Artist’s Date #18: Compare the original with the remake

Note: An Artist’s Date is taking some time during the week to do something that encourages creativity.

One of my favorite romantic comedies is French Kiss starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline. IMDb.com describes this movie as “A woman flies to France to confront her straying fiancé, but gets into trouble when the charming crook seated next to her uses her for smuggling.” I adore this movie because of the transformations of the characters and the very tightly focused storyline. (And the French setting isn’t so bad, either!)

When I found out that there was a Hindi film remake of French Kiss, I knew I had to see it. It’s called Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha and it has Kajol, one of my favorite Bollywood actresses. I wanted to see how they would reinterpret the material because I knew there were some scenes and plotlines they couldn’t use because of censor rules.

I almost quit watching the remake within the first five minutes. They made the heroine extremely clumsy and cause all sorts of accidents. I hate when they do that. But I stuck with it. Even during the first dance number which was on a plane during extreme turbulence. With a Michael Jackson lookalike doing the moonwalk. (Characters have a tendency to break out into song and dance in Bollywood movies. Although the MJ lookalike was unusual, even for a Bollywood song.)

They made some significant changes in the Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha movie. I didn’t like that they made it more about the hero than the heroine. One of the things I love about French Kiss is that the heroine goes through a journey where she’s scared and cautious and learns to live life without a safety net. That got lost in the Hindi remake.

And I won’t get into the over-the-top race to the airport. I know that is common in romantic comedies, but this one was really ridiculous.

However, I was surprised that I like some elements in the remake. I like that it was set in India and that the story spent more time developing the romance. As much as I adore the tightly written script of the original, I now realize that they could have done more.

My favorite French Kiss movie is still the original. I’ll watch that again. I may notice where they could have done more, but I will be grateful that Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline don’t have any song and dance numbers.