We have a few Indian Dopers, I’m just wondering if there is something equivalant for Bollywood.
I generally use www.sulekha.com/movies/ if I’m being dragged kicking and screaming to one of those monstrosities. At least it allows me to mitigate the damage.
:: mock horror :: Monstrosities! Well…sure, but I still do love them. The older ones, anyway.
Thanks for the linky!
My boyfriend loves them so I’m usually bribed out…I just saw this truly rancid one, btw…“Kyon Ki” starring Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Dude, she’s hideous for Hindi movie standards. Her dad must know someone because apparently she’s a year younger than me and looks about 30.
The songs were intensely hummable, though, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.
I don’t watch the modern ones much at all. Unless someone makes me. I really like 70’s and 80’s Bollywood flicks.
Two that I’ve used are the Bollywood Movie Database and Bollyvista.
Kareena isn’t actually that old and is more tolerable than most Bollywood stars; but her makeup has been crap lately and she hasn’t got that many good roles (like that’s hard in Indian cinema). I’ve actually met a few Indian film stars in my time in South Asia, and we were made to watch them in Tamil class; so I’ve watched more than my share for a westerner. Aishwairya Rai is a huge * naggi kalli mandi* or nose in the air, and she wears colored contacts; Amitabh Bachchan is a cool guy and will talk with anyone; Shah Rukh Khan likes cigars and Johhnie Walker Red Label.
I’ve seen only a very small sample of Bollywood flicks, but those few give me the need to ask:
What percentage of Bollywood flicks do not star Amitabh Bachan?
I looked up imdb, and they do list bollywood films. I did a quick search for films released in 1980, and it brought up a list of 'em. I don’t know how exhaustive their listing is though.
Kareena Kapoor is royalty in bollywood… her grandfather was Raj Kapoor. That opens any door you want opened. I think she’s in her mid-20s.
I don’t watch hindi films (maybe 2 or 3 in a year), but some of the new ones are pretty good. I particularly enjoyed Black, Parineeta and Sarkar this year. The Legend of Bhagat Singh last year was pretty good too.
Make that “I don’t normally watch hindi films…”
Bollywood churns out about 200-odd films a year. Amitabh Bachchan does maybe 3 films a year.
Alright, I’ve only seen a couple Bollywood movies (Can’t recal the names, but one was about some people who got lost on an island, or something, and wound up in a hotel? It was older, fro mthe 80s or 70s) But can someone asnwer a qusetion about Bollywood that I have:
I was told by…someone, or read somewhere, that most of Bollywood movies are musicals. Is this true? If so…why? I can enjoy a good musical as much as the next guy, but I can’t imagine that if there are 200 movies a year, let’s say 130 musicals, that even ten of them could be good musicals.
They all have songs, yes. All of them! Here is the standard format of an Indian movie:
Guy meets girl
Guy falls in love with girl
Parental disapproval ensues/villain loves girl to & kidnaps her/something else happens
All is resolved magically
girl & guy get together
Some do vary from this plot. I once saw a great murder-mystery which I was really impressed at - no songs, and a very interesting story.
So there is usually 4-6 songs in every Indian movie. Um…you can’t technically call them musicals, though. Just doesn’t feel the same. Also, just as American movies can suck or not, Indian movies suck or don’t suck. The older ones are the best, but there’s been a few out lately - like Veer-Zaara - which are pretty good.
Yeah, well, when Mummy was a movie star, and Daddy’s Daddy was a movie star, and Daddy’s Daddy’s Daddy was a movie star, one’s Uncles are movie stars, and Big Sis is a movie star, what do you expect?
And I agree, she’s not pretty by Bollywood standards – I think its the lips.
Could you all recommend some good Bollywood movies, then? Some really shining examples? I tend to like action movies, mysteries, film noir, and I’m always up for a good comedy (but not really in the Jane Austen “domestic comedy” sense). I like musicals way more than I should, so I’d be up for just about anything good. Oh, and I think Aishwarya Rai is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen in my life, but I’ve never seen a movie with her in it.
Oh, those Kapoors. That makes sense, then. My art-snob father has this issue with movies made after some random cut-off date (1974 or something) so he doesn’t really keep up on modern movies and my mother and I don’t talk about it much since she’s usually parked in front of that evil Indian tv channel…Zee-TV or whatever. The bf told me she was born in 80 which makes her a year younger than me but I think she looks like she’s in her late 20s.
Although in Kyon Ki I felt a little bit of empathy for her because when the light hit her face at just the right angle you could tell she had bleached her sideburns. Poor thing. Even the lofty among us in Bollywood still demonstrate that they’re sisters of the pelt belt. My bf had to spend half the movie telling me to shut up about wanting to give her a good wax.
I’ve been thinking about this. I wouldn’t recommend Indian flicks for action at all, the dishoom-dishoom of the fights is atrocious.
Comedy is good. Look for movies with Amitabh Bacchan, Khader Khan. I like Namak Halaal, Natwar Lal, and Coolie. Anil Kapoor is also my favorite actor, but he does a lot of very serious movies.
Anand is a wonderful movie but deadly serious.
Naseeb - beautiful, with some funny parts.
Swayamvar is an older funny movie.
Indian movies tend more toward the dramatic.
Main Hoon Na is a modern film (i think it came out last year, actually) that I caught on TV one time. I thought it was great 
Pretty much a mix of all kind of genres, really.
Oo, that reminds me - I really liked Veer-Zarra. A lot.
I once asked in an old Cafe Society thread if there were analogs in Indian film to movies like Die Hard or Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Das Boot.
I was told essentially: “of course not – they’re ALL musicals”.
So there are no independent filmmakers in India making movies that reject Bollywood conventions? The songless murder mystery Anaamika mentions above would at least be one movie that goes its own way.
It shocked me to see musical interludes in Lagaan, for example. I knew the plot beforehand and expected a straightforward historical drama. Musicals qua musicals are fine, and musical interludes in comedies often work OK (e.g. Ferris Beuller’s Day Off), but I can’t get into musical numbers in the middle of a dramatic film (unless it’s distinctly part of the plot, as in a movie about a singer). Takes me right out of the movie.