Before 'Laal Singh Chaddha', watch these 8 great Hindi remakes of Hollywood movies

Sanjay Gupta's 2002 multi-starrer action-thriller 'Kaante' was 'inspired' by Quentin Tarantino's feature film debut 'Reservoir Dogs', which had released 10 years earlier. The story of 'Kaante', starring Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjay Dutt, Kumar Gaurav, Sunil Shetty, Lucky Ali, Mahesh Manjrekar, Namrata Singh Gujral, Rati Agnihotri, Rohit Roy, Isha Koppikar and Malaika Arora, had a group of  wrongly convicted men exacting vengeance on the police through a bank robbery. The original film also had as stellar cast, with names like Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Chris Penn, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Michael Madsen, Tarantino, and Edward Bunker. However, Tarantino himself has praised the film, saying it is one of the his favourite projects inspired by his work.
 

1997's 'Chachi 420' was a Hindi remake of 1996's Tamil film 'Avvai Shanmugi'. However, the latter was inspired by 'Mrs. Doubtfire', starring the great comedian-actor Robin Williams. In 'Chachi 420', Kamal Haasan's character impersonates a woman to get close to his only child from his separated wife. Situation becomes awkward (and comedic) when the father-in-law, played by late Amrish Puri, falls in love with his son-in-law.
 

The classic 1965 Bollywood mystery film, starring acclaimed actors like Manoj Kumar, Nanda, Pran, Helen and Mehmood, was actually 'inspired' heavily by 1945's 'And Then There Were None', an adaptation of the iconic 1939 Agatha Christie novel of the same name, perhaps one of her best works. There were the usual variations like the presences of songs and melodrama, of course.
 

With 2005's 'Sarkar', Ram Gopal Varma made a film that shared numerous similarities with one of the greatest Hollywood films of all time, 1972's 'The Godfather'. The film, to its credit, was pretty watchable even if you had seen the original and its solid cast -- Amitabh and Abhishek Bachchan, along with Kay Kay Menon, Katrina Kaif, Tanisha Mukherjee, Supriya Pathak, Kota Srinivasa Rao, and Anupam Kher -- did wonders. 
 

Raj N. Sippy's 1982 film 'Satte Pe Satta' was a remake of the iconic 1954 musical film called 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' directed by Stanley Donen. Unlike most others in the list, 'Satte Pe Satta' was closely followed the plot laid out by the original. Just like 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers', there is a woman in the film (Indu, played by Hema Malini), who gets an unpleasant surprise when she realises she will have to take care of not just her new husband in his home, but his six rowdy brothers. Obvious sexism aside, the film is pretty entertaining to watch even today.
 

1962's 'The Miracle Worker' was a biopic of (real) American teacher Anne Sullivan, who tutored Helen Keller, a blind and deaf child. Due to her impairments, Helen was an unruly child and prone to tantrums. Sullivan surprised everyone by helping Keller communicate ideas through persistence and love. In Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Black', Amitabh Bachchan played the role of Debraj Sahai who gets under his care Michelle McNally (Rani Mukerji as adult and Ayesha Kapur as child), Keller's stand-in. The film was surprisingly good, and was served nicely by the performances of Big B, Rani and Ayesha.
 

'Life In A...Metro' - 'The Apartment'

If you have not seen Rob Reiner's 'A Few Good Men', you will enjoy 'Shaurya'. It has great acting given by accomplished performers and a good script. But if you have seen 'A Few Good Men', written by the great Aaron Sorkin, probably skip 'Shaurya'. It then becomes a pale imitation. I had not seen the original film when I saw 'Shaurya' so I did enjoy it, but once you have experiences Sorkin's writing, it is hard to go back.