Films from ‘God’s own country’ have always enjoyed a certain prestige
A still from Papanasam, a remake of Drishyam
While the 2011 Malayalam super hit Traffic was remade as Chennayil Oru Naal in 2013, recent remakes like the Jyothika-starrer 36 Vayathinile and the Kamal Haasan-starrer Papanasam are proof that the trend is catching on. Almost all the top actors in Kollywood have tried remakes and have seen a turning point in their careers as a result.
Filmmaker Arun Vaidyanathan says that the Tamil film industry is no stranger to seasonal trends. “For a while, it was rural subjects that ruled the roost, and then it was horror movies and sequels, and now it is remakes. The Indian remake factory is driven purely by business. The remake has to be re-interpreted according to the tastes of the regional audience. That’s where the creativity comes in. One has to be careful about choosing a film for a remake,” he says.
“Malayalam films are predominantly budget-friendly and the makers stick to home-grown subjects. Films there have convincing storylines and here in Chennai, we have the best technicians. Don’t you think the combination is great,” smiles Arun. When stars try Malayalam remakes, their films either strike gold at the box office or the star is lauded for doing something different. “Also there’s another angle to it — when the film has already been a hit, it gives more confidence for the producers to take it up,” he adds.
Filmmaker Vasanth feels that there are a very few story writers in Tamil cinema, whereas in Malayalam, there are independent writers like KG George and MT Vasudeva Nair, who understand the nuances of writing a commercially viable plot. “Here the directors themselves mostly write scripts,” he points out. Producer UTV Dhananjayan strongly feels that the remakes ought to retain their original directors.
Dhananjayan adds, “Remakes are not a recent trend and date back to the inception of the talkies in the early 40s. The team that worked on the original should be present for the remakes. else, the it will lose its essence. Remakes should be more like adaptations rather than translations.”
Director Lakshmanan of Romeo Juliet fame says that since Malayalam and Tamil audiences share a number of similarities, it takes just a minimal tweaking of the script to suit the people.
“Good remakes do not use a frame-by-frame copy for the new audience. It has a lot to do with the treatment given to the script. Bodyguard was a failure in Mollywood, but its Tamil remake Kaavalan with Vijay and Asin was a blockbuster. Actually, remakes come with their own challenges. When you watch the original version and then watch a remake, most of the times, your mind will be comparing both and eventually will be impressed with the former, because of the human tendency to credit the original. I feel that the image of the star who does the remake, and his or her nativity, are the most important factors that work,” he explains.
Ask him why remakes sometimes fail and he answers, “It’s because of the inability of the filmmaker to adapt the plot to the contemporary scenario, or due to adding some mindless twist to the original,” and signs off.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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