Sanjay Gadhvi surely doesn’t think so. Hey, lifting off ideas is no crime. In bollywood it’s called inspiration. Don’t believe me? Ask Sanjay Gupta, Guddu Dhanoa, Anu malik (or is it annu malek?), Pritam, the list goes on longer than the Nile. These fine men take inspiration from international films and music and whatever and ‘indianise’ it and bring it to us lesser Indian mortals. In fact, they are doing us a favour. Opening up the world to us.
Okay, now coming back to the question ‘Does committing a crime make you a criminal?’
That’s the BIG question on which Sanjay Gadhvi’s yet to be released film, Kidnap treads on.
Vikrant Raina, net worth 51.7 billion dollars. No more pachchaas tola and do peti roles for Sanju Baba. In Kidnap he is, in his own words, “The richest Indian in the world” . They say, in advertising there is no such thing as an ‘original idea’. Whatever there is to be said has been said before, done before. ‘Yeh ho chuka hai’ are the four goddamn words an advertising person dreads the most but is subjected to, everyday. But Sanjay Gadhvi of course had no such problem. So he is bringing us a film, which by the look of it doesn’t look like it’s been inspired by just one film, but a motley crew of films. One look at the promos and one can tell he is a big ‘fan’ of Korean films, so what better way to pay homage than to take inspiration from a whole lot of them. Looking at the promos one can tell that there is a bit of ‘Save the Green Planet’, the directorial debut of Korean director Jang Jun-Hwan, about a guy who kidnaps a rich entrepreneur who is responsible for his misfortune. And then there is a bit of Korean director Chan-wook Park’s ‘Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance’, a story about a young girl’s kidnap gone wrong. Only in Sympathy the young girl drowns in the water, unlike Minissa Lamba who takes up the oppurtunity to get into a bikini and do a little song and dance. I told you guys about the Indian ‘touch’, didn’t I? And then there is a bit of ‘The Cut’, another film by Park. It’s about a couple held hostage in their own home by a man, who makes the guy follow his instructions or else see his wife killed by the kidnapper. So there, at least 3 juicy stories concocted to make one wholesome indian offer.
And the inspiration doesn’t just end there. Imraan Khan’s look is inspired by Travis Bickle, who in my opinion is the most human hero of all times. Now that’s too much. Imran Khan is a promising guy, but jaane tu ya jaane na Mr. Gadhvi, Imran can’t hold no candle to Robert GOD De Niro. Or anybody can for that matter.It’s Friday morning and in some time people will have a first public screening of the film. The eternal supporter of indian films that I am, I would be delighted to eat my words and see Mr. Gadhvi dishing out a ‘fresh’ film instead of a cheap rehash of some really brilliant international films. But I have a feeling he will not disappoint me, or should I say he will.
