Bollywood/Hollywood

This homage to Bollywood movies is actually a melodramatic farce with vibrant colors and a just dose of romance. The movie does have some charm and is funny in more than one way. But more musical numbers would have been nice. Good to get a taste of what life is for the Toronto's East Indian community. Nice way to address the culture clash of Toronto's multi-cultural facade. The acting is good by Rahul Khanna and gorgeous Lisa Ray.

Out of 100, I give it 80. That's good for *** out of ****.

Seen in Toronto, at the Alliance Atlantis Cumberland Cinemas, on November 3rd, 2002.

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.

For all those who felt the film was not the most fabulous or felt it wasn't a representative of the Bollywood industry etc., then you need to know this:

1) This movie was sold as a spoof of the Indian film industry like 'Not another teen movie' was a parody of 'Chick Flicks' and as the 'Scary Movie' series are for horror films; this film was meant to be exaggerated and outrageous.

2) Also to understand the humour of this film, you need to a know a lot about the Indian film industry and the references to the 'gossip' and films; even the music that is played as a score are insinuations to various Indian films. The transvestite driver, 'Killer Khalsa' sequence are a citation to a lot of stereotypes; Indian movies have transvestites as they are a part of society and as for the 'Killer Khalsa' sequence, the allusion to the food and the absurdity of the matchmaking are ever present in Indian films.

3) The segments of the film where it is obvious that Deepa Mehta's first language is not English are the segments where there are references to Indian sayings or style of speaking and that is true of many N.R.I's.

I am astonished at the people who disliked it; the audience should be aware of the context of this movie because admittedly there are people who appreciate Indian style films (in which case that audience should not have watched this film). Deepa Mehta is renowned for her art films ('Fire' (1996), 'Earth' (1998) and the upcoming 'Water') and this movie was created for a satirical view of the current films, especially the N.R.I. films.

What is commonly seen as a flaw of this movies is actually a part of the sardonic look at Indian films; of course if there are are filming discontinuities, I have not noticed. I give this film a 9 out of 10 due to the technical flaws (for example, 'Kim's' accident and the 'ghost' sequence) and also because of Lisa Ray's stylists' lack of fashion IQ as she was made to look pretty horrid through out this movie.

When you don't expect much from a movie and it makes you smile, laugh and gaze – then it can be said that it is a has been worth while.

What made me smile? Well it was really the whole concept of BH. English dialogue being spoke by Indians and them dancing to Indian songs. It was a reminder that 2002 was definitely the year off bollywood in the UK. I saw BH at the same time as seeing the West End production of Andrew Lloyd Webbers ‘Bombay Dreams' and they both made me sit up and look twice. Also the director has purposely ensured that it is a simple story line, easy to follow and easy to relate to. A plus point is that it is the length of an English movie rather than an Indian one (90 minutes compared to 240).

What made me laugh? Definitely the grandmother and her quotes. Dina Pathak definitely did a good job on this and was good to she her outside her Indian movies. The over the top mother was also very good, typical of some mothers.

No need to guess what made me gaze? Well it was Lisa Ray. This movie really made me look up and take notice of her. Her performance is good, though with some room for improvement. She looks really good in the song ‘Sona Sona'.

Overall, a good entertainment movie to watch on a night in.

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.