

Indeed, the Rajesh Khanna-Nanda film has assumed a cult status. Now, if any copyright issues were to be raised over the plot premise of a man on the run who seeks shelter in the house of a duplicitous woman, it would amount to an exercise in futility. Incidentally, the screenplay of this nail-biter, starring the charismatic Joanne Woodward and Stuart Whitman, was based on a play by the South African-anchored author Monte Doyle. The Ittefaq of 1969 was, in fact, adapted from a successful Gujarati play Dhumas, which, in turn, was 'inspired', as they say, by the 1965 Hollywood film Signpost to Murder. Not surprisingly, then, the remake was backed officially by both Shah Rukh Khan's Red Chillies production house and Karan Johar's Dharma Productions.īy the way, did I say 'original version'? I need to qualify that. Chopra - Abhay and Kapil - believed they were in possession of an ideal property for a modestly-budgeted movie, which would appeal to the millennials unfamiliar with the original version featuring the then upcoming Rajesh Khanna and Nanda.ĭirector Abhay, and Kapil, who handled the production reins, have considerable goodwill in Bollywood. And, naturally, nostalgia-philes have raised the question: what was the compulsion behind the mangling of the golden oldie of the late '60s? The reviews have been mixed - ranging from the ecstatic to the lukewarm to the dismissive. Chopra-produced and Yash Chopra-directed Ittefaq (1969), which, according to trade accounts, has performed "reasonably well" at the ticket windows. But, the pre-release publicity campaign of the lately-released Ittefaq, toplining Sidharth Malhotra, Sonakshi Sinha and Akshaye Khanna, was kept low-key in a bid to curb any questions that could hint towards the guilty one.įortuitously, there have been no spoilers about this remake of the B.R.

Such pleas are no longer essential, it would seem. To safeguard the suspenseful ending, there was a time when newspaper advertisements would request plaintively, "Please do not reveal the ending." Immediately after the opening day of a movie whodunnit, the word is out on who committed the crime, and its motivation.
