Bollywood Musicals 101

We buy them by the truckload. Bollywood movies are subtitled in English, or at least, every single one we’ve ever seen is. It’s the Tamil movies from Tamil Nadu (think Madras) that aren’t always subtitled in English and cause a problem for me seeing as I don’t speak Tamil and all.

Our favorite actors include Shahrukh Khan, of course, Amitabh Bachchan, Hritik Roshan, Amitabh’s son, Preity Zinta, and a bunch more. It’s sad that I’m remembering their names and faces.

We have dozens of them. Literally. Every single time we go out buying DVDs, Fahim searches for more and adds them to the pile.

Oh, you’ve got to see Koi…Mil Gaya, Bollywood’s first sci-fi. Cross between ET and Charly (movie version of Flowers for Algernon). Hritik’s in it. Pretty cool.

And the IMDB database has most Bollywood movies in it. That should help.

Bollywood is Bombay, and is called that because it’s India’s answer to Hollywood. Bollywood puts out something like 800 movies a year. Big business.

Bollywood movies are long. Think a standard Hollywood movie, then add another 1 1/2 to 2 hours of singing nd dancing, and you’ve got . . . a Bollywood movie. Never mind that it might be a movie set in a POW camp and the men are all starving, like Dewaar and the men suddenly have all sorts of energy that they didn’t have five minutes before.

Having said that, they are strangely addicting.

Anything with Shahrukh Khan is good – he’s one of the hottest names in Bollywood right now, and has been for quite a few years. He’s good – sappy love stories, and he cries and plays sad boy very very well.

Some favorite Bollywood movies:

Mohabbatein with Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan (which I always mispronounce), and Uday Chopra.

Dhoom with Uday Chopra and Abhishek Bachchan (Amitabh’s son).

Kyun! Ho Gaya Na with Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai (former Miss Universe, IIRC, turned hot actress.)

Kal Ho Naa Ho with Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, and Preity Zinta. It’s a real tear jerker, so make sure you’ve got boxes of Kleenex. Shows Shahrukh’s sappy love sick side to a T. Departure movie for Saif, which he pulled off incredibly well. He’s great as the sidekick, comic, too.

Chalte Chalte with Shahrukh Khan and Rani Mukherjee, another Miss Universe turned actress, I believe. She’s also a big name in Bollywood.

Main Hoon Na, yet another Shahrukh Khan (are you getting the idea that we like his movies? If you aren’t, you should!) movie, also with Sushmita Sen and Sunil Shetty, who’s in other movies I’ve listed above.

Hum Tum with Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherjee, and a special appearance of Abhishek Bachchan. It’s funny and cute.

Baghban with Amitabh Bachchan.

Veer-Zaara to the list. It’s got Shahrukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, and Amitabh Bachchan in it, and even though we’re only an hour into it (I’m posting during a song & dance number), it’s good. Shahrukh, as the prisoner in the Pakistani prison, looks grimy, filthy, and disgustingly dirty. But damn, he cleans up nice!

Just finished the movie, and yep, it’s worth it. Make sure you have plenty o’ Kleenex though, cuz yer gonna need it.

Did I mention that Shahrukh cries very nicely?

And then there’s a non-Bollywood, but still Indian, movie I have to mention. Where’s the Party Yaar? with Kal Penn, an American Indian actor who’s been in a few American Indian movies, such as American Desi and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, all of which we enjoyed.

If you need any more ideas, please let me know. The ones I’ve listed above are all recent and they’re the blockbusters, so your neighborhood Hindi Movie Mart ought to have them.

If all of the above are sold out, go with any movie that has Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Hritikh Roshan, Saif Ali Khan, or Uday Chopra and you ought to be fine.

Have fun!

Author: LMAshton
Howdy! I'm a beginner artist, hobbyist photographer, kitchen witch, wanderer by nature, and hermit introvert. This is my blog feed. You can find my fediverse posts at https://a.farook.org/Laurie.

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