Indian Movies and Bollywood

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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by Sandeep »

Watched 13B yesterday and it is brilliant. Simply outstanding thriller. Ofcourse, it has its own share of flaws but a movie with such a theme was never attempted in India and as far as I know in English too. I don't know why it has got such bad reviews but it is among the best thrillers I have watched. Great movie, a must watch
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by v george »

I was not able to see the movie but I saw a music video from !3B. Looks cool!
A.R Rahman seems to be hitting big here. I watched the English version of his hit song "Jai Ho" on MTV with " Pussy Cat Dolls". He is also featured in the latest music video of AKON. Both are excellent songs and sure reach top of the charts.
BTW what do you think of this site http://www.sellcruises.com created partly by me?
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by x_y_Z_a »

Please read :

Religion, Marxism and Slumdog (Millionaire) - a view on the film by François Gautier.

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/stor ... GntEw72ik=
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by v george »

It is just a movie ... meant for entertainment. It came out of some creative people's imagination. It is not a social commenatary of India or Indians.
Because of the quality of this movie, may be Hollywood will outsource some of its technical work to India. A.R Rahman is already a big hit here.
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by PKBasu »

It may be entertainment, but a lot of people take it (both the movie and the book) as somehow being a realistic social commentary on contemporary India. I met Vikas Swarup soon after the novel was published; before meeting him, I quickly read the novel (and saw some reviews on the web; one, from NZ, had already assigned it as a school reading, with questions and answers that went into a pop analysis of caste, communal riots, etc. as the most natural things to know about India). I thought it was a pretty poorly written novel, with the most outlandish, unimaginable things happening to the protagonist. I asked the author why he hadn't resigned from the IFS before writing a new "drain inspectors' report" on India (to borrow Gandhiji's description of Katherine Mayo's "Mother India" from the 1920s). His response was that everything described in the novel can be found in our newspapers if you look hard enough. OK, I said, but what is the probability that all of those awful things will happen to one individual (and that he will survive)?

The movie is even more outlandish, with the protagonist jumping into his own shit and then running (caked in shit) to get an autograph of Amitabh Bachchan in one of the early scenes. If this utter crap is simply accepted as "entertainment" (of a certain perversely perverted sort perhaps), it is one thing. Unfortunately, it never stops there: many people's idea of India for the next 5-10 years will be deeply coloured by this nonsense (just as they were rather nicely coloured by the movie "Gandhi" when I went to grad school in America 22 years ago). Francois Gautier is largely right in what he says.
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by jai_in_canada »

I agree with vgeorge. It's just a movie. Many Indians are wringing their hands in desperation that this movie will sully India's image for many years to come in the eyes of Westerners. If India's image is so easily painted by a foreigner, may be Indians are not doing a good enough job of portraying themselves the way they want the world to see them. Sixty plus years of independence and a billion people - and we're afraid that one movie by a westerner is all it takes to tarnish India's image for decades?! Boy, we're an insecure and neurotic bunch with no confidence in our own ability to shape perception. The new India is not just the shiny malls, the gleaming airports, the swank gated communities, the foreign cars and people eating KFC & McDonald's. Wanting the Government to protest the movie like the Chinese would have is a ridiculous "Mommy, he's saying bad things about me" approach. I'm glad that the Indian government is staying out of this. When will some Indians grow up and lose the chip on their shoulder about being defined by foreigners? Movies dramatize and they often paint a riveting picture of key events by having them all happen to the main character. No one bitched about Forrest Gump being ridiculous in that all of that could not have happened to one individual and that it misrepresented America in the eyes of the world. Of course, not. But it was an well made movie that showed entertainingly how things changed in America from the 50's through the 70's by flying one fictional character through time, space and events. I sometimes wish Indians were less sensitive about what the rest of the world thought about them, and had more of a sense of humor about the country's shortcomings.

Many, if not all, of the more than 2 dozen people that I have spoken to who have never been to India but seen the movie have not formed impressions of the country based on the movie. They are so taken by the kids in the movie, the great music, the love story, the ability of people to be happy and creative despite (or possibly because of) such trying circumstances. They felt inspired by it, transformed by it, and felt sheepish about how they live such stupid, petty lives in North America. They are so slacked jawed at the energy and humanity of India. I must admit that I was surprised by the feedback because I too was curious about what type of perceptions they might have formed about India from the movie.

Nothing is going to happen, people. India will continue to rock and roll. Indian culture survived the Mughals and the British invasions for centuries. In fact, it ended up changing the "conquerors." One movie will do nothing to its amazing depth, power, energy and talent. The only thing that limits India is its own people.
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by arjun2761 »

Agree with V. George and Canadian Jai that this movie will not harm India's image in any significant way. Most westerners who I've spoken to see it as an uplifting movie and notice the transition in India from a more decrepit place to "a center of the world" which is shown in the movie.

As an aside, several other colleagues who have visited India for the first time in the recent years are almost uniformly surprised by the relatively decrepit infrastructure and chaos that they initially encounter implying that they were expecting to see a far more developed country (so India's image is not predominantly one of poverty as might have been the case 15-20 years ago).
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by v george »

A positive gesture from the makers of "Slumdog Millionaire". Read at
http://movies.yahoo.com/news/movies.ap. ... -747000-ap
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by jai_in_canada »

I think this series of photos with the associated captions captures how Westerners typically view India. In essence, it is like a different planet for them. The diversity, architecture, food, culture, sounds, dress, behavior, traffic, relationships, general hubub etc. are so foreign to the Westerner. A movie does not give them that. This particular series shows India in a generally positive light. I do know Westerners that went to India and came away hating it, although that is a minority. Most would like to visit again.
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by sifa123 »

Not much ... Last I watched Dhoom ... THen last couple of months not a single movie ... :)
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by infomercialscams »

I like to see all movies,in bollywood and hollywood ..in bollywood my favourite film are wednesday,Ghajini,Sarfarosh and in hollywood The sixth sense,Speed,Terminator,Spider man,Fast 2 Furious
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by S_K_S »

3 Idiots. A modern day classic.
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by jayakris »

Apparently Chetan Bhagat is all up in arms about not getting proper book credit for that movie? .. Jay
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by S_K_S »

I saw that on the news ticker on one of the Inidan news channels but I don't know what the story behind it is.

I thought it was a hilarious movie but with a very strong point. A lot of people on this forum will have had the benefit of a dual educaion - i.e. having studied in India and outside of India. My own experience in the 80s left me with some deep scars. I studied in India from the 6th to the 9th standard and I found the experience terribly suffocating because there was no focus on learning. It was all about how much you could memorise. I remember our Biology teacher had the nickname tape recorder because she would literally start and not stop talking for the whole 60 minutes. Any interruption was frowned upon as it would disrupt her tape recorder flow. The same was with Hindi. The only subject I really liked was English because it was all about the application of your knowledge and your interpretation. Unforunately, in a lot of the cases the fault also lay with the type of teachers I had. Mrs Narang and Amber Bannerjee were two of the best teachers I ever encountered in all my studies. Unfortunaely there were too many who were at the other end of the scale.

When I came back to the UK to do my 10th the focus was totally different and at the time very confusing. People who could remember definitions and recite whole pages were seen as dullards and it was the students who could apply their knowledge into discussions and practicals that were seen as the stars and it was these people who were getting the high grades.

In working life I feel it is the people with the ability to apply the knowledge who have succeeded. These with just textual knowledge have floundered.

I hope that the system in India changes. Unfortunately a lot of youngsters will have returned home after the movie and started memorising definitions and answers.
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Re: Indian Movies and Bollywood

Post by PKBasu »

Three Idiots is an utterly brilliant movie. Amir Khan makes truly magnificent movies, focusing on just about one movie a year. Lagaan, Mangal Pandey, Taare Zameen Par were all absolutely superb. (I haven't watched Ghajini). These movies' ability to make a social point in a fun, humourous way is what distinguishes them. Three Idiots is side-splittingly funny (full of IIT pranks and pranksters, pulling various stunts on professors and nerdish students), but interspersed with moments of tear-jerking sadness. Some of the scenes were a touch overdone, but I agree it is a modern movie classic.
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