Welcome to a More Beautiful World: Bollywood India

Bollywood India...it’s a whole new universe.

I almost exclusively watch Bollywood movies now--I have maybe 90-100 in my collection, but not all of them are good. As well as for entertainment, I use them to practice my Hindi comprehension and to help with vocabulary-building, so I don’t always need them to be top-rate, just good enough to watch.

I have to say though, that the best Bollywood movies are 50 times better than the best Hollywood movies (you heard it first here). But at the same time, the worst Hindi movies are probably 50 times worse than the worst Hollywood movies I’ve seen.

In the last 15 years, Bollywood movies have become more approachable to Westerners. Partly this is because the communication and influences between India and the West, occurs much more fluidly – instead of being what seemed a decade behind the West in make-up and fashion trends, in the last 10-15 years that gap has been made up, where new Bollywood movies are palatable to both NRIs (Non-Resident Indians – Indians living outside India) and those Westerners in-the-know.

But before I get you so excited that you run down to your local spice shop to grab a handful of Hindi films, let me tell you a secret about Bollywood, India: probably 95% of the movies that come out of Bollywood would not appeal to a Western audience. There’s more and more convergence though in the last few years, but I hope that Bollywood will keep some of the characteristics that make their ‘masala’ movies so great. (‘Masala’, meaning ‘spice’ is a category for a movie with a bit of everything—yes it has song and dance numbers, but also a bit of action, romance, maybe drama or adventure—something for everyone). It’s the main genre I watch. Dhoom 2 (pictured below) is such a movie, a bit of action, adventure, romance etc, but it's very Hollywood in style. If you like Mission Impossible style films, you'll probably like this. Even so, I'd only give it 3 out of 5.

You need to know which producers, which directors and which actors are able to adapt to Western cinema palates. The thing is that Hindi movies have traditionally had certain character-roles which don’t translate well, the one I’m thinking of mostly is the slapstick ‘stupid uncle’.

I can’t promise that all the movies I mention on this site are completely free of ‘stupid uncles’, but I guarantee the movies I recommend will win you over. Some of them are so good for ths soul, they should be sold as therapeutic goods!

Ten facts about Bollywood India:

Bollywood India Fact #2 The Hindi film industry produces approximately 3 films per day

Bollywood India Fact #3 Bollywood is a bigger industry than Hollywood in terms of movies made, number of tickets sold and industry annual growth rate. More comparisons of Bollywood India vs Hollywood USA

Bollywood India Fact #4 Bollywood is not the only film industry in India – for instance, there is also Tollywood (Telugu film industry, based in Andra Pradesh) – but it’s the most approachable for Westerners.

Bollywood India Fact #5 Bollywood movies are often, for want of a better word, ‘rip—offs’ of Hollywood movies. Sometimes (as in the recent case of “Night at the Museum”, just dubbed over, but more often they’re reinterpreted into an Indian context, even years later, such as “Salaam-e-Ishq” which is an Indian version of “Love Actually” (even the cover art gives you a clue, see this pic below).

Others aren’t dubbed or reinterpreted, they’re basically translated, which I have to admit that I was upset by when I found to my horror, I’d bought myself an Indian version of “Dirty Dancing”, set in Goa. It had everything except the line, “Noone puts Baby in the corner!” Ugh!

But then, the stories that are totally Bollywood-derived, are by far more gripping and engaging than the average Hollywood offerings; this may be in part because there’s a lot more emotional ‘bang for your buck’ in a three-hour musical than a 100 minute Hollywood film.

Bollywood India Fact #6 The great majority of popular songs in India are from movie soundtracks, which are released a few months before the movies. I’m not sure if this is the reason, but I think it’s so people can learn the songs and then sing along during the screenings.

Bollywood India Fact #7 Playback singers record the songs, which the actors and actresses lip-synch to in the movies. This can be a little disconcerting when you begin to associate one singer with one actor, but then you hear another actor singing with the same voice. You’ll get used to it. These playback singers are celebrities in their own right. (I’ll let you in on a secret—it’s my dream to become a Bollywood playback singer, and who knows, there’s more and more non-Indians getting into it, so maybe there’s hope for me yet).

Bollywood India Fact #8 There’s more and more English language creeping into Bollywood movies. It’s basically because many Mumbaikers (Bombay-ites) are fairly cosmopolitan and this is how they speak, so this reflects in the movie dialogues. There’s also now directors like Gurinder Chadha making cross-over Bollywoods in English. They’re usually shorter than regular 3 hour Hindi movies, running 2-2.5 hours, but generally still include musical numbers (yay!). One of the easiest introductions to Bollywood is via this half-way house, such as “Bride and Prejudice”.

Bollywood India Fact #9 There’s a myth about Bollywood that there’s no kissing. This may have been true at one time (I’m not an expert at Hindi films over 20 years old). It’s certainly true that there’s generally less kissing and adult scenes than in your average Hollywood movie, but that doesn’t mean they’re not romantic, quite the opposite! I think that the confusion may have arisen from Shah Rukh (or Shahrukh) Khan’s commitment not to kiss any heroines on the lips. Kissing, he says, is for his wife only, which is pretty cool (though I suspect there are many disappointed indian actresses because of this-see image above of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol).

Bollywood India Fact #10 Now this maaaaay just be my opinion (though I’ve heard others voice it too), that Shahrukh’s appearance in movies heralded the rise and rise of Indian cinema. Before Shahrukh appeared on the scene, it seemed like the heroes on the billboards were always 20-30 years older than the heroines, in unflattering clothes and ugly moustaches. Very uncool. Shahrukh appeared in several movies as a loveable (and cute) rogue, giving the girls something worth going to the movies for! Now things have definitely changed—the only characters with moustaches are generally villains and there’s a whole lot of sexy young stars (of both genders) to keep you drooling.

Enjoy this light-hearted taster of Bollywood behinds. It's set to Turkish rather than Bollywood music, but I'm sure you'll still find it fun. As well as Shah Rukh Khan, you'll see a few of the older style Bollywood heroes, complete with middle aged spread and bad moustaches. You might also notice that in some of the older movie cuts, the heroines are also fuller in figure than in the newer movies. (It's only in the last 10-15 years that fashion has changed to slimness in India, as the country becomes more affluent.) Enjoy!

Get to know Shah Rukh Khan: The Face of Bollywood

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