In this weekly column, Reel Retake, we compare the original film and its remake. In addition to highlighting similarities, differences and measuring them on the scale of success, we aim to discover the potential in the story that inspired the idea for a new version and the way a remake could possibly provide a different viewing experience. could. And if so, analyze the movie.
In focus this week is Marathi drama Mala Aai Whychi and its Telugu and Hindi remakes Welcome Obama and Mimi.
What is Mala i Whachi about?
Mary (Stacey B) comes to India in search of a surrogate mother. She finalizes Yashoda (Urmila Kanetkar) to give birth to her child, seeing that he is healthy and well-experienced. Meanwhile, we learn that Yashoda is already Surekha’s mother, who is physically challenged and is living separately in a care facility. Yashoda needs money for the proper treatment of her daughter and a deal is made. She becomes a surrogate for Mary and becomes pregnant. Mary’s life is now tied to Yashoda for nine months, during which she learns that the child she is carrying may be deformed. Fearing that she would have to raise a child who was not completely healthy and healthy, Mary abandoned Yashoda during the last stages of her pregnancy and fled abroad. She also tells that Yashoda drops the child in an orphanage and gives her some money for it. Yashoda refuses and is left with another child to take care of.
Fortunately, Krishna is born healthy. Since she has blonde hair and a white face, many people in the village treat her differently. Years pass and Krishna and Yashoda form a close bond. He talks about the airplane and Yashoda secretly knows that she cannot fulfill his dreams.
Miles away, Mary learns that her son was born healthy. Now, she decides to bring him back with her. Back in India, she confronts Yashoda after years of being pregnant and lays her claim on the child. Yashoda refused to part with Krishna.
Then who has the legal right over the child? The woman with whom there is a blood relation or the one who gave birth and raised him? Mala I Whychi (I Want to Be a Mother) ends as a realistic drama that invests in the legal and emotional aspects of relationships, motherhood and surrogacy practice.
Where does the potential lie?
Commercial surrogacy became quite popular in India after it was legalized in the early 2000s. This includes financially compensating the surrogate mother for carrying and delivering the child on someone else’s behalf. Fertility clinics started coming up and agents sought out poor women from rural areas in this practice. Many foreign couples would leave the surrogate halfway through the maternity period, leaving them with no legal recourse because the industry was unregulated and women, their bodies and choices were exploited. The agent had no responsibility and was running blindly after money. Mala I Whychi takes root in this context and creates a difficult drama about nature, nurture, and the legal rights of a mother and her surrogate.
The basic plot is suggestive and promising. The story brings out its various aspects – expectation, happiness, betrayal, loneliness, love and sacrifice – with nuances at every turn and is shot in a very simple manner. This allows the viewer to invest in the story and empathize with the surrogate mother and her helplessness. Amidst the struggles and emotional setbacks, Urmila Kanetkar bravely portrays the various aspects of motherhood. During pregnancy she stays away from the child but after the birth of Krishna, she starts taking control of herself. Whenever Yashoda faces a crisis, Urmila’s acting has depth and honesty and that makes the film heavy. It is Urmila who walks shoulder to shoulder during this rollercoaster ride and the camera captures her in different moods. The two scenes of her emotionally broken are stellar.
Mary is introduced from the start as a sly and selfish woman and it is not surprising when she leaves Yashoda and the child. Years later, when she returns to retrieve Krishna, we see Mary still acting impulsively. Stacy also adapts her character cleverly and her various colors are fun to watch and enjoy. At times it is funny to see how easily she gets detached from situations. Meanwhile, the child actor appears confused and calm in most of the scenes as he embodies the identity crisis his cross-cultural roots inflict on him.
Yashoda’s partner Ganpat (Vivek Raut) lightens the mood and adds humor to the film. He is also the expression of every Indian who gets astonished to see a ‘Gora’ (foreigner) and his way of living. In the latter, he shows emotional limits as things get serious.
As subtext, Mala i Whychi also comments on the class distinction between rich and poor, and in turn, West and East. The disparity is expressed in the scenes where Mary and Yashoda are living together in a village hut and are still far away. There are many scenes which clearly indicate how scarcity of resources gives rise to an environment of exploitation.
Two remakes – Welcome Obama and Mimi
In 2013, Mala Aai Whychi was remade in Telugu as Welcome Obama for the first time. Urmila revived her role as Yashoda. Veteran filmmaker Singitam Srinivasa Rao handles the load of this social drama with care. An additional track is introduced here in which Yashoda flees to the city with Krishna, fearing that Lucy (Rachel Lewis) will lubricate the police’s palms and use her influence to carry the child. In the city, a comedy track awaits which acts as a distraction from the main story. It also stretches the film a lot. The over-the-top humor additions don’t add value, but do take a detour from the serious nature of the story. A scene where Yashoda opens up to Ganpath near the water’s edge and agrees to let Krishna go in the hope of a better future is shot in a single take. It stands out in Welcome Obama as Urmila has piqued our interest in her selfless character Yashoda. How surrogates are duped and agents constantly exploited is more defined in Welcome Obama. The songs in the Telugu remake are definitely better, lighten the mood and have been shot beautifully.
Mimi released in 2021 and has been shot in digital format. It starts us off with a 2013 setting, but doesn’t turn out to be a film as set at that time. But it is easily forgotten as there are major crises in the performance and the script. It adopts the main story of a young woman agreeing to be a surrogate for a wealthy couple, but burdens herself with brash humor. Pankaj Tripathi as Bhanu is an additional character who is distracted by the word Go. Instead of honesty, Mimi is constantly traveling back and forth between sharp emotions, raucous humor and melodrama, rushing towards the end. It robs the story of its emotional essence and Kriti fails to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime performance opportunity. Mimi agrees to become a surrogate for money to fulfill her Bollywood dream, but her emotional attachment to the newborn is not justified in the progress of the story or how her vibrant character is portrayed. Plus, there’s a lot of chaos and no realism. AR Rahman’s music in the film is not the same as it was in the original.
success meter
Welcome Obama has its flaws but since Urmila knows the character she is playing, the flavor of the story remains intact. She even surpasses her original performance in some scenes. Mimi, on the other hand, is shallow in emotional range and Pankaj’s plain humorous effort doesn’t go well at all. The film has shifted from village to city but there is no novelty in the new setting. The Hindi version also downplays the angle of surrogacy, which is exploitation in the name of motherhood. Mimi could have done well with a better cast or simply stuck to the original screenplay and used the best parts of Mala I Whychi instead of basing herself on all the good parts.
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