I can’t even watch the previews, they make me cringe so much. My daughter lived in India a while and keeps trying to drag me to them, but it atin’t gonna happen.
I’m Indian and I can’t watch the vast, vast majority of Bollywood’s films. The plot holes, song and dance sequences, and weak storylines drive me nuts. I don’t mind the ripped off stories so much if the film is well made, but for the most - yuck. I watch maybe 1 or 2 Bollywood films a year, after heavy reccomendation from people whose opinions I feel I can rely on.
In general, I find Bollywood films from the '50s, '60s and '70s much more enjoyable than the newer junk. They’re cheesy as hell now, but I find them fun.
Recent films I liked are Black, Parineeta, Satya and Water (not really a Bollywood film, but the actors are).
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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.
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They’ve made very long TV shows of the 2 great Hindu epics: The Mahabharata and The Ramayana. The former (supposedly) occurred about 6-7 thousand years ago and the latter even earlier.
I have an uncle in India who has a minor role in the Ramayana series.
I watch and enjoy the older Bollywood movies. Although I am not from an Indian family my babysitter, while growing up, was Gujarati. She always had movies playing and this was all throughout elementary school so I retained a great deal.I watch and enjoy the older Bollywood movies. Although I am not from an Indian family my babysitter, while growing up, was Gujarati. She always had movies playing and this was all throughout elementary school. The only movies listed above that I have seen are Taal, Naseeb and of course Sholay. I enjoyed Hum Aapke Hain Koun but I do not think that it was mentioned yet. I cannot recall seeing any recent films but it seems that everyone prefers the older stuff for some reason. There is a Regal near my house that is currently showing Baabul, Dhoom 2 and Vivah. I would definitely like to see something in the theater one day.