Bollywood!

Bollywood is, of course, huge here.  Why wouldn't it be?  Singing, dancing, bright colors, happy endings.  Basically every component of an awesome movie according to my standards (which aren't very high...High School Musical, Twilight, Camp Rock are some of my faves).  So four of us decided to go and check out the latest film to hit theaters Bol Bachchan. The whole thing was in Hindi.  No subtitles.  Safe to say we had absolutely no idea what was going on.  

First observation -  it was cheap.  One ticket in the most expensive seating cost 200 rupees ($4 U.S. Dollars).  Second observation - the theater was awesome.  It was more like a theatre you would see a musical or play performed in, with floor and balcony seating.  I'm not positive if all of the seating was assigned, but the tickets we bought had specific seat numbers on them, which was a relief considering my ever present anxiety.  Why was I anxious (again) you ask?  Let me try to explain...  At the time, I had no idea we had assigned seating.  When I saw the massive amounts of people huddling around the entrance ready to bust through the doors, I became a little (ok, a lot) nervous that our little group of four wouldn't be able to find seats together.  If you know me, you know I get pretty freaking shy/nervous/anxious in situations like this.  Luckily, a nice girl standing next to us overheard our conversation and informed us that there was no rush since we had purchased tickets with a specific seat number.  Phew.  Crisis Averted.

Once we finally got seated the fun really began.  I wish movies in the States were like this.  Just wait.  The movie started with the playing of the Indian national anthem.  The whole theater stood.  I am overly patriotic so this was pretty awesome.  [I plan to start a petition for the playing of our national anthem at every movie theater when I return to the states.]  Another awesome aspect of going to see a Bollywood movie -- people cheer.  Not just a little laughter and light applause.  I'm talking hootin' and hollerin', clapping, and belly-aching laughter that goes on for 5 minutes straight.  Screaming when their favorite actors/ actresses come on screen.  The majority of the ruckus happened on the floor level.  I'm assuming that's why those seats were a little cheaper....Indian moshpit??  I had no idea what they were laughing/cheering/screaming about since it was in Hindi, but it was awesome nonetheless.

In Mother Pious Lady, the author jokes about wanting to become a Hindi film hero and insists there is no need to take lessons in acting, just dancing and fighting.  I would say that is a pretty accurate statement after seeing Bol Bachchan.  The fight scenes were comical. At one point, the hero (I think?) jumped  horizontally into a guys stomach who then proceeded to gracefully backflip 3 times into a perfect dismount.  Skill or terrible choreography? These "fight scenes" were a good portion of the movie.  The movie lasted about 3 hours (with an intermission!), but felt like 6 due to the slight language barrier.

Language barrier or not, it was awesome.  I suggest everyone see a Bollywood film at least once.   There is new film coming out soon called Cocktail which APPEARS to be the classic romcom ("promiscuous" girl dates boy, promiscuous girl's "cute" friend falls for boy, boy then falls for "cute" girl...you get the picture) and I plan on seeing it ASAP.

I leave you with the theme song of Bol Bachchan.  Good luck getting this out of your head.