Yes, seems like a cool film. Only problem is it lasts three hours.
I think I may be going for BOMBAY, which you previously talked about in this thread, Amer. It "only" lasts two hours.
Almost EVERY Bollywood film lasts 3 hours -- if a film is only 2 hours, it's considered "short." However, virtually all Bollywood films include an intermission, so you can watch half at one sitting, and then finish it later, if you want.
Almost EVERY Bollywood film lasts 3 hours -- if a film is only 2 hours, it's considered "short." However, virtually all Bollywood films include an intermission, so you can watch half at one sitting, and then finish it later, if you want.
The three hours are not a problem for me, personally, but I only have two hours at my disposal (for screening).
Thor, Bombay is a also a very good choice but you can also try RANGEELA with Amir Khan again and exciting score by A.R RAHMAN. Let me know how it fared with you and the class. From the Indian Golden Age try MUGHAL-E-AZAM or PAKEEZA.
I´m holding a lecture on Bollywood and Indian films in a couple of weeks, and need to find some films from which I can show clips. I will show Mani Ratnam´s BOMBAY in its entirety after the lecture, and hopefully clips from MOTHER INDIA, SHOLAY, Ray´s APU films and LAGAAN in the lecture itself.
Curiously, however, I have not been able to find LAGAAN - which is probably the most popular of them all and the theme of this very thread. It seems to be out-of-print. Amer, do you know where one can order this online - not too expensively?
Majority of the films are abysmal; all their ideas are basically recycled from Hollywood. There are some gems, but most of those are in the 60s and 70s and some in the 80s.
Todays films are just guys parading their chest and women in scantily clad dress. I like the latter but from an artistic pov, it's severely lacking.
Todays films are just guys parading their chest and women in scantily clad dress. I like the latter smile but from an artistic pov, it's severely lacking.
The quality of Bollywood films is no better or worse than the average quality of Hollywood films. There are some VERY talented directors in Bollywood. Production values on these movies used to suck, but most of the ones I've seen lately have very good production values. That includes the underscore -- not just the traditional songs. I used to find B'wood movies very hit and miss but these days when I rent something, more often than not I come away impressed (allowing for the usual Bollywood tropes - the long running times, the songs, the slapstick humor, the masala plotlines, etc)
I most recently rented OMKARA. which was released last year (a really brilliant reworking of OTHELLO into modern-day Indian terms - complete with corrupt politicians). Great stuff, great music too.
Curiously, however, I have not been able to find LAGAAN - which is probably the most popular of them all and the theme of this very thread. It seems to be out-of-print. Amer, do you know where one can order this online - not too expensively?
The first site is a store based in India but respond very quickly to order enquiries and have great service. The next 2 are based in US. I get most of my indian movies/music from these (especially nehaflix).
You might be able to get the movie for cheap if you can locate an indian grocery store near you (they usually do video rentals too).
By Bollywood do you mean the movies made in Bombay in Hindi language or the kind of commercial fare featuring the glitzy, loud production, song and dance package?
You might want to check out the other films of director Mani Ratnam. He blends artistic and commercial cinema. He used to make films mostly in Tamil (south-indian language) but in recent times in Hindi as well.
Couple of his works that I'd recommend-
Kannathil Muthamittal (Peck on the cheek) http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=11615 Very pretty film on an adopted girl's quest to find her true mother. Set amidst the backdrop of the civil war in Sri Lanka, it features gorgeous cinematography and a fine score (and songs).
By Bollywood do you mean the movies made in Bombay in Hindi language or the kind of commercial fare featuring the glitzy, loud production, song and dance package?
Actually, those are not necessarily two different things.
You might want to check out the other films of director Mani Ratnam.
Yup, I´m well aware of him. As you may have noticed above, I´m showing his BOMBAY film after the lecture (which is part of his socalled "terrorist trilogy").
By Bollywood do you mean the movies made in Bombay in Hindi language or the kind of commercial fare featuring the glitzy, loud production, song and dance package?
Actually, those are not necessarily two different things.
You might want to check out the other films of director Mani Ratnam.
Yup, I´m well aware of him. As you may have noticed above, I´m showing his BOMBAY film after the lecture (which is part of his socalled "terrorist trilogy").
Yep Bombay is a great film and really great Opening Main Title theme from A R Rahman.
Thor, By the way you can order from online such as a UK website call Yash Raj films. Dont have the url yet.
The quality of Bollywood films is no better or worse than the average quality of Hollywood films.
I don't know about that. While it's fashionable to bash the US of course, sometimes you gotta give credit where it's due, and the simple fact is that US films cost so much more, the best tradespeople come to the US film industry, and all that other stuff which will make it easy for people to bash me as a blind patriot.
My argument has the advantage of being the truth, but whatever.
Thor, By the way you can order from online such as a UK website call Yash Raj films. Dont have the url yet.
Thanks, I checked it out, but the selection was quite bad. It had none of the films we are talking about in this thread, for example.
Anyways, I ordered LAGAAN from somewhere else, so I now have every film on order that I will show clips from (only the APU set is apparently not in stock).
I don't know about that. While it's fashionable to bash the US of course, sometimes you gotta give credit where it's due, and the simple fact is that US films cost so much more
Yes, but it costs more to pay crew and stars in the U.S., so you're assuming that lower expenditures in India automatically mean worse quality.
The production values are definitely getting better, particularly because a lot of these Bollywood films are now pitched at NRI's (non resident Indians) in the UK and US, and they expect better production values.
Unbelievably, this is an 11-year old thread, and Bollywood music isn't being discussed here on a regular basis - why? It's the second biggest "dream factory" after Hollywood, and since the 2000s it's been increasingly prominent in the West. If not in movie theatres, then at least on the small screen and in DVD editions. And no national cinema has more music than Indian cinema.
I must admit that my own romance with Bollywood was short, and occurred about 12 years ago. I quickly decided that life was too short. Mind you, not because of the music - which was actually what hooked me on Indian cinema in the first place. It was the films ...
Anyway, there are a few songs/music videos that I remember to this day! They are (in addition to the songs from BOMBAY already linked to in another thread):
1. "Chamma Chamma" from CHINA GATE (1998):
Music by Anu Malik. This is a remake of The Seven Samurai, including a "dedicated to the memory of Akira Kurosawa" credit. Only, it stars seven overweight, ageing Indian character actors. None more prominent than Amrish Puri, Bollywood's No.1 heavy (and the high priest who pulls out a heart from a living body in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom). Funny thing: This music "number" is completely isolated from the rest of the film. The lead dancer/singing mimic is Urmila Matondkar, a big Bollywood star, and she isn't even in the movie! Nonetheless, this was the Bollywood movie song of the year.
2. "Soldier, Soldier" from SOLDIER (1998)
Music by Anu Malik. If you think that this song/video is tacky, I challenge you to watch the movie! It shortened by life by months (probably), and I bet that if the French Foreign Legion had had this video at their disposal in the Algerian war, that war would have been a lot shorter. It's one of the defining "Is my life THAT empty?" moments of watching films on video. But the song will haunt you, I guarantee!
3. "Satrangi Re" from DIL SE (1998)
Music by A.R.Rahman. Now, this is a great song/number/video, from a fine, powerful film (which only suffers from an overwrought and ludicrous ending). Like BOMBAY, it was directed by Mani Ratnam, from his own screenplay. It stars the King of Bollywood cinema, Sharukh Khan (then, and 15 years later), along with two of the prettiest Bollywood actresses, Mainisha Koirala and Preity (I kid you not) Zinta. I personally find that video unforgettable.
4. "Chaiyya Chaiyya" from DIL SE (1998)
Music by A.R.Rahman. Also from Dil Se, this is the first song from that movie, and it reminded me of Narrow Margin, for some reason. Anyway, great on-a-train choreography. BTW, what is with Bollywood and these word-repeat titles? Is there something profound behind it in Hindi, or is it baby talk?
5. "Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi" from SHOLAY (1975)
When my interest in Indian cinema was first sparked, in 2000s, this 1975 Bollywood classic was still playing in a cinema in New Delhi, and it had been since 1975. Without a break. It turned Amitabh Bachchan into a star (better known as "The Big B"). And a star he still is today (He makes a rather disturbingly pointless appearance as Meyer-Wolfsheim in the 2012 THE GREAT GATSBY). Great funky 1970s music.
6. "San Sanana" from ASOKA (2001)
An upmarket Bollywood epic from Santosh Sivan. Major Bollywood star Kareena Kapoor does the singing mimicking here.
7. "Bhaage Re Mann" from CHAMELI (2003)
Music by Sandesh Shandilya. An unusually grim and bitter mainstream Bollywood film about a prostitute who falls in love with an unsuccessful businessman. Again, it's Kareena Kapoor doing the lip sync.
8. "Tittli Udd Chali" from ESCAPE FROM THE TALIBAN (2003)
This is when I stopped watching Bollywood films once and for all. A film about a beautiful (naturally) Indian woman who marries a man from Afghanistan and goes with him to his Afghan village, only to discover that he, and the rest of that village, are Taliban terrorists. But, hey, this is no reason to stop singing and dancing! The music numbers in that film are so completely removed, not only from the narrative, but from sanity in general, they make Escape from the Taliban an ordeal to sit through. And the music's STILL pretty.
A fine selection there, OnlyGoodMusic! Nothing from MOTHER INDIA, maybe the greatest Bollywood success of all time?
My own link to Bollywood (and Indian film) started around the time I created this thread. Since then I've read and explored and learned, and now I hold lectures about the topic at the university twice a year.
While there's plenty of fine Bollywood films (once you understand "what it's all about"), my fascination for non-Bollywood Indian films is even greater. Indian art films and crossover films, for example (between art and Bollywood). In fact, their greatest auteur -- Satyjajit Ray -- is one of my favourite directors of all time. And...he was a film composer too, composing the music to many of his own films.
Strange coincidence. My Missus (who completely ignores the hundreds of foreign films I have) has proclaimed that her very favorite movie is "Three Idiots". She first saw it a few months ago and has been infatuated with it ever since.
I can't say that it's a bad choice by any means. It is a very uplifting, affirmative movie.
but from an artistic pov, it's severely lacking. 
