Imagine you want to watch a period film with a backdrop like that of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s projects but you start watching a Dharma productions movie. Well, it would be a huge disappointment as the latter doesn’t have an iota of connection with authenticity and reality. What I am trying to inform here is that you should never expect Bhansali’s magic in a Karan Johar film. Similarly, you should never expect good Hollywood remakes from Bollywood.
But there’s an actor who has excelled in this department of destroying remakes. Any guesses, who he is? Well, it’s Aamir Khan – the perfectionist of the Bollywood industry.
Aamir Khan and his ‘craft’ to destroy remakes
One of the Khan superstar, Aamir Khan is often touted as a perfectionist of Bollywood. After four years of gap, Aamir Khan is now returning to the big screen with Laal Singh Chaddha, which is an official Hindi remake of the 1994 cult Hollywood classic Forrest Gump, starring Tom Hanks.
While the trailer clearly suggests that like the previous Hollywood remakes of Aamir Khan, Laal Singh Chaddha is nothing but an addition to the list of his ‘overrated’ movies.
Read more: What could be the political messaging in Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Chaddha
However, Laal Singh Chaddha isn’t the first Hollywood remake that Aamir is starring in. Aamir has a long list of films that were inspired by Hollywood, starting from the early ‘90s. Interestingly, these films proved that if there’s any actor who knows the art of destroying remake films, it’s no one but Aamir Khan. Let’s take a look at these blunders by ‘Mr. Perfectionist’.
- Baazi
Aamir Khan worked with director Ashutosh Gowariker in this 1995 action thriller which was a copy of the 1988 cult hit Die Hard. The film along with Aamir Khan also starred Mamta Kulkarni, Paresh Rawal, Ashish Vidyarthi and Mukesh Rishi.
The movie was a story of an honest officer who is framed for murder when he starts investigating a case. However, he manages to escape from prison and goes undercover as a woman to unravel the conspiracy.
The movie is still known as the biggest flop of Aamir Khan’s career with a box office collection of just 5 crore rupees. Why? Well, it’s only because it couldn’t even copy a Hollywood film and Aamir Khan looked terrible as the cop in the movie.
- AatankHi Aatank
Aamir Khan’s next Hollywood remake on the list is ‘Aatank Hi Aatank’. It was the remake of one of the greatest films of all time ‘The Godfather’ (1972). Directed by Dilip Shankar, the film starred Aamir Khan and Rajinikanth, and Juhi Chawla. Aamir played the character inspired by Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone.
Aamir Khan and South Superstar Rajnikanth shared screen space for the first time in the movie. Despite this, the movie ranked low at the box office with a total collection of 2.50 crore rupees.
The role was initially planned for Shahrukh Khan, but it didn’t work out and the role was passed on to the ‘PK’ actor. Despite being packed with superstars, the movie couldn’t attract the audience.
- Laal Singh Chaddha
Laal Singh Chaddha is the official remake of the Oscar-winning movie Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump was released 28 years ago on July 6th, 1994. The core story of Forrest Gump revolved around a dim-wit simpleton and how he successfully traversed through life.
Surprisingly, The Perfectionist, that is, Aamir Khan had to spend 14 years to come up with a remake.
Read more: Laal Singh Chaddha: It took Aamir 14 years for Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V
The trailer of the movie has already been launched in which Aamir Khan seems to be playing the character of PK yet again. The trailer doesn’t look convincing and rather suggests how the movie stereotypically used a Sardar character to portray a dim-witted protagonist. Moreover, don’t be surprised if the dim-witted simpleton in the Aamir Khan Starrer movie subtly criticises or lectures the Hindu community or the current ruling government.
Aamir Khan – the not so ‘perfectionist’
When you google the top 10 films of Aamir Khan, you’ll come across names like Rang De Basanti, Lagaan, PK, Taare Zameen Par, Fanaa, Dil Chahta Hai, and a few more. But, here’s a catch. Are these movies only considered a hit because of Aamir Khan and his average acting skills?
While Sarfarosh was far away from reality, Lagaan was a director’s film. Dil Chahta Hai was pretty good, but not an Aamir show. Rang De Basanti, meanwhile, is one of the most poisonous movies ever. Fanaa was a terrorist worshipping cringe fest while Taare Zameen Par was great with a kid as the lead.
Aamir Khan turned Godfather into Atank hi Atank
He then turned Die Hard into BaaziNow he is turning Forrest Gump into Lal Singh Chadha.
— Atul Kumar Mishra (@TheAtulMishra) June 1, 2022
However, I feel relieved when I realised that Aamir Khan didn’t come up with the remakes of Hollywood classics like ‘Lord of the Rings’, ‘The Matrix’, ‘The Prestige’ and ‘The Dark Knight’. He would have conveniently moulded the characters as per his ‘capabilities’ and what a disaster they could have been.
