by Subhash K Jha

From Premnath to Kamal Haasan to Amitabh Bachchan...everyone has done his own take on Marlon Brando's imperishable The Godfather. Here's looking at the most recognizable desi godfathers down the years.

Dharmatma (1975)—Snazzy Feroz Khan, never one to let go of enterprising opportunities, was the first desi take on Francis Coppola's gangster epic.

He cast the veteran villain Premnath as Don Corleone while Khan himself played Michael Corleone serenading the two beauties Hema Malini and Rekha in rugged Afghanistan and amchi Mumbai. The film, a minor hit, is more remarkable for legitimizing the gangster epic than for flattering Coppola.

Nayakan (1987)—Mani Rathnam's take on The Godfather is remarkable for projecting the Tamilian maverick Kamal Haasan as the Indianized Godfather.

Removing the original plot from Sicily to Mumbai Nayakan traces the rise into the Mumbai underworld of Nelu, the Tamil migrant in the slums of Dharavi. The film purposely translocated the original material, fleshed out the morbid into the majestic and made the gangster –hero more warm and accessible.

Some sequences such as the one where Nelu (modeled on Mumbai's crimelord Varadarajan Mudaliar) screams in anguished pain when his son dies pre-empted the subsequent parts of the Godfather trilogy—remember Al Pacino screaming after his child's death in Godfather Part 3 which came a decade later ?

Just goes to show, great minds think alike...or whatever.

Dayavan (1988)—Nayakan meets Don Corelone...and they both met their nemesis through Feroz Khan's ludicrous remake of Nayakan. Both Mani Rathnam and Kamal Haasan were so disgusted by Khan's inflamed effort that they disowned the product and all other Hindi remakes of their works.

Coppola and Brando weren't of course consulted when Vinod Khanna (doing a heaving hash of the super-gangster's role) slipped into the crime theme with more clangour than elan.

Khan cast himself as the don's faithful lieutenant while poor Madhuri Dixit cast as prostitute 'rescued' by Khanna had to do a long embrassing smooching sequence with the hero. This qualifies as the worst remake of The Godfather, or perhaps the worst remake, period.

Sarkar (2005)—Interestingly Ram Gopal Varma's take on The Godfather owes it allegiance both to Coppola's Godfather and Rathnam's Nayakan.

Like the former Subhash Nagare in Sarkar works in a clannish crime syndicate. Like Nelu in Nayakan, Nagare's operational ambit is the seamy seedy sordid and slickened side-streets of Mumbai.

The metro-centric crime ring is interestingly askance. More so, the lines of morality in Varma's crime classic are blurred even further than Godfather and Nayakan. Here, the extra-constitutional ruler is projected as a true purveyor of justice whereas the formal government authorities are perceived as corrupt and reprehensible.

Would Francis Coppola, or for that matter Mario Puzo (who wrote The Godfather) recognize Sarkar as even a distant cousin?

Curiously while Mani Rathnam's take on The Godfather meshed a true-life crime-lord's life in the fictional saga of Don Corleone Sarkar goes to the life of a true-life messianic leader of Maharashtra for derivative heroics. Just goes to show how far crime and politics have become enmeshed in contemporary times.

Other Indian takes On The Godfather: Dilip Shankar's Aatank Hi Aatank (1995), Mukul Anand's Agneepath (where Amitabh Bachchan in his first and so far only National award winning performance used the gravelly tones of Brando from The Godfather) and Govind Nihalani's Thakshak (which used the Good Son-Bad Son prototype from The Godfather to play off Ajay Devgan opposite Rahul Bose in the gangster's ambience ) and Bharat Rangachary's Zulm Ki Hukumat (with Govinda playing Don Corny...sorry Corleone).