Remake or Translation?

Last week, I went through the painful experience of watching the latest Priyadarshan botchup - Mere Baap Pehle Aap (MBPA). The phrase "Lost in Translation" is a perfect fit for this project. Additionally, Priyadarshan got his basics wrong for making hindi movies. Though, the movie does have its moments, but was generally quiet painful. Watching the movie on TV, the only thing I was happy about was that I didn't go to the theaters for this one.

I have total respect for all who dared to sit in the theatres to watch this mess called MBPA. As I was watching the movie, I skipped through all the songs and was drifting in and out of the room running some chores as well. The movie wasn't strong enough to captivate the audience. The narration had a distinct South Indian cinema flavor to it and looked like a literal translation of the original Malayalam movie.

Priyadarshan, in my opinion, got his definitions of remake and translation mixed up. If I know my movie lingo correctly, a remake is an adaptation of the movie, the director's interpretation of the original work where as a translation would be just to take the script and translate word for word into a different language. A remake has to be adjusted to the situation and the audience. There is a fine line of difference between the two and thus probably hard to differentiate. Though, Priyadarshan is used to treading this line - Hungama, Hulchul, Garam Masala. With Garam Masala, though I felt, he did come pretty close to cross over into the translation territory and he bailed out safely at the last minute. However, he couldn't resist the temptation this time around with MBPA. It was almost like he blanked out on the basics of Hindi Movie Making.

Nothing seemed right with the movie, except a few scenes. The script, screenplay, dialogues and songs and the name of the movie too seemed liked a literal translation of the original. Though, Priyadarshan did save himself in the scene where he explained why the whole cast is attending a Malayali wedding given that they are all North Indians. It almost felt like Priyadarshan didn't have enough money to make the movie so he just hired a translator to translate the script, screenplay, dialogues and songs in hindi. The movie might have been very successful in its original form, but was completely off-mark in the Hindi version. Priyadarshan should've known better. I understand his eagerness of remaking his hit South Indian movies into Hindi, so that he can penetrate the different segments of audiences. In this eagerness, he can't forget that he has to treat his remakes as completely new projects and also remember the context of the movie. One thing ticked me off the most - the word "Baap". It isn't considered a good word in civilised Hindi and that is where I thought to myself that Priyadarshan has finally lost it. This is the most basic thing - the word Baap will not work at all. I'm suprised how Akshay Khanna and Paresh Rawal also failed to realise this fact.

To conclude, I would only say, "Priyadarshan sir, I love watching your movies but please come back in form. Its heart-wrenching to see that a director who made Hungama and Garam Masala gave us MBPA."