Yet Another Godfather Remake

Like me, if any of you watch ETV Bangla in your homes, you must be watching this new tele-serial "Dhoop Chhaya" or "Sun and Shade" the latest remake of "The Godfather". Since Francis Ford Coppola made his classic mafia-gangster movie trilogy and created film making history, there has been several attempts to make films inspired by these great classics. Ram Gopal Verma made his Sarkar and Sarkar Raj adapted directly from the Coppola classics with the Bachchan father son duo - Amitabh and Abhishek. And now ETV Bangla is doing their share - "Dhoop Chhaya" a new tele-serial directed by Debangshu Sengupta and produced by Atanu Roy.
The story revolves around the mafia family of Raghuram Pathak (Don) whose hot headed son Uday Pathak (Sonny) and the more refined Parashar Pathak (Michael) rule the Kolkata underworld. The opening episode looked so much like that of the opening sequence of Godfather (I) that I expected to see a shot by shot remake. The serial even has the family counsel Tom Hagen's (Robert Duvall) character is played in this serial by Saswato Chatterjee. However, the serial has now taken its own twists and turns, and like most serials, the believability of these plot twists are questionable. But overall, the serial has the intensity to keep the viewers glued to the screen. The acting overall is at par and in some instances, quite good.
Another positive aspect of this serial is the presence of some fresh new faces. It often becomes tiring to see the same faces in all serials. Sometimes it becomes difficult to figure out what serial is on - the same actors acting out similar characters in similar story lines. It seems the actors are not at all concerned about over exposure and how it can damage their career as well as the viewership of these serials. Kolkata never lacked in acting talent and we the viewers would like to see fresh talent on our screens. I hope the producers will take notice of this issue.

The Godfather - Mafia Classic That Never Gets Old

Movie details:
Title: "The Godfather"
Actors: M. Brando, Al Pacino, J. Caan, J. Cazale, R. Duvall, D. Keaton, S. Hayden and others
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenwriters: Francis F. Coppola and Mario Puzo
Produced by: Albert S. Ruddy
Movie type: Crime
Time counter: 175 minutes
Year released: 1972
Budget: ~6 000 0000 $
Earnings worldwide: ~300 000 000 $
I guess it is really hard to find any movie fan that does not know Francis Coppolas`s masterpiece "The Godfather". First of all I must admit that mafia movies are my favorite ones. I love them! "The Godfather" is classics that must be seen and learn from. I have seen this title dozens of time and it is never gets old. Like old wine, just getting better and better over time. . .
The movie starts as head of a New York Mafia family don Vito Corleone oversees his beloved daughter's Connie Corleone wedding to Carlo Rizzi. Music, dancing and singing is all over the place. The only thing that troubles feast is police spying on colorful crowd. Vito Corleone`s youngest son Michael just come home from the world war II and is not intended to become part of his father's "dirty" business. Vito Corleone is aging and subconsciously is looking for strong leader to continue family business. Through Michael's hard and unpredictable life movie shows us the secrets of the family shady "business".
The big "Business" of the family is like don Vito Corleone - gentle and generous to those who give respect and devotion, but ruthless and violent whenever anything stands against well-being of the family. Old don lives his life in the way of the old country does, but times are changing very quickly and many so called "friends" or family members don't want to follow the old way. Rising rival of the Corleone family is thinking to start business of selling drugs in New York and needs the old Don's influence to develop further his plan. The confrontation of the Vito`s vanishing old world family values and the new ways of "doing business" will take its price. Great deal of this price will hit Michael and his peaceful life.
To be short - all of Michael's family is involved with the mafia business but Michael wants to live a normal life and keep distance from family business. At the same time drug dealer Virgil Sollozzo is looking for all Mafia families support to offer him protection in exchange for a profit from the drug money business. He also trying to approach old Don Corleone about this idea but, much despite the "reasonable" advice of the old Don's lawyer Tom Hagen, the old Don is completely against the taste of drugs in family business, and drops down the offer. As you can imagine this incomprehensible decision will not please drug dealer Sollozzo. Old don Vito Corleone gets shot down by some of Sollozzo loyal men. Don Vito by chance survives murder attempt and this forces his son Michael to change his life forever by beginning a violent gangster war against drug boss Sollozzo.

The Godfather - Review

Often a film is made to fit a genre but it is rare that a film defines the criterion of a genre. 'The Godfather' is one such gem of a movie that defined another genre of its time, 'gangster movies'. The film was released in 1972 and bagged ten Academy Award nominations and was named the 'Best Picture'. Since that time, all gangster movies has been compared with this one, an unfair comparison as it may seem to be.
If 'The Godfather' was just about carrying a gun and shooting people around, it would never have become the epic of gangster movies. One factor that sets this movie on a higher pedestal than all others that were made before it and after it, was its success in interweaving, the often disconnected stories as a cohesive whole. All the issues covered by this movie are strong enough to individually become the foundation. However, they have been so well glued together that they resonate with each other. The movie has a series of climaxes which all build themselves into one devastating conclusion.
One example of a film telling many diverse stories was 'Pulp Fiction' but there were only three stories in this movie whereas, The Godfather has so many interconnected stories that it is impossible to even think that they may have a link somewhere. The Godfather's success is not only its strong script but the amazing performances by the actors who just dissolve into the characters under the solid direction by Coppola plays the biggest role in its blasting the box office records.
In not so many words, a must watch.