| Zinda | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Sanjay Gupta |
| Produced by | Sanjay Gupta |
| Screenplay by | Sanjay Gupta Suresh Nair |
| Starring | Sanjay Dutt John Abraham Lara Dutta Celina Jaitley |
| Music by | Vishal-Shekhar Nikhil Chinapa Dj Nawed Kinky Ronald Strings |
| Cinematography | Sanjay F. Gupta |
| Editing by | Bunty Nagi |
| Release date(s) | January 12, 2006 |
| Country | India |
| Language | Hindi |
Zinda (Hindi: जिंदा, Urdu: زندہ, translation: Alive) is a 2006 Bollywood film, starring Sanjay Dutt, John Abraham, and Lara Dutta. Zinda was directed by Sanjay Gupta and written by Gupta and Suresh Nair. Vishal-Shekhar composed the film's thematic music, with background music composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury. Pakistani band Strings sung one of the film songs which became quite popular. It was released in India on January 12, 2006, to mixed reviews, but it failed at the box office.
It is a Remake of South Korean film Oldboy. Show East, the producers of Oldboy, initially expressed legal concerns but took no legal action as the studio had shut down.[1]
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The film is about a rich man, Balajeet "Bala" Roy (Sanjay Dutt), who lives a blissful life with his beautiful wife, Nisha Roy (Celina Jaitley). They are expectng their first child. One day, Bala is suddenly captured for an unknown reason and kept alive in a cell for 14 years without knowing who are his captives and the reason behind it. He aims to break out, take revenge for himself and his killed wife and child and find who did it and why.
The film received mixed reviews from critics, although the performance of Sanjay Dutt was well appreciated.
Nikhil Kumar of Apunkachoice.com gave the film 0.5/5 stars saying "Sanjay Gupta's movie 'Zinda' works primarily because of its gripping, although unoriginal, story and a noteworthy acting performance by its frontman Sanjay Dutt".[2]
Bollywood Mantra praised the film giving it 3 stars and said, "'Zinda' is a film that appears to be darkest movie ever by Sanjay Gupta. A hard hitting flick shot in Bangkok, it tells you a story never told before on Indian screen. And to make Sanjay Gupta's imagination come alive, who else but Sanjay Dutt is roped in to play the lead role. One of the most challenging roles ever by the deadly Dutt, it is sure to haunt you long after the screening is over". [3]
Subhash K Jha of Santabanta.com gave it 2.5/5 and stated that "the film belongs to Sanjay Dutt.... If the adventure-action genre in Hindi cinema needed a wake-up call, this is it".[4]
Futuremovies.com gave the film 6/10 stating sheer disappointment from the movie because of its unoriginality but said, "Technically and style-wise Zinda is flawless" and praised the performance of Dutt and Abraham saying "it is probably the pinnacle of his career (Dutt's)".[5]
Narbir Gosal of PlanetBollywood.com gave the film a rating of 7.5/10 praising the performace of Sanjay Dutt and John Abraham whilst criticizing the fact that a lot of the dialogues and story was copied from Oldboy.
On PlanetBollyoowd.com, the film has received an public rating average of 5.2/10 from over 300 reviews, which is generally in favour of the movie.[6]
On IMBD.com, the movie has 4.7/10 from over 1500 users which is also generally in its favour. [7]
Altough it was well received by a number of critics, it failed to do well commercially. According to Boxoffice-india it had an average opening but couldn't live up to its expectations grossing only a low Rs.10 Crores and was declared a flop. [8]
At a November 2005 press conference, Show East stated expressed concern that the film was similar to its film, Oldboy, and it was investigating the similarities, noting that at the time, they did not have the final version of Zinda available to compare it with. They stated that if they found there was "strong similarity between the two [films]", they would be contacting their lawyers."[9]
The Hindu reviewer Sudhish Kamath and Planet Bollywood reviewer Narbir Gosal both note in their reviews of Zinda that they found the two films to be very similar in terms of plot, as well as in the depiction of specific scenes.[10][11][12]