Remakes have usually failed, so what will be the fate of Aamir�s �Ghajini�? Shah Rukh�s �Devdas�, �Don� both failed and so did �Umrao Jaan� starring Aishwarya. �RGV Ki Aag�, a remake of the all-time classic �Sholay� disappointed in every area

Let us start with ‘Devdas’. It was based on a novel by Saratchandra Chattopadhyay. This was already made on the silver screen having Dilip Kumar as the lead. Though the movie did well in the box office, the reaction from the audience was mixed. Some admired the movie and some criticised it, especially the modification of the story. Like ‘Devdas’ another Saratchandra novel to be made on silver screen was ‘Parineeta’. This movie too was made earlier with Meena Kumari in the title role. This too fared well at the box office.

However, there are many remakes of classic films that were complete disappointments. The first such remake to come to our mind is ‘RGV Ki Aag’, remake of the all-time classic ‘Sholay’. This remake disappointed in every area, be it star cast, presentation, performance or anything more. Some people even before the release of the film had written off this one claiming that a classic can never be remade.

The other remake to suffer the same fate of ‘RGV ki Aag’ was ‘Umrao Jaan’ having Aishwarya Rai as lead, a remake of the original starring Rekha. Another disappointing remake to follow soon was ‘Don’ having Shah Rukh Khan that was based on the Amitabh Bachchan starrer released in 1979. This year another remake that failed miserably was Himesh Reshamiya starrer ‘Karzz’, which was the remake of Rishi Kapoor’s ‘Karz’ directed by Subhash Ghai.

This trend of failed remakes is not just limited to the big screen, but also to small screen. The two epics of India, ‘Ramayan’ and ‘Mahabharat’, were made by Ramananda Sagar and BR Chopra respectively two decades back. But when queen of daily K soaps, Ekta Kapoor tried to remake the greatest epic ‘Mahabharat’, people rejected it right away. It’s fate was similar to ‘RGV ki Aag’. Everything in Ekta Kapoor’s ‘Mahabharat’, be it acting, costumes, star cast, presentation and dialogues, disappointed the audience. Ramananda Sagar’s son, Anand Sagar too failed when he tried to emulate the classic made by his father.

Hence, it is easy to accept the fact that ‘Old is Gold’. However, there do occur some exceptions. Consider Gulzar’s classic ‘Angoor’ based on Shakespeare’s ‘Comedy of Errors’. Very few know that Gulzar had made ‘Do Duni Chaar’ based on the same play which was a complete failure. Similarly, Mehboob Khan’s ‘Mother’ was the remake of his ‘Aurat’ which was a flop.

Now what will be the fate of Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’? It is obvious that whenever some famous movie or serial was remade, the remake was a disappointment but on the other side ‘Ghajini’ has Mr Perfect Aamir Khan. Aamir is very particular about the quality of the movie. Let’s wait for the film’s release to give it the final verdict.