Somehow, this film slipped completely under my radar.  Not as much as Jai Gangaajal, there has been some promotion at least, comments and twitter and so forth, but probably because I was so Kapoor and Sons focused, I didn’t even realize it was coming out this week.  But then I saw the really super cool poster (above), and decided it is worth investigating.

According to various sources, it is going to be a remake of a Korean movie.  I am fascinated with Indian films remaking Korean ones.  It’s so anti-colonialism!  The great Asian collective, just like Nehru dreamed of!  Also, because Korean films and Indian films are kind of mirror images of each other.

They both succeed by provoking a deeper and rawer response than Hollywood can provide.  Only, the Korean films do that by giving the grossest and most explicit kind of violence and torture, with a fine scattering of body horror and sexual violence.  Indian films do it by giving the sweetest love stories and deepest family relationships, with a fine scattering of random moments of beauty.  The combination of the two just blows my mind!

There are probably other remakes that I don’t know about, but the two before this that I am aware of are Oldboy-Zinda and I Saw The Devil-Ek Villain.  I haven’t seen Oldboy or Zinda, but I’ve read about them.  I have seen both I Saw the Devil and Ek Villain.  So far as I can tell, they took the initial “hook” of the story, the one line sentence version of the plot, and expanded on it in an Indian rather than a Korean manner.

Oldboy/Zinda is about a man who is kidnapped and kept in a room for years, before finally being released.  He dedicates himself to tracking down his kidnapper, finally finding the man who did it, who reveals that the kidnappee had harmed him years earlier, without even realizing it, and that the final part of his revenge is to be released from imprisonment just in time to learn how completely his pre-kidnapping life has been destroyed.

This basic set-up, which is super intriguing and deals with issues of culpability, how one small thing we do can come back years later, how the true torture is not to be taken away from your life but to see how your life has been taken from you, that all stays in the Indian remake.  Plus, they were able to cast Sanjay Dutt to play the lead, which is so perfect that that right there justifies remaking it.  But, they removed the super realistic fight scenes, and the incest theme that ran through the original.  And made the ending completely happy (In the Indian version, our hero thinks he has been released just in time for his daughter to be old enough to be sold to a brothel, but no!  She’s fine!).

I Saw the Devil/Ek Villain is the same idea, the few sentence set up is that our hero’s fiancee is killed and he finds her killer, but rather than simply killing him, he lets him go and then tracks and hunts and tortures him for days on end.  So, you know, the title is super deep because does he see the Devil in the man he is torturing, or does he see the Devil within himself as he extracts his revenge?

The Korean version is a pretty straight forward chase film, frequently interrupted by scenes of torture and violence.  But the Indian version added in all kinds of plot and character drama.  For one thing, almost the whole first half is the love story between our hero and his fiancee, before she is killed.  And they give a whole background and motivation to the killer, instead of just making him a killer.  And then there are little interesting societal things, like in the Korean original our hero is a cop, but in the Indian remake he is a former mob enforcer.  Oh, and again, they insert a happyish ending, where our hero is able to find someone else to love, which gives him a reason to go on and come out of the darkside.

So, Rocky Handsome!  It’s a remake, apparently, of The Man From Nowhere.  Again, the one sentence plot is a great set-up: a retired special forces type guy makes friends with a little girl who leaves near him in the slums.  When the girl’s mother steals something from a mob boss and they are both kidnapped, our hero goes on a rampage to get her back.  I’m in!

Only, Shruti Haasan plays the love interest.  I’m out!  I’ve seen her in 3 movies now, D-Day, Gabbar is Back, and Welcome Back (also with John Abraham).  I am not impressed.  Actually, she was really good in D-Day, but after seeing the other two films, I am chalking that up to the director, rather than her.  Plus, I think she might have some language issues.  In both Gabbar is Back and Welcome Back, most of her dialogue was in English, and she seemed pretty clunky with the little Hindi she was given.  All together, does not make her a fun watch.

But, wait, according to the synopsis of the Korean original, the love interest might just be a flashback to provide motivation!  So, minimal Shruti, just in love songs and dream scenes!  I’m back in!

Also, it is being promoted as a pure action thriller, and the director previously made Force and Drishyam.  Force was one of John’s best performances/roles, and Drishyam (having seen the Malayalam original) is definitely a plot and action driven movie, which is unusual in Hindi cinema.  So, a John Abraham movie that makes the best possible use of his limited range, with a propulsive plot, and as little Shruti Haasan as possible.  If the trailer looks good, I am definitely in!

Yeah, the trailer is awesome.  I know what I am doing this weekend.