You are being altogether too generous, old chap. Bollywood is a monolithic name for Indian cinema that either (a) fails to encompass the real range -- for instance, the majority of Indian movies are neither made in Bombay (the "Bo" part of Bollywood), nor are they in Hindi, or (b) if used to identify only that segment of Hindi or Indian cinema that is otherwise called "masala", then it does, often quite explicitly, imitate Hollywood or Western forms, even "yodelling"!!
> Truly great Bollywood movies, like _Lagaan_ and _The Ballad of Mangal
> Pandey_, are IMHO more successful than Wagner in their synthesis of
> politics, myth and musical drama. They have less harmonic chromaticism,
> but they are better on almost every other count. They have a better
> beat, better sets, better dancing and a wider field of human
> expression. But most importantly, they are more emotionally effective
> for a greater range of people, and they still work as popular art in the
> age of movies, which opera no longer does.
Sorry, got to disagree again: Lagaan, one of the few Hindi movies that I have had the misfortune to watch, is a boring (what else could a movie about the most boring game in the world, outside of golf, be? ;-)), moralistic 4 hours of false sophistication. It has neither the direct populist appeal (absent pretenses) as an 80s Amitabh Bhacchan "masala" or any old M.G.Ramachandran movie, nor does it raise to the level of providing any insight. The British are cast as devils, the brown guy gets the white girl, and the patronizing and shallow moral element is obvious in the Indians' "acceptance" of an untouchable, "cleverly" named "Kachra" (trash).
I think you are right about Indian movies (not just "Bollywood") being something different. But I think that difference is now a vestigial remnant of the real "masala" movies of the 70s and 80s, the stuff from which Bhacchan derives his enormous fame and status. The value of those movies (and the stuff forwarded to this list) is not just the comical value (that we can derive based on straight-line comparison to the Western counterpart) but also the sheer drama, populism, in-your-face entertainment of it.
Today, movies like Lagaan (and the entire genre spun off by Mani Ratnam) are the "made for Oscar" stuff of India. Pretentious enough to make one (typically the educated middle class) feel that there is something edifying about it and shallow enough to ensure some box office success.
Personally, I am happier with the older alternatives of Ray, K.Balachander, Adoor Gopalakrishnan (and perhaps even Girish Karnad or Bharatiraja) on the one hand and the undiluted "masala" of Bhacchan and gang on the other.
> Virtually every aspect of it is unspired: the dialog, the dancing, the
> lyrics, the action sequences. And the only parts of the plot that
> aren't formulaic are ones that are absurd and contrived even by
> Bollywood standards.
>
> And yet I still heartily enjoyed it. A three hour movie and I not only
> sat through the whole thing -- me, who usually leaves in five minutes
> when anything is 2nd rate in any other art form -- but I felt downright
> energized for hours afterwords, like I'd been at something brilliant or
> at a sports event.
See, that's the stuff of desi masala movies. It took me a while to get over my silly embarrassment over it, but once I did, I realized that this is real entertainment! ;-)
I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post. We definitely need an LBO masala movie night (not just a "Bollywood" one)!
--ravi
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