Let’s talk about a movie that rocked the screens with a full -blown awesome trailer and could not do any justice to the viewer’s expectations with the movie as a whole. If you haven’t guessed yet, we are talking about the last week release Aurangzeb. After the recent release Aiyyaa, you probably did not ask much from Prithviraj Sukumaran but Ishaqzaade bloke Arjun Kapoor came up with the exact freshness a Bollywood cop-crime reeling would need to become a success. While you will be supporting the richness of the script, here is a little source of inspiration that went without any confession from the creative crew behind Aurangzeb.
The 2011 biographical thriller under the direction of Lee Tamahori, The Devil’s Double is centered on a plot where a man is being forced into playing the precautionary double to Saddam Hussein’s son. The government and mafia nexus in a country dotted with corruption – reminds you of any other country closer to heart?
May be it was after all a good script for Bollywood to draw inspiration from. We do like Ravikant’s brilliance in plotting a sting operation, only to realize this is Don all over again. The 1978 Chandra Barot movie is a true blue blooded Bollywood classic. So much so that the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Farhan Akktar went ahead with a remake and a sequel to the storyline, starring Arjun Rampal, Priyanka Chopra et al.
If you compare the Don and Vijay chemistry with that of Ajay and Vishal from Aurangzeb, you cannot help but wonder if Aurangzeb has borrowed mainly from the hits of an ancient Bollywood formula than a Hollywood prism of similar ideas.
Aurangzeb, it seemingly had it all, crime, cop, family, extensive mafia scheming, and all such hooks that can come together to be a good crime drama. The elements are probably what actually engaged Yash Raj Films to the project. Why Atul Sabharwal got together a compelling script yet failed to make it come alive on screen with his directorial skills, is a question that remains unanswered.
While the writers’ credits for The Devil’s Double went to Michael Thomas and Latif Yahia, the dialogues and scripts of both the 1978 releases Trishul and Don go to the celebrated duo: Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan. Atul Sabharwal had the fabric of a fantastic story, though closely borrowed from the premise of many 1970s’ classics, yet it is his inaccurate treatment that botches upAurangzeb.
