Zinda

Warning: I'm a German-Japanese / Poor English

Abnormally, i'd generally like to experience remade flicks. More so the if i loved the original. I know there are extremely few which equals or excels to the original but it's not a big problem for me 'cause i don't even expect them to. It is to me like a bonus track of a beloved album, no more no less.

So i got no hesitation in checking Zinda as well (i was even excited actually) 'cause the original must be in my all-time best 10, but, oh my..

I won't say any more about this XEROX COPY crap. (copied on retarded machine, moreover) Nough said by nough people.

Now one thing i just can't believe is how this could be legal. As far as i've read on internet articles, Sanjay and his people haven't even paid a penny to the original Oldboy makers for doing this, which means Zinda is not an official remake of Oldboy. Then what the h..! is Zinda's identity? Some's gonna say it's JUST BASED ON or INSPIRED thing but you know it's way beyond those kinds. Then what?

Sort of Homage thing ? Yea possible, but Sanjay and his company have hardly mentioned about the original on either official ads & reports or non-official comments. Instead, Sanjay's kept saying he's got a bit INSPIRED ONLY and Zinda is totally different from Oldboy or something like that. Besides, more importantly, while shamelessly copying scenes-by-scenes from Oldboy, Sanjay intentionally missed the KEY-POINT of Oldboy's story for his own audiences' taste, for COMMERCIAL PURPOSE in other words. Then how can we call it Homage anyway ?

My conclusion is : Zinda is not only a copy crap, it's rather A CRIME, LITERALLY. I don't understand why Oldboy makers let them make money with this stolen thing.

Am i disappointed ? No i'm fine i didn't even expect. I'm just p***ed and upset for this shitmakers' shamelessness that's all.

It's heavy violence. My major concern is why Bangkok? Bangkok seems to me a beautiful city, however, it's not at all captured like one here. It's ultra dark, highly gloomy and completely violent with mostly everyone in the city seem murderers (gunda log hai re baba). The movie starts well, doesn't feel it's gonna be heavy crime material. It does well to make it feel like horror after the first 10 minutes. John and Sanjay are decent, everyone else have been a disappointment. Although Lara was good, she doesn't justify her character why she's been dragged till the end, maybe just needed a female out there most of the time to make the audience glue the seats. Unnecessary. The locations are the worst part. Very gloomy, dark, and disturbing. Would rather suggest a better movie to watch. The story, too, gets complicated towards the later stages disrespecting the original one. Girls and all the ladies reading me, should have such behaviour by any men stopped right there. The more they let it go, they make them closer to the target who is you. Take the step before it's too late, do not fear. However, you're lucky since I'm sure you don't hace such brutal men around you. Most of the men are good, earthly, and highly respectful, few bad apples do not make the whole lot of men bad. Must respect the men too, because men really do.

The only reason this movie ended up with more as 1 star is because some hardcore nationalist bollywood lovers didn't write honest reviews. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against remakes nor bollywood, but this is just uninspired crap. I like any kind of movies. But movies ought to be made by people who enjoy making them, they should be skilled. Willing to put effort in making a good movie. This guy is allowed to make movies because he is from a rich influential family.

Sanjay Gupta must be one of the least talented directors these days. None of his work is original and all of his movies are cheap copies. this is the same, he saw a movie. Liked it, but just didn't understand it. it doesn't even come close to the original. Everything is just worse as the original oldboy. Camera work, story (that doesn't work out anymore) de fighting is lame, making it not offending for the Indian audience by cutting out the incest totally destroyed the story. The actor had to be a pretty face, too bad he didn't have acting skills with it. This untalented director shouldn't even be allowed to sell pop-corn in a cinema. Too bad mom and dad had money.

Its a direct insult to the real oldboy, and Sanjay didn't even pay for the rights to rip it. Please don't watch it, get oldboy instead. This one will only make you vomit

Bollywood should NEVER try to be as ambitious to tackle films like Oldboy. Indian morality eventually gets in the way. Such attempts are cringeworthy. Do not bother watching Zinda unless you like talentless 'eye candy' type films. Watch the original instead. What is it with Bollywood anyway? They shamelessly copy from oriental cinema/Hollywood and try to pass it off as their own. You can't help but feel disappointed. It was a massacre of the cultish Oldboy. You have to have a strong stomach to stomach some of the things that happen in Oldboy. Its like Bollywood was sugar coating the themes in Oldboy and what do you end up with? A version which your granny can watch with you without feeling too offended. If that was the case then Zinda should never have been made. Well it shouldn't have!

I've read the user comments on this forum and found a blithe lack of concern in many of the posts for the fact that 'Zinda' is a total ripoff. Here are some telling examples, along with my own not-very-profound responses. I trust I need do no more than that to make my point:

"It is unfortunate that bollywood ripped off OLDBOY, but if that is the only way that the Indian audiences would get a glimpse of what the original was like, so be it" (Huh? Ever hear of buying the rights to do an official remake?)

"I am reading the reviews of OLD Boy too, which i have not seen. But I should say that it is a great experiment by Indian cinema" (Yeah, a repeat experiment -- like where somebody else first came up with the ideas and took the risks before you came along and decided to do the exact same thing)

"The legendary action-scene with the hammer looks as hard as it was in Korean version". (the Korean version? Almost makes it sound like 'Oldboy' ripped off 'Zinda')

"First things first , i haven't seen Old Boy so just cant judge Zinda by it's standard... He did full justice to the role of Balajeet Roy(on par with Choi Min-shik" (So you haven't seen 'Oldboy', but you HAVE seen Choi Min-Shik's performance in it? Do the police come to you for psychic impressions when they run out of clues?)

(And what does this mean): "There is no doubt that 'ZINDA' is a complete rip-off of Korean movie 'OLDBOY' but I must add that it is an excellent adaptation of 'OLDBOY'".

--And I won't spoil the pristine effect of these following remarks by adding my own commentaries:

"Hollywood is also planning a rip of this one, so what's the fuss all about"

"People tell me that this movie is inspired/copied or total remake of a Korean masterpiece "OldBoy"; but I don't mind it"

"Yes agreed that he copies other films scene by scene, but who doesn't? Why is he called a copycat, when i can add a long list of other copycats? Take Ek Ajnabee - which was an exact copy of Man On Fire, or Vivek Agnihotri for Chocolate - which was a ridiculous version of the classic 'The Usual Suspects'. At least Sanjay Gupta makes a good replica of a film"

"Copy of old boy backed up with Sanjay direction makes it truly a ride you will never forget".

"The story may be inspired from a Korean film, or so we are told, but is doesn't matter because no one's really seen it".