Bollywood, Take Me Away

The music, the dancing, the melodramatic acting ...

Bollywood movies have been a favorite escape for me since college, when several dormmates would show Indian movies during weekly movie nights. My first Bollywood movie was the Academy Award-nominated "Lagaan," which is set during British colonial-rule and focuses on Indian villagers taking on their local British authorities during a cricket match in order to not pay a ridiculously high lagaan, or tax. Plus there is a romance, because what is a Bollywood movie without a love story ... and many musical numbers with huge casts ... and a three-hour running time?

I think my love of Bollywood is really an extension of my love of musicals. I grew up adoring the Rodgers and Hammerstein films and MGM spectaculars. If I wasn't reading, you could find my 8-year-old self watching "Easter Parade" with my grandma, dancing in front of the TV to "Fan Tan Fanny," or belting out "Oh What Beautiful Morning." I was always an odd child.

Photo credit: DeaQuartet.co.uk

After falling out of favor, musicals have made a semi-comeback in Hollywood thanks to films like "Moulin Rouge" and "Chicago." But Bollywood has always been about the singing and dancing. To some American viewers, the plots and acting of some of the films might seem implausible. How exactly did that dancing couple suddenly get transported to a meadow in Switzerland?

I don't care. I find the fantasy of Bollywood irresistible. When I need to be carried away, a Bollywood flick will do that. I know that India is not just like the epic, glitter-strewn country depicted in its movies, just as the U.S. is not same as it is often depicted in Hollywood movies. But, from my non-expert eyes, the whole point of Bollywood seems to be embracing the celebratory aspects of Indian culture, allowing people to forget about their cares and be swept away by their emotions. I think that's what any good movie does.

Like it did last year, my local art museum recently had a Bollywood week, and I went and saw nine hours of Bollywood - "Om Shanti Om," "Veer-Zaara" and "Dhoom 2." So right now I'm a Bollywood addict. I've scoured YouTube looking for Bollywood clips, read Wikipedia entries on the history of Indian cinema, and topped off my Netflix queue with several Hindi movies.

However, I think I may need to taper off soon. I've caught myself quietly singing Hindi songs as I walk to the gym, dreamt of Hrithik Roshan walking in slow-mo towards me as a catchy whistling tune plays in the background, and teared up at the thought of being separated from my one true love for more than two decades because he's been falsely imprisoned defending my honor. I could be reaching the overload point. That's OK. The next time I need a singing/dancing/drama fix, I'll turn to Netflix.

Enough of my describing Bollywood. Here's "Maahi Ve," a wedding lovesong in "Kal Ho Naa Ho" that makes my heart jump every time I hear it. I especially love it when Shahrukh Khan (or really the person that does his singing) shouts out "Everybody Sing!" You'll probably want to as well after watching it.

Let's Talk Movie Etiquette, People

I went to see a movie this evening, on a weeknight when the theater had maybe 15 other people in it. And yet the following still happened in that small crowd:
1) A toddler was allowed to wander around the seats (though to the parents' credit, they took the kid outside when he started yelling). This was not exactly a family movie.
2) THREE people in front of me were texting with that annoying cellphone glow as a distraction.
3) Another person actually answered their cell and whispered through a short conversation (it did not sound like an emergency to me) during a relatively quiet, emotional scene.
4) There were the loud guffawer/commentators sitting off to my right.

What are the odds of all that happening in a small audience? Or maybe the offenders felt more at liberty to forget all movie-going etiquette because there were less people? I just don't know. It seems like common sense and respect to not text, talk loudly, let a toddler roam around or answer a cellphone during a film. I especially curse the day that texting became popular.

All I have to say is urgh.

"Up the Yangtze"

Here's my first movie recommendation on this blog. I just saw "Up the Yangtze," a recent documentary abut the Three Gorges Dam, which is causing the Yangtze River to rise, and how it is affecting people in China. It's far more compelling than I can convey here, but trust me, you should try and find a theatre that's playing it or rent it.

The film mostly follows a poor family, living on the water's edge and just getting by with farming and odd jobs. Because her family can't afford to send her to high school, the eldest daughter, who is 16, goes to work on a tourist boat cruise sailing up and down the Yangtze. We see her and a 19-year-old boy starting their work on this cruise ship. The girl's parents are shown trying to figure out what to do after the water has risen over their current home.

There are some hilarious moments, like the etiquette class for new cruise ship employees on how to interact with tourists (don't call them fat or pale, don't compare America to Canada, never talk about any serious political topics like Northern Ireland). And there are some heart-tugging moments like a man talking about how difficult it is to be a common person in China and the sight of the poor family at the side of the risen Yangtze looking at where their home and crops used to be.

Five years ago Peter Hessler wrote about the relocation caused by the Three Gorges Dam project, the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, and it continues today. I enjoy reading Hessler's work (including his two books, "Rivertown: Two Years on the Yangtze" and "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present"), particularly since he backs up his writing with a real understanding of the Chinese people. He speaks the language and has lived in China since he first came there as a Peace Corps worker in the mid-90s.

Still photo from "Up the Yangtze"

The Painted Desk's Origins

Blame it on a quiet house.

My roommates have left for two months of summer break, and the house is dead quiet except for music streaming from Pandora on my computer. There is no 1-year-old yelping out happy cries and toddling into my room to pull down blankets, stuffed animals and figurines from shelves. I can't bother his parents with my random thoughts nor talk them out with the toddler, who is a great listener, by the way.

Instead, there I was this evening sitting at my new writing desk and chair, which are painted a bright turquoise blue and decorated with birds and flowers. The desk lifts up to reveal a red interior with compartments. Every time I look at it, I get these lovely waves of happiness. And so I decided to start The Painted Desk blog to get the random thoughts out that I can't tell my housemates.

I imagine this blog will be a tangle of posts on TV, movies, books, 80s childhood nostalgia, and other things I would normally blurt out to live people who are unfortunate enough to be in my general proximity.

And I hope it inspires me the same way my painted desk has.

Photo: Pier 1 Imports