Sunday, August 09, 2009

My First Bollywood Movie

Even though this is now my second school year in India, there will still be a lot of "firsts." Today I went to the movie theatre with three Indian women from school. Tickets (between $1.30 and $3.14, depending on location) were purchased ahead of time, as most shows would be sell-outs, particularly during the weekend. After stepping through the metal detector, a lady asked to see my purse and then asked if I had any cameras. The air-conditioned theatre room was quite large, with the screen filling the entire front. We climbed the carpeted stairs up to our seats which were quite roomy. No sticky floors or left-over popcorn here; the rooms are cleaned thoroughly after every show.

After several commercials (no movie previews though), the movie began. As soon as the main male actor came on, some audience members began cheering and hooting. Same with the female actress, also light skinned. The love story took place in England, India, and San Francisco. No bed scenes here; only brief kissing. Profanity typically isn't present either, with only one instance in this movie - and it was bleeped. Dialogue was mostly in Hindi, with the occasional English word or phrase. I did pretty good at following what was going on and asked my friend for the occasional clarification. As any Indian performance should be, this movie didn't disappoint in terms of colorful, ornate costumes from Northern India. It's impossible to be in India without marveling at the exquisite textiles.

Most of the India scenes took place in Delhi. From my trip this spring, I recognized most of the sites, including the Qutb Minar, India Gate, and Red Fort. The movie also featured an extravagant wedding scene as only wealthy people in North India could do it.

As most Indian movies are long (2 1/2 -3 hours), a brief intermission was provided. We were already set with popcorn and soda so we stayed seated. The jingle of an Indian cell phone company played over and over (as it did before the movie), its annoying repetition only slightly lessened through variations on the tune. By the time the commercials finished once again, the seats were all filled.

I was told to expect three to four dance numbers. True to form, this movie had four full dance scenes, with more dancing interspersed in small doses. Suddenly people erupted in dance, swinging their hips and performing complicated synchronous moves. Most seemed rather incongruous with the scenes before it, but that didn't seem to matter. Audience members expected to see the dances and they were excited when it happened. While the final dance was in progress, the credits appeared and the exit door opened. I had now watched my first (full) Bollywood movie.

1 comment:

Rachel Sarah said...

My first movie-going experience in India was a James Bond movie... the theater was packed and whenever something exciting happened, the audience would cheer loudly. It was quite an event! Your post took me back to that time and made me smile. :)