If you loved watching Aamir Khan produced “Peepli Live”, directed by the duo Anusha Rizvi-Mahmood Farroqui and thought that it was a novel, unique idea presented by the makers for the first time, then you got to give it a second thought. Because the whole plot of a media circus planned around a dying man was not at all an original and it was all borrowed from the Billy Wilder’s dark comedy called “Ace In The Hole” which came around six decades back in the year 1951 and was a pure masterpiece as compared to the Indian version.
However, the director duo of PEEPLI LIVE did came up with their own comic inclusions along with all those highly avoidable abusive in their inspired version. But as written in my review of the movie (at the time of its release), I couldn’t appreciate a complete comedy being made around a dying person without any human touch thrown in throughout its narration. Moreover for me, PL was purely an objectionable kind of project taking advantage or making fun of a serious problem about the dying farmers in our country. (And post its release my concern was proved true because after a few weeks, nobody really cared about those suicidal farmers, neither the makers nor the viewers or its appreciators.)
On the contrary, the moment I saw Billy Wilder’s Classic “ACE IN THE HOLE”, all my complains and objections about wrongly exploiting the pain of a dying man in a hilarious manner were well taken care of. In fact the film forced me to realize that, “This is the way to make a movie balancing both HUMOR as well as the HUMAN factor involved in an interesting plot.”
So, if you really liked watching ‘PEEPLI LIVE’ then you got to see this original ‘ACE IN THE HOLE’ to actually feel that how exactly a realistic film should take into account the various aspects of human relationships evolving in such a tough situation. The film revolves around the plot of a desperate reporter who wants to make it big with some sensational news. And when he gets to know about a dying man trapped in a mountain cave-in then he suddenly converts that tragedy into a big media show around the place giving it a catchy headline in his newspaper.
Later, when he comes to know that the man can be easily be taken out in about 16 hours then he cunningly manipulates the entire process and forces the rescue party to stretch the whole thing for more than 5 days instead, leading to some deadly consequences in the end. Along with “Leo” the dying man trapped in the cave-in, the script of AITH has some exceptional characterizations written for the man’s worried father, his mean wife, the opportunistic sheriff, the double minded rescue instructor and the honest owner of a small newspaper who hires Kirk as his correspondent. The film is not only worth watching for its thoughtful direction by Billy Wilder, but it’s also one of the career best movies of Kirk Douglas who is simply outstanding playing the role of the ambitious reporter.
And after watching it you would surely admit the excellence achieved by this Black & White Classic in its emotional and sympathetic portrayal of the unique plot, which was evidently missing in its largely inspired Indian version made in 2010.
Directed by Billy Wilder
Starring : Kirk Douglas, Jan Sterling, Robert Arthur and more.
Tags :
PEEPLI LIVE (2010) and ACE IN THE HOLE (1951) which goes into my list of Movies to See Before You Die - Drama at bobbytalkscinema.com, Inspired Movies, Inspired Cinema, Bollywood Plagiarism, Plagiarism in Hindi Cinema, Copied Movies, Movies Inspired From, Movie is Inspired By, Borrowed Concepts, Inspired Plots, Bollywood & Hollywood, Reviews by Bobby Sing, Bollywood Gets Inspired, Cinema Gets Inspired, Bollywood & World Cinema, Inspiration from World Cinema, Bollywood Movie Inspirations, Movies
