Part 5
CLASSICS ADAPTED :
Some classic Hollywood or International Films have been inspiration for many Bollywood Movies.
1) SOUND OF MUSIC (1965)
This classic Inspired Gulzar to make Parichay. Just the essence and flavour was similar , taste was different. R.D Burman got an equivalent tune to Do Re Mi with Saare Ke Saare Gama ko Lekar.
Music was the highlight of both the films though 7 years apart.
Jeetendra does a role reversal of Julia Andrews.
Parichay was officially reported to be based on the Bengali novel "Rangeen Uttarain" by Raj Kumar Maitra however the inspiration of Sound of Music was unmistakable.
2) MY FAIR LADY(1964)
My Fair Lady is a 1964 American musical drama film adapted from the 1956 Lerner and Loewe stage musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 stage play Pygmalion.
Pygmalion is a legendary Greek character. As per Ovid's narrative poem - Metamorphoses, Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with the idol of a woman he had carved out of ivory. Taking an inspiration from the character of that sculptor, renowned playwright George Bernard Shaw wrote a play titled as Pygmalion in 1912 which was a sarcastic commentary on the British society and culture as prevailing in that period. In that play, Professor Henry Higgins enters into a bet with a friend of his that he can turn a bedraggled girl from the lower strata of the society into such a well-cultured girl wearing a veneer of gentility that she will pass for a duchess at a party hosted by an ambassador. And he actually succeeds in doing so by turning a flower girl - Eliza Doolittle into a well-mannered lady who by all means appears to belong to aristocracy and therefore acceptable in the so-called high society and thus wins the bet. But this girl is a flesh and blood human-being and not a lifeless idol as made by Pygmalion. She has a heart filled with womanly feelings. Can she be discarded now and thrown back to the class that she was initially picked from ?
My Fair Lady With a screenplay by Alan Jay Lerner and directed by George Cukor, the film depicts a poor Cockney flower-seller named Eliza Doolittle who overhears an arrogant phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, as he casually wagers that he could teach her to speak "proper" English, thereby making her presentable in the high society of Edwardian London.
Audrey Hepburn plays Eliza and Rex Harrison plays Prof Higgins.
It's a complete musical.
Now how can a topic so charming not be adapted by Indian Cinema.
The first inspiration was seen in the 1972 film Raja Jaani ( which was actually a remake of the 1956 film Anastasia). Dharmendra who needs to find a Princess lost in Childhood gets a gypsy dancer and trains her to act and behave like a princess.
1979 saw a second influence in Hum Tere Ashiq Hain.
Jeetendra trains a flower seller girl to become a Princess.
In both these adaptions the Lady in question is Hema Malini.
A year Later came Basu Chatterjee Directed
MAN PASAND
Man Pasand can be called an official Remake of a Marathi Drama
"Tee Phulrani" written by P.L.Deshpande and was an adaptation of Pygmalion by G.B.Shaw.
This is version of My Fair Lady, a great musical that was. In this Movie Dev Aanand and Girish Karnad (both sworn middle aged bachelors) play as two friends who while traveling suburban train discover a lady selling datun (toothbrush made from branch of Neem Tree) - played by Tina Munim and Dev bets that he will make her a not only a high society lady but also an accomplished singer!
How he does it is the story. There is good direction and polished performances. There a some good songs like "Logon ka dil agar haan jeetana hai tumko to bas meetha meetha bolo!" By Rafi Saab(with Tina Munim shouting loudly in between to sell her datuns)! and "Manmani se hargiz na daro kabhi shadi na karo!" (sung by Kishor Kumar)
Music by Rajesh Roshan
You can add to the remakes of these two classics and comments welcome.
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