Honestly, Bollywood keeps me sane, pop culturally speaking

[maeve66]

I am stranded in Denver for a while. Okay, not stranded. Just having to take a later flight, and having to pay for wifi hookup (which I've already described as annoying as hell). My flight from Chicago was delayed, and I missed my connection. This is a boring airport. Right, they're all boring. I used to find the Madison, Wisconsin airport thrilling -- it was made out of those WWII shaped semicircular corrugated tin things, or it was designed to look like that. And we would go out there to pick my grandmother up, basically, because she traveled to Europe and Russia and Mexico and other places a lot, with her publisher sister -- midranking publisher/editor, I mean, at Scholastic... I always thought she was an excellent great aunt, because she always arrived with paperbacks fresh off the Young Adult fiction stacks for us. Me, I never went on a plane (except once when I was two, so I don't remember it) until I won that Alliance Française scholarship when I was 18 and went to Paris (and Germany and Britain) for the summer.

This airport has no associations for me.

What I've decided to do (after catching up on the internet, which is to say LiveJournal) is to watch the beginning of Taal, the relatively recent Bollywood (1999, I guess not quite so recent) flick that M. got me as a present in Manchester, Connecticut. I was touched, and I am looking forward to it. It's got Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna (the solemn one in Dil Chahta Hai, and son of one of the action stars of the last Bollywood generation, Vinod Khanna... I love the family inheritance of stardom in Bollywood; I mean, we do it in the US, too, but not as frequently. I don't think. Someone should do a study.) and Aishwarya Rai, the most beautiful woman in the world^TM according to both Roger Ebert and the Miss World contest.

The comment on IMDb says "Hopeless Bollywood Melodrama". As long as it's got some good songs and dancing and brightly shiny sparkly saris and heaving bosoms, that's fine. How did I get to my age without Bollywood?



I also have a playlist now of my favorite modern Bollywood soundtrack music. I love M's older school stuff, and I have a long playlist of ALL my Bollywood music, but sometimes I just want my own favorites, from Mr. India to this summer's blockbuster, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. And Khuda Gawah.

Wish me luck with no more delays, etc. Khudafez, all.

------------
ETA

Hm. In some ways, your wishes didn't help, because now I won't be home until 8:30 PM, Oakland time. But in other ways, SOME random luck certainly struck, because my rejiggered flight (because I missed my connection) was overbooked and they offered me a free ticket. Fucking SCORE. I am happy about that. It (probably) means I will get to go to Georgia sometime in September, or to NYC in November. Also, the fact that I'll be here until 6:40 PM means that paying $7.99 for "24 hours" of ATT wifi isn't SOOOOOOOO horrible. It's still horrible. But at least it amortizes itself a bit more. Or something.

Now, back to Taal.

Comments

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

I've got Water at my house, which is not strictly Bollywood but Indian (due to NO SONGS!!). I'll let you know how it is. Bound to be serious and all that, but good.

I haven't seen Mr. India... sounds cool! :D

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope this YouTube clip loads better for you than it is for me; it may be the airport wifi hookup. But this is one of my favorite subtropes of Bollywood song/videos: the wet sari/rolling in hay song. The "Dhak Dhak Karne Lage" song in Beta is just as good, in this vein. But here is "Kate Nahi Kat Te Yeh", whose chorus is "I looooove you..."

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

PS -- funnily enough, I haven't seen Water yet, but Earth and Fire are on my Netflix queue. Have you seen Beta? I do love me some Anil Kapoor. Also, have you seen the delirious and wonderful and I want to own it, although M. already does, Nayak, the Hero?

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

Wow, that clip is really hot! I will have to put that on my queue is it is available. It makes me want to see some Bollywood very soon.

I have seen Fire, and it is very good although quite difficult to watch emotionally. There is this cruelty to some of the characters that made me want to turn away. But it really is great at portraying this relationship that develops between the lead female roles.

I've seen Anil in 1942: A Love Story. Have you seen that one? It's got some great music and dance sequences and a surprisingly bloody ending. lol

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Bollywood seems to believe that if you want to elevate a melodrama, there should be lashings of blood at the end. My favorite in that genre, and also in the Indo-Pak border romance trope, though it's not Pakistan, but Kashmir, I think, is Shahrukh Khan and that quirky (for a Bollywood actress) woman, Manisha Koirala in Dil Se. If you haven't seen that, I won't ruin it for you. Although this comment might already head towards spoilerdom. Hm.


I haven't seen 1942: A Love Story though it sounds good.

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

I've seen Dil Se. Love the music and videos! And it makes Shah Rukh Khan look like less of an idiot. Have you seen Paheli yet?

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

It definitely makes Shahrukh Khan look less like an ass. But him BLOWING UP at the end?! Wasn't expecting that. In some ways (especially in the ways I thought when I was about fourteen) that seems like the ultimate romance.

I have seen Paheli and loved it, and would like to own it. Mark's mom recommended it to me in a recent e-mail, as well. Also, she pointed me towards Philip's fil-ums site, which Mark had already done months ago, and recommended film crit books on Bollywood. I like that about her, a lot.

[john-b-cannon.livejournal.com]

The thing about DIA is that it is Western Kansas International Airport, after all. Cause they built it so many miles east of Denver. I ain't got nothing other than that. But I'm Psyched you're coming back to the Bay! Let's hang out sometime in the next month.

[florence-craye.livejournal.com]

Mark's mom sounds cool! I'm glad you loved Paheli- I thought it was such a fun and female-friendly story. :D

[maeve66.livejournal.com]

It did seem pretty fucking FLAT, for Colorado.