Joker – Another Inspired Bollywood Product?

Those of you have been to the cinemas to watch Cocktail, I don’t need to introduce Joker. But for the ones who did not, here’s what the trailers revealed. Okay, firstly I’ll talk about the poster. The poster-look adorned by Joker is a strikingly visible amalgamation of Lagaan, Koi Mil Gaya and a few Hollywood movies like Extra Terrestrial. That is not even mentioning the poses in the poster that have been time and again used in both Hollywood and Bollywood, let us not go into other foreign film industries because we might just lose all hope and sit brooding over intellectual plagiarism all day long. Before you decide to term me as a perpetual hater of present Hindi films, I’ll just show you why movie goers should seriously doubt the originality of Joker.

For the ones who are not yet familiar with this film, I’ll introduce you to this movie. Joker has been directed by Shirish Kunder. Yes, you guessed it right. This , actually, is his second venture, the first one being Jaan-E-Mann. The writers’ credits for Joker go to a group of people whom Kunder has not yet brought to public glare. But one cannot miss to notice how similar the storyline is to that of the 2002 movie, Signs , directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Aliens, crop cycles and a group of villagers. As if aping the west was not enough, Joker borrows almost its center plot from Swades. Yes, the Shah Rukh Khan movie released in 2004 under the direction of Ashutosh Gowarikar. The protagonist, Akshay, is a NASA employee who returns to India. Seems an awful lot like Mohan Bhargav from Swades? Plus, the green aliens from Signs probably did not please the crew, hence they borrowed some art from the 1982 Steven Spielberg classic, The Extra-Terrestrial. Some rumors have been going around in the critical circuit that says probably the movie has borrowed some sub plots dealing with Independency of India from the Colonial rule that had been extended all over the land by the British Raj, from a Bengali film named Bhooter Bhobishyot which was released on 14th March 2012 under the direction of Anik Dutta.

As if all the personal lives crashing into the professional corridors of the celebrities was not enough, now film makers have to bend to the extent of borrowing so much from other films, that even this is generating publicity for their ventures. I guess it is too early to judge what Joker will be all about. But for Bollywood fans, it is very demoralizing to learn how the first trailer of “Joker” shouts out “thief” !