Tooth and Nail

The influence of Korean cinema on Bollywood aesthetics isn't matched by engagement with its deeper themes as scene after scene of seemingly vacuous violence testify, shorn of their original context

- Tatsam Mukherjee

RIGHT before the iconic bloodbath-on-corridor sequence in Park Chan-wook's Oldboy (2003), Dae-Su (Choi Min-sik) enters his captor's office, threatening to pull out a tooth for each of the 15 years he was held captive unless he's told who wanted him imprisoned. The truth comes out after the sixth tooth. Known for embracing the violence of the films he is 'inspired' by and making it his own—even Reservoir Dogs director Quentin Tarantino applauded the Mexican standoff in Kaante's (2002) climax, scored to Lucky Ali's 'Maut'—Sanjay Gupta replicated the teeth-on-keyboard image exactly in Zinda (2006), an unofficial remake, and didn't change a beat about the corridor fight either in the movie starring Sanjay Dutt. Gupta's initiatives inspired a slew of knockoffs: the Bhatts remade A Bittersweet Life (2005) into Awarapan (2007) and Chaser (2008) into Murder 2 (2011); Mohit Suri remade I Saw the Devil (2010) into Ek Villain (2014); My Sassy Girl (2006)was remade into Ugly Aur Pagli (2008), and Man from Nowhere (2012) into Rocky Handsome (2016). The ultra-violent action and actors' pronounced theatricality in Korea's slick thrillers struck a chord in Bollywood years before the K-Pop wave and its fan armies.