I just want to say that Bride & Prejudice is quite definitely the worst movie ever made. I got it for my mother for Christmas. She loves it. She’s going to love me. But I hate me right now. I can’t really say I like any Bollywood movies, because I never watch any. Despite being Indian. God, I’m a terrible person.
Ah, sez you. We thought it was adorable.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I’m not a man, but that’s not the point. I must say, though, I’m impressed that you can manage to live through that “no life without wife” song.
Its cheesy, hillarious, and an amusing parody of the attitude of a certain type of Indian man. What’s not to like? 
Cheesy, yes. Hilarious… possibly, but unintentionally. “Amusing parody of the attitude of a certain type of Indian man,” …well it’s not much of a parody. It’s a fully accurate depiction, nothing over the top at all. Which is painful in itself. And to answer your question, it just hurts my ears.
I’m English, but have seen a number of Bollywood movies through friends. My favourites so far: Lagaan, Monsoon Wedding (which I think is a British made film consciously imitating Bollywood), Asoka, and Bobby.
I’m curious about the amount of love shown here for Lagaan, though - in watching it myself I thought that it was terrific, but that it would make very little sense if you’re not reasonably familiar with the rules of cricket. For those who watched it without knowing much about cricket, did the second half drag relative to the first? Has it interested you in the game of cricket?
We knew nothing about cricket before the movie (though, neither did the players in the film), but wanted to better follow along, so during the “intermission”, we called up a web page and searched for cricket rules, and read them. Twice. Out loud. Shaking our heads in confusion, we went back to the movie. We still didn’t understand everything, but it did help grasp some of what was going on. but even without the cricket knowledge, the movie was entertaining. The songs and dancing were great, and you didn’t have to know anything at all about cricket to know that a lot was at stake and if they lost it would be Really Really Bad. And even though there was no way they were going to lose, it was still tense and exciting.
We didn’t gain an interest in cricket, but now when I see people playing cricket in other movies, I fondly refer back to my Laagan education to try and figure out what’s going on.
Fair enough. I just tend to giggle most of the way through it. Different strokes for different folks I guess.
I’m as anglo-celtic as they come, but count me in the Bollywood-loving camp. Not fanatical, mind you, but I see several per year either on DVD or in theaters. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a couple of B’Wood DVDs on hold at the local public library, and will be picking them up tomorrow – I’m really looking forward to Hum dil de chuke sanam (aka “Straight from the Heart”). I’ve enjoyed many of the ones previously mentioned (Monsoon Wedding, Bride & Prejudice, Lagaan, Devdas; pretty vanilla and Western-friendly, I know), but I’ll also often enjoy “in the moment” a less-mainstream movie that I never really need to see again, so the name gets flushed from memory…
I love going to the Naz 8 in Fremont:
. It’s within walking distance of “Little Kabul”, so I can catch a tasty Afghan meal, stock up on spices and groceries, then head over to Naz: many times I won’t go for a specific film but show up and go for the one with the nearest start time / best poster design / most interesting-looking people waiting in line. I’ve never been a huge fan of popcorn, but the Naz serves great Indian snacks (samosas etc). The audience is often as much fun as the film itself! It makes a wonderful day out.
Ooh! Babul’s playing at the Naz – I’ll have to make plans…
Also, since I love Indian food and curries are often my default “quick fix” meal at home, I’ve occasionally “pulled a domestic Equipoise” and realized that I’m eating Indian food while watching a Bollywood (or other Indian) DVD, totally unplanned.
[Then, of course, I realize that people in India do this all the time, except that they don’t call it “Indian food” or an “Indian movie”, before curling up into a fetal ball and pondering the cosmicity of it all. 
]
Count me in. I’m a former film school geek who hadn’t even seen his film Bollywood film till this year, beginning with Salaam Namaste (Because it’s filmed in my hometown, and indeed at my university) and Kal No Nah Ho (because it was on the same DVD.) and I was immediately hooked.
Favourites, so far -
Sarkar (The Godfather Remake)
Salaam Namaste
Veer-Zara
Devdas
Rang De Basante
Swades
Asoka
Ek Khiladi Ek Hassena
Taal
Wait till you find out that Bollywood is only one of five major film industries in India, and that Bollywood films are routinely remade by the Tollywood, Kollywood, Mollywood and Sandalwood industries.
Bollywood and Hollywood are becoming closer, with more and more Hollywood films being directly ripped or remade by Hollywood, but now Sanjay Dutt’s hit flick Munna Bhai is being remade as a Chris Tucker vehicle.
He was actually at the large gummint facility in Greenbelt, Maryland where I work, filming in the building I work in for “My Country” (don’t remember the Indian title), so I watched that one, and a few others my Indian neighbor recommended. I liked them ok, but all the high pitched singing gives me a headache.
I managed to glean enough information about cricket from Lagaan that it wasn’t totally confusing–I did wonder how I was going to sit through an hour or more of tense cricket action, but it wasn’t a problem at all. I was hooked. I’m thinking of buying that one; at the very least I have to make my parents see it, since they like Indian movies–especially the old-fashioned ones–and I know they’ll love Lagaan. I’m not sure that it will be at our local Blockbuster–I should really go look.
I think Bride and Prejudice is a cute movie, though I don’t like it as well as the real Hindi movies I’ve seen since. I do think it’s a nice introduction for people, since it’s in English and not 3+ hours long, and so you get used to some of the conventions without being thrown into the deep end first. Like I said, a gateway drug. I think the “No life without wife” song is hilarious, but it does make it a little trickier to show the movie to my 6-yo!
One of the very few things I miss about living in the Bay Area is the easy access to Indian food and stuff, but luckily we’ve just gotten a new resturant in town (the last Indian place closed about 4 years ago). He’s only open on weekend evenings (or on Saturday mornings at the farmer’s market), and he’s mobbed the whole time. I missed out last weekend but am definitely planning on a run on Friday, and will stock up for the week.
I’m glad you enjoyed it - for the record, the second half is worth a re-watch if you ever become more familiar with the rules of cricket. Just like the universe is cooler when you understand physics, it’s neat to watch the way the game plays out for the result that we all expect.
I’d forgotten about that, but I’ve only seen the movie once. It was silly, but I remember enjoying it. Besides, the women were so cute during it.
(uncultured rube alert) Before seeing Bride and Prejudice I had never read the source book (though of course I had heard of it) or seen any other adaptations, so B&P was my real first exposure to P&P. When I saw the Keira Knightly version I was all prepared because I already knew the gist of the story.
I agree with dangermom that it would be a good “gateway” movie.
Bewildebeest, are you saying that Shahrukh Khan filmed a Bollywood movie in America?
Leechboy, “five major film industries in India”? Wow. I knew Bollywood was only one aspect of the Indian film industry but didn’t know any details at all. I knew there were lots of Indian films that don’t have any singing or dancing. I wanted to see Water when it was in the theaters but missed it. I will see it. I saw one on TV last week. I thought it was called Dil but maybe not, because I can’t find it on IMDB. It was set in modern day. A teenager who lives in a high-rise spies on a young woman the next building over with his telescope. He follows her and makes excuses to bump into her. His spying gets found out and she becomes intrigued by his interest in her and they go on a date together. Unfortunately I missed the ending but what I saw was an interesting psychological drama. I also saw a good movie at the Chicago Film Festival 2 years ago but I can’t remember the name of it. It was a lesbian love story that was very beautiful and interesting, and I’m kicking myself for having a bad memory. Come to think of it, it probably didn’t originate with the Indian film industry though, considering how tight the standards are (no kissing allowed). It was made by an Indian woman though, because she was there and answered questions after the film.
Yep! This one. They were here filming for about 3 days. About two minutes of all that is in the movie,
Well, Swades
You know, I didn’t think to ask this until now, when the thread is probably dying anyhow and no one is going to look. But oh well. This one is probably for the actual Indian folks who know something.
When I was in college, I saw an episode or two of a very long (90 episodes?) TV dramatization of one of the great epics–I think is was probably the Mahabarata. It was not new in the early 90’s, when I saw it, and everyone was wearing the very elaborate costumes and the gold crowns with the sunburst-y things on the back and so on. I suppose it was in Hindi, but I wouldn’t know. Apparently it was tremendously successful. Does anyone know what this was, and if it’s now available on DVD? I would assume so, but since I’m not really all that sure what it was now, I can’t find it. I would really like to see more of it.
Thank you. I’d heard of that one but haven’t seen it.
There is a very long serial of the Mahabharat from about 1988. It’s definitely available on DVD in the UK (it’s on my Netflix queue at the moment), so I imagine it’s also available in the US. Note that in the UK at least there are two versions - one is unabridged, and something like 16 DVDs. There’s also a 5-DVD version that presumably just hits the highlights.
Thanks, I found it on IMDB, but it’s not available on Netflix here. Strange. I wasn’t at all sure that it was the Mahabharata, it could have been one of the other stories, so I’m glad to have that confirmed.