Zinda, where thou soul?
The story so far: Zinda is known to be a copy of the Korean movie Old Boy. That we know.
Ok wise guy, tell us what we don’t know?
Zinda is a copy of OldBoy. Frame to Frame. It reminds me something we used to do in college, namely GT.
Hell that’s the zippy car you talking about?
No, GT for us engineering students meant Glass Tracing. It was for lazy students like me. Submissions are near. You don’t have the heart to sit and design a gearbox on the big white sheet on your drawing board. So you take the drawing of someone who already has completed the assignment, put it on glass, light a lamp under the glass, clip your blank drawing sheet on top of the completed assignment, and voila! You can now trace the entire drawing onto your sheet with just a flat ruler, a pencil and artistic skill of your hand to draw a circle or curves that would make M.F. Hussain proud.
Wait a minute. What the FUCK does GT have to do anything with your review of Zinda?
Zinda, is a GT of Old Boy, with a few minor elements changed here and there.
So that’s it? That’s your fucking review?
If you could be patient and not cut me in, perhaps I’ll be able to go on…
Zinda follows shamelessly the path of OldBoy start to end. The point of seeing the whole movie was the hope, that Sanjay Gupta the producer/director of this movie would have added his own thoughts and ideas to give this movie more creative depth and hypnotic attraction. Sadly, Zinda fails at all ends.
You are absolutely clear about one thing after watching the movie. Sanjay Gupta didn’t get it. He just didn’t get what the original was all about. He didn’t get the fact that it was quite imperative to slow down and go deeper (as the original) into the years that Sanjay Dutt suffers in captivity. He didn’t get the fact that there was so much anger and a devil may care attitude towards life and everything in it, that Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-Sik in the original) doesn’t care for anything - person, place, feeling, emotions or reactions except the burning desire to find the man responsible for his 15 years of captivity. Oh Dae-su is so hardened by 15 years of captivity and his mission which consumes him, that he doesn’t care for a knife sticking in his back or the fact that the woman caring for him is now being tortured by his tormentors. No, he doesn’t care for anything except finding his arch enemy. 15 years of imprisonment can do that to Oh Dae-Su, to you, me and anyone. The audience watching OldBoy is so clear in understanding this chiefly because of the brilliance of Park Chanwook (OldBoy’s director) , especially when he takes you through those 15 years of captivity of Oh Dae-Su. It’s not him suffering; it’s you the viewer, that’s the brilliance of Park Chanwook.
Tragically Gupta isn’t anywhere near the story telling brilliance of Chanwook. The 14 years of captivity of Sanjay Dutt is handled with such detached precision, that one wonders, if Gupta was in a rush to get to the bathroom that he didn’t have any FUCKING PATIENCE TO SPEND TIME WITH THIS MOST CRUCIAL PART OF THE MOVIE?
The 14 years are captured in almost a fast forward mode. WAIT! Why? Isn’t the one important purpose of Zinda/OldBoy, that, to show the inner turmoil, inside-out changes that a man goes through when kept in confinement for reasons he doesn’t know about?
Some scenes of the original are just brushed away or just not touched in Zinda. OldBoy was a wholesome story, touching the subject of how powerful sexual feelings are that they creep up even in the event of utmost calamity. But Gupta dare not touch it with a barge pole. Imaging showing Sanjay Dutt masturbating in front of the television. That would be nothing short of evil, huh…Mr. Gupta?
The problem with all the so called “technically brilliant†directors in Bollywood today is that they just don’t get it. They just don’t fucking get it. They are far away from “UNDERSTANDING†what a story is all about and the various hooks in the screenplay which catch the viewer in, suck the viewer deep into the story. Having great visualization skills doesn’t mean you possess a good story telling ability. And that is one of the most common fundamentals our directors and screenplay writers are unwilling to look into.
But most of the reviews in Main Stream Media (MSM) are raving about Zinda?
That’s what I don’t get it. Except for complimenting the camera there is nothing much to mention about Zinda. You are so better off watching the original. What is wrong with reviewers of today? Where the FUCK ARE THEY TRAINED TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE JOB? WHO IN THE WORLD IS RUNNING THE PROGRAMS WHERE THESE MOVIE REVIEWERS GOT TRAINED IN? IIPM? SOMEBODY TELL ME PLEASE….
The camera by Sanjay F. Gupta tries hard to beat the original. Pray, why the grainy structure in some parts of the movie? What does it mean? If you are trying to use your head to be creative in capturing a scene via technical inputs then may I ask, WHY THE FUCK DON’T YOU USE THE SAME CREATIVE ENERGY AND INSTEAD CHANNEL IT ON IMPROVISING YOUR SCREWED UP FUCKING SCREENPLAY.
News was that the Censor Board of India was so impressed with the movie that they passed the movie without cuts and called up Sanjay Dutt to commend on his performance in the movie. May I also ask…
WHO THE FUCK IS SITTING ON THE CENSOR BOARD THESE DAYS?
Of course Sanjay Dutt has done a good job. If a guy does the same job for 25 years of his life, he is bound to get good at it. No offense, I like Sanjay Dutt and some of his performances like those in Munnabhai MBBS are nothing short of brilliant. But comparing him to Choi Min-Sik is out of question. Choi Min-Sik actually lived the role becoming Oh Dae-Su. He became Oh Dae-Su. Sanjay Dutt simply follows the regular motions of acting as Bala the character. John Abraham, comes in, does the job and is out. Zinda shows his limitations as an actor, but judging by the leaps and bounds he’s made progress in his work, these limitations may not be there a few films from now.
In the end, not many of the reviewers or for the matter the entire cast of Zinda, grasped the concept of OldBoy. Does Sanjay Gupta or some of those MSM reviewers out there (some even blatantly copying reviews off blogs to publish on their MSM sites - as their own), did any of them even know what OldBoy is all about and that it is part of a trilogy?
Zinda got an “A†certificate by the Indian Censor Board, which means no one below 21 can watch it. I saw parents with 10 year old kids watching the movie over popcorn and samosa at the desi theater in Southern California. Doesn’t the Indian Certificate apply here? If it doesn’t what the hell are these parents thinking? Showing Zinda where words like “Madar Chodâ€, “Fuck†etc. is ok for their kids? Is our society becoming this sick that now, instead of handing over a few copies of ‘Amar Chitra Katha’ or ‘Tin Tin’ comics, we now give our 10 year old kids a copy of Zinda?
C Minus. A copy attempt gone all haywire. Watch it if you want, but only after you’ve seen OldBoy.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:39 am
hmmm..songs are good especially music..oye, will u tone down your language a li’lle?
and ofcource you could use more humor
:)
humour us..;)
January 16th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Nice review Oz. I don’t go much for the critics reviews anyhow. I wouldn’t tell you to tone your language down, but you might want to cut down on the caps lock button.
I’ve got a webcomic up on my blog. I think you’ll like it. Tell me what you think.
January 16th, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Phew!!! I’ve expected some heat, but this review was like that infamous burly fight in matrix: million Ozzies flying around and beating up Sanjay Gupta shitless. We totally understand the fury though. But Oz, I think it’s all your mistake. IMHO, you must have watched Zinda expecting some justice done to the emotional element of the script (Old Boy) and some sanity and intelligence from Gupta ji who is very good at delivering some no-brainer numayish stuff, and just that. My question is: how could you, in spite of having watched Kaante and Musafir, that is? Awesome review - enjoyed your words. -WB
January 17th, 2006 at 12:47 am
Hi Oz ! Im an engg student and a movie freak. I had the honour of watching OldBoy a month ago and I STILL had to go watch this bloody Zinda thanks to my lady love … throughout the whole movie I was thinking exactly the same things that you have noted in your review !!!! I thought most of them aloud and did irritate my girl a bit but just couldnt help it :( SG and the others in Bollywood are so fucking lame that they copy without giving credits and without capturing the soul of the movie! sometimes I wonder if they even understand the originals at all :(
January 17th, 2006 at 6:06 am
[...] Another copied Bollywood movie; this time it is copied from a Korean movie, OldBoy (are we done with all Hollywood movies?). But sadly Oz thinks Zinda lacks the soul of the original. [...]
January 17th, 2006 at 11:50 am
Excellent write up (but confused that you rated it as high as a C-). Now, I have no desire to watch Zinda (as you can tell) so can you tell me one thing? I was sure that Gupta would sanitise the film (as you mention, the scene with one of the best lines in OLDBOY “My lover’s song is always too short” is excised), so how has he dealt with the ending?
And don’t listen to the first commenter, never tone down the fucking language!
January 17th, 2006 at 11:54 am
Whoops, the “as you can see” was meant to be “as you can see“
January 17th, 2006 at 12:53 pm
- Anon, Yes the songs are the only thing I’ve liked about this movie. I was so taken by Strings’ rendition of “Yeh Meri Kahani” that I must have listend to it more than a few hundred times now.
- Anangbhai, Read your snippet on Cho Min-sik being a Buddhist and still eating live squids for the role of Oh Dae-su. Interesting very interesting.
- WB, * oz bows to WB * :) I know it’s my fault. But until there is a single breath in my body I won’t ever give up hope on Bollywood. Oh and yes haven’t spread the word on the Roshomon question yet. Quite tied up at work and at home where I’m working on something for the desis all around the world and yes it’s going to be free. :)
- Mangla, hey buddy engineer. I kid you not. Why do girlfriends end up taking us to the movies we don’t wanna watch at all. My sympathies with you. And no Bollywood has reached a point where they have stopped trying - to understand what an original movie is all about.
- Rohin, The Minus C is cause Zinda still walks on an original engaging screeplay- that of OldBoy, even though Guptajee has made a mincemeat of it.
How has he dealt with the ending?
Ah…for that I would love to see you endure the movie and go through the same pain and agony that some of us have gone through by watching Zinda. Let’s share the pain and lessen the burden on each of us :-)
January 18th, 2006 at 9:25 am
i have seen zinda but havent seen oldboy. so i cant really compare the 2 movies. i felt that you people have been talking about that masturbating scene but if you look closely there is this lift scene in zinda(soon after he is released from captivity) where sanjay dutt stares/lusts after that woman(who obviously moves away). that did imply things to me. i felt sanjay gupta could not have shown the masturbating scene for obvious reasons(hell man we cant even show a proper love scene or a gay relation how can we think of showing a masturbating scene in indian movies). yeah i agree that the 14 years should have been a bit more detailed and the torture scenes could have been much better(they wern’t convincing enough/hard hitting/stunning which were lauded by the ‘critics’). and i felt that john has been overrated in this movie. he isnt all that great(in fact he is pretty ordinary in the movie).
January 18th, 2006 at 10:26 am
Have been a fan of your reviews Oz.I saw Zinda, without thankfully having seen OldBoy yet, though completely want to do so soon. LIked zinda for quite different reasons.
http://theevilp.blogspot.com/2006/01/zinda-gushing-review.html
That bit about OldBoy being part of a trilogy? Some more light on that please?
January 18th, 2006 at 11:51 am
Indian Film Industry. Fuckin lame asses. Almost 80% of movies in India are “inspired” or shamelessly copied. Why’s there so much difference in the level of profundity our average Indian movie goer and a direstor shows? I’m not blaming Sanjay Gupta for copying this movie bit by bit. But the fucker should’ve atleast had the guts to copy it by its vigour. Where the heck was the incest part which captivates the viewer of Oldboy? I, and certianly lotsa others would have appreciated the movie a lot better had he copied Oldboy entirely. He rather made it suitable for “masala” searching, cheap thrill enjoying indian audience. Its been decades since a movie was made in India which had its original screenplay. Black, Karan Johar’s factory, and all those teeny bopper candy pants, evrything’s made in the U.S. Cumon assholes, grow up. Show some original shit, if its shit you made after all.
P.S : brilliantly funny review Oz.
January 18th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
- rbehemoth, It is perfectly fine and ok, if you like certain parts of the movie or felt otherwise than what is opined on this blog. Would suggest watching OldBoy now and let us know how you feel.
- prakriti, :) thanks. Again, as mentioned to rbehemoth, it is quite alright to like the movie. Nice review. Keep it up!
- bluebenjamin, nice to know you are passionate about movies! there is hope for Bollywood there is always hope! Thanks for the p.s. :)
January 27th, 2006 at 10:34 am
oldboy is the second part of park chan wook’s revenge trilogy. the first one is “sympathy for mr. vengeance” and the last is “sympathy for lady vengeance”. so it’s sfmv, oldboy and sflv. unlike any other trilogies out there, the stories are not directly linked or a continuation of the other, they just share the same theme, vengeance, and its destructive consequences on one’s soul and the people around him or her. well there you go :) and i haven’t seen zinda. i might check it out sometime though i won’t take it seriously ;) ciao!
March 10th, 2006 at 2:56 am
Nice review Oz. I agree with Rohin - never tone down your language :) Sometimes you just cant say it without using proper words (and Caps). In fact there should be a superlative to fuck. I propose fuckh (say it…its stronger!!). “Im fucked! my car got towed.” ” someone stole my car…im fuckhed!!” see!!
I know this has got nothing to do with zinda. I saw it. enjoyed it. Oldboy is another movie I want to see..makes sense?