Bollywood Films for Beginners page 3/3Here's five more Bollywood films to round off your introduction to Hindi movies... First Bollywood Films List #6: Bunty aur BabliI love this movie for several reasons, but mostly about the plot. It’s about a couple of youngsters who resist the social and parental pressures of settling down in boring jobs and marriages, and escape to find their fortunes. Boy meets girl at the train station and an unlikely partnership develops. It stars Rani Mukherjee (one of my favorites) and Abhishek Bachchan (known as Little B), who in this film shows he’s an actor worth watching, which he’s proved many times since with roles in Guru and Sarkar Raj for instance. This movie is shot with lots of color, the music is great and it has a resounding vibrance which keeps you energized for hours afterwards. Bunty and Babli are the nicknames of the main characters. And oh-my-God you have to see Aishwarya as the Item Girl (a feature song with a star who’s not in the rest of the movie) in what is every old-man’s fantasy song, she is so gorgeous and the outfit is fantastic. By the way, unlike the song suggests she has since married Abhishek (the son) in the biggest Bollywood marriage of this generation.
First Bollywood Films List #7: BlackThis is out of the box awesome performance, but nothing like the others I’m recommending. It’s much more like an independent Hollywood movie or perhaps a French film in the way it’s directed. Both Rani and Amitabh completely shined. It seems to be the Helen Keller story, based in an Indian hill station. Maybe Rani’s performance rivaled Jodie Foster’s in Nell. Oh, and it has not songs, warning warning...
First Bollywood Films List #8: DevdasThis movie was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, and well it should have been. The most expensive Indian movie ever made at the time (and none of it on special effects, all of it on spectacular cinematograhy, choreography, music (especially the rhthym and drums), costumes, dialogue, music, lyrics and all-round fantastic quality work. Gut-wrenchingly beautiful in image and sound, if you have a good sense of aesthetics, you must see this film. Also stars the beautiful Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit. Oh, and Devdas is the name of the main character.
First Bollywood Films List #9: Hum TumStarring Rani Mukherjee and Saif Ali Khan. I don’t want to tell you too much about the plot except to say the music is great, it’s a fun romantic comedy, loosely based on a When Harry Met Sally kind of style, (without the fake orgasm scene). It’s about two incompatible people who meet many times over the course of several years, gradually becoming more and more important in each other’s lives. Asks and answers the eternal question, can men and women be friends? Hum Tum translates roughly as ‘You and I'.
First Bollywood Films List #10: Dilwale Dulhaniheya Le Jayenge (DDLJ)This is a classic, in which Shah Rukh Khan stars with Kajol (still probably the most bankable Bollywood pairing), in the longest running Bollywood movie ever. Released in 1995, it is still playing to packed crowds in the same Mumbai cinema (and I’m sure it’s due to more than Kajol dancing around in a towel in the first song). It’s true love pitted against family opposition and forced arranged marriages, which is always a recipe for a Bollywood Blockbuster. The title translates roughly as “The one with heart will get the bride.”One of the fun things to do in Mumbai (Bombay) would be to go and see it at the cinema. I haven't done this yet, but will next time I go there, like taking a Bollywood Pilgrimage! It would probably be best to watch it on DVD first though, so you have the benefit of subtitles. Then even if there's not subtitles in the Mumbai cinema, you'll know what's going on.
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