Title-Track: Eight titles reused in Hindi movies this year

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It is a given that titles are repeated (albeit with variations in suffixes) in any sequel. This year has been rather resplendent with franchises as only Yaariyan 2 has been a washout. Gadar 2, Tiger 3 and OMG 2 lead the hits and the makers of Dreamgirl 2 and Fukrey 3 are also claiming success.

Incidentally, Dream Girl (spelt thus) itself was a repeat title—in 1977, Hema Malini and Dharmendra had featured in an average success of that name with a cult title-track Kisi shaayar ki ghazal dream girl that Ayuishmann Khurrana, leading man of the new franchise, also loves.

The latest, Khichdi 2: Mission Panthukistan is also doing steady business on the lower side after a catastrophic start. And on OTT, Lust Stories 2 has also been received favorably.

But the other part is that film titles of older movies have been repeated (to a small extent, this happens every year), and what is surprising is that an industry that relies on luck and superstition has gone on to use titles of flop movies in most cases. And most of the new movies have crash-landed. Here is a check-list.

Aankh Micholi

In 1972, Rakesh Roshan and Bharati headlined the remake of the Tamil blockbuster, Ooty Varai Uravu. The film was, however, a decisive flop. This year, a shoddy romantic comedy about two families, one Gujarati and one Punjabi, featured Abhimany Dassani and Mrunal Thakur and was a qualitative as well as well as commercial catastrophe.

Gumraah

Gumrah (1963) was a bold B.R. Chopra film for its time. Featuring Ashok Kumar, Sunil Dutt and Mala Sinha, with super-hit music by Ravi, it was an average success as the theme was too ‘forward’ for those times. In the 1970s, Subhash Ghai and Reena Roy starred in the lead in a B-grade flop. Then in 1993, Mahesh Bhatt adapted the American crime drama, Bangkok Hilton, into a Sanjay Dutt-Sridevi thriller that was a modest success produced by Yash Johar, Karan Johar’s father. This time, T-Series co-produced a crisp action drama with Aditya Roy Kapur in a dual role. But the new film failed to catch audience fancy.

InCar  

In 1977, Vinod Khanna and Vidya Singh co-starred in an action drama inspired by a Japanese thriller. The film, Inkaar, best known now for its cult song, Mungda, completed 50 weeks in matinee (noon) shows. In the 2000s, Sudhir Mishra directed a film on sexual harassment with Arjun Rampal and Chitrangda Singh that was a washout. This year, newcomers led by Ritika Singh, did a story of the same name  that involved a girl’s molestation in a car—so the title InCar was given with a dual meaning. But few are even aware of such a film!

Jaane Jaan

Piquantly, Randhir Kapoor had starred in a 1983 film with Neetu Singh that was a calamity. Randhir is hired by Neetu who is rich, to kill her as she thinks she is suffering from cancer and has only a few months to live. Forty years later, the Netflix OTT release of the same name was a murder mystery with a difference: the film coincidentally starred Randhir Kapoor’s daughter and now Neetu Singh’s niece, Kareena Kapoor Khan as a fiercely protective single mother. The film was among the very few appreciated this year. It was an official remake of the Japanese book and film, The Devotion of Suspect X and was directed by Sujoy Ghosh.

Neeyat

A 1980 flop featuring Shashi Kapoor, Jeetendra and Rakesh Roshan showed three friends falling in love with the same girl (Rekha). It was a complete non-starter. This year, the OTT release with the same title, featuring Vidya Balan, was a murder mystery styled along the lines of Agatha Christie novels. Despite some critical acclaim, the film was a no-no.

Shehzada

In 1972, Rajesh Khanna and Raakhee starred in the flop, Shehzada, directed by K. Shankar, a remake of his own Tamil film, Idhu Sathiyam. This time, a classic musical hit, Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo in Telugu, was “reworked” by director Rohit Dhawan in Hindi. Actors Allu Arjun, Pooja Hegde and Tabu were replaced by Kartik Aaryan, Kriti Sanon and Manisha Koirala. The blockbuster’s dubbed Hindi version did far better, as did the original with subtitles. The family emotions, performances, direction, script, music—everything that was right with the original went wrong with Shehzada.