Behind the Scenes: Remakes

About two years back, Remakes seemed to be the talk of the town. The grapevine had rumors of remakes by almost every director. An over-smart director dared to a touch classic like Sholay for a remake. He went on to make many stupid statements in front of the press which eventually resulted in his remake becoming the joke of the town. Most of the cinema-lovers were surprised to see a new-kid-in-the-block taking up a movie like Don for a remake. And some veteran directors went a step ahead of these people, by taking up their own films for a remake. What courage! :-)
Almost all of these remakes bombed at the box-office; arguably few have done average business.
These directors state that they have packaged the classic in a new format and presented it to the audience. But, do they understand what this packaging means? Packaging it in a new format does not mean shooting the movie in foreign locales, having Hollywood technicians on-board and signing multi-million dollar lead actors.
Retrospection reveals some reasons why they have failed. Film makers have taken up great films for a remake without applying their heads. They have gone ahead with the assumption that the so-called “Right Formula” for success already exists in the film and they don’t have to play with that.
Wondering what this “Right Formula” means? Clearly, the movies that they have picked for remakes have achieved the status of a classic because of many reasons, be it the immortal characters of the film, or the unique storyline or those super-hit dialogues or the exemplary music.
When a remake is to be attempted on such a classic, the director needs to rework this “Right Formula” in such a way that it is more pertinent to the present audience. I strongly believe that the director should not hesitate to change the storyline if he feels that it can give that extra zing that the viewer is looking for. Of course, it is extremely important that his amendments meet the standards set by the classic (Standards are subjective, only good directors can fulfill this requirement :-) ). Only beyond this point, the director should think of showcasing his other creative juices in terms of technicalities like cinematography or action or art direction.
To sum it all, making a remake is a huge responsibility on the director’s shoulders. Hope to see a director emerging victorious in this fixture some day.
Oh! Did I hear some extremely talented singer/composer making a remake of “Karzzzzzzz”!!! :-)

Cheers to Cinema!