Steve Martin, PINK PANTHER?

Steve Martin rocks in the new Pink Panther film, exults aabhas sharma. Martin's good alright, but Peter Sellers was Inspector Clouseau.

This one is not for purists. People who have been fans of The Pink Panther series since its inception might think that Peters Sellers did not only play Jacques Clouseau but in fact was Clouseau.

And if you add the view that originals should not be touched, then the latest version of The Pink Panther starring comic legend Steve Martin is probably not a movie that will catch your fancy.

But we are in the age of remakes and remixes. So why not re-live the new Clouseau as well? Without endorsing the view that Steve Martin has bettered the act of Sellers, he has surely done a wonderful job playing the legendary inspector.

And consider this: the makers of the film were actually considering Chris Rock, Mike Myers and Kevin Spacey to play the role before Martin stepped in. We should thank our lucky stars! No disrespect to the above-mentioned gentlemen, of course, but they would really have not been as convincing as Clouseau as Martin is.

Because one thing is certain: if there was one actor who could have actually come close to playing Clouseau in an effective manner, then it had to be Martin (still not riling the "original" fans).

The movie has a not-so-great storyline or script but Martin is really funny and his comic timing actually makes one overlook that aspect. It is not really a slapstick comedy and a lot of credit must be given to Martin, who has co-written the screenplay for the movie as well.

And the way in which he has butchered the French accent is simply fabulous. One area where the movie actually fails is the support cast. Although Kevin Kline is a good comedian, he does not have much to do in the role of Inspector Dreyfus, Clouseau's superior. And Beyonce Knowles's role in the movie is beyond comprehension. But it is Martin who hogs the limelight.

There have never been any doubts about Martin being a fantastic comedian and actor. His movies Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Cheaper by the Dozen, Bowfinger and Roxanne have been appreciated worldwide and his acts as a stand-up comedian have drawn huge crowds.

Comedy is Martin's forte but there are other facets about this man which are not known to many. He has excelled in so many areas that it's unbelievable. He is a successful writer, musician and producer. He has won an Emmy and has written bestselling books and successful plays. His first book, The Shop Girl, was a bestseller and was later made into a movie starring himself.

Many of the most memorable comedies of the last 20 years "" like The Jerk, All Of Me, The Man With Two Brains, Parenthood "" have Martin starring in them, and he has penned the screenplay for most of these movies.

He has also been one of the most popular hosts for the Oscar Awards, about which he famously said "If you can't win 'em, join 'em." (Awards have not always come to Martin easily and apart from an Emmy as comedy writer, he has never won any major honour for his acting.)

He has dabbled in music as well and is an accomplished banjo player. In fact, he won a Grammy Award in 2002 for Foggy Breakdown Mountain in the Best Country Instrumental category.

Critics will have a field day trashing the latest version of The Pink Panther as Clouseau was a legend created by Sellers and anyone doing a remake is bound to get harsh reviews.

You can actually count on your fingers the remakes which were given rave reviews. Be it King Kong or the upcoming version of Sholay (if it sees the light of day), they will always be compared to the originals and people will always find themflawed in comparison.

But a legend has to be revisited and relived because there are characters who we want to see and hear over and over again. And thanks to Steve Martin, a legend has just been revisited!

THE COUNTERVIEW

First, a couple of admissions. I'm a big Steve Martin fan. I think he's one of the three or four finest American actors of his generation, and some of his films (notably Parenthood, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Bowfinger) rank among my personal favourites.

He's a man of many other talents too "" among them a skill for comic writing that often approaches the quality of some of the great masters of the non-sequitur, humorists like S J Perelman and Woody Allen. (Try some of Martin's short pieces in New Yorker anthologies sometime, or even his full-length books The Pleasure of My Company, which are more uneven but brilliant in places.)

My second confession is this: I haven't seen the Pink Panther remake. So theoretically it's just possible that if I do see it (but I won't) I'll like it (but I won't, I won't).

This counterpoint, therefore, is purely one of principle. Peter Sellers was a one-of-a-kind comedian, an actor whose best roles were created from the inside out. Even when he signed up for a film after the script had already been finalised, he often worked with the screenwriters to re-conceptualise his character.

This is what he did with the three roles he played in the Kubrick classic Dr Strangelove, and it's what he did most notably with Inspector Clouseau.

The original Pink Panther films weren't just about a talented actor giving a good performance "" they were about the actor and the character fusing together.

Without Sellers, Clouseau would never have become one of moviedom's great comic figures (he was just a supporting character in the first Pink Panther film; the very phrase "pink panther", so commonly associated with Clouseau today, originally had nothing to do with the bumbling inspector).

I don't have anything against remakes; I agree that comparing them to the original is a tiresome exercise and reeks of Golden Age-ism. But if Steve Martin (or anyone else) had to exorcise Sellers' ghost from Clouseau, the reasonable way to do it would be to start with an empty shell: to create a new Clouseau from scratch.

However, going by this movie's trailers and featurettes, Martin's performance is a Sellers imitation "" right down to the butchering of the French accent (which is anyway not as funny today as it was in the 1960s; imagine if someone tried to remake Sellers' The Party, with his overwrought Indian accent, today). Martin is a good enough actor to create a character afresh; mere imitation does no justice either to his own talents or to the memory of Sellers.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!