Who payed the critics

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Zinda is a truly god-awful film. The only aspect of the film that is moderately well done is the music.It's no wonder that the rating of this film is 3.5 less than Oldboy. The film changes the original film's plot a bit, and made it worse. It is in no way reminiscent of the groundbreaking visual style of Oldboy, and even the fight scene was shot poorly, trying to capture just the hero, while Oldboy's legendary corridor fight scene has the camera moving just left or right, and looks surprisingly realistic. The film's ending in particular made the film look like a bad joke. Oldboy's climax, while devastating and powerful, was delivered with almost no dialogue (where Oh Dae-Su flips through an album and realizes Mi-do was his daughter). Zinda, on the other hand, has some incredibly poor dialogue. "If you kill me you won't know where your daughter is." "Tell me where my daughter is." I mean, seriously? That's responded with one of the worst scenes that can come to my mind. "She is getting FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO" followed by alternating shots of the protagonist and the antagonist. Sanjay Dutt an John Abraham did a very mediocre job at acting their respective roles.Personally, I feel that Oldboy shouldn't have been remade in the first place (I don't have too high hopes for the 2013 Hollywood remake either) but Bollywood screwed up big time by making this laughable attempt at a remake.

I believe there is no credit in copying a movie like the way Sanjay Gupta does.It is unethical on his part, and by seeing the movie I also feel a part of this crime.But in this part of the world ( i.e India) people hardly care,even songs are copied by the likes of Pritam and credit is never given.So, to comment on how the movie was , would be a way to validate what Sanjay Gupta has done.I can only say that Old Boy is a wonderful movie and is better than Zinda in every possible way.There are lots of goof ups in the movie,the fight scenes are not synchronized, the acting is below standard (particularly John Abraham).I feel except the title track nothing is good.

sanjay gupta is a known cult director in India. he became famous in a period which could be called transition phase for Mumbai film industry. Hollywood movies started to be released on a regular basis and most people came to know of actual Hollywood products. it is not worthwhile to go into details but sanjay gupta is a product of that transition. let me clarify something. i have seen almost all movies directed by sanjay gupta. i especially liked 'kante' and with this film his CULT personalty started to form. almost all of his movies are copies of Hollywood. 'Zinda' is different in two respects.first it is a copy of a Korean movie 'oldboy' which is refutes anyhow and second it is a clear example of how gifted he actually is. like me, most of the people didn't even know about 'oldboy' and were happy to know that he made these movies on his own.now that i have seen all the varieties of movies from every corner of the globe; i could say that he is nothing but a copier. 'zinda' was a worst attempt. acting is like sleeping pills. it seems that a bunch of school kids were given the DVD of the Korean movie and asked to make its Indian remake in shortest time possible and they came with 'zinda'. acting is poor because actors were not acting rather they were copying. it seems that during shooting, movie is played and all scenes are shot accordingly. cinematography has been done by Sanjay F. Gupta. he is a good cinematographer but you can't help it when you are asked to take shots from a particular angle only similar to the movie. 'zinda' is a good flick only if you have not seen the 'oldboy'.his earlier works are also copies like 'kante' whose first half is taken from 'usual suspects' while the later half is borrowed from ' reservoir dogs'. you can not blame him because he is making money only. i am sure sanjay gupta does not know even the basic of script writing.many reviews in this section claim that most of the Hollywood flicks are rip offs as well. well you must know the difference between the remakes and rip offs. a genuine attempt is never ignored even if it is a remake. but zinda is an example of solid frame by frame copy. what is the use of watching it in theater if you know how it will start and end.Mumbai film industry has a long history of copying from the Hollywood but there is very few examples like 'zinda'. there is one more movie 'bichhoo' starring Bobby deol which was also frame by frame copy of 'Leon'. now that Indian market is opening, let us hope that people would be more aware of all the current movies and would avoid watching same movie with 2 or more different set of actors.

Many have said this before, but I'm afraid I have to repeat the opinion on the account that a surprising many have decided that Zinda is worth of anything more than 1 star in IMDb. Zinda is a unscrupulous photocopy of the masterpiece Oldboy, and should be avoided, if not boycotted.Some will claim that Zinda is a 'tribute' or a 'remake' of the Oldboy. To them I ask one question: "What kind of filmmakers make remakes of a movie when the original came out two years ago and has been selling DVDs very well internationally?" It seems that this particular brand of Indian cinema has decided that it is quite content making money off of other people idea for free. And though it is impossible for the original filmmakers to sue the filmmakers of Zinda (on the account that Indian copyright laws does not allow for such suit), Zinda should be remembered as a true stain on the development of Indian Cinema.Because it has photocopied a great movie, Zinda avoids being an absolute terror of a movie. However, this does not excuse Sanjay Gupta and the section of 'Bollywood' that has involved itself in Zinda's production. Because of the blatant plagiarism, and the Zinda's makers absolutely refusing to apologize and reimburse the original filmmakers, I must say Zinda deserves 1 star, if not 0.