The year 2010 was not a great year for Indian Cinema with many big movies falling flat at the box office against all the expectations of their awaiting fans and comparatively small movies making their impact on the audience. But still the list of all those inspired movies from the west is pretty long as usual, which indeed becomes an unfavorable fact to be studied seriously by all big production houses as well as young film-makers as a must.
And here goes the list…..,
1. Toonpur Ka Superrhero – Only the idea of this seems to be inspired from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” (1988)
2. Tees Maar Khan – An official but not publicly disclosed version of Peter Sellers “After The Fox” (1966).
3. Allah Ke Banday - Inspired from “Sleepers” (1996), “City of God” or “Cilade de Deus” (2002) from Brazil and flick released in the same year “City of Gold” (2010).
4. Guzaarish – Mixes inspirations and scenes from Spanish Award Winning movie “Mar Adentro or The Sea Inside” (2004), “Whose Life Is It Anyway” (1981) and “The Prestige” (2006).
5. A Flat – It has a plot and scenes reminding you of “Bhoot” (2003), the hairy spirit of “The Ring” (2002) and the basic storyline of “Kudrat” (1981).
6. Action Replayy - Its writers take all their inputs from the Classic English Trilogy “Back To The Future”. (1985 -1990)
7. Golmaal 3 - Takes its inspiration from “Khatta Meetha” (1978) and “Hamare Tumhare” (1979) which were in turn also inspired from two English movies “Yours, Mine, Ours” (1968) and “With Six You Get Eggroll” (1968).
8. Knock Out - A copied version of “Phone Booth” (2002) along with being inspired from our own “A Wednesday” (2008).
9. Aakrosh - A scene to scene lift from “Mississippi Burning” (1988).
10. Anjaana Anjaani - Its initial poster was straight away a copy of “An Education” (2009) with the genders changed, and the movie is highly inspired from French movie “Girl on the Bridge” (1999) with again genders changed and the first scene copied as it is.
11. We Are Family - Official adaptation of Chris Columbus’s “Stepmom” (1998)
12. Hello Darling – An all inspired version of 20th Century Fox film “Nine To Five”
13. Help – There is clear influence of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” (1980), “Mirrors” (2008) and “Gauri” (2007).
14. Lamhaa – Has a few scenes highly inspired from the OSCAR winner, “The Hurt Locker”.
15. Milenege Milenge – Blindly follows the movie and its exact sequences from “Serendipity” (2001).
16. I Hate Luv Stories – Shares the same theme and the title too with “I Hate Valentine’s Day” (2009) with a different background.
17. Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta- Based on the same theme as in "In The Mood of Love" (Hongkong) (2000).
18. Ek Second... Jo Zindagi Badal De – A complete rip off from “Sliding Doors” (1998).
19. Bumm Bumm Bole – A weak Official Remake of Majid Majid’s “Children of Heaven”.
20. Housefull – Takes its major plots and sequences from “The Cooler” (2003), “Along Came Polly” (2004), “The Heartbreak Kid” (2007), “Night At The Museum” (2006), “Hangover” (2009) and “Meet The Parents” (2000). (Detailed article)
21. Apartment – A Complete rip off from “Single White Female” (1992).
23. Hum Tum Aur Ghost –Takes its major contents from “Ghost Town” (2008) & “Ghost” (1990).
24. Shaapit –Based on a story quite identical with “Purana Mandir” (1984).
25. Lahore – Heavily borrows from “Best of the Best” (1989).
26. Love Sex Aur Dhokha – The Concept, shooting style and a particular story very similar to “Look” (2007).
27. Right Ya Wrong– A Complete rip off from ”Above Suspicion” (1995)
28. Hide & Seek– It’s like a refined version of “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997).
29. Phoonk– Publicity Poster exactly similar to "Chaser" (2008).
30. Karthik Calling Karthik –The story is very similar to “Shatterday”, an episode in the first segment of the New Twilight Zone series, starring Bruce Willis (1985-86). The other similar themes also include TV series episodes like “Mirror Image”, “Nervous Man in a Four Dollar Room” and “The Man Who Haunted Himself” (1970) based on the novel “The Strange Case of Mr. Pelham.” (Detailed article)
31. Teen Patti –Visibly inspired from “21” (2008).
32. Click –A poor version of Thailand’s Hit movie “Shutter”, has sequences similar to “The Ring” (1998) and the climax is inspired from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” (1960).
33. Toh Baat Pakki –Based on a story close to “Chitchor” (1976) & “DDLJ” (1995).
34. My Name Is Khan – Not entirely inspired but the concept and performance of Shahrukh are on the same lines of Tom Hanks in “Forrest Gump” (1994), Dustin Hoffman in “Rainman” (1988) and Sean Penn in “I Am Sam” (2001).
35. Veer - Resemblances with “Taras Bulba” (1962) and “Kranti” (1981).
36. Chance Pe Dance– Has a particular sequence inspired from “The School Of Rock” (2003).
37. Dulha Mil Gaya – Mixture of plots from “Naseeb Apna Apna” (1986) and “Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaye” (1986).
38. Accident on Hill Road– All inspired from “Stuck” (2007).
39. Raat Gayi Baat Gayi – Shares a same theme with “The Hangover” (2009)
40. Bolo Raam - A remake of the Tamil film “Raam” (2005).
41. Khatta Meetha – Remake of Malayalam movie "Vellanakalude Naadu" (1988).
Inspired Movies from Real Life Incidents and Life Stories
1. Road To Sangam - The film was inspired by the true event of discovery of one part of Mahatma Gandhi's ashes lying in a bank locker some years ago in India.
2. City Of Gold – The main plot revolved around the closure of all major Mumbai Textile Mills in the eighties and its related consequences on the city.
3. 332 Mumbai To India – Inspired by a real life news event where a young man hijacked a whole local bus in Mumbai.
4. Rakht Charitra - I & Rakht Charitra –II – Admittedly was made taking inspirations from the life of “Partiala Ravindra” of Andhra Pradesh.
5. Once Upon A Time In Mumbai – Evidently inspired from the life of Haji Mastaan of Mumbai and the famous events of his life.
Inspired Movies from Literature and Books
1. Rann – Story seems to be inspired from the Wallace bestseller novel, The Almighty (1982).
2. Well Done Abba -Adapted from three different stories, “Narsaiyyan Ki Bavdi’ by Jeelani Bano, “Phulwa Ka Pul” by Sanjeev and “Still Waters” by Jayant Kriplani. It also shares a common theme with famous T.V. serial “Office Office” in which Pankaj Kapoor played a similar kind of role as Abba.
3. Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge– Publicity Poster highly inspired from “License To Wed” (2007). Script based on Late Sharad Joshi‘s short story and the theme quite similar to Satyajit Ray’s “Agantuk” (1991).
4. Raajneeti – Based on the epic “Mahabharat” and has sequences inspired from “The Godfather” series movies.
5. Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey – Inspired by the real life history related with the Indian Independence and based on the book “Do and Die” by Manini Chatterjee written on the Chittagong Uprising in 1930.
6. Raavan – Vaguely based on the Mythological Epic “Ramayana”
7. Aisha – A modern day adaptation of Jane Austen novel, “Emma” with sequences inspired from “Clueless” (1995).
8. Mirch – Has stories reportedly based on “Panchtantra” and also partly inspired from Italian Classic “The Decameron” by Giovanni Boccaccio.
Studying the complete list given above, it’s a good sign that last year we had some more movies rightly taking their inspirations from real life stories, history and literature.
But even then the rest unofficially inspired movies taking their content from the work of others were once again a lot more than seen in the previous years.
Still the best thing is that the year 2010 witnessed few small but brilliant original projects coming from our own Bollywood such as UDAAN, PHAS GAYE RE OBAMA, TERE BIN LAADEN and BAND BAAJA BAARAT.
Let’s hope there will be many more ORIGINALS offered to us in the year 2011 too.
(Note: Please let me know if you are aware of any other inspired movie which came in 2010 but not listed here by chance.)
