Trailer for WARRIOR Compared To BROTHERS, Its Bollywood Remake

‘Brothers’ is a new Bollywood movie releasing August 2015, which is an official remake of the 2011 Hollywood movie, ‘Warrior’. While it’s a different creative team behind each movie, the original ‘Warrior’ was distributed by Lionsgate Films, which happens to be producing the Bollywood version in association with Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions. The screenwriters of ‘Warrior’, Gavin O’Connor & Cliff Dorfman have also been credited in ‘Brothers’ for the original story, adapted for Bollywood by Ekta Pathak Malhotra. This would be the second instance where a Hollywood movie has been official remade into a Bollywood film. The first being Fox Studios ‘Knight And Day’ remade into ‘Bang Bang’. (My comparison  of both films can be found here).

With the Trailer for ‘Brothers’ released a few weeks ago, let’s take a look at both trailers of each movie and take a look at how the marketing of each movie stacks up against each other.

‘Warrior’ Trailer

The Trailer for ‘Warrior’ paints the story as a tragic and inspiring family drama where the competitive fighting comes across as a situational plot device to bring the characters together, rather than driving the story forward. The emotional arc of each character is covered as two estranged brothers decide to step into the ring, subjecting themselves to brutal beatdowns, for completely different motivations. While Joel Edgetron’s character is motivated by his need to provide for his family, Tom Hardy’s character looks to have some demons that forces him into the ring. All the while some mysterious tragic past seems to be haunting them, which may be the cause for all the strife between the two brothers and their father, played by Nick Nolte.

‘Brothers’ Trailer

‘Brothers’ comes off as a dramatic action movie from Bollywood that compromises of the all-rounder blockbuster elements that most mainstream Bollywood films are made of.  The Trailer shows how a yet-to-be revealed family conflict pits two brothers against each other that culminates with them both entering a competitive fighting tournament where they confront each other physically. Akshay Kumar’s character is driven by his need to save his young ailing daughter, after being burdened by the medical expenses that come with it, while Sidhharth Malhotra’s characters for getting in the rink remain a mystery, there are severe family dramas at work as the last scene showcases a washed out flashback scene involving Jackie Schroff, playing the father, in what looks to be a case of domestic abuse. The trailer is supercharged with multiple sequences of Kumar’s character’s past, love songs, and other typical Bollywood tropes.

Similarities

The Story

Both the trailers for ‘Warrior‘ & ‘Brothers’ tells the same story about two estranged brothers and a hated father who cross paths in the fighting rink, while their family dramas come to light. Both stories seem to hit the same beats of brotherly anger, confrontations and baggage. The plot point of what causes the family to splinter is seemingly one of the reveals of the movie and while The Trailer for ‘Warrior’ downplays those elements, whereas ‘Brothers‘ almost seems to focus on that plot point, given that the trailer opens with a shot of Jackie Shroff’s character, apparently being released from prison.

The Cast

The Bollywood version of the same story features actors that have been cast with impressive familiarity to the original Hollywood actors, playing the same characters. The amazing Nick Nolte’s character of a father who looks like he’s made mistakes in his life, was given to the legendary Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff. Even the career paths and antics of both these actors off the screen, mirror each others’, making the casting all that better.

Akshay Kumar is also a very good match to the mild mannered turned lethal adversary in the rink that Joel Edgerton originally played. Edgerton’s attributes of a soft spokenly charming high school teacher are also qualities present in Akshay Kumar, as well as the Bollywood actor’s fighting abilities, given his own martial arts abckground. That is even an area where the Bollywood actor may excel in providing those qualities to his character, that the Hollywood star may have had to learn specifically for the role.

While Siddharth Malhotra may have the superficial qualities to step into Tom Hardy’s shoes for the role of the younger brother, his acting talent is nowhere close. The young Bollywood actor, only a few films old, has been heavily criticized for his wooden and monotone portrayal of every character he’s thus far played. The closest role to his character in Brother may have been his anti-hero in ‘Ek Villain’, a film that can be considered the actor’s most successful film to date.

Differences

The Tone

Director Gavin O’Connor (‘Miracle’) infuses the ‘Warrior‘ Trailer with a familiar sports themed tale of inspiration and sentimentality that is lacking in the ‘Brothers’ Trailer. ‘Warrior’s tone comes off as more of an emotional drama about family and relationships, while ‘Brothers’ looks like a rage filled stylized action movie. This is almost ironic, given that it’s Bollywood that’s known to have more family dynamics and emotional relationship conflicts in its movies, where Hollywood is better known for well constructed films in the action adventure genre.

The Bollywood-ness Of It All

‘Warrior’ worked for it’s straight-forward story with minimal histrionics and stellar performances by the outstanding main cast. ‘Brothers’ seems to feature everything that is a concern for most Bollywood films; melodramatic plot points, happy past flashbacks, mysteriously haunting family trauma and what looks like song sequences that will most likely interrupt any dramatic momentum the film tries to establish. Director Karan Malhotra was successful in doing exactly the same type of action drama in his directorial debut with ‘Agneepath‘, so he may still be given the benefit of the doubt of putting this film together in the same manner without taking away from the subject matter.

Brothers releases August 14th, 2015 starring Akshay Kumar, Siddharth Malhotra, Jackie Shroff & Jacqueline Fernandes; Directed by Karan Malhotra and produced by Karan Johar. 

How do you think ‘Brothers’ compares against the original ‘Warrior’ based on the trailers for each?