I maintain that Family's biggest problem is its thoughtless structure; it's not a movie, but just pieces of various films, thrown together. Also, I could have sworn that the film I saw in theaters had Amitabh Bachchan do his own voice-work. Giving it a lot of thought, I suppose that I could be convinced that some scenes had a "voice-double," but, by and large, I think it was Amitabh's own work. That said, the "sync.-sound" was terrible and totally pulled you out of the film, and it should have been dealt with prior to the movie's release.

seriously.. go and watch it again.. it is DEFINATELY not amitabhs voice..

Maybe you're right. I'll check it out on DVD, when it comes out.

I just visited http://ww.smashits.com (not a type: only two "w"s), and was amazed by the "public opinion" video clip regarding Family. Everybody seemed to love it; not one person really had a "negative" comment. I'm surprised, really, because the film doesn't seem to be doing all that well, even in India. Hmmm...who the hell are these people?

http://www.allbollywood.com/v2/bd/stc/n ... 5839.shtml


If something seemed off by superstar Amitabh Bachchan's performance in Family - Ties Of Blood, you are not alone. While the stars performance was level in the first half of the film, many noted that it seemed off in the second half. While Mr. Bachchan's body language and everything seemed fine, his voice wasn't. Apparently, the producers of Family dubbed the entire second half of the film of Mr. Bachchan's voice with a junior artists.

The problem started when Mr. Bachchan fell ill last November. Until that point, only half of the film had been completed, which Amitabh had dubbed for. However when he fell ill, the producers decided to postpone the release of the film, hoping that Amitabh would be able to dub for the second half when he recovered. However, upon recovery doctors advised Amitabh to do no work (including voice dubbing) to avoid infection. This would mean that it would be another couple of months before he could dub for the second half of the film. Instead of waiting, the producers went ahead and dubbed his voice for the entire second half, except for two instances (which were probably too difficult for the junior artist to handle) where they used Mr. Bachchan's voice during the actual shooting of the film (which explains the loss of audio quality in those two scenes).




I don't get it. One of the "studio-sound" scenes just had him doing a couple of dialogues over his cell phone; could they not have dubbed that? Is the second half of the film really was all dubbed, then it was idiotic to have left that part as it was. Another dumb-ass judgement by the releasers of the film.

Also, how is it that we hear of Bachchan's travelling to all these temples and whatnot? Is he forbidden from leaving his home, except to go to temples? I don't know: It seems there might be a bit more going on here.

Just saw the DVD...OK, it's not his (you know whose) voice <gives sheepish grin>.

I cringe at any film with preaching words stapled onscreen at the end. A nadir for Rajkumar Santoshi.

Well, then, you'll be pleased that Khakee had the "preachy ending" taken out altogether on the DVD. Even in the theater, all I saw were subtitles, with no accompanying narration; it seemed that Santoshi thought better of the idea pre-release, but forgot to take out the subs. from (at least some of) the prints.

Concerning Family, I don't even know if I can call it a "Rajkumar Santoshi" project; not knowing anything about the director going in, one is likely to feel that different parts of the film were just wrought by different creative minds — it did "gel" as a whole. Nevertheless, I liked it more than most people seem to have.

Did Khakee really have preachy statement at the end of it's film? I never noticed it in the theatrical print I first saw the film with. If it did, what was it?(just out of curiostity) I hope this isn't a fetish with an otherwise good filmmaker.

I agree with you on the latter argument about Family, it didn't seem as if Santoshi had full creative control over the project. The underplot of Family was actually quite intriguing, a deeper focus on the differentiation of view points within the mafia household would have made for a more established script, showcasing the complexities of each character(an allude to The Sopranos would have been awesome!). And the Godfather goofs were neat.

Yeah. I saw it in the theater twice; once "regularly," and again at the Walter-Reade "Amitabh Bachchan Tribute." Both times, the ending had subtitles reading something to the effect of, "Some may think that what Officer Ashwini [Tusshar's character] did was appropriate. It was, however, wrong. Anytime the law is taken into one's own hands, the ends are never justified by the means." It "blah-blah'd" a bit more, I recall, but not by much, and what I've written here, I think, illustrates about the gist of it. When I first got the DVD, having seen the film once ("regularly") in the theater, I quickly skipped to the ending, to hear the preachy dialogue, as, again, the theatrical version had no narration with it (I, of course, took this to be a flaw in the print). The DVD, however, doesn't even have the subtitles. I'm even sure that the voice-work was ever recorded; it's possible, I think, that the subtitles were merely taken from the script, which may never have had the words removed.

I more or less agree with your sentiments regarding Family. Nonetheless, I think I like it just because it offers me the chance to see Amitabh Bachchan in a light in which I haven't (or hadn't) seen him in some time.

apologies if this has been mentioned elsewhere, but I am currently watching Assault On Precinct 13, and man, it does appear that the core plot of Khakee was lifted from this action thriller!

Not so original after all - Khakee...

I glanced over parts of Assault on Precinct 13 a wile back; isn't it, itself, a re-make (unless you're talking about the original)? I didn't like it much, but I loved Khakee.

True... AOP13 is an official remake of the earlier AOP13