‘Kaminey’ to ‘Udta Punjab’: Bollywood Plots Inspired by Tarantino

On master filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s birthday, here’s a recap of Bollywood flicks inspired by his edgy craft.

Quentin Tarantino is the stuff trash dreams of. He is the filmmaker who has turned trash into art, with impolite movies that can send shivers down the spine of polite aesthetic, but excite the non-conformists within us. His deceitful plots show the middle finger to screenwriting rules, as do his well-oiled rambling dialogues that play out in real time. Tarantino, since his outburst into the movies, has created countless bastard children in world cinema, becoming one of the most influential directors of the medium. In a way, incalculable imitations have turned Tarantino into a genre, defined by a certain style and attitude, that embraces violence and irreverence in the same vein.

From the time Hindi cinema has discovered his genius, filmmakers, one after another, have tried to emulate the Tarantino-esque formula. On the filmmaker’s birthday, here’s looking at some of the little children of a lesser God.

Delhi Belly (2011)

Delhi Belly is one of those rare sporadic films that captured the politically incorrect attitude of the Indian youth, with a narrative flourish. With cuss words flying left, right and centre, the film had the vibe of a good student of Tarantino. The final shootout is an explicit homage to the shootout in True Romance (1993) in slow motion.

Revolver Rani (2014)

Revolver Rani was a series of sequences, brought together by its love for the brashness of Quentin Tarantino’s pulpy kitsch. Director Sai Kabir's visual stimulus was clearly Kill Bill (2003) and other violent excursions, but the end result couldn’t manage to come together like he intended to.

Tashan (2008)

Vijay Krishna Acharya’s Tashan had the pop-savvy attitude from Tarantino, but the gaudy colours of the anarchic criminals didn't quite land at the audience’s funny spot.

Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II (2003)

Shashanka Ghosh’s film acknowledged Quentin Tarantino as an inspiration among other filmmakers in the credits, and the film, like a true blue Tarantino offspring, had disparate characters coming together in the end.

Roy (2015)

Most directors love Tarantino’s style, but Vikramjit Singh went one step further in his fanboy-ism. He drew on the once-romantic relationship between Quentin Tarantino and Sofia Coppola to craft Kabir (Arjun Rampal) and Ayesha’s (Jacqueline Fernandez) romance in Roy.

Ek Chalis Ki Last Local (2007)

Sanjay Khanduri’s debut film had the unofficial blessing of guru Tarantino. Without moving too far away from the idealism of Hindi cinema, Ek Chalis Ki Last Local merged Tarantino’s violent aesthetic with wicked humour and pop-culture references. Khanduri pays clear homage to his master in two scenes, namely the one from Reservoir Dogs in which Mr. Blonde cuts off the policeman’s ear, and the other is the unforgettable shot of Marcellus getting bound and gagged in Pulp Fiction with a squeeze toy stuffed in his mouth.

Detective Bymokesh Bakshy (2015)

While adapting the great Bengali sleuth, director Dibakar Banerjee waited till the end to bring out his inner Tarantino. Alas, the trademark bloodbath created by knives and dagger, with music building to a crescendo, was completely out of sync with the rest of the film.

Kaminey (2009)

Vishal Bhardwaj has always been vocal about his love for Tarantino’s brand of cinema, and in Kaminey, it came out in full force. With twin Shahids on display, Bhardwaj successfully transported Tarantino’s cool quotient to the Mumbai underworld, displaying a certain internalisation, rare in the parlance of Hindi cinema. The climactic gunplay with all the players at one place, had the delight and style that Tarantino is so famous for. Since then, Bhardwaj’s films have developed the tendency to end in a collective hullaballoo.

Kill Dil (2014)

Shaad Ali's film wore its retro-cool influence on its sleeves, with its title referring to one of Tarantino’s popular films. “The quirky, dark edginess defined by Tarantino films has been picked by Shaad. The distinct flavour of the filmmaker will be noticed in Kill Dil,” said Ranveer Singh about the Bollywood-meets-Tarantino tryout. Did it work? History knows better.

Dedh Ishqiya (2014)

Abhishek Chaubey assisted Vishal Bhardwaj before graduating to become a director with Ishqiya. The film was restrained in its love for Tarantino but Dedh Ishqiya’s climax displayed full-blown love for the master, with a violence that relished itself with blood, dust and lust. Needless to say, the student imbibed well.

Udta Punjab (2016)

Like Chaubey’s previous two films, Udta Punjab too had disparate characters coming together to form a cohesion, with bullets spilling blood like a Tarantino pro.

Action Jackson (2014)

If Prabhudheva’s film borrowed from action films down south, it also showed ample affection for Tarantino's love for Asian cinema, right from the sliced credits. Fight scenes were topped with overused music, and vamps looked straight out from a Tarantino- Rodriguez film.

Bullet Raja (2013)

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Bullet Raja had gleeful violence, pulpy feelings, and the irreverence borrowed from the director of Pulp Fiction. How much Dhulia managed to stay on course is another discussion.

Kaante (2002)

Sanjay Gupta, who made a career out of plagiarizing foreign films, duplicated Tarantino’s breakout hit Reservoir Dogs to make Kaante. Interestingly, Tarantino absolved Gupta of plagiarism when he said in an interview, "I think it was fabulous. Of the many rip-offs (of Reservoir Dogs) I loved Hong Kong's Too Many Ways To Be No.1 and this one, Kaante. The best part is, you have Indian guys coming to the US and looting a US bank. How cool is that! I was truly honoured. And these guys are played by the legends of Bollywood." He thought Kaante offered more suppleness in its telling,

Here I am, watching a film that I’ve directed, and then it goes into each character’s background. And I’m like, ‘Whoa! For, I always write backgrounds and stuff and it always gets chopped off during the edit. And so I was amazed on seeing this. I felt, this isn’t Reservoir Dogs. But then it goes into the warehouse scene and I am like, ‘Wow, it’s back to Reservoir Dogs’. Isn’t it amazing!

Quentin Tarantino, Filmmaker

Quentin Tarantino also famously said once, “I steal from every single movie ever made.” Imitation is the best form of flattery, and nobody knows it better than him.

(The writer is a journalist and a screenwriter who believes in the insanity of words, in print or otherwise; he tweets @RanjibMazumder)