Zinda (film)

''Zinda'' (English: ''Alive'') is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language neo noir action film written and directed by Sanjay Gupta, who co-wrote the film with Suresh Nair. It stars Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham, Lara Dutta and Celina Jaitly. Vishal–Shekhar composed the film's thematic music, while the background score was composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury. Dutt suggested the script to Gupta post the release of their previous film '' Musafir'', following which the film went into production. Set in Thailand, the plot centers on Balajeet "Bala" Roy, who gets kidnapped and held hostage in a cell. After getting released without any explanation, Bala sets out to find his captor and the reason behind his captivity.

''Zinda'' was released on 13 January 2006, and has been identified as an unauthorized adaptation of the South Korean film '' Oldboy'', which itself is an official adaptation of the Japanese manga of the same name. Show East, the producers of ''Oldboy'', who had already sold the remake rights to DreamWorks in 2004 had initially expressed legal concerns, but no legal action was taken as the studio had shut down. The film was a box-office flop, grossing crore worldwide against a budget of crore.

Plot

Software engineer Balajeet "Bala" Roy, is happily married to Nisha Roy. But before Nisha can inform him that she is pregnant with their child, Bala is captured by unseen assailants and imprisoned in a cell. After one year, Bala finds out that Nisha was brutally murdered. Bala is kept in total isolation for 14 years without knowing who imprisoned him and why. While in captivity, he learns martial arts from television, with the intention of using it against the people who captured him. He is finally released, again without explanation, and sets out for revenge.

He befriends a Bangkok taxi driver named Jenny, who helps him track his kidnappers. Bala tracks down the restaurant that served him food during his entire captivity and follows a delivery moped to his captors. Bala discovers that he was held in a private prison where people can pay to have others incarcerated. Bala tortures the owner Wong Foo for answers by pulling out his teeth with a claw hammer; he then finds out he was imprisoned for "talking too much", and fights his way out of the building. Bala is injured during the fight, but a mysterious hooded man saves him and takes him to a taxi. The hooded man turns out to be Rohit Chopra. Soon Wong Foo kidnaps Jenny and tortures her. He threatens to remove Bala's teeth with his own claw hammer but is interrupted by Rohit. Bala takes refuge with Jenny, and they have sex. Bala is informed that his daughter is alive. Bala's friend Joy is killed, and Bala learns that his kidnapper is none other than Rohit.

Rohit reveals his reason for kidnapping Bala. They went to high school together, where Bala had lusted after Rohit's elder sister Reema. After Reema rejected him, Bala spread a rumour that she was promiscuous. She became the laughing stock of their school and committed suicide by setting herself on fire. Rohit blamed Bala for her death and engineered his imprisonment as revenge. Rohit tells Bala that he killed Nisha, and sent his daughter, who is now 14, to a brothel. Bala beats Rohit up and shoves him off a balcony, but grabs his hand and pleads with him to tell him where his daughter is. Defiantly, Rohit lets go of Bala's hand and falls to his death. Bala then kills Rohit's goons and Wong Foo.

In the end, Bala learns that his daughter is safe; and Rohit had lied to him about selling her to a brothel to torment him. He finds her sitting on a riverbank, and goes to meet her. He happily lives with his daughter.

Cast

* Sanjay Dutt as Balajeet "Bala" Roy
* John Abraham as Rohit Chopra
* Celina Jaitly as Nisha Roy
* Mahesh Manjrekar as Joy Fernandes
* Lara Dutta as Jenny Singh
* Rajendranath Zutshi as Woo Fong (as Raj Zutshi)
* Alisha Baig as Reema Chopra

Reception

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics, although John Abraham and Sanjay Dutt were singled out for praise.

Bollywood Mantra praised the film saying, "''Zinda'' is a film that appears to be the darkest movie ever by Sanjay Gupta. A hard-hitting flick shot in Bangkok, it tells you a story never told before on the Indian screen. And to make Sanjay Gupta's imagination come alive, who else but Sanjay Dutt is roped in to play the lead role. One of the most challenging roles ever by the deadly Dutt, it is sure to haunt you long after the screening is over".

Narbir Gosal of PlanetBollywood.com gave the film a rating of 7.5/10, praising the performances by Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham, while criticising the fact that much of the dialogue and story was copied from '' Oldboy''.

Futuremovies.com gave the film 6/10 and said, "Technically and style-wise ''Zinda'' is flawless", and praised Dutt's performance, saying "it is probably the pinnacle of his career".

Subhash K Jha gave it 2.5/5 and stated that "the film belongs to Sanjay Dutt.... If the adventure-action genre in Hindi cinema needed a wake-up call, this is it".

Nikhil Kumar of Apunkachoice.com gave the film 0.5/5 stars, saying "Sanjay Gupta's movie ''Zinda'' works primarily because of its gripping, although unoriginal, story and a noteworthy acting performance by its frontman Sanjay Dutt".

Awards

; 52nd Filmfare Awards:

Nomination

* Best Villain – John Abraham

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by duo Vishal–Shekhar and released by T-Series.
* "Ye Hai Meri Kahani" – Strings, Shehzad Roy and Atif Aslam
* "Zinda Hoon Main" – Shibani Kashyap
* "Har Saans" – Krishna Beura & Abrar-ul-Haq
* "Kya Main Zinda Hoon" – Shibani Kashyap
* "Maula" – Vinod Rathod and Zoheb Hassan
* "Zinda Hoon Main Y" – Shibani Kashyap
* "Chal Rahi Hai Saanse" – Kailash Kher and Jawad Ahmad
* "Har Saans (Black Mamba Mix)" – Krishna Beura
* "Ye Hai Meri Kahani (K Rap Mix)" — Strings & Jamie xx
* "Kabhi Muskura ke" - Sanjay Dutt

Similarities with ''Oldboy''

At a November 2005 press conference, representatives of Show East, the production company that released '' Oldboy'', expressed concern ''Zinda'' was similar to their film, and said they were investigating the similarities. They noted that at the time, they did not have the final version of ''Zinda'' available to compare ''Oldboy'' with. They stated that if they found there was "strong similarity between the two ilms, they would be contacting their lawyers."

''The Hindu'' reviewer Sudhish Kamath and PlanetBollywood.com reviewer Narbir Gosal both note in their reviews of ''Zinda'' that they found the two films to be very similar in terms of plot, as well as in the depiction of specific scenes.
'' Rediff.com'' reviewer Raja Sen wrote an open letter to Gupta, declaring he would not watch the film due to the plagiarism, and further revealed Gupta plagiarized the whole film in spite of categorically telling him he had lifted one scene from ''Oldboy'' and claiming the rest was original. Another critic Rajeev Masand labeled it a "shameless rip-off" of ''Oldboy'' where Gupta "steals not only the plot and characters but entire sequences, and pretty much the whole treatment of the original film." ''CNN-News18'' refused to term it a remake since no rights were officially purchased, and went on to criticize its performances, storytelling and the blue tint. The website pointed out that while the film could be notable to the Indian audience for its experimental storyline around that time, this has not been the case over the years.

Gupta continued to deny any of this when questioned during an interview. He later claimed it was not entirely inspired by ''Oldboy'', and mentioned how the latter was also inspired by ''The Count of Monte Cristo'' instead.

References

Further reading

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External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zinda (Film)
2000s Hindi-language films
2000s mystery thriller films
2006 action thriller films
2006 controversies
2006 films
Cultural depictions of Chinese people
Films about child sexual abuse
Films about kidnapping in India
Films about murder
Films about rape
Films about suicide
Films about torture
Films based on adaptations
Films based on works by Marley Caribu
Films directed by Sanjay Gupta
Films involved in plagiarism controversies
Films scored by Sanjoy Chowdhury
Films scored by Strings (band)
Films scored by Vishal–Shekhar
Films set in Bangkok
Films set in Thailand
Films shot in Bangkok
Films shot in Thailand
Indian action thriller films
Indian crime thriller films
Indian films about revenge
Indian intellectual property law
Indian mystery thriller films
Indian neo-noir films
Indian nonlinear narrative films
Indian psychological thriller films
Indian remakes of South Korean films
Live-action films based on manga
Old Boy
Unofficial film adaptations