The Hindu Business Line : Old movies in a new look

Shah Rukh Khan, wreathed in smoke. Priyanka Chopra, lying supine, a half-drunk glass in hand. Aishwarya Rai, head half covered, eyes downcast. Visuals with a huge recall, which take you back to the iconic films you grew up on: Bollywood's tryst with re-makes is all set to roll.

Farhan Akhtar's Don, which reprises one of Amitabh Bachchan's greatest entertainers, replaces the Big B with King Khan. Those are seriously big shoes that need to be filled, and the jury is out on whether it can be done. In this writer's conversations with people in the trade, it is becoming increasingly clear that the director is looking for the kind of success his Dil Chahta Hai enjoyed (his second, Lakshya, nosedived at the box-office).

There is a whole new sub-generation for whom Amitabh is very firmly a star of the past. It identifies with Abhishek Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan even more than with Shah Rukh (part of the trouble with Karan Johar's Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna was that it had Shah Rukh playing a married guy cheating on his wife, not something that has repeat value for pre-teens and teens, his major constituency).

This is also a generation, which has caught Amitabh's best on TV re-runs and VCDs. So, for those who didn't catch it when it came out, Khaike Paan Banaraswala is just another song, not an anthem that rocked the rafters of cinema halls in the mid-1970s, and caused front-benchers to shower the screen with small-denomination coins.

The promos look good. The stunts look world-class. Akhtar has great skills, and Shah Rukh is still huge. But a remake can be a tricky thing. It has to pay homage to the past while making sure that it is relevant to the present. Can a Kareena Kapoor do a Helen? Yeh Mera Dil Pyaar Ka Deewana, for a whole bunch of Don-lovers is as important as the paan song. Kareena has been showing her moves in the promos — so, can she? We are holding our breath.

This uncertainty is clearly part and parcel of an enterprise, which is still new in Bollywood. Remakes are a very Hollywood phenomenon — filmmakers here haven't really dared to touch old beloved movies with a bargepole, fearing viewer backlash. But now, things are changing. Filmmakers are a little more open to experimenting; audiences are getting segmented; exhibition avenues are opening.

And it's not just young filmmakers like Akhtar who are rushing in where angels have feared to tread. Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) has gone back to the early 1960s for its remake: Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam has Priyanka essaying Meena Kumari's immortal role. J.P. Dutta has chosen Aishwarya for the `nautch girl' role Rekha made her own in the original Umrao Jaan.

The other Hollywood thing — the sequel — has made a splash this year. There have been a few sequels in the past (The Return Of Jewel Thief was one such in which a wrinkled Dev Anand tried to recreate the magic of the first one; a complete disaster, both for the image of the star, and the producer). But with this year's Phir Hera Pheri (according to director Neeraj Vora in Screen, the sequel took a better opening worldwide than even Rang De Basanti and Fanaa) and Krrish finding widespread favour amongst audiences, and Lage Raho Munna Bhai becoming both an instant classic as well as a smash-hit, the old prejudice against sequels seems to be melting.

Last year, there was a clear portent of this trend when Deewane Huye Paagal, the Akshay Kumar-Paresh Rawal-Suniel Shetty romp became a hit (the first one Awaare Paagal Deewane was bigger and better, but that didn't stop people coming into theatres). With the success of Phir Hera Pheri, the floodgates opened; and Krrish, in which Rakesh Roshan incorporated a few scenes of Koi Mil Gaya, just like Vora flashed back to Priyadarshan's original in a couple of scenes, cemented the trend.

Rajkumar Hirani's second coming of Munna is fast being appropriated, not just by the aam junta, which can't stop talking about its take on `Gandhigiri'... Political parties, old-style Gandhians, and the I-Me-Mine generation is equally and vociferously enthusiastic of the movie's revival of Gandhi's axioms. Overnight, Sanjay Dutt, in the line of fire currently because of the Mumbai blast verdict, is beloved again. And Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is the epitome of cool.

Up next is Yashraj Films Dhoom 2, which replaces a couple of the original faces. Hrithik Roshan plays the bad guy, instead of John Abraham, and Esha Deol's toned abs are nixed in favour of Aishwarya Rai's much-talked about bikini. The bikers-and-babes formula stays, though. Director Sanjay Gadhvi has gone on record to say he will come back to the Dhoom territory whenever he feels like a break from his other work. It is moot, though, whether he will get to do other sort of work; Bollywood typecasts directors as much as actors.

The temptation to revisit past hits is irresistible. What's crucial is the filmmaker's ability to invest old references with new meaning, to layer both the movie and the viewers' perception of it to make it a richer experience. Producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra is confident that Munna Bhai will live on: if a third one comes along fast enough and if it is as much of a success, creative and commercial, as the first two, it will be a series, the first for Bollywood.

Clearly, sequelitis has inflicted our filmmakers, and they are making whoopie. So are those on the remake bandwagon. Here's hoping that Akhtar will live up to his own promise, as well as accord the old Don due respect. Ditto for Dutta and Nandy.

And for Sholay redux, coming out of the Ram Gopal Varma's factory, which the man himself is helming. But Amitabh as Gabbar? We can only hope and pray.