I recounted the story and I thought it would be nice to post the tale.

I also Quiz and am a member of the Quiz Foundation of India. In one of the quizzes, Vinod Ganesh a.k.a Mensa asked a stunner which was around the inspiration for the Poster of Brokeback Mountain

I was stumped and really enjoyed the question. That set me off on a movie poster inspirations trip for quite sometime – I  discovered cool sources online like IMPAwards, MonkeyArtAwards and Orkaan . Somewhere along the way, I started off this blog after 2 failed attempts on creating or curating content online ( Intentionally Left Blank & Worst Videos Ever).

Then in 2009, I stumbled upon a brilliant blog run by Babu Kuriakose which somewhere got me wanting to do a little more. Babu’s blog had a lot of content which I liked and I realised while running through his blog that he worked right opposite my office. I reached out to him and we started catching up at the mobile tea shop (read pushcart) outside our offices. The period between Oct 2009 and May 2010 was full of brilliant discussions on Beatles, Movies, Music and obviously Movie Posters. It was almost like we were trying to inspire one another to make more connections on inspired posters. See more of Babu’s brilliance. Babu sadly is not blogging any more. I blog very infrequently. But, am inspired from time to time – a post or two happen – then – silence.

Why do I look at posters?

If I look at visual art in its current form, video is complicated and is transient – in terms of how long it physically is available & in vogue. Paintings by contemporary artists are devoid of detail and embellishment – atleast, they miss the simple things I like in paintings. Movie posters and in their crunched down avatar – DVD covers – are ubiquitous. Once I started digging, I found many similarities between Movie posters & Paintings – Posters feeding off paintings more than the reverse flow. My interest in Renaissance art & movies in general helped connect the dots.

And what is it with creative agencies wanting Akshay to burst out of every poster. Seriously.

Well, You burst on the scene already a legend, the unwashed phenomenon, the original vagabond (Apologies to Joan Baez)

Vijay’s forthcoming movie Yohan rips off from a 2008 French flick Largo Winch.

The emphasis of the other posters is on showing how cool the hero is and the extent of his globetrotting. Reminds me somewhere of the brilliant I am Legend poster set.

The one where he is kneeling before a red car reminds me of some poster I am not able to place a finger on.

Yohan

His body of work numbers just 35 paintings and that in Canvas years is merely a handful. But the number of artists, writers, film-makers & composers who have been obsessed with him & his life in Delft is stunning.

Let us start with a famous Artist – Edward Hopper (Of Nighthawks & Automat Fame) :

Edward Hopper’s Morning in a City borrows its visual language from Vermeer’s A Girl reading a letter by an Open Window. The window in a corner is omnipresent in many of Vermeer’s works and is a device borrowed from Pieter de Hooch’s works

Tom Hunter, a British Photographer who creates vignettes based on famous paintings has captured the somber mood of Vermeer perfectly in his Woman reading a Possession Order. Tom Hunter’s own take on the photo.

Jonathan Janson is the author of the book “How to paint your own Vermeer” and is also a successful artist. His version of  the same painting has a “Young Woman reading Glamour” Magazine

More versions , courtesy Google Images

And finally, the Variants of the painting by none other than Vermeer himself!

Marching Ants have created some of my all time favourite Bollywood posters – Be it Ishqiya, Dev D, Help, LSD, Udaan, Blue Umbrella or Udaan (again).

At the same time, they have done enough shameless rip-offs

Kisna (From Braveheart),

Lakshya (Shadow Concept from Mad Magazine & Some Posters),

Johnny Gaddar (From Big Lebowski and countless posters featuring sunglasses with reflective surfaces,

Johnny Gaddar (Again) (From countless “Running Man” posters)

Once upon a time in Mumbai from Mr & Mrs Smith,

Anjaana Anjaani (From An Education) and even their old posters like Ek Hasina Thi,Vaastu Shaastra & Goal were lifted .

Take a look at their creations and you will see both the Genius & the Copycat there. Sad that a talented agency has to resort to pinching others’ work.

Now for the Overkill bit…

Inspired  Maybe; Lifted – Surely not!

The Poster is such a blatant Ripoff of King Arthur.

There is a movie from Hong Kong / China which has a similar poster – Am unable to place it (Not Red Cliff)

Poster 2 from Bollywood  - I Hate Luv Storys

Yet to sit down and figure out where the other posters are from

The recent movie poster trend of copy on top of an image using photoshop is  the equivalent of a big boss making horrible additions to your carefully crafted powerpoint slide.

The “Facebook Movie” is about Plagiarism and it is indeed apt that the movie poster is a “Repurposed” one. The creative Agency Kellerhouse reused the concept from the Criterion Cover they created for The Man who fell to Earth for the poster of The Social Network. In fact, they seem to be specialists in the “Throw some text in the middle of an image to create impact” variety of posters.

Hat Tip: Monkeyartawards

Rene Magritte’s classic painting The Lovers (Les Amants) has been used as the poster announcing shooting. Lots of movies have used paintings as inspiration. But, this one just “uses” the painting.

I do hope someone taking the movie pays up the royalty to use this painting.

See for yourself:

Magritte’s Lovers  series consists of 4 paintings.

There are also the 4 Covered Heads (which includes the 2 paintings in the Lovers series)

L’histoire centrale (The central story)

As usual, the meaning of the paintings remain shrouded in mystery. Theories range from Fantomas to his mother’s suicide , Love is Blind all the way down to Nick Carter Detective magazines.

One more post on Magritte & Movie Posters / Album art will follow.

Shame on the Poster designers for Anjaana Anjaani !!

The font used for the Titles are from 24. What’s even cooler is the abandoned Season-1 font has also been used.

The movie is an “experimental” one which was shot in 24 hours. Guess the posters were also made in the same time given the lifts.

I don’t mean it is awesome… I mean that the poster  (and concept) is shamelessly lifted. The costumes of Red Mist & Zokkomon are very similar. Look at the similarity of poses – Uncanny resemblance. And what is it with rooftop tiles? and all of these on top of a building.

Does Disney not know what is happening in Hollywood? See the posters for yourself.

On one poster, the tagline is borrowed.

“Heads Will Roll” is the line used in the Tim Burton version of Washington Irving’s Sleepy Hollow. “Bruce Dickinson” plays the Headless Horseman and Johnny Depp plays the role of Ichabod Crane.

But, not before having liberally borrowed the poster concept from a few posters – The Game, Split Second & Gamer. See for yourself.

Venkat Prabhu’s own Saroja trips on Chennai 28

Thalaivar Rajini’s Sivaji tripped on so many movies - Tamil & Telugu (a la Om Shanthi Om’s intelligent spoofs)

But, this movie, as described by the director is possibly Kollywood’s answer to Scary Movie, Hot Shots & Naked Gun.

QUOTE
Says Dhayanidhi, “Tamil Padam is the first ever full length spoof film in Tamil. The story is a humorous take on the predictable Tamil formula films.”

CS Amudham the director of the film says: “ In Hollywood the spoof is a popular genre and there has been films like ‘Scary Movie’ a spoof on horror films. Similarly we are spoofing the Tamil mass film. You will laugh your guts out. In short it’s celebration of Tamil cinema.”

UNQUOTE

Everything I have seen and heard so far is mega-spoofy. The director, C S Amudhan has an ad agency called Winds of Change which does Outdoor (Hoardings, Banners, etc). Pulli Raja, Prime Roaster and those atrocious Fitness One ads were all his creations… So, it figures.

Take the Soundtrack. The song “O Maha Zeeya” is one great spoof of all the nonsense which goes on in the name of lyrics in a lot of Harris Jeyaraj songs… The title refers to the gibberish heard at the start of “Uyirin Uyire” in Kaakka Kaakka

Spoofs in the O Maha zeeya song (or This)
Uyirin Uyire- Kaakka Kaakka
Hasili Fisili – Aadhavan
Randakka – Anniyan
Naakka Mukka – Kaadhalil Vizhundhen
Dailamo Dailamo – Dishum Dishum
Balailaka – Sivaji
Ohi lohi mahi lohi ya – Beema
Osaka Muraiya – Alli Arjuna (Rahman’s One 2 ka 4)
Shakalakka – Mudhalvan
Ullahi ullahi – Lesa Lesa

And the best one .. Laalaakku Dol Dappimma – Suriyan

Spoofs in the Trailer (or This )
Absurd Action packed Vijay Intro Sequences (Camera from Top in this case)
Dasavatharam (The US President and all)
Nayagan (Inime appadithaan with Nayagan theme in the background)
Boys (4 pairs of legs dangling from a wall)
Sivaji (2 hand signing)
Baadsha
Simbhu (Style)
Billa (cooling glass scene)
Run (subway sequence)
Kaaka Kaaka (aerial shot)
Thalapathy
And the coolest : The town is called Cinema Patti… How cool is that!!

Spoofs in Movie Stills

In addition to the movies mentioned above,

Roja (The couple inside the same sweater)
Annamalai (The brown suit and low camera angles)
Uyire (The mail poster)
Sathya (The hospital sequence)
Baba (trips on the Baba mudra)

Poster Spoofs
Ramki’s Dafli Song in Senthoora Poove (Image, Video) and the Poster (The exact frame appears exactly 60 seconds into the video)

Singaravelan’s Pudhu Cheri Kacheri (Image, Video) and the Poster (Note the tongue in cheek ad)

Enga Ooru Paattukaaran’s Senbagame (Image, Video) and the Poster . (Ramarajan is just awesome fun as he is trying to sing  when he is busy milking the cow (See this to believe it) . Shanthipriya coyly watches the sequence (Guffaw!)

Rajini’s Konji Konji from Veera and (Image, Video) and Poster

Thillana Mohanambal (Image 1,Image 2 ) and Poster with M.S Bhaskar playing Balaiyya’s Thavil Vidhvan’s role

Pre-Release Concept Posters

The first one which came out talked about the movie not being a “Different one”

One more poster of the movie takes Gap10′s trip by using the MS font Jokerman (LOL) and says a sorry before that by asking for the only word in tamil which Gap10 does not like

Another poster spoofs the typical rape scene in tamil movies by showing a male hand forcing a female hand in front of a painting showing a tiger slaying a deer

One is a preachy Gap10 kind of dialogue referencing Gandhiji, etc and at the same time referring to tons of Punch Dialogues

One features the 10 commandments of Tamil cinema (Commandment 9 is Thou Shall single-handedly take on & eradicate all the evil in the world and commandment 10 is Thou shall have a six-pack) … There are some really nice differences between the Tamil & English versions.

Enjoy all the posters at one place!

For the rustics, there is always a primer on  how to create banal posters - whether it is for a political party or for a movie.

Then, there is the standardised poster version of the Four Step Plan. Lift  Karadey!

Some original creations exist; Interesting perspectives &  colourscapes used. You can see hints of “borrowing”, but overall, as the Fab 4 would have put it, it is getting better All the time.

The next 3 posts have 3 movies which have various degrees of inspiration.

The 1967 Movie Version of this book has a unique poster. The eyes in the movie poster are actually those of the real-life killers Dick Hickock & Perry Smith (and not of the actors).

The 2007 Film An American Crime is based on the real life murder of Gertrude Baniszewski, a housewife. So, aptly, the poster pays a tribute to In Cold Blood.

1. Nagesh Kukunoor’s Aashayein and Indiana Jones (The Whip, The Fedora & the Satchel) – Ridiculous. Really hope this is an intentional in-joke .

2. Click and Disturbia / Grudge

3. Flat and Ring / Grudge (Again) / 1408 (Updated)

I have been able to ID the sources for  3 of the 4 posters which the makes of this movie have released. Shame.

1. The pose is originally from Flashdance and then Sharon Stone’s Basic Instinct 2 repeated the same. Now, a downcast Sunil shetty churns out the same pose.

2. This borrows from 2 posters – The top half which shows Sunil Shetty’s face peeking out is from a poster which I am unable to place . The soldiers walking silhouette is from Band Of Brothers / Passchendaele and even Platoon.

3. The pose is a side view of the classic “Platoon Pose”. The Platoon movie poster is itself a recreation of a 1968 photograph by Art Greenspon. This photograph was recognized as the 13th greatest military photograph in a Sept 2000 issue of the Army/Navy/AF Time.

The One for which I could not ID the source looks familiar.