Our new passion for Bollywood
Over a year ago we rented a movie called ‘Lagaan’, for no reason other than we were curious about Indian cinema, had seen its name/the DVD fairly well-advertised, read a couple of reviews and thought it would be interesting. Little did we know it would spark off a whole new world of cinema for us. We might be slow on the uptake on this, or just weird for getting into it at all, not being in the slightest bit Indian ourselves, but we’re coming to love these movies as we watch more.
So, for those readers for whom Bollywood means very little, here are the basics: Indian films, mostly in Hindi but with smatterings of English, with lavish colours, big musical numbers, cliched plots, very long running times, intermissions, stereotyped characters, often poetic-looking subtitles (but we’re never sure how much that’s down to translation or not - I love this aspect, especially during the songs, because the English translations don’t rhyme, so they remind me of reading Psalms or Song of Songs, particularly the love songs, naturally). I suppose the closest crossover reference points recently have been Bride & Prejudice and Monsoon Wedding, only the latter of which we’ve seen, but it was a watered down version of the real thing. I will VERY swiftly review the 3 movies we’ve seen so far, and do all subsequent ones properly…
Lagaan (Tax): down-trodden villagers in the Raj days rebel against local British cads who are imposing stringent taxes on them by challenging the Brits to a game of cricket - the Indian underdogs must gather a very inexperienced team, train and win to keep their livelihoods, basically. Wonderful, brilliant, really glad this was the first one we saw. Very charismatic leading man in Aamir Khan, and genuine tension at the end.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something’s happened to my heart): Rahul and Anjali are best friends at college, but she is a tomboy and he doesn’t realise she loves him. Rahul gets married to pretty girl Tina who bears him a daughter but dies in childbirth - they name the girl Anjali, and she, 8 years later, becomes determined to reunite her father with the love of his former life. Again, 3 great leads, especially Shahrukh Khan as idiotic charmer Rahul, but the 2 women are also very good in their roles. It looks dated at first, but that’s because A) it was released in 1998 and B) it’s to do with events taking place at the end of the 80s, at least in the first half.
Dil to Pagal Hai (The Heart is Crazy): same actor, same character name, more or less the same character. Khan is this time a theatre director whose leading dancer (who’s in love with him) breaks her heel, and he must search for a replacement. He finds the perfect girl, and they begin to fall in love, even though she is engaged to her childhood sweetheart. Jealousy and dancing abound, in a slightly weaker film, and yet the great numbers are GREAT. Khan seems to play the same character each time, but is still worth watching.
We love these films cos they’re fun, lively, predictable, amusing, innocent, gorgeous-looking, tuneful and, above all, different to what we normally watch.
I can’t recommend Lagaan highly enough, whatever your taste in films, it’s literally a masterpiece (despite the dodgy English actors that feature in it!) Kuch… is geniuinely touching and great fun. Dil.. is much harder work, because it’s so uneven but as Mark says the good sequences are BRILLIANT - sort of like there was an excellent movie trapped inside merely a good one.
One thing Mark didn’t mention that should be noted is that there are spiritual themes to one degree or another in all three of these films, and though we obviously don’t believe in Krishna or whoever, it is refreshing to see characters talking about faith and destiny in a way that is more geniune (read: less sappy) than Hollywood.
Comment by Heidi — 17 February, 2007 @ 7:01 pm
If Bollywood is your thing, then check out the Apu trilogy from the 1950s (the best one being Pather Panchili).
Its also interesting to watch the Bollywood films that get banned in India but shown elsewhere - Bandit Queen for instance.
Comment by Simon — 18 February, 2007 @ 8:36 pm
I absolutely agree with my esteemed associates, Mark & Heidi, on this one. Lagaan is awesome… I think this stems from the film’s positive character and easily accessible story. Initially I felt I would find it difficult to be emotionally involved but I soon fell in love with this film. It’s one of those movies that I think would sit comfortably in my burgeoning family’s collection; if I had one that is… (Short Circuit, Flight of the Navigator, and Batteries Not Included would also be in said collection; Mark)
Comment by Joe Joe — 3 April, 2008 @ 6:14 pm