(The below post is based on a tip from Satya, a regular reader of the SearchIndia.com blog. Thanks.)
The thieving scumbags of the Tamil movie industry have done it again – they have stolen a nice Hollywood movie called Judgment Night (1993, Director: Stephen Hopkins), made a few cosmetic changes and called it Saroja.
First we watched Saroja.
Then we got the DVD of Judgment Night from Netflix and watched it.
Now, there’s not a shred of doubt in our minds that Saroja is nothing but an outright theft of Judgment Night.
The stories are very similar – four friends are off to watch a sporting event, take a wrong turn on the highway, witness a murder by a bunch of criminals, get chased by the gang of vicious killers and finally manage to escape after killing the bad guys.
Looking for similarities between the two movies? There are plenty…Here you go:
* In both movies, four friends set off in an RV (called caravan in India) to watch a game. In Judgment Night it’s a boxing bout…in Saroja, the friends are off to see a cricket match.
* In both movies, out of the four friends two are brothers.
* In both movies, one of the friends is married and has a daughter.
* In both movies, the RV/Caravan gets stuck in traffic on the highway.
* In both movies, the friends reverse the RV/Caravan and try to take a short-cut that leads them into deadly trouble.
* In both movies, the RV/Caravan hits a man forcing them to stop and take the injured man inside.
* In both movies, the injured man is found to have been already shot by someone else.
* In both movies, the RV/Caravan is side-swiped by a car immobilizing it.
* In both movies, the injured man is shot dead by the gang of criminals.
* In both movies, the criminals try to kill the young friends because they are witness to the murder of the injured man.
* In both movies, there’s a long cat and mouse game in the dark in which the friends kill the bad guys one by one.
Minor Differences
One of the friends is killed in Judgment Night and in Saroja there’s the kidnapping angle.
But the crux of the story is on trying to kill the friends in the dark of the night and how they manage to escape.
Major Difference
Judgment Night is a much, much better movie in terms of execution and performance by the lead actors compared to Saroja.
There are some nice lines too in Judgment Night:
One of the criminals tells the friends hiding in fear in a rail wagon – What’s that? You guys wearing cologne or is that fear.
In another instance, in a run-down apartment complex where the friends are hiding and waiting for the cops to arrive one lady tells them: Down here, people die of old age waiting for the cops.
Venkat Prabhu – Lying Swine
Saroja director Venkat Prabhu has a new name Thirutu Nai (stealing mongrel) for stealing an Hollywood movie outright and pretending that it’s original.
In an interview, this thieving director Venkat Prabhu said:
Saroja vakku endha Hollywood padathaku endhamaadari sambandam kadayadhu. Adha thaan unmayana vishayam….namma panna kadhe thaa (There’s no connection of any kind between Saroja and any Hollywood movie. That’s the absolute truth….This is our original story)
Not only has this lying swine stolen the story from Judgment Night, he tries the slimy trick of introducing a red herring in interviews by claiming to have been inspired by Babel.
You don’t have to take our word for Venkat Prabhu’s thieving nature.
If you live in the U.S., you can easily borrow Judgment Night from Netflix or Blockbuster and decide for yourself.
Saroja – Outright Theft of Judgment Night added by SearchIndia.com on
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Pretty disappointing! 🙁 I don’t know about others, but I feel terribly cheated and disappointed when I find an excellent scene/story in an Indian film to be in some other Hollywood film which I may watch some other day! 🙁
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Really disgusting…this shameless stealing from successful Hollywood films by our unimaginative Tamil film-makers.
I mean to find that this scene is a poor copy from some Hollywood film.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We are not talking about copying a few scenes. This is theft of the entire movie.
Off-topic:How do you judge Al Pacino’s preformance in Donnie Brasco and Any Given Sunday and his recent films?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We watched Donnie Brasco in January 2007. Very nice…the final scenes involving Al Pacino were very moving (do you remember what he does?). He was good in that movie.
Hey Venkat.. hope you will read this blog. SL!MEBAG.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
When we encounter this kind of naked plagiarism, we tend to lose complete faith in the Tamil film industry (not that the Bollywood folks are any better).
OK! if it’s the same (of plagiarising) common thing they do all the time, why not we suggest them to copy movies like:
Transformers, Godzilla, Titanic, The Legend, Armageddon, Jurrasic Park, (the mega projects) or
at least, Sweeney Tood, Tom & Jerry….etc
…and to recreate it in someway close to the original.
Our association with SearchIndia for information is never going stop anytime sooner. Rather, it’s getting stronger and stronger with news items of such becomes a plenty.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: why not we suggest them to copy movies like: Transformers, Godzilla, Titanic, The Legend, Armageddon, Jurrasic Park, (the mega projects) or
at least, Sweeney Tood, Tom & Jerry
Now, now…don’t give these parasites in Kollywood ideas. They might sign up Ajith & Trisha for Swuniyum Todum (the Tamil version of Sweeney Todd). Well, that’ll be a different kind of horror show.
Swuniyum Todum – Hey! nice idea.
I would suggest T. Rajendran to play the lead role as Sweeny Todd and the wife Namitha (fitting figure for the seduction by the judge) and the lady in the bakery to be Nayanthara (her acting = the pies made with roaches and filth)
Cutting, chopping of course you don’t have to say anything. They’ll take “ARUWA” (the sickle) from the back of their shirts and do the job. Only problem is that the victims will not die silently. Instead, they would try to call home and spell out their last words.
What a nice picturisation! Don’t you think???
And of course there’s music as well. Songs to the tune of “Aiyyo pathikichchu” “Siriki sirichiwanda seena thanaa doy” “Poattu Thaakku” ….etc.
Oh! I’m getting energised here. I need an assistant director, please!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I need an assistant director, please!
Nayantara…since she knows the least bit of acting, she should be suitable as Asst. director for a Tamil movie.
This guy “WHEN-CAT-PROBE-WHO?” was lying in that interview. What a pathetic guy he is.
Is this what he studied in the US or UK? Why his parents are sending him to the west. To learn about the original materials to be copied?
We need a full search in the Tamil cinema’s history to investigate for more findings of copies presented as originals to general public who has enjoyed unknowingly hailing (some of) these guys as “Geniuses”.
Did I spelt it correctly…? or maybe it’s Genie-ass.
k
(this comment had nothing except the single letter k)
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Note to SearchIndia.com Readers:
Since the below comment by anandhh was originally in the wrong thread, SearchIndia.com has reproduced it along with our response.
oru director muneradhu some ppl stomach burning :X……lotz of diff btwn saroja nd judgement night…..they hv changd story mixing commercial elementz..even gajini copied frm memento hollywood muvi…nd even in hollywood muvi same copying thing happening ex: korean horror muvi remade again….nothing wrong in copying……copying is also diff talent..itz highly much difficult to make muvi lyk saroja…………….we can notice the hardwork they have done in saroja muvi…plz stop posting craps nd wrong nd [trash talk] reviewz..even i watch judgement night…lotz of differences in cinematography….nd guyz be proud tat venkat prabhu has taken tamil cinema into new heightz………………stop ur crap reviewz..worst review i have never seen in my life……..dont go nd sleep in theaterz watch full muvi ok….
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Above comment has been posted in wrong thread. It should have been posted in Saroja – Outright Theft of Judgment Night.
1. You write above: oru director muneradhu some ppl stomach burning
If you belong to the vertebrate species, if you have any cojones at all, we dare you to refute all the similarities we pointed out in our post – Saroja – Outright Theft of Judgment Night – between Judgment Night and Saroja.
Saroja is nothing but a shameless instance of theft by Venkat Prabhu.
Venkat Prabhu should beg forgiveness from the audience for stealing a Hollywood movie (Judgment Night, 1993) and fobbing it off as an original. In fact, he must refund the ticket money. And maybe, Venkat Prabhu should even go to Tirupati and get a mottai (shave his head off) for his sin of stealing, contact the producers of Judgment Night (JVC Entertainment and Largo Entertainment) and pay them a royalty and insert a notice that Saroja is inspired from Judgment Night.
2. You write above: nothing wrong in copying……copying is also diff talent..itz highly much difficult to make muvi lyk saroja
Nothing wrong in copying….copying is also different talent? Mundame, shaniyane is that how you passed all your exams.
If you feel copying is a legitimate technique of making movies, then ask Venkat Prabhu to confess that Saroja is a remake of Judgment Night.
Let that thief Venkat Prabhu not pretend that Saroja is original because it is not.
3. You write above: even i watch judgement night…lotz of differences in cinematography
Yeah, sure. Camera could be different, the years were different, 1993 for Judgment Night and 2008 for Saroja, the locations were different and the camera operators were surely different. Judgment Night had a camera operator called Krishna Rao (seriously, no kidding)…Saroja probably had a Rama Rao or Gopal Rao as camera operator. 🙂
You seem to belong to the homo idiot species (not referring to gays here, you dummkopf) that believes in the credo: Hurray, I have a keyboard, so I must type a nonsensical comment.
4. You write above: ….nd guyz be proud tat venkat prabhu has taken tamil cinema into new heightz
No, No, and No.
This scumbag Venkat Prabhu has actually taken Tamil cinema to a new low by shamelessly stealing a Hollywood movie and covering it up with blatant lies.
im highly disappointed with venkat prabu.it would have been good from his part if he had accepted it’s a remake.
plagiarism is really high in tamil film industry.but there are some exceptions-films i would like you to know and review-in which tamil films are at their best.
kattradhu tamil(2007)—jeeva—–ram
polladhavan(2007)——-dhanush—-vetri maaran
autograph(2004)———cheran—-cheran
thavamai thavamirundhu(2005)—-cheran–cheran
anbe sivam(2003)——-kamal hassan—sundar.C
johnny(1980)———–rajini—–mahendran
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: im highly disappointed with venkat prabu.it would have been good from his part if he had accepted it’s a remake.
So are we. Very disappointed.
Worse, this scumbag Venkat Prabhu is telling the world Saroja is an original work. What a shameless liar.
We are likely to get Anbe Sivam from Netflix on Monday. As for the other Tamil movies on your list, let’s see if Netflix has them.
ok guys….the ace director venkat prabhu s back with his nxt venture “GOA”…..i wonder wich holly movie he has chosen this time…..bt d sad news is the film s gonna b produced by ocher studios and walt disney…..may be a remake srry retake srry theft oh wateva of “chicken little”…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The sad part is that there’s not much outrage over the shameless theft this Thirutu Nai a.k.a. Venkat Prabhu has engaged in with Saroja.
Venkat Prabhu doesn’t care as he’s laughing all the way to the bank.
hi guys…. i have wonderful news. in fact a great discovery by me. here it goes.
1.”mozhi” is inspired from “children of a lesser god”. a lot of similarities. even the heroine is deaf and dumb. just watch and you will be shocked.
2.”roja” is inspired from an italian movie “sunflower”. in both movies, the heroine’s husband are kidnapped by terrorists and she struggles to rescue her husband.
3.”new” is inspired from hollywood movie “big”. just watch “big”.
4.”avvai shanmugi” is inspired from two movies: “mrs.doubtfire” and “tootsie”.
5.sivaji’s “pudhiya paravai” is inspired from “chase a crooked shadow”.
6.”thenali” is inspired from “what about bob”.
7.”panchathanthiram” is inspired from “very bad things”.
8. shankar’s “boys” is inspired from “hot bubblegum”.
9.”sathileelavathy” is inspired from “she devil”.
10.”anbe aaruyire” is inspired from two movies: “ghost” and “bruce almighty”.
11.”nayagan” inspired from francis ford coppola’s “the godfather” performed by marlon brando and al pacino. it was the shock of my life. i hate nayagan now.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Kiddo, where did you find all this stuff?
Thenali and What about Bob, we definitely agree.
2. We promise to watch the other movies you mention and provide a comparative picture soon.
We’ve seen Mozhi, Thenali, Roja and Nayagan in your list.