As for the physical appearance of people in “Bolly” films…..well, if you want to go down that road, it’s not like programmes such as “Hustle” and “CSI: Miami” show an entirely accurate depiction of the appearance of the average British or American person, now, is it ?

“You should see ‘Namastay London’, in that case. Akshay is superb and deserved the awards he won for it.”

OK, might give a go since you recommend so well , i hadn’t heard of it! I like superficial movies done really well ..

and yup , Rock On is meant to be very good.. it, along with Dhostana seemed to win all the awards in Bollywood this year .. It seems Bollywood decided to go indie and embrace being gay this year.

even if it has Ashkey Kumar in the lead ( who i just cannot enjoy watching on screen..)

You should see ‘Namastay London’, in that case. Akshay is superb and deserved the awards he won for it. Bloody good film too; superficially a masala entertainer, but it had enough unconventional elements to raise it above most of the rest of the mainstream movies along the same lines.

Some very funny stuff involving Rishi Kapoor too — very realistic depictions of insomniac British Asian parents “venting” about their kids late at night, along with a hilarious incident involving a lungi (I won’t give it away).

I’m not one for Bollywood films, but has anyone seen ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ – damn fine for what it is I tells ya!

Ah, phooey…..Just see “Jodhaa-Akbar” — if you watch any mainstream masala Bollywood flicks immediately after that, most of ‘em seem totally crap in comparison.

That Farhan Akhtar movie about the rock group is supposed to be unusually good, though. Apparently.

Seen the ads for it and looks great so going to hunt down a copy – even if it has Ashkey Kumar in the lead ( who i just cannot enjoy watching on screen..)

Shamelessly plagiarised from an earlier blog post (of mine):

“Overall, I’d give it about 3.5 out of 5 – it is definitely worth watching watching, has great acting throughout, and it wonderfully captures the dark, manic beating pulse of Mumbai. However, I do think the film has been over hyped, and that the unrealistic premise that holds the story together conflicts with a film that is otherwise very realistic, gritty and un-Bollywood like.”

I’m not one for Bollywood films, but has anyone seen ‘Chandni Chowk to China’ – damn fine for what it is I tells ya!

Oh a money saving tip for film buffs: as well as 241 Orange Wednesdays, they have added a BOGOF Pizza Express main course deal into the bargain…not bad I says!

Prince Charles thinks we can learn from SM: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/4535451/Slumdog-Millionaire-shanty-town-a-model-for-urban-planning-says-Prince-Charles.html

So the 1971 war doesnt count eh? At any rate pray tell me how 1 million man army, half of which is deployed in Kashmir control 1.2 billion ‘disaffected’ people?

Fair point… I know it’s meant to be like that… but I don’t have to like it! I mean, I don’t generally like it in Bollywood either. Strangely enough, I also found it even more dishonest than Bollywood on the perspective of love as seen through the woman’s eyes, because at least even in Bollywood films, you see some of the pain that women go through upon marriage in their crying, not wanting to leave their families, etc.

Whereas Latika gets written out most of the time because it’s Jamal’s story.

I didn’t know this was Boyle’s attempt to sell Bollywood to the West… I thought he was just looking for a canny and sufficiently palatable way to recast the rags-to-insane riches tale during a time of increasing economic hardship. I think my problem was the having-his-cake and eating-it-too, with all the arty cinematography and attempts at gritty realism being shoehorned in with the crowd-pleasing romance and the hero doing good.

Still, I guess a brother gotta eat, and making a really gritty film probably would’ve backfired on him big-time.

To sell in the west they can’t have everyone breaking into song and dance every ten minutes but other than that- Bollywood.

I just think that pessimism won’t really help much in a time of intense economic difficulty, to be honest.

I had the biggest problem with all the love-story implausibility, I’m sorry. Like *SPOILERS ALERT!* when Jamal finds Latika magically at the end… and when they escape with her… puh-leeease. And then Jamal rings up and his brother recognises him instantly. Yeahhhhh, right.

And can anybody explain wtf the bit with Salim’s death-posturing is about? I thought that was perhaps rather wanky, the whole dying on his money. Is it meant to be symbolic of his warped values, or is he just a psycho who really, really fucking loves his money?

I do have the populist taste but some bits of a film can grate, y’know! And Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto need to gain some weight, I think.

It could have been so much more gritty (don’t forget this is the same guy responsible for the cheery Trainspotting), and I think Boyle should be applauded for not making a meal out of the true horrors of the poverty-striken Indians – instead, he dwelled on characters, and loaded many incidental characters with a sense of hope and courage that didn’t border on the twatty spiritualism some westerners obsess over.

On the other hand, to gloss over the injustice completely would be like making a film in notting hill and leaving out all the black people

It’s a feelgood movie that doesn’t take itself too seriously and wasn’t made to win oscars.

(call me a cynic that’s seen one too many right-on nominations based on current global events, but it may be worth chewing over the fact that the oscar nominations were made around the time of the mumbai bombings…)