The highly rated American movie “Forrest Gump” was remade by India by purchasing the rights and has just recently gone online. It is basically a remake of 98% of the original as is, very faithful to the values conveyed by the original movie. The use of songs for transitions and lyricism in several places is a good localization advantage.
The American zeitgeist of Forrest Gump is shown in the remake version, replacing the American story with an Indian one. What is rare is that Aamir Khan shows the beautiful vision of friendly exchange between various religions in the movie, a pure Muslim as a Sikh, putting on a turban for himself seriously, recreating the Kargil conflict, and also filming the drama of an Indian rescuing a Pakistani and becoming a lifelong friend, just to appeal to the ideal of commonwealth he pursues, this kind of courage and pattern is admirable. But the brutal religious conflicts in Indian history are all over with “malaria”, but also because of this reason the rating on the Internet is not very high.
The chronological span of the story is from 1984, when Indira Gandhi was assassinated, to 2018, interspersed with the changes in India’s times over the past three decades.
Aamir Khan is an Indian national treasure actor, and the Indian film industry is once again convincing, with his 50s playing an 18-year-old college student with the help of special effects and make-up.
The original version of the core prop “chocolate” replaced by “fried ball”, the mother’s words of wisdom also replaced by: “life is like fried ball, although you can eat full, but your heart still want more “. If the original is about the unknown and possibilities of life, then this one is emphasizing the need to be content in life as well as cherish the present.
The only unfortunate point is that India’s many holes form the undercurrent of Asin’s life, but India is not America, and the universality of this undercurrent is therefore much lighter and seen more as a cultural and religious spectacle of a people. This adaptation is too modest, the background issues are too point and click, the portrayal of the characters therefore seems to be in order to simple and thin. The localization is quite successful, and therein lies the problem, trying to capture both ends wipes out the essence of the original film, less than the original version of Forrest Gump’s spirit of defiance and always moving forward. This film gives me the feeling that it only succeeded by all kinds of luck, less empathy in the people who made it.
Forrest Gump” type of story always feels like it has the brand of the era, it belongs more to that material life is not so rich, but people are willing to believe that good people have good reward, tomorrow will be better. The times are running, and Forrest Gump is running in the times. The significance of the remake may be to dissipate the country-specific nature of this kind of narrative, as well as to tell everyone in these years when shrewdness and style are increasingly prized, that once we prized the simplest and purest truth and beauty. The same story can happen in every country, and we are connected to a larger world far away.