I guess I’ve been away so long that I haven’t even posted my reviews online. Just dropped in to link my reviews of Zinda and Family, that appeared two Fridays ago.
Talking of which, I still can’t get over the idea of someone making a career of flicking flicks, frame to frame, line by line.
In fact, for the first half of the film, you can simply download the English subtitles for the Korean film Oldboy and watch them along with Zinda and they would perfectly sync in. The only reason he couldn’t reproduce it to that precision in the second half of the movie is because Oldboy involves incest.
A friend of mine tried justifying Gupta’s effort saying that the source (without the permission or consent of the original creator) does not matter as long as the end product is watchable.
That to me is like is stealing someone’s baby and claiming adoption. Nothing wrong with it at all, but do not say it is your baby — that’s insulting the kid and hiding your inability to produce one yourself.
(The above para has been altered to avoid more comments from my ‘holier-than-Thou’ readers)
Watch Oldboy, and you ll see why I say that Sanjay Gupta is a fucking thief.
The biggest assault on my senses was also having to watch Family during the same week. Strictly only for the producer Keshu Ramsay and his immediate family.
MADRAS INK. 
‘That to me is like is adopting a kid. Nothing wrong with it at all, but do not say it is your baby — that’s insulting the kid and hiding your inability to produce one yourself.’
Now, that has GOT to be the most warped example. Ever. Surely, you can do better. Yuck!
You know that comparision you made? THAT is too terrible to endure. Talk about insensitive!
ammani:
i do think the same about some of your stories but do I bother?? take a hint!
shyam:
this is not a space for political correctness as you may have noticed. but you get the point, right?
unless you are into picking holes, you’d know what I mean…. a baby adopted without the consent/knowledge of its conceiver and passed off as your own is fucking disgraceful…
Yeah, im not here for winning fans really. So if you cant endure, i would be delighted to show you what my door looks like!
cheers!
Mr Sudesh though its deplorable to indulge in such blatant plagiarism,i feel that we can forgive sanjay gupta .after all how many of us would be willing to watch Oldboy.I guess,not many.But by making zinda he ensured that people atleast watched its dumbed down version and going by what i have read,it seems,he has done a decent job.
Mr.Paurna:
Zinda ends with three little words that read: All rights reserved.
Oldboy ended with them too… Those three words mean something. How many of us know what that means?
besides, why would you not be willing to watch Oldboy in this age of DVDs and divX rips??
hey Mr sudesh,first of all dont call me Mr.Paurna.I am not that important a person.now on to the movie well i guess sanjay gupta overdid that a bit.
lastly now that u mentioned dvds and divx rips i didnt find a divx rip and hence ordered the movie from amazon.well its not about me.i watch all kinds of movies until they suit my tastes.but there r others who wont watch a korean movie or for that matter even a non conventional english movie.now how many do u think wud have watched a memento,usual suspects,reservoir dogs.yeah they do come out on dvds but i dont think many watch them.there r many frnz of mine who wud rather watch a cheap remake of these classics rather than rent or buy a dvd of the original.
Hi Suderman.. I liked your comparison with the baby.. actually its the best i have read about plagiarism.. Its indeed annoying why most Indian directors don’t come up with a new idea..
I was shocked to learn that most of kamal’s comedy movies are direct lifts from english movies. Magalir mattum, thenali etc.
An artist may improvise or innovate on someone else’s idea.. but the credit should be given to the original guy.
On an other note i notice you are very temperamental with your critics… 🙂 that actually makes your blog even more interesting..
-Patrick Manoj
*some random shit called sriram just got kicked out*
patrick:
yes, but i dont want to insult kamal by comparing him with gupta’s frame to frame, line to line copying… it’s unfair to compare them cuz one’s an actor who does it cuz he wants to live those roles in his own way and the other’s a filmmaker who steals work and passes it of as his own.
and yeah, Im quite generous in giving back what I get here. Esp when worms crawl up here just to pick holes… the types who are not otherwise seen in the comment section.
besides, you cant really call nitpicking criticism…
paurna:
http://thepiratebay.org/
that’s where sanjay gupta gets his movies from. you ll find oldboy there too.
cmon…give some credit to the hard work of the directors who put in lots of time and money in to these movies..no one makes a film to become a big flop and crticized from every corner..it does happen at times that they get carried away even with a dull script…they r good n bad to everything we do…some times things work and some times it doesnt…just bcoz u get to write reviews abt movies doesnt mean that u can write all crap…get it sudhir???..so it is better u give some credit to the hard work of all the ppl…..so try to frame ur words better in future…
anonymous:
watch oldboy first, dodo! and then tell me how much hardwork there was.
actually sudhish, the inability to produce a kid is not the ONLY reason people adopt.
i know several parents with one kid who have gone on to adopt another.
however, since the polemics of adoption are not really part of this debate, i’ll stop here.
cheers!
ramya
i know that inability to produce a baby is not the only reason… i didnt say it is the only reason either. i was talking specifically about this case until people jumped to conclusions and hence the altered paragraph.
“the polemics of adoption are not really part of this debate” : That’s exactly why it pissed me off to see the first coupla comments: seemed like nitpicking to me!
yeah i found the movie.thx for that.i have never thought bout pirate when i searched the first time
thank god i stopped with watching Family!
The movie was so stupid that we laughed throughout!!! 🙂
Esp the song…
“Jab jeb ho tight,
Par khana ho kuch light,
Hum hain ‘Quick bite'”
… was toomuch to take!!! 😀
Loved ur review on ‘Family’! Cheers!!!
Family .. Saw the poster … and the cute family photo made me run towards “Fog” ( either ways money wasted! ). ..hehe … U havent got over Kisna I guess..
Zinda : Atleast was a watchable good duplicate… yeah .. cant argue with u on the ethical issue of it..
Btw reviews on ur “baby” para is interesting.. I guess Zinda got forgotten in between… 🙂
I SAW ZINDA YESTERDAY AND I DO NOT AGREE WITH U..IT IS A GOOD MOVIE…
sandhya:
thanks ma! too bad u had to endure that on day one… you shdve warned everyone after that!!
hazel:
the poster of Family where bachchan points a gun at aryaman on the ground is a direct rip off from the Reservoir Dogs poster. exactly the same.
anonymous:
u’re an anonymous fuck anyway… who cares what you think. ha ha!
Hey Dude I think u r too temperamental and take ur critics to b your foes. ITs their point of view that they put here, u should appreciate that they criticise ur work which indireclty means how much interest they might have put in reading ur piece of work. Its ok to defend urself but being harsh to them is too much. U need to consult a PSYCHIATRIST.
siji:
who cares what you think dude?
the only reason im honouring you with a reply is cuz you’ve had the balls to put your name unlike some faceless fucks here.
before you dash off unsolicited advice, i suggest you look up the dictionary to find out the difference between nitpicking and criticism.
i deal with them both very differently. also, there is a way how you put your point across… be polite, i might probably listen… you gimme attitude and show me your smart assmouth, im gonna keep my ass right there for you to kiss and kick your ass out of here.
so next time you think of asking me to consult a psychiatrist remember I can always tell you to go get that stick removed from up your ass!!