Zinda

Bollywood should NEVER try to be as ambitious to tackle films like Oldboy. Indian morality eventually gets in the way. Such attempts are cringeworthy. Do not bother watching Zinda unless you like talentless 'eye candy' type films. Watch the original instead. What is it with Bollywood anyway? They shamelessly copy from oriental cinema/Hollywood and try to pass it off as their own. You can't help but feel disappointed. It was a massacre of the cultish Oldboy. You have to have a strong stomach to stomach some of the things that happen in Oldboy. Its like Bollywood was sugar coating the themes in Oldboy and what do you end up with? A version which your granny can watch with you without feeling too offended. If that was the case then Zinda should never have been made. Well it shouldn't have!

I've read the user comments on this forum and found a blithe lack of concern in many of the posts for the fact that 'Zinda' is a total ripoff. Here are some telling examples, along with my own not-very-profound responses. I trust I need do no more than that to make my point:

"It is unfortunate that bollywood ripped off OLDBOY, but if that is the only way that the Indian audiences would get a glimpse of what the original was like, so be it" (Huh? Ever hear of buying the rights to do an official remake?)

"I am reading the reviews of OLD Boy too, which i have not seen. But I should say that it is a great experiment by Indian cinema" (Yeah, a repeat experiment -- like where somebody else first came up with the ideas and took the risks before you came along and decided to do the exact same thing)

"The legendary action-scene with the hammer looks as hard as it was in Korean version". (the Korean version? Almost makes it sound like 'Oldboy' ripped off 'Zinda')

"First things first , i haven't seen Old Boy so just cant judge Zinda by it's standard... He did full justice to the role of Balajeet Roy(on par with Choi Min-shik" (So you haven't seen 'Oldboy', but you HAVE seen Choi Min-Shik's performance in it? Do the police come to you for psychic impressions when they run out of clues?)

(And what does this mean): "There is no doubt that 'ZINDA' is a complete rip-off of Korean movie 'OLDBOY' but I must add that it is an excellent adaptation of 'OLDBOY'".

--And I won't spoil the pristine effect of these following remarks by adding my own commentaries:

"Hollywood is also planning a rip of this one, so what's the fuss all about"

"People tell me that this movie is inspired/copied or total remake of a Korean masterpiece "OldBoy"; but I don't mind it"

"Yes agreed that he copies other films scene by scene, but who doesn't? Why is he called a copycat, when i can add a long list of other copycats? Take Ek Ajnabee - which was an exact copy of Man On Fire, or Vivek Agnihotri for Chocolate - which was a ridiculous version of the classic 'The Usual Suspects'. At least Sanjay Gupta makes a good replica of a film"

"Copy of old boy backed up with Sanjay direction makes it truly a ride you will never forget".

"The story may be inspired from a Korean film, or so we are told, but is doesn't matter because no one's really seen it".

It's heavy violence. My major concern is why Bangkok? Bangkok seems to me a beautiful city, however, it's not at all captured like one here. It's ultra dark, highly gloomy and completely violent with mostly everyone in the city seem murderers (gunda log hai re baba). The movie starts well, doesn't feel it's gonna be heavy crime material. It does well to make it feel like horror after the first 10 minutes. John and Sanjay are decent, everyone else have been a disappointment. Although Lara was good, she doesn't justify her character why she's been dragged till the end, maybe just needed a female out there most of the time to make the audience glue the seats. Unnecessary. The locations are the worst part. Very gloomy, dark, and disturbing. Would rather suggest a better movie to watch. The story, too, gets complicated towards the later stages disrespecting the original one. Girls and all the ladies reading me, should have such behaviour by any men stopped right there. The more they let it go, they make them closer to the target who is you. Take the step before it's too late, do not fear. However, you're lucky since I'm sure you don't hace such brutal men around you. Most of the men are good, earthly, and highly respectful, few bad apples do not make the whole lot of men bad. Must respect the men too, because men really do.

... I totally agree with the previous comments, how can someone copy shameless a good movie AND took out the best scenes and best story elements? Oldboy is definitely one of the best movies (that's why it's good story copied that often), but when I try to copy something than I try to IMPROVE the copy, not to omit the best things! I'm sure the good voting only were given by people who didn't see the original movie.

Please watch Oldboy - you will not waste your time. I really don't understand this Bollywood "Hype", bad actors, bad cinematography and a copied or other well known story - it's always the same. Finally I only recommend you to spend this 116 minutes of your valueable life with other things than watching this movie!

The only reason this movie ended up with more as 1 star is because some hardcore nationalist bollywood lovers didn't write honest reviews. Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against remakes nor bollywood, but this is just uninspired crap. I like any kind of movies. But movies ought to be made by people who enjoy making them, they should be skilled. Willing to put effort in making a good movie. This guy is allowed to make movies because he is from a rich influential family.

Sanjay Gupta must be one of the least talented directors these days. None of his work is original and all of his movies are cheap copies. this is the same, he saw a movie. Liked it, but just didn't understand it. it doesn't even come close to the original. Everything is just worse as the original oldboy. Camera work, story (that doesn't work out anymore) de fighting is lame, making it not offending for the Indian audience by cutting out the incest totally destroyed the story. The actor had to be a pretty face, too bad he didn't have acting skills with it. This untalented director shouldn't even be allowed to sell pop-corn in a cinema. Too bad mom and dad had money.

Its a direct insult to the real oldboy, and Sanjay didn't even pay for the rights to rip it. Please don't watch it, get oldboy instead. This one will only make you vomit