Trailer Talk: AGNEEPATH (2012)
I’m super freakin’ excited!! To be fair though, I rarely write about random shit, unless it excites me. Or infuriates me. Or interests me. Or annoys me. I should stop.
I’m excited this time around, because of a movie. Well two movies. I’ll explain.
Back in the day, there was an awesomely kick ass movie starring THE man of Bollywood (then and even today to some degrees) Amitabh Bachchan. On the road to Bollywood Legend-dom, Amitabh kicked cinematic ass in every which way. One of the more notable ones, happened to be AGNEEPATH (1990) . It was compared back in the day to a Bollywood version of SCARFACE with tweaks. Personally I think the tweaks were significant enough that it didn’t bear much resemblance to SCARFACE, but that’s another rant.
The original…
AGNEEPATH was about a scarred kid, who got treated like shit in his young age, after his noble and righteous father was made to be a frequenter of brothels, lynched by a mob and killed… all because he stood in the way of a villain and his devious plans. So this kid did the only logical thing any kid his age would think of: grew up to be a total badass gangster of the city whose name heard out loud made grown men soil themselves. And eventually got revenge on the bad guy that destroyed his dad’s rep. That’s all.
Amitabh’s performance here becomes legendary because of his delivery, style and just pure badassery in the role itself. The movie was also personal to Amitabh Bachchan himself, as it features poetry by his own deceased father in the opening credits, and the title derived from those lines.
Now I’m psyched as hell to find out there’s a remake. Yes a remake of this awesome movie, titled: AGNEEPATH (2011) starring none other than Hrithik Roshan as the same character of Vijay Dinanath Chauhan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLRY1UNXIqs
Now the teaser trailer doesn’t do much but feature a shitload of scenes from the movie with a pumped up track in the background. But it shows a lot! Hrithik is finally back in an all out action movie after emotional dramas like ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA, KITES, GUZAARISH and so on. He seems to be kicking major ass throughout this film.
Sanjay looks evil as hell with his bald and eyebrow-less look as he throws Hrithik around for fun. He also seems massive in comparison to the beef brained Hrithik. Throw in Priyanka Chopra as the hottie that most likely won’t do shit and I’m so totally down. But there’s more: Even Rishi Kapoor, the veteran nice guy who now does dad roles in Bollywood, is kicking some ass in this movie as a villain. I mean he’s brawling with Hrithik in a couple of scenes. Awesome.
fuckin’ creepy man…What’s even cooler, is the teaser lines kind of make it seem like the movie’s aware that it’s a remake, but wants to clarify that the story isn’t about a beginning or an end… so basically not a prequel or anything. But the fact that it’s just a kick ass revenge story. That works for me. I’m always down for the meaningful action revenge thing.
The synopsis makes it seem like it’s keeping pretty true to the original story with some modification obviously. Hrithik = Vijay Dinanath Chauhan (previously done by Amitabh Bachchan). Sanjay Dutt = Kancha (previously by Danny Denzongpa). And the rest don’t really matter. Mithun Chakraborty’s character from the original is gone. Which saddens me as he was awesome… what with his lungi (traditional South Asian loincloth) hiking up antics and all.
The director is a new guy, but he was Assistant Director to movies like: JODHAA AKBAR, LAKSHYA, MY NAME IS KHAN and such. The remake though, is made under the Dharma Productions Banner, meaning it’s produced by Karan Johar (director of popcorn and fluff movies in Bollywood). So it may seem weird that the theme song of KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI plays before the trailer of this adrenaline pumping, testosterone ejaculating promo (‘cuz I thought so)… but it was the same production house the original was made under. Karan Johar’s daddy, Yash Johar did the original… keeping it in the fam.
All in all the trailer does it’s job. I’m hyped and down. Now obviously I won’t be comparing original to remake in the review. So let’s do it here in the comments. Feel free to tell me how and why Hrithik won’t do as good a job as Amitabh… ‘cuz, let’s face it… that’s ALL everyone is thinking about with this remake to the legendary AGNEEPATH!
2 Comments
Sanam · September 4, 2011 at 11:26 AM
See, I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two. I mean, come on, how many movies have similar storylines…the whole “taking revenge for your father’s death due to false accusations, etc”? Many. We don’t instantly start comparing them to Agneepath, the original right?
It’s the whole “Don” argument and response again…both “Don”s were different, and completely incomparable…. Amitabh’s bhole bhale feel good Don was unlike SRK’s one, you just can’t compare the acting/movies. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pretending they were completely two different movies but COME ON… how do you compare a LEGEND like Amitabh with the “king” of Bollywood today? They don’t compare on the same scale!
Now for Amitabh and Hrithik: well I’ll say this much… I love Hrithik, i do, but I will admit this: he’s a heartthrob. Thats what he is to Bollywood and most likely will remain so for another good 20 years. Instead of comparing him to someone he’s not, let’s watch the movie like we’re not watching a remake and comparing how Amitabh did this better or that better. Let’s give Hrithik a fighting chance because there’s no way he can compete with the image of someone from 20 years ago. Woh zamana alag thi!
Ok I’m done. My rant makes no sense.
Shah Shahid · September 4, 2011 at 12:21 PM
Oh it’s never fair to compare any two movies. It’s just fun. And there may be similar ‘take revenge for father’s death’ movies… and then there’s AGNEEPATH. Granted the best thing about it was Amitabh and his potrayal of the character. Whereas in the new one, I doubt Hrithik will do a gravelly voice and be a badass… so it’s significantly different.
Umm… how was Bachchan’s Don ‘bhola bhaala’? 😐 Both the characters of Vijay were ridiculously nice guys… but the different methodology came from the potrayal of the Don character by Bachchan and Khan. Bachchan commanded authority and intensity with his presence as Don. But SRK, being shorter, a pretty boy and an established film reputation of being ‘sweet’, had to play Don a li’l more psychotically to get the same type of ominious response.
Regardless of how fairly we want to treat the two films, and leave out comparisons between the remake and original in every minute way, the fact is that it’s the whole point. The new AGNEEPATH could’ve been called something else and have been seen as an entirely different movie… but then it would’ve just been a Hrithik action film with Sanjay Dutt looking odd. But the whole point was to have it draw parallels from the original. It’s a way to market the film for a new generation, while still tapping the previous generation who were fans of the original. It’s a stunt, and it works… marvellously.
You’ll do it. As will I. And so will everyone else. That’s the purpose.