The Godfathers
The first time I watched Godfather, I didn’t get it completely, but was still blown away. The detailing in all the scenes, and the direction by Coppola was really good. In the opening scene, when Marlon Brando who plays Don Coreleone the Godfather, is sitting and talking to a guy that has come to him for help, so powerful. The acting was terrific, in fact, I would go as far as to say that it is the best performance by Brando, imho.
Although Al Pacino got great recognition for this role, this performance was still under-rated compared to his other roles that he was nominated for an oscar. He really stole the show. Of course, we have seen countless remakes of this movie now, but the original still endures. All these elements came together to create magic. Every supporting character, adds to the film, and builds such a textured tapestry.
The editing in the film by Dhikra Dugna was very crisp. No scene was too long or too short. Everything just flowed, and helped to convey the mood and pace of the film. At no time did I feel that I was watching a 3 hour long film. Of course, many Indian filmmakers have been inspired by The Godfather, earliest was Mani rathanm with Nayakan, which although based on a true story, was somewhat inspired by godfather. Mani Rathnam brought his own unique style to the film, and even managed to weave in some lilting Ilayaraja melodies to this film.
Of course, RGV also was inspired and he made two movies. Sarkar, the first one, follows closely to the original Godfather, but ramu’s camera angles, and Big B’s acting were really good. It was, dare I say (choti mooh badi baat), Big B’s finest performance. IN fact, i think it was better than Brando, although Brando is widely considered the god of acting. But something seems to have gone wrong in the sequel, Sarkar raj, because it was not that gripping. I wish RGV continues to give us movies like satya, and Company and Shiva (not the new one, the original), instead of all this crap he’s been making lately. But the promos of rann look really good, so maybe this will be a comeback.
Hopefully by then, the strike will be over, and it will be happy times at the mulitplex again. Till then, I guess I will just have to watch Godfather, Nayakan, Satya, and Sarkar over and over again. I hope these producers/exhibitors think about all the people in the industry it affects. Not just the stars.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
another film u left out was aatank hi aatank, as a remake of godfather.
Dharmatma (1975)
Nayakan (1987)
Dayavan (1988)
Agneepath(1990)
Aatank Hi Aatank (1995)
Thakshak (1999)
Sarkar (2005)
were all inspired or copied of the godfather
The opening scene in Sarkar, the hand closeups and other suggestive shots that build up to the revelation of the don would have been outdated even forty years ago.
In Godfather, Bonasera reveals what the goons did to his daughter only to the Don and we are left to imagine the horrendous act. But our Ramu bhaiyya needs it spelling out for our audience. Hey what to do, we are dumb.
And then came the moment in the scene which conditioned me against the rest of the film. Corleone reacts to the news with calm composure as a man in his position would. In contrast, our Sarkar gives the most tacky and overboard not to mention the cliche’d reaction ever. He reacts as if he’d never seen it coming, or never heard anything such in his life before. And to think he’s this Don who has seen it all by now. This is how Ramu introduces his prime protagonist.
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Don’t know how can anyone acknowledge Sarkar, especially after having seen and appreciated Godfather. It’s right in front of you people, can’t you see it? Comparing the two films is blasphemy.
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Sarkar did to Godfather what Aag did to Sholay. And Ramu walks away both the honors.
Godfather is an overrated movie.
Much of the delight of reading the book is not in the movie. Part one had Marlon Brando and James Caan who were the sole saving grace – rest was all ‘restrained acting’ which did not impress me. The movie was different in terms of capturing the details of the mob in a ‘european’ styled way. nothing much more could be read into it. I did not get it even now and it doesn’t draw me into watching it over and over again.
Nayagan on the other hand was a movie of one man bent on tilting the scale against the social injustices in his own way. He is no way as menacing as a Don vito corleone or Michael corleone. For taking such a unidimensionally politically correct character and creating a spell binding movie magic out of it, Mani and his team of wonder workers like PC and IR must be congratulated many more times.
;-)
wtf Dabba u suck man. I dont get you man. read your last post was k.
i apologize to everyone that read the above post.
I loved the above post dabba. It is a good primer to anyone who has not heard about Godfather.
Where did my crack pipe go?
Aah, there it is.
Is it a post or a page from a diary ??
Apologies. I get it now.
#7, VPJ – how is this a primer of Godfather? It barely speaks about the film. And the 5 sentences where it does are all meaningless platitudes. It is a terrible post – at least that’s my take of it. Let’s agree to disagree.
Dabba I accept your apology since I’ve now read it multiple times.
It is the building that blocks the blue blue sky. Sid, here’s your target for Monday morning.
shripriya, that’s your opinion. if you don’t like it, and think it’s so terrible, don’t read it. Why would you read it “multiple times”, cos as VPJ rightly points out, we have many readers that don’t know the connection between Godfather and many other movies. who is this sid?
@ amir – it’s ok to appreciate classics. i too love godfather, but to say other things are blasphemy, that’s going too far.
what about all the people that have not watched the original? do you think they care whether dayavan or sarkar was inspired or not? get off your high horse. This is passion for cinema. This is a platform for cinema lovers, not “your kind of cinema” lovers. we cater to all kinds of cinema. For everyone that has ever watched a movie, and liked it and liked it enough to talk about it.
I dont remember the number of times I slept off trying to complete a watch the Godfather.
however I have watched Nayakan close to 30 times, fully connected to it and hooked till the credits rolling to awesome music.
I question a very basic plot point of Godfather – Why did Al kill, for the sake of revenge??…and I have always been floored by the answer I get from myself…it doesn’t work for me in the film. I do not understand the sane man turning into a killer so early.
All the Indian copies are worse. Nayakan was different in the fact that it had not copied anything else other than the Don premise.
Sarkar was taken from Godfather but the Amitabh Don kept power with him right through and never relinquished it, just made way for his younger son as he was feeling a little old, thassit! There, the similarity ended with the original Godfather. After that it was all RGV and how he visioned people handling power.
This is the best article in PFC for a long time…
Ram, I’m curious to know exactly why you think so (”This is the best article in PFC for a long time…”)
r u fucking kidding me….lol u write like a imbecile…didnt expect this crapfest frm u man
Geeta..Sammy answered your question
Geez, folks, what’s with the fifth-grade name-calling? You try writing for a tough audience like this.
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Everyone in interested in film needs to visit The Godfather. However, some filmmakers who’ve been inspired by it have developed its more salient themes a lot further, so it’s harder for me to appreciate it as an icon. The Sopranos particularly seized my imagination as it plunged into the extreme depths of everyday familial stresses writ large. I can’t imagine a better, more lurid and truthful feeling mob drama than that.
D-uh..got it now Ram 8-|
Thats it . .this is my last visit to pfc. . Anurag doesnt write anymore . . .people slag off the godfather. . Others claim the dont ‘get it’ . . Cant take it anymore. .
Parting shot: to all those who didnt get it or fell asleep watching it or think the rip offs are better i really dont know what to say to you. . Maybe you are right. . After all whats so great about the most celebrated movie of all time? You , the readers and authors of pfc know much more than the professors, literary and film theorists, critics, anthropologists, sociologists etc. who have spent years dissecting the godfather and have the temerity, the audacity to call it a masterpiece(sarcasm alert)
bring on the nasty replies
Dabba,
A REQUEST-
can you please add that apology at the top of the post?
A RANDOM QUESTION-
are you a masochist?
@Badmash
Agneepath is much closer to Scarface rather than Godfather.
LOL. dabba u won!
@Amir, here we go with the self-loathing again. As a Westerner, I thought Sarkar was a good ‘inspired by not copied’ version of The Godfather.
Since I saw the movie again recently, I can tell you that your statement “And then came the moment in the scene which conditioned me against the rest of the film. Corleone reacts to the news with calm composure as a man in his position would. In contrast, our Sarkar gives the most tacky and overboard not to mention the cliche’d reaction ever. He reacts as if he’d never seen it coming, or never heard anything such in his life before. And to think he’s this Don who has seen it all by now. This is how Ramu introduces his prime protagonist.” That is completely false. Sarkar actually barely reacted to what he heard and motioned for the man to go with Chandar. The scene was not overdone and actually subtle.
Maybe you just did not like the movie but at least give a correct reasoning.
i agree tht sarkaar was a good film..but 2 compare marlon brando in godfather wid big b in sarkaar is 2 much…its funny..n its ridiculous.while marlon brando played his part (of a man who has his own take on morality,law,power…a man wid an air of authority but grounded.)so beautifully..it seemd effortless,as if he waz really vito corleone…on the other hand amitabh bachhan waz tryin so hard 2 portray d same thing tht it beame quite irritatin n hilarious..not once durin d whole movie waz i intimidated by big b.he just cudnt manage 2 give an image of a man who lives his life on his own terms…i wud dare 2 say it waz 1 of his worst performance.kay kay menon as santino blew me away.he waz so so good..even abhishek bachhan waz good….but not amitabh bachhan…not at all…he looked so comic in tht role.in d scene where he meets rashid,he tried 2 hard 2 look lethal(even put a tough guy look through out tht scene)…tht i cudnt help laughin like mad.n here u r sayin tht u think it waz his best performance n even that he waz better than marlon brando???i dnt kno whether 2 laugh or cry……..amitabh is a gr8 actor,no doubt that….but he is nowhere near in sarkar as compared 2 marlon brando in godfather
Lee,
Pl see the Bachchan’s introductory shot, and his reaction. I am sorry if that’s not fake, ill timed, overplayed and cliched then am obviously knocking on the wrong door.
and how could you bring up issue of self loathing if you are a Westerner? :-)
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Let’s admit, We Indians are not really creative, or at least have ceased to be. I think it’s something to do with our system of education. I read somewhere perhaps our academics encourage us to cram stuff instead think independently
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and some people actually sleep when they watch Godfather? WoW. How about it wakes you up if you are sleepy bro?
@Jaiganeshji, aapki Jai Ho!
Congatulations, man! You must be the only guy in the world who slept through Godfather.
And, guess what, congartulations again! You must be the only guy in the world who thinks a copy (Nayakan) is better than the original (Godfather)!
Now about Sarkar. To think that some people actually found it good! The only thing I remember from that mediocre film was the Govinda chant in the background. And I remember it because I hated it.
Amitabh has been one of my favourite actors, but sorry, he was no patch on Marlon Brando. Indeed, ever since he’s aged and started sporting a salt-n-pepper beard, he hasn’t impressed me anytime with his acting. He looks and acts the same in every damn film! I couldn’t stand him in Black (nor could I stand anybodyelse and anything in that stupid film). I laughed out loud to see him paired with Tabu in Cheeni Kum (another stupid film, so help you God, Balki, I dread your ‘Pa’).
There. Had to get all that out of my system. Feel great now.
whats the ass licking for ????? a real bore …
@ mohanlal
dude u got offended by jaigneshji’s not liking of the godfather
i think you shud request the government to pass a law to ban people who dont like godfather from speaking.
I can’t believe Dabba has written this piece. I am pretty sure someone’s hacked into his account and posted this one.
uhmm.. hmm.. no.. no.. It can’t be Dabba…
sreehari, thanks for keeping the faith.
This is not in jest.
I say again – I did not like the Godfather trilogy or whatever. However about mob movies- the one I love the most is ‘Good fellas’. Maybe it is based on true story that is why I like it. but an italian don not reacting to anything and no moments of impulse makes the ‘dons’ of God father a tad too uninteresting. I get the point of ‘he is insulted’ ‘ he finishes of the person who insulted and stood in the way of family in 20th reel’ that like asking me to wait that long for a reaction. It does not even come as a twist – it is a macabre sense of humour to ask everyone to wait for Michaels last act. The momentum that is shown in the initial scenes, the wonderful intro scene at Don’s daughter’s marriage is not there in between. There is a brief period of tension after Don’s hospitalization and Sonny’s murder. However when Calm and scheming Michael corleone takes over – it is not very easy to ask the eyelids to stay open for me. And that is ME – I accept that there are millions of fans all over for Godfather. But to say that that is the best we have accomplished in so many years of movie making and viewing is nothing but fanboy hype.
Musically speaking, Ennio morricone rules with his themes.
Yeah I know what you mean. I kinda miss Corleone lifting his lungi and killing his enemies by his “moment of impusle” farting as well. Oh and btw Nino Rota did the score and not Morricone.
with all the garlic in the diet he could have tried that route as well. :-)
My bad on the music thing. Nino rota it is – wonderful themes!!
“Who is this Dhikra Dugna”
Are talking here about the editors of Godfather (movie) here,below they are
William H. Reynolds,Peter Zinner,Marc Laub,Murray Solomon
Dhikra Dugna ???????????????????????????
@ ashwin
Just when I thought Jaiganesh was the only guy who slept through Godfather.
Whaddaya know! He’s got company.
So Jai Ho! & Congrats to you too, ashwin.
And heck no! Neither am I ‘offended’, as you say, nor do I wish to ‘request the government to pass a law to ban people who dont like godfather from speaking’.
I’m just a tad amused that there are people who hate a legendary movie like Godfather.
Apparently, I was wrong. There are such people. And before they start crawling out of the woodwork and spill on to this forum, maybe I should just get the hell outta here.
A thousand apologies to you, ashwin and jaiganesh. I leave the field clear for you guys. All the best. Go ahead and start a Godfather Hate Club.