Re: [nukkad] Bollywood- Hollywood

[Harshal Chhaya <>]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everyone is born right-handed. Only the greatest overcome it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hiroo Pardasani wrote:
> The other movie I saw is "Bollywood- Hollywood".
> Starring Rahul Khanna & Lisa Ray - a movie by Deepa Mehta of the "Fire &
> Earth" fame.

If B/H is any indication of Ms. Mehta's abilities as a commercial
director, she should stick to art/alternative films. 'Fire' and 
'Earth' were so much better than B/H, I wonder if B/H was 
'ghost directed'.

The story is re-cycled, the songs are so-so and major story 
changes are explained glibly. The dialogues are sort of OK 
except for a couple of good ones - the 'go fly a kite' sequence 
and some of Dina Pathak's Shakespearean lines.

The whole movie has an 'inside joke' look to it - from the
captions to Moushmi's over-the-top melodrama to the way Rahul's
'gori' girlfriend dies. It seems that we are supposed to laugh 
along with the director at how silly the whole thing is. This
is not a good way to create a bond between the audience and the
characters and it affects the movie-watching experience. You 
don't care for any of the characters and the finale is almost 
a welcome event.


> But this movie will be great fun for NRIs and who relate with such US /
> Canada based Indian families.

It almost seems like the movie was made with this in mind. As if the
NRIs will watch/like any mediocre crap. Sadly, Ms. Mehta may be right.

BTW, the promoters of the movie missed capitalising on one of the
funnier scenes. I am sure that I am not the only one who visited the
website whose address is displayed on the screen. The site could have
been a promotional tool, even a continuation of the 'in-joke' 
sentiment of the movie. Instead it is just a holding page for 
some web-hosting company.	Feh.


> (of the lot of such recent movies, I liked "Bend it like Beckham" the best!)

BilB was definitely one of the better movies. 

'American Desi' was another good one. 'East is East' had recd. mixed
reviews but I liked it.  'Bollywood Calling' (also good) is somewhat 
different in that it is not about an NRI family but still falls under 
the fusion genre. 

Watch out for 'The Guru', the next fusion flick this time from Hollywood. 

 
> P.S: This job of Movie reviews  was earlier nicely done by Ms. Sapna Harshal
> Chhaya in their Bollywood Grapevine. Missing it!

I'll let her know. Maybe the feedback will help the reviews come back.

- Harshal

-- 
 http://www.mumbai-central.com : Where Mumbaikars meet


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To join/leave, use the form at: http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/#options
This list is archived at: http://www.mumbai-central.com/nukkad/archive.html