not to mention that the senior in question was buying the tickets).

First of all the things I had liked about the movie…

Music as already mentioned. It seemed to be ARR. The instruments, the interludes, the heavy bass, the non-traditional rhythms. And the song which impressed me the most was…not Zara Zara  in fact none that are songs in themselves but the one song which kept cropping up in the background..Kaise main kahoon tujhse, RehnaSS hai tere dil mein.

Maddy..I had liked R. Madhavan even before on TV. He was one of the very few South Indians who could speak Hindi without an accent. At times I felt that he actually had to put on the accent for the sitcom Ghar Jamai. Madhavan acted very well according to me though in some scenes things seemed a bit forced. Especially the ones establishing his relationship with his Mumbai friends. His intro was cool at the time. And though it was a copy, his signature tune blended well with what was being shown on screen.

Dia Mirza looked awesome.

Saif Ali Khan. Somehow this was the character that I identified with. The eternal nice guy. But unlike me this character did not shy away from a physical fight and perhaps that was why he was the hero.

Anupam Kher---very rarely does he disappoint

And now the main reason I'm writing this. To explain, perhaps, why Minnale worked while RHTDM did not? And why this movie and others like this have probably been a bad influence overall?

The main reason RHTDM did not work was the director. Time and again I have observed that directors like Mani Ratnam and Gautham Menon work very well in Tamil but almost always falter when remaking their own works in Hindi. The language does play an important part. One cannot just translate the dialogues and be done with it. The idioms are different. The way a situation is perceived is  different.

I believe one of the biggest mistakes he made was to make Sam, Maddy's senior. Their first fight really had no context in the Hindi version. The way Abbas humiliates Maddy in public is more natural and a better cause for Maddy to seek payback. This puts their on-upmanship into perspective. This tells us that even Sam is not above the petty game of dressing maddy down. Unfortunately that is not the case with RHTDM. Also, deleting the sequence where Sam and Maddy get into a scuffle outside a restaurant when Sam and reena are on a date also affected the narrative a little bit. Editing could definitely have been better. Situations like the one when Sam comes to give his wedding card to Maddy could have had better dialogue. Most importantly the one line which made the movie (according to me) has been deleted.  I am a better man than you. Brings out the irony that despite being a better man he lost to the one person he detests the most.

I also felt that a few scenes looked more natural in Minnale because of the point of view the shot was taken. In most of the scenes in  Minnale Maddy is on the right side of most characters which I felt was a more natural position. Another reason could be that one or two mellow songs were replaced. The replacements were good but perhaps too pop-y for the movie.

 Maddy was the natural choice and he was fine. His problem was that he was FAT. Even between the two versions which released within months of each other, he had gained a lot of weight and in some scenes looked pathetic instead of menacing as he was supposed to.

Dia Mirza. Her face and voice were perfect together….absolutely expressionless. She did not even know how to speak properly. She only looked good but man did she look good or did she look GOOOOOD.

But I believe the casting decision which cost the movie was actually Saif. Yes he looks good, regal, gentlemanly but too chiselled. Somehow he is not fit as Rajiv Samra. Abbas looked more natural. The way usually toppers do.  Also, Saif's character was made out to be too perfect and somehow (to me) he came across as too polished. But it may be the voice. And specifically the last scene is one where he is totally ineffective perhaps due to the absence of the line mentioned above.

But despite its many flaws this movie remains one of the favourites because of when I watched it and the state of bliss I was in at the time. Not in terms of a girl but overall. I had a bunch of good friends. Also, the movie was a little different at the time as the villain got the girl and still the girl was happy.

As I have grown old, I realise that perhaps such movies should not be made. It plants an idea that even if you are a rowdy and you do not respect any female, you deserve to be loved back by one who has caught your fancy. Even though you lie through your teeth about yourself, do everything that an anti-social person would including stalking, assaulting not just her but people around her, and still you deserve the girl. If he had tried to become  a better person perhaps this could have been overlooked but he does not even try. In fact he abuses her verbally in public effectively telling her that she is a whore and he could've done anything and gotten away with it. I find this disturbing. Perhaps the reason RHTDM did not work in Hindi was because people realised this pattern.