Ramesh Sippy is an excellent director. Obviously, he loves the Western world's cinema. So since his start he was determined on marring his commercial homeland cinema with the western (Sholay - 1975), or James Bond (Shaan - 1980).
For the first half, it runs as a crime comedy, with schemes and heists. Then for the second, as an action about a war between 3 heroes and one super-villain imported from many Bond movies; he lives on an island (Dr. No - 1962), has an office with sharks around it (The Spy Who Loves Me - 1977), disposes of a failure henchmen by exploding his chair (You Only Live Twice - 1967), and he's bald (Blofeld). Come with that some "Bondy" touches here and there: Theme song, with the movie's title, along with opening credits that roll while showing parts of the movie's events on a girl's dancing body (From Russia With Love - 1963), the good guy fights a monster and beats it underwater (Thunderball - 1965), survives an alligator (Moonraker - 1979), and - sure - there is a ticking bomb at the very end (nearly all of Bond movies!).
The cinematography did grand. 2 shots were historically beautiful: seeing Abdul's character dead, and the leads' running to the helicopter at the end. Amitabh Bachchan is a walking movie industry, with unbelievable charisma and wit. Johnny Walker proved that he can make comedy and dance well. And Kulbhushan Kharbanda stole the show with sober cogent acting for what could have been a caricature of a character. It has smart editing and dexterous dialogue, though still the movie's highest element is its hot and elegant directing. Sippy individualized every single sequence with distinct sets and visual details, being helped by towering budget. For instance: the amusement center's try of assassination, the stable's gunfight (which revived some of Sippy's love of Westerns), the port's murder, the thugs' home's fistfight.. etc. It reaches its zenith at the last song Yamma Yamma, which managed to be one of the finest songs I have ever heard and watched.
Yes, almost everything is top-notch. The ambition to overtop (Sholay), the most successful hit up to that point, is felt. But they forgot one factor: the script. While (Sholay) remade (Seven Samurai - 1954) to Indianize a western movie, now (Shaan) remade many points of Bond to westernize an Indian blockbuster and give it another flavor. Thus, it had a more than enough foreign atmosphere, looking strange sometimes, missed the human dimension, with light pain and more fun, and - unfortunately - suffered a load of cheese!
Bone Cheese: There is absolutely no difference between Kapoor's and Bachchan's characters; they're the same happy-go-lucky guy, just one taller than the other! The leading dual fight Shakaal, a *super* bad guy, the same way (Sholay)'s leading dual was fighting Gabbar Singh; without appropriate advanced gadgets!
Flesh Cheese: A respectable officer has 2 crooks as brothers? How come that none of his superiors blamed him for that?! That officer decides to jump over a cliff to the sea, while knowing that he's 300 km away from any land; so he thought he could swim that distance?! The villain has a secret way to release the bonds around his victims' hands hidden under his main table, why?! To use it whenever he's captured in his office, like what happened at last (SO FORCED!). The villain's toxic gas didn't harm the heroes (low quality gas?!). The villain dies right beside the secret key to destroy his island (strange coincidence). While Shatrughan Sinha's character is a circus man, he can run a helicopter cleverly! The villain with all of that wealth, power, craziness is just a black market dealer?? With his sophisticatedness, he seemed as someone who wants to rule not the world but the galaxy?!! And finally, the giddiest point ever: how come that our heroes flee from the exploding island while leaving at least 50 dancers, who they used in their disguised entrance, behind them, including the very well known Helen herself?! These are innocent people, why to sacrifice them so carelessly like that??!!
Lending the thick voice of R. D. Burman to Bachchan while Yamma Yamma was terrible decision; I was laughing out loud! Bindiya Goswami wasn't fit for her role as a con woman who can dazzle men by her beauty. The charming Parveen Babi was infamously overweight, with no fresh performance.
In terms of writing the best addition, this movie came up with was dividing James Bond, the forever *one* hero, into 3 guys. The beauty of unity is a favorite for me in the face of "Only One Man Can Do This Mission!". It's someway the opposite of what Sippy did in (Sholay), when he remade the 7 Samurais with purely 2 guys.
When it comes to dealing with the evil man's last fate, the confusion of Sippy is apparent. While making 2 ends for (Sholay); one where the violence wins which was canceled, and one where the law wins which was used, this round as if he wanted to revenge, declaring that killing should be faced with nothing but killing, and he did it rightly: Shakaal tries to kill the 4 leads, so they act naturally with self-defense, finish him with 3 bullets, and make Sippy eventually happy!
It's an Indian "good vs. Bad" blockbuster that visited Bond to borrow some *super bad* material. Well, nice visit, but not nice fantasy altogether. Feature like harmonic was kind of missed. Though, despite (Shaan)'s faults, it is better than many of Bond movies (at least it has a plot!). Yet, it's not (Sholay), just a big mild entertainment that flashes in your eyes to soothe your brain.
For the first half, it runs as a crime comedy, with schemes and heists. Then for the second, as an action about a war between 3 heroes and one super-villain imported from many Bond movies; he lives on an island (Dr. No - 1962), has an office with sharks around it (The Spy Who Loves Me - 1977), disposes of a failure henchmen by exploding his chair (You Only Live Twice - 1967), and he's bald (Blofeld). Come with that some "Bondy" touches here and there: Theme song, with the movie's title, along with opening credits that roll while showing parts of the movie's events on a girl's dancing body (From Russia With Love - 1963), the good guy fights a monster and beats it underwater (Thunderball - 1965), survives an alligator (Moonraker - 1979), and - sure - there is a ticking bomb at the very end (nearly all of Bond movies!).
The cinematography did grand. 2 shots were historically beautiful: seeing Abdul's character dead, and the leads' running to the helicopter at the end. Amitabh Bachchan is a walking movie industry, with unbelievable charisma and wit. Johnny Walker proved that he can make comedy and dance well. And Kulbhushan Kharbanda stole the show with sober cogent acting for what could have been a caricature of a character. It has smart editing and dexterous dialogue, though still the movie's highest element is its hot and elegant directing. Sippy individualized every single sequence with distinct sets and visual details, being helped by towering budget. For instance: the amusement center's try of assassination, the stable's gunfight (which revived some of Sippy's love of Westerns), the port's murder, the thugs' home's fistfight.. etc. It reaches its zenith at the last song Yamma Yamma, which managed to be one of the finest songs I have ever heard and watched.
Yes, almost everything is top-notch. The ambition to overtop (Sholay), the most successful hit up to that point, is felt. But they forgot one factor: the script. While (Sholay) remade (Seven Samurai - 1954) to Indianize a western movie, now (Shaan) remade many points of Bond to westernize an Indian blockbuster and give it another flavor. Thus, it had a more than enough foreign atmosphere, looking strange sometimes, missed the human dimension, with light pain and more fun, and - unfortunately - suffered a load of cheese!
Bone Cheese: There is absolutely no difference between Kapoor's and Bachchan's characters; they're the same happy-go-lucky guy, just one taller than the other! The leading dual fight Shakaal, a *super* bad guy, the same way (Sholay)'s leading dual was fighting Gabbar Singh; without appropriate advanced gadgets!
Flesh Cheese: A respectable officer has 2 crooks as brothers? How come that none of his superiors blamed him for that?! That officer decides to jump over a cliff to the sea, while knowing that he's 300 km away from any land; so he thought he could swim that distance?! The villain has a secret way to release the bonds around his victims' hands hidden under his main table, why?! To use it whenever he's captured in his office, like what happened at last (SO FORCED!). The villain's toxic gas didn't harm the heroes (low quality gas?!). The villain dies right beside the secret key to destroy his island (strange coincidence). While Shatrughan Sinha's character is a circus man, he can run a helicopter cleverly! The villain with all of that wealth, power, craziness is just a black market dealer?? With his sophisticatedness, he seemed as someone who wants to rule not the world but the galaxy?!! And finally, the giddiest point ever: how come that our heroes flee from the exploding island while leaving at least 50 dancers, who they used in their disguised entrance, behind them, including the very well known Helen herself?! These are innocent people, why to sacrifice them so carelessly like that??!!
Lending the thick voice of R. D. Burman to Bachchan while Yamma Yamma was terrible decision; I was laughing out loud! Bindiya Goswami wasn't fit for her role as a con woman who can dazzle men by her beauty. The charming Parveen Babi was infamously overweight, with no fresh performance.
In terms of writing the best addition, this movie came up with was dividing James Bond, the forever *one* hero, into 3 guys. The beauty of unity is a favorite for me in the face of "Only One Man Can Do This Mission!". It's someway the opposite of what Sippy did in (Sholay), when he remade the 7 Samurais with purely 2 guys.
When it comes to dealing with the evil man's last fate, the confusion of Sippy is apparent. While making 2 ends for (Sholay); one where the violence wins which was canceled, and one where the law wins which was used, this round as if he wanted to revenge, declaring that killing should be faced with nothing but killing, and he did it rightly: Shakaal tries to kill the 4 leads, so they act naturally with self-defense, finish him with 3 bullets, and make Sippy eventually happy!
It's an Indian "good vs. Bad" blockbuster that visited Bond to borrow some *super bad* material. Well, nice visit, but not nice fantasy altogether. Feature like harmonic was kind of missed. Though, despite (Shaan)'s faults, it is better than many of Bond movies (at least it has a plot!). Yet, it's not (Sholay), just a big mild entertainment that flashes in your eyes to soothe your brain.