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 eepa Mehta's "Bollywood/Hollywood" is so
obviously a parody of Hollywood romantic comedies and Bollywood melodrama that
once you realize this, everything else is irrelevant. Like the South Korean
movie "Resurrection
of the Little Match Girl", "Bollywood/Hollywood" loses its
charm as soon as you realize what the purpose of the movie is. Beyond this great
"insight" (yes, I am being sarcastic), you can only hope for a couple
of chuckles to tie you over to the inevitable ending. (And even if the film
admits the inevitable ending is inevitable on purpose, the result is still the
same -- a big, "Eh, whatever.")
Here's the basic rundown of "Bollywood": Indian
family member Rahul (Rahul Khanna) is ordered by his highly traditional family
to marry. Since the family dismisses Rahul's first choice, a white girl who the
sassy grandmother calls a "big white whore" (or something to that
affect), Rahul goes in search of an Indian girl to make the family happy. He
encounters Sue (Lisa Ray) in a bar; convinced that she has the skills to fool
his family despite the fact that she's not really Indian (or so he thinks -- she
is, in fact, really Indian), Rahul hires Sue to be his fake fiancée to get the
family off his back. Not surprisingly, rich boy Rahul ends up in love with poor
girl Sue, and the rest is easily forgettable. Gee, didn't see that coming.
"Bollywood" offers so many winks and nods at the
audience that you would have to be incredibly dense not to know that this is
nothing more than a parody of Hollywood romantic comedies and Bollywood
melodrama. There are the requisite dance and song numbers, which are strangely
muted in volume. Like the disastrous "The
Guru", "Bollywood" attempts to re-invent culture shock by
having yuppie white people get involve in the whole dance and sing numbers.
Forgive me for saying so (and I never thought I'd say this), but "The
Guru" did it better.
As is the case with all Ethnic Movies, the leading man is
not so enthralled with his ethnicity's insanely closeted customs and traditions,
but by movie's end will learn to embrace them fully. Which leads me to this
observation: If the West offers up so much corrupting influences that it causes
these Indian families so much emotional distress (as "American
Desi", "Bend
it Like Beckham", and now "Bollywood" seems to attest to),
why are they here in the first place? I guess hypocrisy doesn't stop at
the ethnicity border.
Of course all of the above can be cast aside in the name of
parody, although I do wish "Bollywood" had offered up a stronger cast
and screenplay. Lead Rahul Khanna is a lump of uninteresting rock, and while
Lisa Ray is as hot as they come, her dialogue delivery is atrocious. In fact,
much of the movie's direction is atrocious. Director Deepa Mehta shows almost no
skill with the actors, or how else do you explain all the potentially funny
lines that are completely ruined by awkward pauses? It's like the actors are
waiting for the laugh track to kick in right after they say their jokes, only
none is coming.
I am told that director Deepa Mehta is known for dramatic
movies about her native India. Maybe this explains her ineptness with what are
supposed to be funny dialogue and situations. The screenplay, although quite
clunky in spots, still showcases a variety of inside jokes about Bollywood,
Indian life, and insights into the foolishness of what it means to "be
Indian". Then again, maybe I'm missing the point of what
"Bollywood/Hollywood" was trying to accomplish, but somehow I doubt
it. Even so, I'm surprised by how static "Bollywood" looks. The movie
has almost no energy, and for some reason Mehta throws in a couple of scene
transitions that features flaring effects.
The film has some laughs, but for the most part it's not
nearly as funny as it thinks it is. I like parodies of established genres, but
if a genre has become so stale and predictable that it warrants parodies of its
conventions, and you make a movie that really offers nothing new except a wink
here and there, then I have to ask: what is the point?
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