With his characteristic love-it or hate-it passion, John is all about Bollywood. He's even taken it upon himself to organize monthly movie nights for the Consulate, just in case there might be an American in Chennai yet to be introduced to the sheer awesomeness that is Indian cinema.
My admiration is more measured. Yes. It's fun. Random dance numbers in the middle of your crime drama? Awesome. Lots of romance but no sex? Awesome again. (Though there's plenty of skin in those dance numbers.)
We've seen some great movies. One of my favorites, 3 Idiots, is a comedy that tackles a serious issue: the insane pressure on young Indians to succeed in a broken education system. That one stars Aamir Khan, who's a fantastic actor, and mixes goofiness with hope. I like it despite some low humor. For all of the following links, you have to click on the caption, not the photo.
I really enjoyed Kahaani, the only Bollywood film I've seen without a dance number. It's a straight thriller full of great characters, symbolic references to Hinduism's divine female, and with an unexpected twist at the end. If you ever get a chance to see that one, you should.
I even admit to kind of liking Don 2, starring the current No. 1 Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (and here), though the violence was a bit more than I can usually handle. It's hard not to like this kind of cool, though.
However, not even the eye candy that is John Abraham can make me feel that I didn't waste a good three hours on Housefull 2. To be fair, it did have some funny moments and some fun dance numbers. If you had taken the best parts and smashed them into 45 minutes, I might have appreciated it, but this movie was over 3 hours long. I was looking at my watch before we even got to intermission. Most of the audience was thoroughly enjoying the slapstick, based on the roaring laughter I heard and the blissfully contented smiles I saw on my fellow theater-goers' faces. It was just too over the top for me.
As our friend Nick Manring said during the interval, if you're going to learn to appreciate an art form you have to explore it in all its iterations. So Bollywood's not perfect, but it's definitely fun.
Some Bollywood dance for your viewing pleasure:
Chammak Challo, from Ra One. This one's all the rage right now. The fifth-graders at Johnny's school even performed their version of it during the elementary music concert. It was hilarious.
Zoobi Doobi, from 3 Idiots. Goofy and fun.
Do U Know, from Housefull 2. Typical song and dance scene from a romantic comedy.
Papa toh Band Bajaye, from Housefull 2. Typically fun, wacky production number. I feel that I need to explain all the white faces. The movie takes place in the UK.
Kilimanjaro, from Endhiran. This is actally not Bollywood, but Kollywood. Bollywood is based in Mumbai and makes films in Hindi. Kollywood is based in Chennai and makes films in Tamil. There's also Tollywood (Telugu) and Mollywood (Malayalam), but maybe we'll go into all of that another time. The point is, John thinks I have to include this one because it takes absurdity to new heights of awesomeness. In the movie, they're driving from Chennai to Pondicherry, when suddenly we're swept away to Macchu Picchu for this number, titled Kilimanjaro. Who can understand the complexity of this situation? Prepare to be amused.
My admiration is more measured. Yes. It's fun. Random dance numbers in the middle of your crime drama? Awesome. Lots of romance but no sex? Awesome again. (Though there's plenty of skin in those dance numbers.)
We've seen some great movies. One of my favorites, 3 Idiots, is a comedy that tackles a serious issue: the insane pressure on young Indians to succeed in a broken education system. That one stars Aamir Khan, who's a fantastic actor, and mixes goofiness with hope. I like it despite some low humor. For all of the following links, you have to click on the caption, not the photo.
 |
| The trailer's in Hindi, but you might still get the general idea. |
I really enjoyed Kahaani, the only Bollywood film I've seen without a dance number. It's a straight thriller full of great characters, symbolic references to Hinduism's divine female, and with an unexpected twist at the end. If you ever get a chance to see that one, you should.
 |
| Again in Hindi, but you'll get the gist. |
I even admit to kind of liking Don 2, starring the current No. 1 Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan (and here), though the violence was a bit more than I can usually handle. It's hard not to like this kind of cool, though.
 |
| This links to an illicit recording of SRK's entry at the beginning of the movie. It's terrible quality, but you have to watch it for the audience reaction alone. |
However, not even the eye candy that is John Abraham can make me feel that I didn't waste a good three hours on Housefull 2. To be fair, it did have some funny moments and some fun dance numbers. If you had taken the best parts and smashed them into 45 minutes, I might have appreciated it, but this movie was over 3 hours long. I was looking at my watch before we even got to intermission. Most of the audience was thoroughly enjoying the slapstick, based on the roaring laughter I heard and the blissfully contented smiles I saw on my fellow theater-goers' faces. It was just too over the top for me.
 |
| This trailer has English subtitles. |
Some Bollywood dance for your viewing pleasure:
Chammak Challo, from Ra One. This one's all the rage right now. The fifth-graders at Johnny's school even performed their version of it during the elementary music concert. It was hilarious.
Zoobi Doobi, from 3 Idiots. Goofy and fun.
Do U Know, from Housefull 2. Typical song and dance scene from a romantic comedy.
Papa toh Band Bajaye, from Housefull 2. Typically fun, wacky production number. I feel that I need to explain all the white faces. The movie takes place in the UK.
Kilimanjaro, from Endhiran. This is actally not Bollywood, but Kollywood. Bollywood is based in Mumbai and makes films in Hindi. Kollywood is based in Chennai and makes films in Tamil. There's also Tollywood (Telugu) and Mollywood (Malayalam), but maybe we'll go into all of that another time. The point is, John thinks I have to include this one because it takes absurdity to new heights of awesomeness. In the movie, they're driving from Chennai to Pondicherry, when suddenly we're swept away to Macchu Picchu for this number, titled Kilimanjaro. Who can understand the complexity of this situation? Prepare to be amused.
These remind me so much of my friend Zareena...she was always copying dances from Indian movies for the school talent shows. I love Chammak Challo, and Zoobi Doobi was fun and catchy. Just curious, though...do all Indian movies have some English thrown in? Is it for effect, or is it spoken that way in daily life too??
ReplyDeleteThere are hundreds of languages and dialects spoken in India, but the constitution lists Hindi and English as the official languages. Not everyone knows Hindi (here in the south it's a hot political issue, and there are people who refuse to learn Hindi and get pretty angry about it), but everyone learns at least a little English. You have to speak English if you want to get ahead economically.
DeleteThat said, most people probably don't speak English at home or even while doing daily things like shopping. They'll speak what they call their mother tongue, which will be Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam (a palindrome!!), Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati ... you get the idea. Because English is a common language, though, it's worked its way into all of those other languages. John was telling me that even old grandmothers from pretty remote villages will throw in an English word here and there when they come in to the consulate for a visa interview.
That's a long answer. I guess the short answer is that it isn't for effect. That's the way people speak in daily life. It's pretty funny for me, actually. People will be rattling on in rapid Tamil and I'll hear random words like "computer" or "security check" or "scooter" or whatever. Sometimes I can even work out the gist of a conversation based on the bits of English thrown in, but usually it just sounds wierd.
Just thought I'd add that repeated phrases (like in the "Do U Know" song) might be for effect. It's the way people talk, though.
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