Usually I try to write about film from a knowledgeable and well-versed point of view, but when it comes to Bollywood, the commercial Indian cinema that has attracted a worldwide audience over the past four decades or so, I am a passionately enthusiastic novice. I resisted Bollywood films for years; their lengths (three hours or more), as well as the combinations of narrative story and musical numbers were off-putting. Since watching Laagan at the Dobie a couple of years back, I’ve seen every Bollywood film I could find, though I’m still probably clocked in at only about two dozen.
I’ve come to love the exuberance of the song-and-dance numbers, which combine MTV editing and dancing with more traditional Indian styles. Even in dark dramas, there will be explosive, wide-open musical numbers.
In general, these films seem able to shift tone dramatically while covering an enormous amount of genre territory over the course of a movie. A love story with comic moments and extremely patriotic interludes from tracking spies and confronting corruption to waging war is not uncommon. Finding the 75-minute cricket game at the end of Laagan absolutely edge-of-the-seat enthralling while still not understanding one thing about the actual rules and/or purpose of the game indicates the form’s remarkably sophisticated, decidedly un-Hollywood cinematic and storytelling conventions.
These films are not for everyone. I’ve enthusiastically recommended some to people who have stopped watching them early on, shaking their heads at the storytelling and musical styling. It’s hard to describe Asoka, for example, about a legendary Indian ruler who first tried to complete the conquest of the Indian peninsula and then, having grown disgusted by war, became one of the first royal patrons and proponents of Buddhism. But the film is a musical featuring a searing torch song sequence in a tavern early on followed a bit later by scenes of brutally homicidal warfare.
Bollywood and More: Recent Hindi Cinema is a six-film series taking place on Tuesdays from April 19 through May 24 at 7pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Village. The series launches with a special event: a screening of the classic Bollywood film Don accompanied by a four-course traditional Indian meal on Saturday, April 16.
The series officially kicks off with Bollywood/Hollywood a delightful romantic musical look at the conflict and contrasts between Hindi traditions and the modern world, among the most common of Bollywood themes.
Swades (We, the People), written and directed by Laagan‘s Ashutosh Gowariker and starring charismatic international star Shahrukh Khan, further explores these tensions, while also confronting the issues associated with expatriate Indians who have relocated to the U.S. A highlight is the outdoor screening scene where Khan dramatically tears down the screen that separates two different castes (one watches the front of the screen, the other the back). Phir Melenge (We’ll Meet Again) is a straight-ahead, mostly nonmusical melodrama about the deep superstitious stigmatization of HIV-positive Indians, somewhat of an Indian version of Philadelphia except about a heterosexual female advertising executive. This prejudice runs so deep that though the film is completely focused on this topic, the box for the DVD mentions the heroine developing a “problem” without getting specific as to what it is.
I haven’t seen Veer-Zaara or Company, but Lakshya is Bollywood at its most awe-inspiring, as it deftly interweaves disparate tones into a satisfying mosaic. A carefree lazy college student becomes an Indian war hero in actions against Pakistani aggression.
All screenings take place at 7pm at the Alamo Drafthouse Village. For admission info, see www.austinfilm.org.
April 19: Bollywood/Hollywood
April 26: Swades (We, the People)
May 3: Phir Milenge (We’ll Meet Again)
May 10: Veer-Zaaa
May 17: Company
May 24: Lakshya
This article appears in April 15 • 2005.