By the time we reached our seats, the film had already been running for five minutes - ads and trailers are not customary here - and we were plunged into the thrilling conclusion of train robbery in the Namibian desert. This set the pace for a plot of such outrageous proportions and lightning-paced simplicity that my deficient Hindi, my neighbours’ behaviour and the “minimise efficiency maximise disruption” work ethic of the ticket inspector as he made his remorseless progress round the 500-strong auditorium hardly made a dent in my enjoyment of it.
Exotic locations cropped up throughout. After the opening in Namibia, the first half was set in the more glamorous parts of Bombay and Delhi, while the second half mainly revolved around a beach in Rio, before a closing scene in a Fijian cafe. The cast was no less glamorous - the good guy was played by Abhishek Bachchan, the smoulderingly handsome son of the great Amitabh Bachchan, and the bad guy was green-eyed six-packed Hrithik Roshan. The female leads were Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss World and now a household name worldwide, and the more interesting Bipasha Basu, who played a policewoman in the first half and a sultry, Americanised surf chick in the second.
Dhoom 2, L-R: Uday Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan, Bipasha Basu
I am not sure what I think of Bollywood, and I think this film has changed my perceptions a bit. It belongs to a new breed of films with plenty of action and plenty of flesh. Amir tells me that The Matrix had a huge effect on Indian cinema and the films of this new genre owe a lot to it. I would love to see some of the great classic films of the forties and fifties, and also some from the seventies and eighties with the young Amitabh Bachchan, such as Sholay and Sharaabi. “Big B”, as he is now known, is worshipped like a god (sometimes as a god) by almost everybody I know. He is a great actor, speaks perfect English and of course lives simply (in a mansion) and is terribly kind to everybody who comes to visit him! As for the rest of today’s stars, they seem to be the focus of an obsessive media-fed interest that fills pages of newspapers and magazines with all the tremendously dull minutiae of their personal and social lives. An example is Cine Blitz which happens to be on one of the beds in the dormitory and contains paragraphs like this one:
“Heck, I’m starting to have serious doubts about Tanushree [Tanushree Dutta, a rising star and model]. She goes to a multiplex to watch Omkara. Then she realises she’s actually bought tickets for Superman Returns. Dippy Dutta, alright!”
And this one:
“I was bewildered. I mean Sushmita Sen – hey no offence meant here - is not such a crowd puller. So how come the music premiere of her Zindagi Rocks was overflowing with the cream of the city’s movers and shakers?”
What these stars can be like in real life intrigues me a good deal. I have never had any desire whatsoever to meet Hollywood stars, and yet these Bollywood stars fire my curiosity. More than anything else I want to know how “Indian” they would seem – do they wear saris and kurtas at family occasions? Do they eat roti-dal with their right hands? Do they crave the luxury of the Occident (which most of them have anyway) but deep down adore their hot, dirty and heart-wrenchingly lovable country, confident that it is simply the best place on earth?
As for the films themselves, they must have sky-high budgets, as overseas shooting seems to be de rigeur. Iconic second world cities like Kuala Lumpur and Rio de Janeiro appear to have the edge over the clichéd Bollywood fare of Swiss mountainside dance sequences (which were also ubiquitous in the Tamil films I saw four years ago) these days. Sex is still out, as is kissing by and large, although there was a very controversial Roshan-Rai liplock in Dhoom 2 that provided much mileage for the press, as it is Abhishek Bachchan, not Hrithik Roshan who is engaged to Aishwarya.
Courting controversy: Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai
One thing that intrigues me about Bollywood is its international appeal. Hindi films are popular in Egypt, Nigeria, East Africa, Russia and no doubt the Middle East. It is a comforting thought that there is a serious rival to Hollywood in the world of popular cinema, and it is also nice that India’s popular culture is robust enough not to be deluged by Westlife and all the other bands that are “popular in Japan”. Even though British and American rock music is popular, especially amongst younger, wealthier members of the urbanised middle class and also among those involved in the tourist trade, filmi songs form by far the most popular category of popular music in India, and are an outlet for people’s emotions and passion.
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I have a meeting with Sumita in the early afternoon tomorrow and look forward to discussing a new project. I am not sure what she has in store, or what formalities need to be gone through to transfer officially from the Maal project to the next one, but I hope that, if nothing else, I will have a project and a supervisor, even if it takes a few days before I can really get going again.
Next Post - Monday 4th December 2006: Udaipur (will be posted Sunday 4th December 2011)
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