Hulu, which has become such a swift success that hold-out Disney recently joined the other studios partnering in the online streaming venture, is now offering streaming Bollywood films. Bollywood offerings boosted Netflix's early success. There's no stopping Hulu now.
Friday afternoon six of us went to see the Memento remake Ghajini, a new big-budget picture starring my fave Indian star, Aamir Khan. Bollywood movies know no shame. They aim to please. The three-hour Ghajini did not disappoint.
It's Memento on steroids, literally, as Khan has bulked up nicely. He's a revenge-crazed short-term amnesiac out to kill villainous thug Ghajini in one story, and in the flashback he's a clean-cut mobile phone CEO pretending to be regular guy in order to romance a sweet young model. Bad things happen, needless to say.
Like many Bollywood pictures, Ghajini is two movies in one: a violent action thriller for boys, a romance with love songs for girls. And the percussive score by A.R. Rahman drives the emotions, as usual. In short (and the movie is three hours), three middle-aged women, one middle-aged film critic and two college girls all had a blast.
One high-minded friend of mine has complained that Slumdog Millionaire is "melodramatic." (That charge has also been lobbed at Darren Aronofsky's hugely entertaining The Wrestler.) Sure--Slumdog's Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy borrowed a few tricks from Bollywood, mixing up cultures, west and east, letting Rahman go for broke with the music, seeking to entertain. Is that so bad?
These Bollywood movies often throw in everything but the kitchen sink. Their movie stars are still bigger than life, gorgeous, sexy, romantic, heroic. They not only stay in shape to do action scenes, but to dance as well. As preposterous and over-the-top as these movies can be, they are almost always fun in a way few Hollywood movies ever are these days.
My favorite couple on So You Think You Can Dance, Katee and Joshua, deliver an athletic Bollywood number that's pretty close to the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Om Shanti Om:
[Hat Tip: Shalini Dore]
MTV stars the Wildboyz dunked themselves in the Ganges and dumped water on an elephant during their escapades in India. Naturally, they couldn't pass up an excuse to do their own Bollywood dance number.
As DreamWorks continues to seek financing for its planned reincarnation as a standalone independent company, two scenarios for the company’s future are emerging. Here's my Variety story.
Word is, DreamWorks is trying to raise $1 billion in equity and another $1 billion in debt so they can produce eight pictures a year. That would give Stacey Snider a bigger slate. And Dreamworks could allocate pictures to more than one studio, likely Paramount and Universal, so there'd be no nasty custody battle over the pics that were developed at Paramount.
What will happen, for example, to The 39 Clues, the new book DreamWorks just acquired, possibly for Spielberg to direct?
After Viacom bought DreamWorks SKG in early 2006 for $1.6 billion, Paramount and DreamWorks squabbled over credit for such hits as Dreamgirls, Norbit and Transformers. A sequel to the Michael Bay film is currently shooting, scheduled for release in summer 2009.
Raising more money would also mean that DreamWorks would not be solely involved with Indian company Reliance, whose topper, Anil Ambani (son of the industrialist on whom the Bollywood hit Guru was based), has expressed a desire for hands-on involvement with his Hollywood interests. That $500-600 million deal has not been closed. Some wonder if wily negotiator David Geffen has something else up his sleeve.
“Now India is owning DreamWorks?” asks one skeptical agency head, who questioned the idea that Spielberg would ever be willing to discuss his work with a Hollywood outsider.
[Posted by Shalini Dore]The only Indian film in the Cannes official selection is 43 years old. "It makes me feel good," Dev Anand, producer-star of Guide said drawing out the last word. "It gave me a positive feeling that Cannes gave it a stamp of approval that 'Guide' is good."
A restored version of the 1965 pic played in Cannes Classics on Tuesday night. Although he said he rarely looks back at his films, which go back to 1946's "Hum ek hain" (We Are One), Anand said, "This is a moment, this is Cannes, this is a festival. I'm looking forward to it."
The 85-year-old Anand, who said this was his first trip to Cannes, made no apologies for Bollywood's song-and-dance routines. "When you define Indian film you have to have songs and dance. Who doesn't want song, who doesn't need poetry?" he added getting lyrical.
Guide was made in English ("The English version followed the book," Anand said. "The Hindi version was my creation.") a few months earlier, scripted by Pearl S. Buck and directed by Ted Danielewski but was a disappointment.
While his brother Goldie, who directed Guide, has as he said, "passed on," Goldie's son, Vibhu, attended the presser. "Guide was long before my time, but I got it all out of (my father), when it was made, how it was made, Vibhu Anand said. "He was not after the acclaim but the content ... which is why it's still recognized."
Dev Anand's next movie, "Charge Sheet," starts shooting in July in Scotland. Pic's centered around police corruption. "I'm excited; if you're not excited don't do the project, don't photograph it. For God's sake don't do it."
With Jodhaa Akbar, Lagaan director Ashutosh Gowariker has delivered yet another hugely entertaining and engrossing historic epic romance. Set in the 16th century, this lush period epic reimagines the true romance between Mughal emperor Akbar (Hrithik Roshan), tamer of wild elephants, mighty warrior and humanistic conqueror, and his bride, the defiant Rajput princess Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan). This fantasy love story about the merging of two cultures boasts two gorgeous world cinema icons maturing into their full powers. (And it even pays homage to It Happened One Night.) Reportedly, Indian culture regards Roshan's double thumb as lucky. So he has neither had it removed nor tried to hide it. UPDATE: Here's the NYT review.
Sure, the CG-enhanced battles are a little cheesy and the production is on the rough side--and Gowariker eschews full-on ecstatic Bollywood musical extravaganzas in favor of more naturalistic performances within rituals like dances and weddings. But it's fun. And it's opening around the country: Nora screened it in Boston this weekend, while her parents saw it in Culver City. Check your local listings.
A Facebook friend posted this strange video. Is it a home movie or a clip from a flick?
NYC and Mumbai-based digital media distributor Saavn plans to give away five popular Bollywood dance tracks at iTunes. Saavn will distribute special edition cards to consumers at promotional events nationwide. The music cards include such Bollywood chart-toppers as “Jhoom Barabar Jhoom” from the same film, “Kajra Re” from Bunty Aur Babli, “Dus Bahane” from actioner Dus, “Jhalak Dikhlaja” from Aksar’ and “Mehbooba” from Aap ka Surroor.
While Bollywood music has been infiltrating Western popular culture over the past few years, cropping up in American movies, TV shows and ad spots, it’s still not readily available, mostly found in neighborhood Indian shops or on YouTube.
Here's Kajra Re, starring Aishwariya Rai:
Here are two YouTube trailers of upcoming U.S./India co-prods:
[Posted by Shalini Dore]
It’s rare to have a Q&A; session go on so long that the moderator has to leave. But that’s what happened Tuesday night at India Splendor’s final screening, Guru.
Variety’s Asia bureau chief Patrick Frater had a plane to catch so he left India Splendor organizer Bhuvan Lall in charge. Guru”director Mani Ratnam and stars Aishwarya Rai (looking breathtakingly beautiful in green) and Abhishek Bachchan fielded questions ranging from the message of the movie and its reference to Bachchan’s character taking dowry to what it was like growing up in an “elite” family. And when Lall tried to end the session around 11:30 p.m., the stars said they were willing to continue. At one point Bachchan even told the audience of 300 at the Billy Wilder Theater not to bother with the mics but just shout out their questions.
“You may have thought we were elite, but we were really a middle-class family,” Bachchan said. Whatever his actor parents, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri did outside the house, at home they were just Dad and Mom. “And every day we all had dinner together.”
A question about what they liked about each other as an acting couple brought forth a long response from Bachchan to which Rai quipped, “Honey, I’ve already said yes.”
And even though they both said that the reason they decided to do this film was “the chance to work with Mani” that didn’t stop a little playful banter between the stars and the director. When they were asked if they had ever thought of becoming writers or directors, Bachchan said he was happy to leave that to his director.
“That’s what he says but all actors want to direct,” Ratnam said laughing.
“Directors all really want to act,” Bachchan quickly retorted.
At midnight Lall said the lights would go out and ended the session, which was the signal for a surge to the stage as audience members tried to get their photos taken with the trio or for an autograph. India Splendor ends Wednesday, which is also the 60th anni of Indian independence.
An online fracas has broken out over advance reactions to the Bollywood/Hollywood hybrid Marigold.
I had a blast Saturday at India Splendor's tribute to the late great Raj Kapoor, who spawned a dynasty of Bollywood talent, including the delightful star Rishi Kapoor. Variety's Shalini Dore reports:
India Splendor, five days of pageantry dedicated to Indian film, fashion and fine art, opened Friday with a thoroughly non-Bollywood film, Chak de India. The sports drama, a rarity in Indian films, unspooled at the Academy, preceded by two trailers for other Yash Raj Films, a first surely for that august theater.After the screening of the Shah Rukh Khan starrer, the film’s writer and director participated in a Q&A; with the UCLA film school’s dean Robert Rosen. Jaideep Sahni, the writer, said the idea for the movie came to him after seeing a tiny write-up in the sports section about the Indian girls’ hockey team. “First of all athletes are underdogs in India,” he said. “And women are double underdogs and when the sport is (field) hockey it’s a triple underdog.”
Fortunately for Sahni, director Shimit Amin didn’t mangle his vision. The pic used non-pros for team members. “We picked women who could play,” Amin said. Khan came on board and although there was one nightmarish day when the pair thought they couldn’t get Bollywood’s “King Khan” by the time the women were trained to play hockey, he had the dates available to shoot with them.
On Saturday, India Splendor paid tribute to Bollywood showman Raj Kapoor with a screening of some 30 minutes of Bobby Bedi’s documentary Kehta hai Joker (The Clown Speaks). The footage ended with Kapoor’s filmology to Jis desh mein Ganga behti hai (The Land Through Which the Ganges Flows) when his long partnership (on and off screen) with Nargis ended and Padmini entered the scene.
Afterward, his son Rishi with wife Neetu and son Ranbir spoke with journo Mira Advani Honeycutt about Raj, his songs and relationships. Maybe it was because of the passage of time, but Rishi actually spoke about Nargis — a relationship that was likened to Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.
During the Q&A; that followed Rishi recalled that his father started as a clapboy, but really wanted to be in front of the cameras. So he would always turn to the camera and announce the take. One day the actor’s beard got caught in the clapboard, which he didn’t notice as he was turned away. Kedar Sharma, the director, “gave him a tight slap,” Rishi recounted his eyes gleaming with fun at the thought.
Filled with toe-tapping music, the documentary would be a treat to Kapoor fans, but documaker Bedi said it was not yet available for home theater fans. Something for Sony Entertainment TV to think about?
Later this week, we are all looking forward to meeting Bollywood's Golden couple, Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. She's a Bachchan now.
Asian Cinemaphile David Chute assembles some classic Bollywood music clips.
Revel in your favorite Bollywood musical numbers. This one stars the lovely Aishwarya Rai:
Video: "Albela Sajan" - Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam
Year : 1999 Singers : Ustad Sultan Khan, Shankar Mahadevan, Kavita Krishnamurthi Music Director : Ismail Darbar Starring : Salman Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan
Variety senior news editor Shalini Dore also recommends more great videos at Brightcove.com.
There's a reason why Will Smith is the number one movie star in the world. Here he ingratiates himself on an Indian TV show by singing the Hindi song "Ati kya khandala" from the 1998 movie Ghulam.
Here's the original:
Aamir Khan doesn't look like that anymore!
Imagine the two biggest stars in Hollywood getting married—say, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai have finally gotten hitched. A toast to the happy couple.
The wedding:
Here's a scene from their big hit biopic Guru:
And the musical interlude Tere Bina:
Kal Ho Naa Ho is Nora's favorite Bollywood film. This is a typically exuberant number, a take-off on Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman, starring the inimitable Shahrukh Khan. Nora listens to this soundtrack in the car and has watched the movie countless times.
It's not John, Paul, George and Ringo, and they're not singing in English either. But these four mod moptops are rocking on Lennon and McCartney's "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
Variety blogger Anne Thompson is your trusted source for film industry news. She tracks Hollywood, Indiewood, awards season and film festivals for this daily blog.
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