Director: Sangeeth Sivan
Starring: Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray
Released Date: March 21, 2003
SYNOPSIS
- After
directing the artistically acclaimed movies like ‘Fire’ and ‘Earth’
Toronto-based Deepa Mehta has made a comeback with a comic film ‘Bollywood
Hollywood’ that tells a romantic story with Bollywood sensibilities.
The film has Rahul Khanna playing a suave millionaire Rahul Seth who is in love
with his Caucasian girlfriend Kimberly (Jessica Pare). Kimberly is a pop star
whom Rahul’s conservative mother (Mausami Chatterjee) and grandmother (Dina
Pathak) are unwilling to accept as their bahu.
However, Rahul believes that he is ‘western’ enough to rebel against his
mother and grandmother.
This eventuality never comes as Kimberly dies in an accident.
A bereaving Rahul is prodded by his mother to marry a ‘nice Indian girl’.
She even threatens to put off his sister’s wedding until Rahul decides to tie
the knot himself.
Rahul hits upon an ingenious idea and hires the services of Sue ‘Sunita’
Singh (Lisa Ray) to pretend as his Indian bride-to-be. Sue detests Indian males
for being ‘insensitive, sexist chumps’ but accepts Rahul’s offer as she
needs money.
Emotional chaos follows after Sue comes close to Rahul’s entire family,
including his grandmother, his sister and younger brother and even his
chauffeur. It is not long before everyone, including Rahul, begins to admire
Sue. She also drops her preconceived notions about Indian men.
‘Bollywood Hollywood’ is a clever marriage of Indian and Western
sensibilities. The movie is an over the top frolic with energetic dance numbers
and affectionate titles playing on the more predictable plot developments
typical of Bollywood kitsch.
Bollywood
Hollywood...the name itself already sounds funny. I wasn't sure what the
movie was going to be about. From the names, sounds like a collide of two
cultures - Indian & American....but about entertainment. Hollywood
being known for the American Entertainment world and Bollywood for the Hindi
Entertainment world. Yep, Bollywood's name is from Hollywood and former
"B"ombay (now Mumbai) is the capital of India...so here is Bollywood
Hollywood.
Rahul Khanna is such a cutie. He made his debut with "Earth 1947" alongside with Aamir Khan and Nandita Das. With a great debut, he won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Newcomer. He disappeared for a while to help host AVS TV, America's own Desi Entertainment of Bollywood. He's the older Khanna brother while younger Khanna, Akshaye, made several films already. Not only does he have a celebrity brother but these two Khanna's famous father is Vinod Khanna. With another commendable film in Rahul's hands, we would want to see more of him. He does a good job acting but Lisa Ray is the one who steals the limelight.
Lisa
was just average in "Kasoor." I was waiting for a movie of hers
for a while. I always thought she was beautiful. Being half Polish
and Indian, she has nice features. She has that exotic look like Catherina
Zeta-Jones. "Kasoor" didn't do much for Lisa. In addition,
she didn't look that great in the movie like she did in her modeling
pictures. However, Bollywood Hollywood is a totally different story.
She looks GORGEOUS in the movie and acted great! Maybe her character in
the movie was more laid back and she showed her acting capabilities. She
looked so natural and comfortable on screen.
Storyline wise - it was cute, some parts dragged a little but overall, it kept me entertained. It's a cute, light hearted movie. Every movie has a flaw so don't expect something that is "perfect."
8 out of 10
NiCKi