This is the place for all Bollywood lovers to hang out and talk about Indian Movies.
The latest one I’ve seen is Lage Raho Munna Bhai, is kind of a sequel to Munna Bhai MBBS. Its pretty good I’d give it a 8/10 but I like the first one more.
This wont go down well but we have 4 Bollywood screens in my local multiplex..this means Indie movies and Horror flicks such as SLITHER or THE NOTORIOUS BETTIE PAGE (which was a critics fave getting no less than 4 stars in any review) not being screened and this pisses me off.
This aint racism but on the whole your avarage non indian cinema viewer ...me for example...aint going to see a Bollywood pic as from what ive seen they are not exactly on a par with Scorcese and revolve around a lot of singing and dancing and not much else
Whereas your indian and pakastani dudes can watch either.
So i lose out...whilst you get the best of both worlds.
Kind of a pisser aint it
i wouldnt watch one
they arent my cup of tea
ive caught bits,seen movie show reports and read about them but they just seem like a lot of dated singing and dancing.
Well i watched one last night on tv to see what all the fuss was about Prabhodh
it was a film called DHOOM and it was preposterous
it was cliched and everything about it was just WRONG
it was an action movie and it made your average Jean Claud Van Damme movie look like sophisticated entertainment.
Not hard enough IMO. You're willing to judge the entire Indian film industry on one, tongue-in-cheek wannabe action flick. Seriously?
That's because Indian films (Hindi, and increasingly Tamil) are becoming big business in the UK. They're regularly getting into the top ten. A recent film Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna made it to number 6 on the charts, when it was only shown on 60 screens nationwide - it made an average of £12,487 compared to the average of £2,716 for Nacho Libre and £1,578 for Lady in the Water (released the same week). So, its big business.
Secondly, if I want to go see an indie film, I'll go to an indie cinema, not my local multiplex. Its sad that TNBP "lost out" but multiplexes are there to make money, and Hindi cinema is extremely profitable.
How would you know? You've only seen one (mediocre) Hindi film.
"Western" media reports on Hindi cinema and Indian cinema in general are extremely patronising, and often enough get their facts wrong ("Bollywood" makes over 600 films a year? no, the entire Indian film industry makes 600 films a year - Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malay, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi...). And they just love to stick in some big snazzy dance number to enforce those stereotypes.
Dhoom is preposterous. Its cliched. Its hilarious. Its a vapid entertainer. And its extremely westernized.
If you're willing to try another (which I sadly doubt since you seem to have pretty made up your mind about an entire film industry based on one film) then you might want to give some more "serious", better made films a try. A few suggestions:
Rang De Basanti - film released in January this year. Tagged "a generation awakens", it deals with a group of waster uni friends. Its urbane and slick and has a great soundtrack by A. R. Rahman (no, no big dance numbers unless you count the title track - if you don't believe me, search "rang de basanti" on youtube - which is a montage and includes a bit of bhangra ). Interesting and provocative film.
Omkara - an adaptation of Othello set in modern day India. Powerful and extremely well adapted.
Dil Chahta Hai - a very popular film amongst the urban youth, its about 3 college friends in Mumbai. Innovative soundtrack with a spoof of Hindi dance numbers.
Dil Se - I don't know quite how to describe this film... other than to say its set in Northern India and is about a love story and terrorism. With a sublime Rahman soundtrack (Chale Chaiyya being the most famous and well-loved - probably re-defines the meaning of "music video", again check it out on youtube) this has become a cult classic. One of Spike Lee's favourite films apparently.
Just please don't judge the biggest film industry in the world (ah, such a cliche) on one film.
Last edited by insomniak on Oct 23rd, 2006 at 09:46 PM
Ok well
i guess i lied about just seeing the one
i have often catched bits of (enough)Bollywood flicks over the years on late night Channel 4
im still not convinced
I still think that bollywood movies should be kept away from the multiplex near where i live
im not being racist here
they are pretty much only of interest to asians whereas cinema choice should be for all.
they..much like say an award winning Polish movie or a north Korean horror flick should be in a specialist cinema like the Cornerhouse where i finally got to see THE NOTORIOUS BP
but its all about dosh.....
And i know exactly Bollywood ticket sales are on the up whilst a lot of other ticket sales are down but i aint got time for that today...ill type it up tommorow.
I often wonder why empire,Total Film stay away from reviewing Bollywood flicks if they are so "popular"
If Channel 4 are screening them i guess they are good representations of bollywood flicks
and on FILM 2006 they had a trailer to DHOOM 2 and i nearly died laughing at how bad it was
totally NAFF
First of all i dont know what the feck channel four is and you guessed wrong, if you wanna get to know a movie industry take advice from people who allready know it, but you've come to a conclusion that all bollywood movies are crap stop posting in this thread.
and again a film that i want see - PANS LABYRINTH has been given the miss for 3 screenings of DHOOM2 and two other song and dance with added naffness wastes of celluloid at my local multiplex.
Its time that a seperate Bollywood cinema was built in my area as ive had enough of 5 star films missing out for crap like DHOOM
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The Bollywood Corner.
Oct 5th, 2006 04:02 AM
). Interesting and provocative film.
