In the 100years history of Hindi cinema, thousands of movies have been made.
Most of them were crap, but some are the true jewels which we need to preserve and share with our coming generations.
However, with changing lifestyles and modes of entertainment, some of those movies might look out of place for the today’s youth. Such movies might be considered slow or outdated as far as production quality or fashion sense is concerned, even if the content would be still relatable. In such a scenario, how do you bring such gems to the common man, to the youth of today? How can one make it exciting for the Gen-X’s consumption?
The answer is simple!
Turn the movie into a TV show, well more specifically a fictional daily show and ta da!
The whole family will watch it with great interest without even realising that it is old wine served in new bottle!
This is what has been happening for many years in the TV industry where main plots of famous cult movies are being lifted, adapted, twisted and then served to the audience. Many a times it works, many times it falls flat on the face. It all depends on how the subject is handled, how much tampering is done with the main plot and how is it being presented.
In coming days, you will be able to see shows based on two cult movies.
One is Mahesh Bhatt-directed Daddy and another is Raj Kapoor-directed, Prem Rog!
Daddy by Mahesh Bhatt
While Daddy was an emotional story poignantly showcasing a father-daughter relationship, Prem Rog was considered to be centuries ahead of its time for dealing with a hugely taboo subject of its times, widow-remarriage! Even today, widow remarriage isn’t that common as it is supposed to be, especially in small towns and villages of the country; hence the need for such subjects to be discussed and debated increased manifolds.
Prem Rog by Raj Kapoor
Daddy had superlative performances by Anupam Kher and even by a non-actress Pooja Bhatt, simply for the fact that the story of the movie was so touching. Prem Rog had a young lover boy Rishi Kapoor romancing the sweet and innocent Padmini Kolhapure, both trying to send out a loud social message via their cute romance.
Recreating such magic on TV might be difficult since the shows tend to involve lots of twists and they go on and on and on forever, but still, if such subjects are treated sensibly and sensitively, they do hold lot of promise to be able to engage the audience. Balancing the entertainment quotient along with social message might sound a difficult task, but not impossible.
Let’s hope the makers do a great job of bringing these classics back in our life!
