(A nice romantic mashup of all the different songs across many different Bollywood movies)
Bollywood movies are the best ! I started watching them just under 10 months ago (I think) after a trip to Bali with a friend of mine from work. My friends name is Parveen. Towards the end of the trip Parveen and I went to a DVD store to buy some DVD’s. I was looking for the latest hollywood releases whilst Parveen was checking out the movies in the Bollywood section whilst calling his wife to see what additional movies she wanted to purchase.
I knew that Bollywood movies were a big hit in Indonesia and are shown on free to air TV every sunday with Indonesian dubbing. I scanned through the different Bollywood movies and thought, why not ? If it shows on Indonesian TV every sunday and millions of Indonesians enjoy watching them there must be something about the movies that I could also relate to and enjoy.
So I decide to buy one DVD (Pyaar Impossible). I watched it and thought what an awesome movie ! It’s a bit of a chick flick but doesn’t matter, it was enjoyable to watch. I then watched “Ek Tha Tiger” with crappy subtitles but still really enjoyed it. I was hooked and decided when I get back to Australia I would find more Bollywood movies to watch.
Fast forward 10 months later and I think I have watched over 30 titles and even been the only non Indian to watch latest release Bollywood movies on the first day when they are shown in selected cinemas here in Australia ! 😛 So what is it about the movies that I enjoy the most ? I really like how the stories are about the people, there are special effects in some cases but it isn’t the dominating part of the movies. You really fall in love with the characters and their interactions.
Take for example Rancho in “3 idiots” and even his 2 side kick idiots or Rizwan Khan from  “My name is Khan”, Sanjay Singhania from “Ghanjini”, Shashi Godbole from “Enligsh Vinglish” or even “Jerry Patel” from Desi Boyz.  The characters are awesome and when you are watching the movies, as a result of how the characters have been built up you really want to see them succeed, find love, prove everyone wrong or get revenge !
Even though the story lines might have some similarities to western movies in many aspects the movies have a very “local” feel and I see many similarities with Indonesian movies and indonesian story lines (which I also am very fond of watching). It is hard to put a finger on what I mean exactly but to put it bluntly the movies deal with issues that are more relevant in many non westernised countries and its a nice change to see a different perspective on a myriad of different issues such as family relationships, marriage, religion, friendships, education & growing up and not just that portrayed by Hollywood.
And finally the music … how awesome is the music and dancing. I think i’ll stop writing about the music here as i’ll probably write much more about the music specifically in later posts 🙂
I guess thats my take on why I really love watching Bollywood movies. And just to finish off, below is a list of some of my favourites (so far …. :P) in no particular order.