MUSHY ROMANCES AND MELODRAMA
ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Hollywood is not short on melodrama and romances hijacked by class differences. Here are some that released in the Noughties:
Serendipity (2001)
A New Yorker (John Cusack) and a British woman (Kate Beckinsale) meet, fall in love and hope destiny will unite them after years because they are “meant to be”. Director Peter Chelsom keep the romantic confetti unbelievably and amusingly light.
Maid in Manhattan (2002)
Wayne Wang’s film has moments as schmaltzy as any bad Bollywood romance. A wealthy politician ( Ralph Fiennes) falls in love with a Mexican hotel maid ( Jennifer Lopez) living in the Bronx.
The Notebook (2004)
Nick Cassavetes’s romance set in the 1940s is the meeting and separation of rich girl Allie (Rachel McAdams) and poor boy Noah (Ryan Gosling). The screenplay plays heavily on fate, memory and a heightened sense of tragedy; the soundtrack plays heavy on piano and blues.
PS I Love You (2007)
Adapted from Cecilia Ahern’s bestseller, Richard LaGravenese directs Hillary Swank and Gerard Butler in this love story in which the tears never end as the heroine spends all the screen time being woefully in love with her dead husband.
Made of Honor (2008)
If Bollywood made Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998 about best friends falling in love, Hollywood made the charming My Best Friend’s Wedding a year before. A decade later came Made of Honor, directed by Rupert Greyson-Williams. With Michelle Monaghan and Patrick Dempsey in the lead roles, this is a happilyever-after with a hijacked “foreign location” wedding and fevered Bollywood pitch.
RISING IN THE EAST
Two films that Bollywood made first, and then similar takes followed in Hollywood:
A Common Man (2013)
An American-Sri Lankan production directed by Chandran Rutnam, this is an official remake of Neeraj Pandey superhit, A Wednesday (2008). Ben Kinsley plays the lead role of Naseeruddin Shah — repeating a role that Shah first played more than 30 years after he bagged the role of Gandhi that Shah auditioned for and almost got.
Delivery Man (2013)
Vince Vaughn headlines this comedy written and directed by Ken Scott, about a man who gets lucky after donating his sperm. It was a remake of Scott’s French-Canadian film Starbuck, but Bollywood’s Shoojit Sircar made the hugely successful comedy Vicky Donor a year before Delivery Man, with the same theme.
INSPIRED BY THE TITANIC
From 1912 to 2010, the RMS Titanic’s sinking has inspired numerous films and television dramas. Here are seven versions besides James Cameron’s blockbuster:
Saved from the Titanic (1912)
Dorothy Gibson starred in this film, the prints of which were lost because of studio fire. The same year, it also inspired a German and a French silent film.
Cavalcade (1933)
Based on a play by Noel Coward, the two main characters in the film sink with the Titanic.
Titanic (1943)
A Nazi propaganda film in which a German First Officer is portrayed as the hero of the ship and the British as the villains.
A Night to Remember (1958)
A British docu-drama is based on the iconic book by Walter Lord. This is considered the most well-researched, historically accurate version of the sinking.
Titanica (1992)
An IMAX documentary directed by Stephen Low, which features interview with two survivors.
The Legend of the Titanic (1999)
An Italian animated fantasy about the sinking of the RMS Titanic.
Titanic II (2010)
A luxury cruise liner named Titanic II takes off on its maiden voyage, and its fate seems to be that of its namesake which sank 100 years earlier.