Umrao Jaan and Don

These two remakes of old movies rekindled the desire the see the old ones back again. The old ones were seen such a long time ago I hardly remembered them.


Umrao Jaan.....period theme.....so the movie had the task of creating the old world charm. I could feel the old world charm in the 80's movie, but not quite in the recent one. Maybe its the costumes or the songs or the actors. I couldnt imagine Aishwarya or Abhishek B from that era, Ash's acting was very modernish......rebellious and restless. Rekha's Umrao was also a little of a rebel...but rather a subtle one than an overt one. The pathos portrayal was right on mark. Truly a great performance from Rekha.


Don....the original was all about the Big B and how he carried the film on his shoulders. Smart dialogues stood out so well they they are remembered even now. Now when I see it the movie looks tacky. the new don does score over the old one in technical aspects and how the story is well weaved and looks like a movie of today. But nothing stands out. The dialogues look subdued, characters lack the intensity the older actors had. Still I had fun watching the new Don....racy caper!


Actually, because the old movies existed that I wanted to see the new ones. Its fun to compare and see the difference. Would the new ones have stood on thier own if they had no precedent?Probably not.