Reincarnation In Films | Part 02 | Under Lens

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud blended the element of eternal revenge so well that many films followed the suit in coming years.

Reincarnation of Peter Proud was a story of a man troubled by his visions from his past life where he was killed by his wife. Taking a cue out of it, Subhash Ghai made Karz which will be long remembered as the most popular film about reincarnation. Ravi is killed by his wife Kamini. He takes another birth as Monty and takes revenge the way it should have been taken. Haunting theme music became the recurring element. It inspired films like Enakkul Oruvan, Yuga Purush and Om Shanti Om. Success and popularity of Karz can be gauged by the facts that many film titles were based on blockbuster music of this film.

In 80s and 90s, many films were woven around reincarnation. In India, films like Karan Arjun, Suryavanshi, Hameshaa etc. and in west films like Déjà vu, Made In Heaven etc. were made. Keeping aside BO collections, content wise nothing notable was introduced. New ideas and better technology literally meant a closure for a dated idea. Then came films like Cloud Atlas and Eega. Their technical brilliance is one thing and content driven plot is another. These films worked and got critical acclaim as well. Especially Cloud Atlas which involved karma and reincarnation with such a brilliance that even sages from ancient India would feel proud. Though in between some good films came but they failed to move on from the oft repeated ideas and plots.

The idea of rebirth is so natural to human that despite of logical failure and absence of concrete evidence, it remained one of the most popular formulas of filmmaking.