Bollywood/Hollywood

Rahul is quite well off, hard working, young and handsome. However when he tells his mother and grandmother that he has been seeing a white woman, they bully him into letting them help him select a nice Asian girl – a promise he made to his dying father convinces him to give it a try. Naturally it is a disaster but he cannot get out of it now. Consoling himself in a bar he meets a woman called Sue – she looks a bit East Asian but maybe Spanish, regardless she could certainly pass for Asian if it wasn't for her very western attitudes and dress. It occurs to him that she may be able to help him and he offers her money to pretend to be his Asian girlfriend. She accepts but getting her dressed correctly is only the first step.

Sold as an affectionate cross between the structure and style of an American (well, Canadian) romantic comedy and the Bollywood films, this film manages to have enough of each to be recognisable and still produce sufficient mutual good to be enjoyable. In truth, neither cinematic culture is that well represented here because neither is the best it has to offer but the mix still works for the most part. The story is pretty obvious but, aside from the odd moment here and there, flows well with a bit of spark and energy. From the "American" side of things it is engaging and occasionally sweet even if it plays pretty much to formula the whole way. The Bollywood stuff is mainly the song and dance routines and, although they are OK, they don't quite have the size and style of the best that Indian cinema has to offer – although the film still does well enough and the songs are quite cool.

The cast take to the mixed material well. Khanna plays up the Indian background well in contrast with his Canadian home; he isn't great but he does the job. Ray is a lot more fun because she has a sassy character that works well with her as an actress. Her looks and her attitude make her an appealing character and actress and she helped the energy level of the whole film. The rest of the cast are so-so but nothing special. I enjoyed the turn from Pathak but Chowdry, Malik and Mann weren't that good.

Overall this is an OK film that I quite enjoyed but not one that will still in my memory for that long. It has enough life to it to be entertaining without ever threatening to be that original, clever or memorable. Worth a look if you like Bollywood films because it does work as a slightly different take on them but generally it probably isn't good enough to draw a much wider audience.

One caveat: if you have never seen a Bollywood movie, you probably won't find this very funny. The point is, director Deepa Mehta has taken just about every Bollywood cliché, exaggerated it, swirled it around and mixed it with a Hollywood love story and created a perfectly funny Bollywood parody that had me in giggles from the weepy deathbed scene at the beginning through most of the movie.

Depth? Don't expect any. This is about as lightweight (and sometimes silly) as comedy can get, with the usual suspension of disbelief necessary for Bollywood movies.

The title doesn't really have anything to do with the plot; it's more of a programmatic statement, as Mehta tries to intertwine Bollywood and Hollywood elements into a musical romantic comedy.

The Bollywood bits are the more successful, as Mehta sems to have the necessary expertise to exploit them for parody and quirky humour; sadly, the weakest point of the movie is when the Bollywood/Hollywood formula shifts too much towards the Hollywood side and tries to incorporate too much of the typical Hollywood 'romantic comedy' storyline. All of a sudden the script seems to take itself too seriously, and the whole thing, which had been very fresh and entertaining up until then, suddenly tastes very stale, and we get the umpteenth reprise of "love in danger through misunderstanding", and whereas the Bollywood melodrama had been masterly turned into brilliant parody, the Hollywood drama just stands as it is and is presented at face value, which is a major disappointment.

However, the 75 minutes of hilarious Bollywood parody will more than compensate for those 15 minutes of Hollywood lameness. So will the excellent Bollywood-inspired (and Hollywood-compatible) music. Just don't expect depth.

I am a fan of satire, and this movie has not been appreciated for what it is - a spoof, not only of the high flying Bollywood musicals with weeping widows and on-cue dance routines in full costume but it is also a subtle rendition of Shakespeare's own comedy plays of mistaken identities and the "play within the play" feature which was witfully alluded to by the comic relief Indian Grand-ma in sneakers who bemoans "All the world's a stage" often enough to wrangle out a grin. I found it delightful and light which doesn't disappoint in wrenching out a smug smile and leaving one feeling good. Much needed therapy for all sub-continents nowadays. Don't expect Bollywood - or even Hollywood - when settling back to take in the action as it flies at you full throttle - but a magical space in between in suspended disbelief.

Nice attempt at a combination of Bollywood *and* Hollywood spoof, plus gentle fun being poked at the Indian-Canadian community. But too amateurish a production, and TOO LONG! After introducing the characters, the story drags and drags till you lose interest.

The silent subtitles are sometimes funny ("Non-veg scene. What to do?") but mostly just annoying and trying too hard. Similarly, uneven quality and terrible delivery by the young characters makes the dialogue embarrassing.

The biggest problem is the movie's own utterly predictable storyline. Just because it's spoofing Pretty Woman and numerous Bollywood movies doesn't mean its own story has to be such a cliche.

I gave it a 6 out of 10 for trying, but I think I was being too generous.

I see some of the reviewers here describe this as a parody of or satire on Bollywood musicals. Having seen nothing of Bollywood except a few music clips, I can't talk about that. I have to take this movie at face value, and on its face this is a moderately diverting musical with a few good moments amidst too many rather drab ones.

The story is somewhat interesting, the character of Sue, who fulfills the role of shaker-upper-of-things is quite appealing, and some of the musical numbers are pleasant (surprisingly, no one sang in that helium-junkie pitched style the girls all seem to have whenever I see clips from Bollywood musicals, although I don't know if this is because they were trying to make the movie more appealing to the west by having a more western-style voice singing these Indian songs or whether that high-pitched voice isn't as common as it seems to be). But the movie feels underdeveloped (even though I found it a little dull, I still felt it needed to be longer to flesh itself out) and most of the characters are overly generic (except for the grandmother and Sue's father). Ultimately watchable but nothing more, unless you're a fan of Bollywood films in which case this may work on a whole different level I don't see.