I neglected to directly address the OP. AFAIK, you can find Bollywood movies in IMDB. Experiment and see if you can find noted Indian movies that are not listed in IMDB.
Dimple Kapadia has starred in movies that addressed a few very deep issues. Two of the examples are wife-beating, divorcees. Her movies generally do NOT have songs, but a lot of social commentary. I’ll see if I can hunt down the names.
Eeshar - Anil Kapoor - has songs, but it’s about the life of a mildly retarded man and a divorcee with a child in India. Very moving.
Anand is about a young man who is dying of cancer, and yet goes out of his way to bring joy - anand - to all those around him.
There are a handful, hopefully others will be along to tell you more.
My parents just came back from India and brought back a bunch of Marathi movies that don’t have songs in them. I watched one that was fairly decent…I guess it was shortlisted for an Academy Award or something. It was about a child going blind and how it affected the lives of everyone around him. The kid (probably an amateur) was really good in it and they had amazing footage of Southern Maharashtra, close to Goa. I think it’s that particular brand of Bollywood movie that will have music 99% of the time but there are filmmakers from other parts of the country on a more “indie” scene that basically make plain old foreign films without all that impromput cliff-dancing somewhere on the peaks of the Alps.
Anything much in the way of Indian science fiction movies? Not necessarily space operas like Star Wars – future-world works along the lines of Gattaca or Blade Runner would count as well.
Has anyone ever attempted to put portions of Hindu religious text, like the Rig Veda, to film? This is done often in American film, with The Ten Commandments and The Passion of the Christ being examples. Many movies have been made based on Greek Mythology, as well.
Don’t know about the first, but the Mahabharat, Ramayan, and Krishna’s story have all been put on film. I really liked the Mahabharat, but there are people here who don’t like the Chopra version. And I love all rendtions of the Krishna story.
Ramayan not so much, but mainly because it’s harder for me to believe that stuff.
They successfully serialized both the Mahabharata and if I remember correctly, also the Ramayana (two epic poems on two different avatars, and the first one contains the Bhagavad Gita) and the last time I was there it seemed like there were umpteen shows on TV about gods.
I can’t imagine putting the Vedas to film. Listening to that chanting in temple makes me want to slit my wrists.
Ha, ha - beat you to it!
I actually rather like the chanting, most likely since I’ve moved so far out of my culture and don’t have to hear it as much. To me, it sounds familiar and comforting. Then again, as we’ve discussed, I was part of a very progressive temple and a great deal of our services were in Hindi as well. And we were encouraged to take part.
bordelond…if you are interested the name of the movie was Shwaas (it means breath in Marathi). I know Bengali cinema is supposed to be pretty big as well, i.e. the Apu Trilogy.
The only one I can think of off the top of my head that’s pure science fiction would me “Koi Mil Gaya”, which is essentially an Indian ET, with songs. Apart from that, not much. “Swades” has Shah Rukh Khan (swoons) playing a NASA rocket scientist, but its more a full on patriotism film rather than a sci-fi.
For action type stuff, the only one I can think of recently, which is more action than love, is “Line of Control”, about the last Indo-Pakistan war, heavily biased towards the Indians, of course.
A couple of good-ish films I saw that dealt with social commentary were “Fire” (dealing with lesbianism in India), and “Chameli”, which deals with prostitution in India, but does star the insufferable Ms Kareena Kapoor.
Many of producer/director Ram Gopal Verma’s films make for excellent viewing.
His first hindi movie, Rangeela, was quite enjoyable - and Aamir Khan’s performance in it was simply outstanding.
The films Satya and Company were both mafia based, and absolutely brilliant. Also pathbreaking, in that they featured no songs! It was Satya that actually made me a bit more open to watching hindi films.
Kaun and Bhoot were thrillers, and were very well made.
Sarkar, loosely based on The Godfather (also allegedly based on the life of a certain Mumbai politician) was one of my favourite films this year.
Ab Tak Chappan, with another stellar performance by Nana Patekar, was also great. He produced this one.
I quite like Dil Se…, though it wasn’t a commmercial success. It had terrorism in north-eastern India as it’s subject.
Hi guys,
[BRIEF HIJACK] I’m new here, so pardon any faux pass or inappropriate content, i’m still getting familiar with the rules and etiquette. Ive bene lurking for a while now, and I love this board - I’ll be whipping out the Visa and paying up in the next few days. )[/BRIEF HIJACK]
Bollywood doesnt have anywhere near the diversity that English (the language, not the country), has. However, while it is true that most movies are the way Anaamika describes, there’s been a bit of a concerted movement of late to move away from the mould a bit.
While I’m not a bollywood freak (I go kicking and screaming :rolleyes: ), there have been some good ones, past and recent:
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All old Kishore Kumar films: Yes, they did have a fair amount of musical content, but KK was a great artiste, his acting was sublime. Ditto Guru Dutt, whom my mom loves.
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Andaaz Apna Apna, starring Aamir Khan: A complete pisstake on all things bollywood. Hilarious.
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Teen Deeware, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Nagesh Kukunoor (who also directed it): damn fine movie, sensible plot, NO songs.
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Iqbal, starring Naseeruddin Shah, directed by Nagesh Kukunoor: A good movie abt a small town boy who’s a deaf mute, and wants to play cricket. Slightly formula, but well put together. 1 song, but it plays in thebackground during one scene, and thats it. yay.
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Sholay: Nuff said.
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Shakti, starring Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachan: one of my favs.
** Anaamika **, i dont know if this is inappropriate, since I’m sort of new here (despite lurking for a while now, i’ve only registered yesterday), but your last name wdnt happen to be Gopal, would it?
Lagaan is also rather good – it stars Aamir Khan as a guy from a little village (close to where my family’s from in fact) taking on the might of the British Raj through that traditional method of warfare – cricket. There’s a lot of social history there though too.
I forgot one of my favorites - Umrao Jaan, about prostitution.
Nope. Not offended, either, but why would you think so?
Oh, and I second all of **sniperfang’s ** recommendations.
Well, I read a thread of yours where you mentioned you were 29, and that you were born in India, but are now an American citizen… and that pretty much matches a girl I went to school with, now an american citizen. She’d be about 28 or 29 now.
I’ve been in the States since I was 4, and a citizen since around 8 or so. I remember taking the vows.
Either way, I think I am not your friend. 
Did you lose touch with her? That’s a pity.
Just finished watching Fire by Deepa Mehta (which was already mentioned), and will soon be watching Earth. Fire supposedly caused some rioting in India, but it’s not terribly controversial by US standards.
Anyway, no musical numbers.