I went to see a new Bollywood movie today (Love Aaj Kal), and I tried to see if I could make a list of all the Bollywood movies I've seen, both before, during, and after researching The Great Puppet Bollywood Extravaganza. And boy, it was a lot. And since I've been choreographing a bunch of wedding dances, and my roommate is teaching Bollywood at what seems like every company between here and Seattle, Bollywood is eating our house.
So, to edify my friends and colleagues as well as complete strangers (and to keep track of all these darn movies I've seen), I'm gonna try to write up a movie a week. There's quite the list before I have to go out and see any more . . . oh no, twist my arm. :o)
There might be more than one Bollywood movie a week. Or less than one a week. But I *do* have things to say about them, so I'll try to keep myself motivated. ;o)
On Bollywood in general: I have to say, I love it. It's just as if the Hollywood movie industry from the 30s and 40s (post Hayes Code), with its mega star system and its casts of thousands and its singing and dancing and its heightened realities, was transported to a strange planet and allowed to evolve separately. (India: the Galapagos of film?) Spectacle, melodrama, slapstick, romance, all together, forever!
And, perhaps because Bollywood films tend to have something for everyone -- comedy next to drama as per Dickens' streaky bacon -- they definitely *feel* different than American films. Plots may be contrived, but characters almost feel more like real people, showing a wider range of emotions than American films (at least mainstream Hollywood films) have time to give us. The comedy is genuinely funny, AND the tragedy is sincerely tragic. So much crying!
Let the Bollywooding begin!
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