Best movie of this year hands down!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

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.

Zinda surprisingly has a very less rating on IMDb. The primary reason is the inevitable comparisons with the original and another reason is the hatred toward Sanjay Gupta for copying almost every scene from the original unofficially. Truly, even I felt I was watching the original itself. Sanjay Dutt is the film's saving grace who compelled me to sit through despite being a highly unoriginal work.Sanjay Gupta's direction is fabulous and can do wonders if given a solid, original script pertaining to his repertoire. He maintains a very dark mood throughout, much darker than the original, with minimal lighting and excessive use of black and gray. The gloomy lighting can be unpleasant at times but it was a commendable experiment. The screenplay is filled with enormous loopholes and doesn't tend to cover them up with any other good thing. Those Indians have seen Oldboy and those who haven't will be equally surprised with the ending as Sanjay deviates from the original and, at the same time, tries to make it hard-hitting. He fails miserably with the latter as the end appears far less convincing than the original.Comparisons aside, John's character is much younger than Dutt's and is super-rich. Applying some simple math, this is not possible. John hasn't acted bad, no two opinions on that, but only if he had a well etched character. Lara Dutta seems to be a super-rich cabbie in those costumes. Was she meant for comic relief or glam quotient – don't know but she irritating throughout. Background score is a straight lift from the original at places. One piece in the very last scene is from Chinese film "Warriors of Heaven and Earth"'s 'Lord An's Empire' composed by A. R. Rahman. The piece is used in the trailers too.Now what's good in the film is a very new and innovative presentation we Indians have never seen. The basic subject matter itself is new. We did have revenge dramas in the past, but the kind where romance and clichés take a front seat throughout and then an atrocious fight with the villain which pops out of nowhere in the end. Zinda is miles away and ahead of these kinds of films. It takes Indian cinema to a whole new level but the unoriginality relegates it. Songs are thankfully original except that Vishal-Shekhar recycle a riff from their own 'Rabba' of "Musafir". Zinda Hoon Main features in three different versions and is an instant winner. Shibani Kashyap's high pitch zingy vocals are impressive. Strings compose the year's best song "Yeh Hai Meri Kahani". Lyrics of all the songs are phenomenal.The best part of the original was the shocking end and the offensive theme which is all cut in Zinda and that makes it less remarkable. It is an enjoyable film but leaves space for questions and plot holes.6.5/10

Overall, It is a good movie, well directed with beautifully talented cast. The camera work the dialogues and especially the song Zinda Hoon with Sanjay Dutt starring in it are mind blowing. It is basically a copy of Korean movie Old Boy (2003) starring Min-Sik Choi and Hye-Jeong Kang. The worst thing is some of the scenes are ditto copy of the original film though the original film was more strong in its story and dialogues.I really wonder a country with a billion people and one of the biggest film industry in the world does not have a single innovative brain. Bollywood is the biggest industry making remakes of dozens of movies round the globe every year. This is highly exasperating and be taken care of.

"Well the movie would be something different ".......dats what I thought while watching the trailers and when you are a John Abraham fan........then you cant miss dis........well....the story starts like this Balajeet ROY(SANJAY) is a cool dude who meets his friend(Mahesh) and shifts out from his home turf.....India......ready to *beep* wife Celina.........but things go bad......when all of a sudden Bala is kidnapped and put in a "well furnished" room for god damn 15 years.....without any explanation he is released.....and then is asked by a stranger to find out how is he related to him..............within 4 days...............all he will die.....................The movie moves on ......on a pace......that one desires......the action sequences however do not fulfill to the need of the script......but still the movie is what I call good.........And considering John's exquisite power-packed performance......this movie rocks...........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! An 8/10 from me..........