I like Asian culture, and am particular interested in Indian culture and history. I’m not a big fan of “Bollywood” musicals, though, the three-hour soap epics where they break into song and dance every 20 minutes. I would like recommendations for – well, I don’t want to use the word “serious”, so let’s say non-musical – films coming out of India.
At least as far as exposure to the West is concerned, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of this aside from Shekhar Kapur (Bandit Queen) and Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). I’m sure I must be missing out on something.
(Ironically, one of the best “Indian” films I have seen, Such a Long Journey, is a Canadian production by an Icelandic director, based on a novel by an Indian expat, Rohinton Mistry.)
Salaam Bombay directed by Mira Nair, who also directed Monsoon Wedding . I really enjoyed Monsoon Wedding but thought Salaam Bombay was much better, it’s on my top 20 (at least) all time favorite movies.
I have the same dilemma, I love Asian film and would like to see more Indian movies but don’t like the Bollywood musicals. You would probably also like to see movies directed by Satyajit Ray, the only ones I’m familiar with are the three in the Apu trilogy, which are Aparajito, Pather Panchali and The World of Apu
I think they may have a few songs in there but they’re generally considered pretty “arty” films…one is called “Earth” and the other is “Fire.” There’s also “East is East” about Indians in London. And “Bend it like Beckham” about a Punjabi girl wanting to be a footballer, of course.
Mira Nair also did “Kama Sutra” and “Mississipi Masala” but people seem to be all over the place on those two. I’ve generally heard positive comments about MM-not so much about Kama Sutra.
Thanks, both of you. I’ve ordered Salaam Bombay, and I need to go check out Bend it as well.
East is East is brilliant, of course. Another film in a similar vein, if I may make a counter-recommendation, is Jalla! Jalla!, a charming comedy about, among other things, a Lebanese family in Sweden. Young, integrated Lebanese-Swede wants to marry native Swedish girl, family wants him to marry into a different Lebanese family; hilarity ensues. Highly recommended, and disregard the snarky comment currently displayed on the IMDb page.
Satyajit Ray is a masterful filmmaker, very similar to Kurosawa in terms of stature, range and artistic ability. *Pather Panchali * is one of his classics but you can’t go wrong on any of his films. A whole bunch of his films have been subtitled and released in the US (thanks to Merchant Ivory productions)
There are other interesting regional film-makers (Adoor Gopalakrishan comes to mind) but I doubt if you can get that subtitled in the US. BTW, some of the Indian-themed Ivory-Merchant films are well-made.
One of my personal favorites is a film called My Beautiful Laundrette. It’s about an extended Pakistani family in England… very interesting characters and portrayal of the social fabric, tensions et al. It is based on a book by Hanif Kureishi.
(I am not too fond of Mira Nair… her films come across as either too glitzy, contrived or deprecating. Mississippi Masala was not bad, but Monsoon Wedding was pathetic. Deepa Mehta, who made Fire is even worse)
Regarding Kama Sutra, I don’t remember it being all that good. It was sort of “He’s an artist! She’s a beautiful girl! They’re talking. SEX! She’s a concubine now. RED HOT MONKEY LOVE! Oh, he’s dead. But they LOVED each other and SUFFERED for that love.” Rather cheesy and immature story, really. It’s been a while since I saw it, however, so if you want to support the movie, go right ahead.
I know the OP said they didn’t want “musicals”, but Bombay is really quite good. It’s set during the Hindu-Muslim riots in the 90s and gives a real human face to the societal tensions. There are, if I remember correctly, two music breaks, the first one which can be fast-forwarded through. Neither of them are very long and the one at the end is actually kind of moving.
It is strange that you thought Kamasutra was cheesy and immature but *Bombay * wasn’t.
The first part of Bombay contains a bunch of incredibly cheesy love-at-first-glance scenes. The guy is a Hindu while the girl is Muslim.
Cut to second part: Hindu-Muslim riots… and the couple is on the streets looking for each other and their kids, everyone is killing each other… and in the climactic last shot we see the Hindu guy beseeching everyone to stop the violence.
This film didn’t spend even a minute talking about the riots, its origins, the complexities, the bigotry, nothing. It just had this one shot where the male protagonist in a highly contrived melodramatic setting mouths inanities about violence being bad. I expect much more from a film that purports to tell the tale of a dramatic social event through personal narratives.