t3rinity wrote: > --- In [email protected], "Rick Archer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> Lagaan: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/lagaan/ >> >> >> >> Check it out. You'll love it. >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagaan > > I agree. Especially if you haven't been acquainted with Bollywood > movies, this is one of the best and a good start. Similarely, check > out 'the Rising' > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_%28Indian_movie%29 by the same > actor/director, Aamir Khan. > Another movie which maybe a good start is Dil Se > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dil_Se, the director Mani Ratnam, manages > to make a good compromise between artistic and commercial films. This > is one of my favorate. For all three movies the music is by A.R.Rahman > (http://www.time.com/time/columnist/corliss/article/0,9565,1013198-1,00.html) Here are some more Bollywood films I recommend: "Chandni Bar" Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar "Hey Ram" (about Ghandi) by Kamal Haasan "Abhay" (amazing dark comedy where the same actor plays the protagonist and antagonist) also by Kamal Haasan "Bollywood Calling" (good comedy about the difference between Hollywood and Bollywood) by Nagesh Kukunoor
The classics like "Godmother", Dev Anand's films such as "The Guide" are worth a watch. The British put some pretty strict rules on Indian cinema during their rule about political statements and some directors avoid those even to this day. Bollywood was pretty much run by a bunch of Islamic mafia types and they are characterized in the "Company" which is also a good watch. Indians films often have a lot of violence in them and no sex. They are even more screwed up than American television. The "girls dancing around trees" is supposed to suffice for sex scenes. Eros Entertainment is a major Bollywood distributor: http://www.erosentertainment.com/index.htm If you really want to get into Bollywood cinema I recommend Vijay Mishra's "Bollywood Cinema - Temples of Desire" fo the history of Indian film which is available from Amazon. I have collected and rent Bollywood films (since I have Indian grocers locally who rent) as an adjunct to learning Hindi. Bollywood seems to go through cycles though and lately their films haven't been that good. A few years back I subscribed to the B4U channel for a month and was disappointed there were no subtitles or closed captions. There were however some interesting reports in English about young Indian filmmakers whose work still doesn't seem to make it to our shores. There is also a film movement by Indians who live in the US making films here that are quite interesting that some of the Indian grocers carry. Outside of what they call "religious films" Bollywood filmmakers seem to tiptoe around films on the occult apparently not wanting to upset the "religious" community so there are few films with tantric themes. They also often rip off other films including one I saw recently that was almost line for line a Japanese horror film. They also don't work with scripts very often preferring to have writers on the studio floor writing dialog as they go. They are afraid of someone stealing the script and making the film,
