On remakes…

Finally watched Bhool Bhulaiyya and it is NOT a patch on Manichithrathaazhu.

Some things that Priyadarshan does RIGHT is – he does his part in rewriting the script to suit the situation and so you have a palace (and a gorgeous one, at that!) plus pandits and ghats and a Bengali dancer. Where this remake starts to go horrendously wrong is the transplanting of jokes. It fails miserably and where Mohanlal came across as eccentric AND competent, Akshay Kumar looks like a buffoon! Half way through the film, he turns dead serious and his continuous stream of dialogue is absolutely annoying. Since this is a Bollywood film, there is much drama, a few well aimed slaps (pity none of them landed on Akshay Kumar), some longwinded jokes (that are standard fare as far as the Priyadarshan remakes are concerned) – it is so obvious that the script has been transplanted and all that has been changed is the locales and actors. Even the dialogues are mere translations…

It is a little sad because much money appears to have been spent on costumes, locations, songs and dances but it is such a dead effort… 🙁