Zinda

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

Many have said this before, but I'm afraid I have to repeat the opinion on the account that a surprising many have decided that Zinda is worth of anything more than 1 star in IMDb. Zinda is a unscrupulous photocopy of the masterpiece Oldboy, and should be avoided, if not boycotted.

Some will claim that Zinda is a 'tribute' or a 'remake' of the Oldboy. To them I ask one question: "What kind of filmmakers make remakes of a movie when the original came out two years ago and has been selling DVDs very well internationally?" It seems that this particular brand of Indian cinema has decided that it is quite content making money off of other people idea for free. And though it is impossible for the original filmmakers to sue the filmmakers of Zinda (on the account that Indian copyright laws does not allow for such suit), Zinda should be remembered as a true stain on the development of Indian Cinema.

Because it has photocopied a great movie, Zinda avoids being an absolute terror of a movie. However, this does not excuse Sanjay Gupta and the section of 'Bollywood' that has involved itself in Zinda's production. Because of the blatant plagiarism, and the Zinda's makers absolutely refusing to apologize and reimburse the original filmmakers, I must say Zinda deserves 1 star, if not 0.

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.

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".

It's not something new for bollywood to copy foreign movie's script. I guess they (actors, director and creative staff members...) all gather around and watch the movie to be copied so that there will be no confusion what they are really after. Frame to frame. That's a shameful act for any responsible main stream actors and director. I am glad that Zinda is now under investigation for violation of copyright. Its about time now to stop this shameful piracy. Another thing is, Hindi movie don't have guts to go that extreme like jaw-dropper "Old boy". Pathetic. They make movie according to the public taste, mostly rickshaw pullers. I wonder where they found in between the plot to plant some songs and crazy dance. Somebody really needs to tell bollywood artist that movie is a serious art business. There is a very bold thick red link between copy and adaptation, and Zinda is way far across the line.