Tollywood stars of late are getting fascinated with the remakes more than ever so due to the lockdown. Many more remakes are in the offing with Venkatesh starring in Drushyam 2, Chiranjeevi starring in Lucifer, Vedhalam, Veeram remakes, and Bellamkonda Srinivas starring in Karnan remake to name a few.
Recently Pawan Kalyan starred in Bollywood hit Pink remake Vakeel Saab while Venkatesh starred in Kollywood hit Asuran remake Narappa. Many felt that both the remakes did not do well in Tollywood. However, one shouldn't be prejudiced while passing any judgment. Let us see what worked and what did not for Vakeel Saab and Narappa.
It is known that Pawan Kalyan starred in the Pink remake and reprised the role of Big B Amitabh Bachchan who showed his power in a subtle manner. Reprising the role of Amitabh Bachchan is not that easy. Similarly, Venkatesh reprised the role of Dhanush in Asuran and since Dhanush won a national award for his performance, it is difficult for anyone to reprise that performance.
What worked for Vakeel Saab is the makers made many changes to elevate the heroism of Pawan Kalyan. Unlike in the original, where Amitabh makes an entry only during the interval, Pawan makes his entry within ten minutes. The makers included powerful dialogues and high-octane action scenes for Pawan Kalyan. The courtroom scenes also gave goosebumps to the movie lovers. All this helped Vakeel Saab show power at the box office.
What did not work out for Vakeel Saab is the flashback and especially Shruti Haasan's fits scene which looked like a comedy. Courtroom scenes also created more drama rather than investigative arguments. The elevation of heroism diluted the problems faced by women to some extent. Despite all this, Vakeel Saab showed its power at the box office before coronavirus ended it abruptly. Even now the film is making its presence felt in Amazon Prime Video.
Coming to Narappa, Venkatesh came with a spirited performance and this worked out for the film. The makers did not make any changes and this is worked out to some extent. What however did not work out for Narappa is they diluted the caste angle completely to stay away from controversies. It is known that Asuran is based on the novel which highlighted the caste angle and diluting it is a gross injustice to the plot itself. Scene to scene copy paste including the BGM, costumes, etc did not go down well with the viewers. To the top of it, Venkatesh sporting ironed clothes in the flashback also looked far from reality and the same is the case with him romancing Ammu Abhirami. For all the flaws in the remake versions, Vakeel Saab emerged as the winner while Narappa disappoints as a loser.