Word: bollywood
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...house was packed, 12,000 strong, for the fourth annual Bollywood Awards. At the food kiosks in the lobby, patrons lined up for jalebi, aloo vada and samosa chole. Onstage, Indian TV chat maven Ruby Bhatia provided hyperbolic introductions ("His immense talent is about to unfold on this very stage!") to a dozen or so Indian musical acts that whipped the crowd into a cheerful frenzy. And subcontinental film celebrities came by to accept awards in such categories as Best Villain, Best Comic and Most Sensational Female...
...Things are exciting onscreen too ?though in these three-hour extravaganzas there's not much violence, no nudity, hardly even any kissing. Forced to sublimate, Bollywood taught itself to revel in full-blooded, full-throated drama. "The formula is essentially a family epic," says Mehta. "A family that breaks apart and then comes together. It's also the story of Partition." The partition of India and Pakistan, that is?but with vagrant, fragrant hope of union within diversity. A father denounces, then tearfully embraces his son (Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham). A group of 19th century peasants battle their Brit overlords...
...midst of the starkest plot twists, everyone sings and dances. Virtually all Bollywood films are musicals. For 60 years, they have provided India with most of its hit songs (in effect, the movie industry is the music industry). And not just songs?immense production numbers. Dozens of chorus boys in leather and houris in saris frolic while the stars risk dislocating their shoulders and display '60s-style legwork not seen in the West since the Peppermint Lounge closed. The stars dance, but they don't sing. That's the job of "playback singers," unseen onscreen but famous...
...Bollywood masala?savory cultural stew?restores melodrama to its Greek-tragedy and Italian-opera roots: melody-drama, in which emotions too deep to be spoken must be sung. Imagine Julia Roberts in Erin Brockovich dancing around the utility company's lawyers while lip-synching a tune sung by Faith Hill, and you have a hint of the divine delirium that is Bollywood...
...Perhaps Devdas and other Bollywood films won't mesh with our cultural prejudices. (All that singing! All that feeling! For three hours!?) Yet one can hope for an improbable, movie-style happy ending?that the next time Indian stars and directors come to America, they'll be picking up their prizes not at Bollywood's Awards, but at Hollywood's. ?Reported by Jyoti Thottam/New York