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Zinda (film)
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Zinda (Hindi: ?????, Urdu: ????, English: Alive) is a 2006 Bollywood film, starring Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham, Mahesh Manjrekar, Celina Jaitley and Lara Dutta. Zinda was directed by Sanjay Gupta, who previously directed Sanjay Dutt in the 2004 movie Musafir. The film's plot, characterization, and the majority of its scenes are plagiarized from the critically acclaimed South Korean film Oldboy.
The writing credits for this movie were shared between Sanjay Gupta and Suresh Nair.
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Encyclopedia
Zinda (Hindi: ?????, Urdu: ????, English: Alive) is a 2006 Bollywood film, starring Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham, Mahesh Manjrekar, Celina Jaitley and Lara Dutta. Zinda was directed by Sanjay Gupta, who previously directed Sanjay Dutt in the 2004 movie Musafir. The film's plot, characterization, and the majority of its scenes are plagiarized from the critically acclaimed South Korean film Oldboy.
The writing credits for this movie were shared between Sanjay Gupta and Suresh Nair. The music for the movie was composed by the popular Bollywood music director duo Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani (as Vishal-Shekhar). Background music was composed by Salil Chowdhury, son of late Sri Salil Chowdhury.
The movie was released in Indian cinema theatres on January 12 2006.
The movie is about a man, who has been imprisoned for 14 years, who has been released and has 4 days to figure out why he was imprisoned in the first place.
Synopsis
Balajeet Roy and his wife live a picture perfect life in Bangkok. Everything seems to be going for them, and then their world is turned upside down. Balajeet is kidnapped, and when he wakes up he is in a steel cell. Everyday plates of fried dumplings are pushed through a slot in the door; he sees no one, no one talks to him. He has nothing in his cell but a TV. Fourteen years of solitary confinement, and he doesn't have a clue why...and then one day, as suddenly as he was imprisoned, he is let loose. And he has four days to find out why.
Main cast
Accusations of plagiarism
The movie bears a striking resemblance to Park's South Korean movie Oldboy, both in terms of plot and individual scenes. Even the trailer taglines from Zinda were copied word-for-word from Oldboy's. A public relations person from "Show East" said:
"We're looking at the similarities between the two films, but since we don't have a final product we can judge, we'll just have to investigate a little more into what kind of relation the films will have. Since we never experienced something like this, we couldn't really set up a concrete plan. But if we find out there's indeed a strong similarity between the two, it looks like we'll have to talk with our lawyers."
In November 2005, the makers of Oldboy said that they may consider legal action. Oldboy producer ShowEast told the press that the only remake rights contract they ever signed was with Universal in the United States. Viewers, and possibly the courts, will have to decide if these differences are enough to render the film an homage rather than a copy.
Similarities
- Oldboy and Zinda both tell the story of a man imprisoned for a significant time (In Oldboy, 15 years; in Zinda, 14 years) for no known reason. He is then freed with no explanation and given several days (5 in Oldboy, 4 in Zinda) to discover the reason for his imprisonment.
- Both films use split screens to illustrate the passage of time within the cell, contrasting the protagonist's physical training with real life news broadcast on the cell's television set.
- In both films, music plays shortly before the cell is filled with gas that renders both men unconscious. They are gassed so that the cell can be maintained, and so that incriminating evidence (such as blood samples) can be taken for future use.
- In both Oldboy and Zinda, the protagonists are given a new suit and a cellular phone when they are released. Both men wake up inside a trunk, break free, and find themselves atop a building.
- The ringtone of the cell phone given to both characters is the same song that played whenever gas was released inside the cell.
- In both films, the imprisoned protagonist is fed a regular diet of fried dumplings. Later, he tracks down the specific Chinese restaurant (and consequently, the location of his prison) by going to several restaurants to find the exact same taste.
- In both movies, the lead character's signature weapon is a claw hammer. In both movies, the protagonist tortures the prison's owner by pulling out his teeth with the claw hammer until he is willing to divulge information about the antagonist.
- In both films, the protagonist single-handedly fights the guards inside the prison. Both characters are stabbed in the back, pretend to be dead, and then jump up to finish the fight. Both fight scenes are single-shots.
- Immediately following this fight scene in both films, the protagonist stumbles onto the street and is aided by a "Good Samaritan" who puts him into a taxicab and then introduces himself as the antagonist.
- In both films, the antagonist's lead bodyguard is a taciturn, white-haired man.
- In both films, the prison owner returns (sporting a mouth full of new gold teeth) and tries to take revenge on the protagonist by pulling out his teeth with the same hammer.
- In both films, the antagonist gases the protagonist and his love interest inside a motel room, where they lay after having sex. Wearing a gas mask, the antagonist lies down in bed beside them.
- In both films, the protagonist threatens to cut off the hand of the prison owner, in retaliation for groping his lover. The antagonist later delivers the man's severed hand inside a wrapped box, to let the protagonist know that he is being bugged and followed.
- In both films, the protagonist and the antagonist are graduates from the same high school. The protagonist was imprisoned as revenge for spreading rumors about the antagonist's sister, which apparently led to her suicide.
Differences
- In Oldboy, the antagonist Woo-jin seeks revenge on Oh Dae-su because he revealed Woo-jin's incestuous relationship with his sister to a friend, which led to the spread of rumors and the sister's suicide. In Zinda there is no incestuous relationship. Roy spreads rumours about taking the virginity of the most popular girl in his school; the rumors spread out of proportion and the young girl commits suicide. Her brother plots to avenge her death.
- In Oldboy, the antagonist takes revenge on the protagonist by manipulating him into having sex with his long-lost daughter. In Zinda, the antagonist plans to sell the protagonist's young daughter into prostitution, though he relents and lets her go.
- In Oldboy, Oh Dae-su is abducted off the street after a drunken night on the town. In Zinda, Balajeet Roy is abducted from the pier of his ocean-front home after dinner with his wife.
- In Oldboy, the love interest works as a sushi chef. In Zinda, she is a cab driver.
- In Oldboy, the protagonist trains in his cell by shadow-boxing. In Zinda, the protagonist teaches himself kenjutsu by watching Samurai films, and fights the antagonist's bodyguards with a real katana sword.
- In Oldboy, the antagonist's sister commits suicide by drowning. In Zinda, the sister commits self-immolation.
- In Oldboy, the protagonist cuts off his own tongue to appease the antagonist, so that he will not reveal the truth to the protagonist's lover/daughter. In Zinda, no such self-mutilation occurs.
- In Oldboy, the antagonist commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. In Zinda, he jumps to his death.
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