Summer 2002: a ripoff special Originality is passe, remakes are in

Subhash K Jha

There is something peculiar about Summer 2002.

On one hand there are a handful of Bhagat Singh films vying for the audience's favour. Then there is the anxiously anticipated costume drama --- Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. In the midst of all this excitement, this summer brings us a spate of unoriginal mega-budgeted films waiting to be bombarded all through summer.

While last week's release Danger was inspired by Hollywood's Bound, this week's multistarrer Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam about a suspicious husband (Shah Rukh Khan), a devoted wife (Madhuri Dixit) and her harmless male friend (Salman Khan) seeks inspiration from the Rajesh Khanna-Mumtaz-Sanjeev Kumar triangle Aap Ki Kasam in the 1970s. [Incidentally, Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam is a remake of the Tamil film Thotta Chinungi, starring Revathy.]

On May 29 David Dhawan unleashes his star-studded comedy Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, a remake of Harold Ramis' Analyze This with a twist, about a mobster (Sanjay Dutt) who falls in love with his shrink's (Amitabh Bachchan) sister Aishwarya Rai.

What happened to all the original scriptwriters of Bollywood, like Ashutosh Gowariker and Farhan Akhtar who gave fresh ideas and sensations in Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai last year.

Save for Ram Gopal Varma's Company, promising films have been conspicuously absent. Whether it was Mahesh Manjrekar's flop Pitaah (Sanjay Dutt, Nandita Das) --- a poor rehash of Joel Schumacher's A Time To Kill or Vikram Bhatt's Raaz (Bipasha Basu, Dino Morea) --- inspired from Robert Zemeckis' What Lies Beneath, every director seems to have a great collections of DVDs at home.

June kickstarts with Sanjay Gadhvi's Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai which is a scene-by-scene remake of P J Hogan's My Best Friend's Wedding. The title too is a literal translation of the same. Mohabbatein stars Uday Chopra and Jimmy Shergill portray the roles of Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz respectively.

Vikram Bhatt's Awaara Paagal Deewana hits the marquee on June 7. A reworked version of Jonathan Lynne's The Whole Nine Yards with Akshay Kumar stepping into Bruce Willis' shoes as a hitman who moves in next to a simple dentist Aftab Shivdasani (Matthew Perry in the original). That probably leaves the third hero of the film, Sunil Shetty, playing the desi Michael Clarke Duncan. Also note the Matrix-style midair slow motion fights.

June 14 brings Sanjay Chhel's mush flick Kya Dil Ne Kahaa (Tusshar Kapoor, Esha Deol), an adaptation of a Telugu blockbuster while the other release on the same day is Badhaai Ho Badhaai(Anil Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty and Keerti Reddy) is said to have shades of an Eddie Murphy film.

Barring Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, all of Abbas-Mustan's films, ranging from Khiladi to Ajnabee have drawn inspiration from Hollywood. Therefore it is no surprise that their latest thriller Humraaz, opening June 21, is a remake of Andrew Davis' A Perfect Murder, starring Bobby Deol, Amisha Patel and Akshaye Khanna doing a Michael Douglas, Gwyneth Paltrow and Viggo Mortenson respectively.

In the latter half of 2002, there is Sanjay Gupta's Indianised version of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs --- Kaante (Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty, Mahesh Manjerekar, Kumar Gaurav and Lucky Ali). Hansal Mehta does an American Pie in Yeh Kya Ho Raha Haiwith an all-new cast.

After successfully adapting French Kiss into Pyaar Toh Houna Hi Tha, Aneez Bazmee transforms Primal Fear into Deewangee (Ajay Devgan, Akshaye Khanna).

Sushen Bhatnagar remakes Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train in Soch (Sanjay Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Aditi Govitrikar) and Rajat Mukherjee hits the Road (Manoj Bajpai, Vivek Oberoi) with Steven Spielberg's Duel concocted with Robert Harmon's The Hitcher.

And the list goes on...