After several guffaws, over the years, at the ’predictability’ of a couple of famous bollywood formulas - the voice of the ’dearly departed’, the weeping widows and their cursing of fate, the flashes (front and back) and the like, I nearly choked on my laughter watching ’Bollywood Hollywood’ - a movie which makes an attempt at ’taking the trip’ of the above and more!!
BH is a corny mixture - the content is a mishmash of dozens of bollywood movies, the environment is hollywood, the songs are bollywood, the leading stars are aspiring to be in hollywood (oopss)....and hence the name. (sooo original).
Throughout the movie, there is a blatant reference to the ’corniness’ which exists in bollywood films - am not only talking about the ribtickling oneliners/subtitle...(whatever they are called) but also the expressions and the dialogues (though they are much more subtle)
MY favourite part/s of the movie are the oneliners at the beginning of each song and thats how I will proceed with this review:
megha’s leading pair song Raja Ko Rani se Pyaar Ho gaya : king has fallen in love with queen
Rahul (rahul khanna) has got to find himself a wife - and quickly!!To drown the sorrow and tension he goes to a nightclub where he meets..no, gets tried to be picked up by sue (lisa ray) (well who wouldnt?? its rahul khanna - woow!!).They start talking and EUREKA, rahul comes up with a ’brilliant’ idea of paying sue to act as his fiancee. Believing her to be hispanic, he teaches her a couple of indian traditions and voila, she’s the perfect desi fiancee!!Well ofcourse she is not hispanic and the expression on his face when he finds out bout her ’indianness’ is worth a dekho...well to cut a long story short, she wins the heart of his family and surprisingly (!!!) he falls madly in love with her. A few normal bollywood complications arise and .....well, no ending shending before watching!!!
Both rahul and lisa have done a commendable job. Though rahul is stiff at times, it comes across as a natural hesitancy of the character he portrays (well ok, flowery words , but I like the guy!!) Lisa is looking awesome and slips into her role brilliantly.I really enjoyed the cocky way she delivered her dialogues.
Megha’s supporting cast songgolmaal hai bhai sab golmaal hai : everything is not the way it is looking
ahhhh where to start?? the driver who is a drag queen by night?(enacted adorably by Ranjit - the driver + advisor) the brother who is conscious of being indian and hence labelled a nerd?? the soon to be brother in law who thinks only about sex??? the propah english maid who is passionate about the driver???? the arrogant lady who chants ’what a bunch of losers’ in every party? the society ladies who love to gossip??The, ahem, dearly departed (dd)dadji who chooses the most opportune of moments to give rahul advice on life - ahhh the sports analogies used...reminded me of spooks!!:-)..or from kimberly, the err spiritual popstar, who makes a guest appearance as rahul’s living love and in the dd scene??Sue’s father (kulbhushan kharbanda) who loves his village in India and bollywood movies(takes inspiration from them - loved that dialogue) and hindi songs???the prospective groom of sue who turns out to be a prospect for...err forget it...who is a wwf wrestler??...And ofcourse.....
Moushumi Chatterjee as the weeping willow..oops widow who blames the fates, the stars, the sun, the Gods and everything else she can think of at every opportunity of tears. Loved her expressions and her oh so obvious hypocrisy - all enacted so seriously
Dina Pathak (the late) as the strict, traditional grandmother who’s obsessed with shakespeare and quotes him at every other moment. I wasnt aware of this and her first dialogue of ’et tu brutus’ had me collapsing in giggles. She was brilliant - dadiji se grandma - she is a legend and this movie is a tribute to her acting - she says the most outrageous of things in the most deadpan manner
megha’s ’songs’ song aaja nachle : come lets dance
4 of the 6 songs are superlative dance tracks. ’ sona sona roop hai’ is a typical punjabi bhangra song and has been picturised foot tappingly well on akshaye khanna and lisa. ’dil kabootar khana hai’ - an absolutely nonsensically awesome song, you just cant sit still through this one. ’Mera naam chin chin choo’- a real cute version (cant call it a remix) of the popular old hindi song and ..hehehe...u must the see the way its picturised.
My fav is ’rang rang mere rang rang mein’. Freaked out on the choreography, the music, the lyrics and the way rahul looks in this one.
There is a nice ’tragic’ number and a bhajan also.
megha’s ending of review song baar baar dekho, hazaar baar dekho, ye dekhne ki cheez hai : again and again watch it, thousand times watch it, it is a watchable thing
p.s : in a completely insane moment I sat through the hindi vaala dubbed version!!( God bless this unhappy girl). pls pls plsssss never ever ever everrrrr make that mistake!!!