Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)
Rahul Seth is a dashing young millionaire who believes he is "western" enough to rebel against his mother and grandmother. They are not too keen about his Caucasian girlfriend Kimberly who, to make matters worse, is a pop star. Before you can say "karmic intervention," Kimberly dies in a freak accident and Rahul is devastated. Instead of allowing him to mourn in peace, Rahul's mother sees the opportunity she's been waiting for. She threatens to call off his sister's wedding unless he finds himself a "nice Indian girl." Rahul enlists the services of Sue, a fiercely independent escort whom he believes to be Hispanic, and therefore not "married" to the conventions taught to young Indian women. With a wink in her eye, Sue accepts the deal to pose as his Indian bride-to-be. She needs the money and having never been a fan of the typical Indian male, she feels her heart is safe. The charade begins....
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SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?
This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Bollywood meets Hollywood is an excellent movie. The characters are well drawn out, and the visuals beautiful. It is in English without the subtitles, and for an English speaker this is a plus. I love all that is Indian, and when I can just immerse myself in the experience; even better. I am not always a fan of the persistent music; however, when the music is beautiful and related to actual events, visually stunning, then the song and dance is a welcome addition. This is an enjoyable movie with beautiful characters both artistically and visually. Many of the characters are a staple of a Deepa Mehta film, and as always deliver on a promise. Lisa Ray is stunning, and has a talent that needs to be explored.
When I saw the first scenes of this movie, I quickly knew there was something nice going to happen, although I also knew that my sudden interest was not for what was going to happen, but for how it was going to happen. Maybe that's why for most of us moviegoers that do know about Indian movies, the 'how' was full of a smooth and unusual self laughing, telling by the performance of the main actresses performing the mother and the grandma (which have based their careers in the Indian way of rising soap operas to the category of mainstream movies), to whom you would never believe they were also capable to make you laugh by portraying two funny old ladies anxious to get this Ross-like grown kid married. You have to like Indian music to enjoy it as a musical, so that doesn't count too much. But one of the things that makes it universal is the way it drives us to think about one of the dilemmas in modern couples when they face marriage. What are we after when we look for a lifetime partner?: From a guy perspective, should we accept the randomly crazy, next-door, average Rachael we all come up to get to know some time?, or should we look for the trust and confidence generally associated to old values? In that sense the movie does succeed at providing funny (and musical)moments, beauty, and a happy ending to our own thoughts. I strongly disagree to those who qualify it as a bad movie. Hey, would Casablanca ever have a chance to be a blockbuster nowadays? No way. You have to know about movies to fully enjoy it in the 21st century. With Bollywood/Hollywood it happens exactly the same. You would need to have seen some previous Indian productions to understand the keys and the reflections inside. Otherwise you'll focus only on technical details like the editing or the story timing, which will probably bias your judge unfairly.
Bollywood Hollywood starts off like a spoof on the films of the former (Bollywood), from the first scene where a dying father makes a speech to his young son from his deathbed on family values to the comic sub-titles in many of the scenes which take on different aspects of Hindi movie melodramas. But the movie falters and ends up looking like the very films it appears to be trying to parody.Rahul (Rahul Khanna), a wealthy young man of Indian origin settled in Canada, is distraught when his gori lover dies in a freak incident. Somewhere at this point his mother demands that he get himself a girl, an Indian one this time, else his sister's wedding might get called off. He hires Sunitha (Lisa Ray), whom he meets at a bar, to act as his fiancée. As time goes by, he naturally starts falling in love with her. But, her questionable antecedents create doubts in his mind and... I would be giving nothing away if I tell you what follows but I won't do that in case you go on to watch the film.The cast performs well enough but the ideas don't really work and thus a Shakespeare quoting grandmother seems more incongruous than funny and a cross-dressing servant wholly irrelevant. 'Nothing is what it appears to be' goes the promo for the film. However, there are no surprises in this one where everything is as predictable as it gets. It has a few funny moments, but if you miss this flick, don't get too worked up about it.
I enjoyed this film immensely, and found it a humorous take on second-generation Indo-Canadian life. The songs were enjoyable (my only complaint about the film is that the songs weren't subtitled - a bit frustrating for those of us that don't speak Hindi!), and I recommend the film highly - great fun!