Zinda is finally out in cinema halls. As of January 11. Apparently distributors said Bakr-Id was a good day. Somehow, the caprine sacrifice that marks the occasion adds an excellent complement to Gupta's latest slick-fest that rips off the strongly violent Oldboy. Reviewers are going gaga about Dutt shining in a dark film (It is usually not very easy to like a reproduction of an acclaimed original; yeah, you're just trying to make light of the money you just burnt at the m-plex) and lauding Dutt and Abraham for their performances [hint: this is enough warning to drown 'em in a bag of salt] in a good story set up that loses itself in the maze of gore and convenience.
Meanwhile, Sanjay Gupta is relishing all the critical and popular acclaim while having successfully pulled off yet another patent-pending trademark rip-off without anyone managing to legally screw his happiness and subject him to the fate of the protagonist in the film:
How do you react to being labelled a DVD copycat director?
Who is not a DVD copycat director these days? You show me any movie and I'll show you where it's picked up from. I never denied that Kaante was inspired by Reservoir Dogs.
Would someone do the needful and offer him screenings of Matrubhoomi, Sehar, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, Apaharan, My Brother Nikhil so that he can tell us where they filched from? As for "never denying inspiration", all our filchers do this long after the buzz has died down.
So you do not deny that Zinda is inspired by Old Boy?
It's not entirely inspired by Old Boy, which is in turn inspired by The Count of Monte Christo. Both films have a classic premise.
This guy might one day put Bill Clinton to shame. Park Chan-Wook's original was based on a manga (which in turn owed a debt to the Dumas classic). How can this guy think that passing the buck of "being inspired by another work" is an excuse for his shameless lifting? Clearly both the manga and the film added more value to make them stand out as creative works of independent merit; SG's filches on the other hand only make for fodder for books that someone will eventually write about the flagrant plagiaristic practices in Bollywood. SG had better put his sense of soundtracks and style to good use by encouraging creative scripts instead of producing cheap trashy local copies of foreign flicks.
Zinda completes my trilogy of cult films, of films that do not follow the conventional formula (referring to Kaante and Musafir). They are films that break barriers and take risks. With Zinda I have moved away from the Michael Bay/ Tony Scott style of filmmaking to the David Fincher/ Darren Aronofsky school which is highly stylised but controlled and minimal.
This means that we watch out now for some hi-falutin blend of Pi, Requiem for a Dream, Se7en (oh wait, they already did that with Samay), Fight Club and Panic Room (mixed with a tribute to Asha Parekh, perhaps?).
[he and Homi Adajania (who directed Being Cyrus)] are trying to get the rights for the book Q & A. I am also getting the rights to the play Class of 84 and would like Rahul Da Cunha to direct it.
This is promising. I assume he's talking about Q & A. And here's more about Rahul Da Cunha's play. Stay on this track SG and you'll garner some respect. Otherwise it's time to design a crown for the Prince of Plagiarism.
elsewhere: more bogus about the pioneering (yeah right) expletives in the film ...
meanwhile, Vipul's obsession with the latest in this matter continues
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