Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)

After Rahul's white pop-star fiancée dies in a bizarre levitation accident his mother insists he find another girl as soon as possible, preferably a Hindi one. As she backs this up by ... See full summary »

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writer:

Deepa Mehta

Stars:

Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, Moushumi Chatterjee

3 wins & 8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rahul Khanna	...	Rahul Seth
Lisa Ray	...	Sue (Sunita) Singh
Moushumi Chatterjee	...	Mummy ji
Dina Pathak	...	Grandma ji
Kulbhushan Kharbanda	...	Mr. Singh
Ranjit Chowdhry	...	Rocky
Jessica Paré	...	Kimberly
Rishma Malik	...	Twinky
Jasbir Mann	...	Bobby (as Jazz Mann)
Arjun Lombardi-Singh	...	Go (Govind)
Leesa Gaspari	...	Lucy
Neelam Mansingh	...	Mrs. Singh
Mike Deol	...	Killer Khalsa (as Killer Khalsa)
Jolly Bader	...	Daddy ji
Ronica Sajnani	...	Ronica

Storyline

After Rahul's white pop-star fiancée dies in a bizarre levitation accident his mother insists he find another girl as soon as possible, preferably a Hindi one. As she backs this up by postponing his sister's wedding until he does so, he feels forced to act, the more so as he knows his sister is pregnant. But it's a pretty tall order for an Indian living in Ontario, so when he meets striking escort Sunita who can 'be whatever you want me to be' he hatches a scheme to pass her off as his new betrothed. Things get complicated when his family start to take to her and he realises his own feelings are becoming rather stronger than that.

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Plot Keywords:

wedding | escort | hindu | indian | deception | 

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Taglines:

Nothing is what it appears to be.

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Genres:

Romance | Comedy | Drama | Musical

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for sensuality/partial nudity, some crude language and drug references

Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English Hindi Spanish

Release Date:

25 October 2002 (Canada)

Also Known As:

Bollywood Hollywood

Filming Locations:

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$18,014 (USA) (3 October 2003)

Gross:

$1,491,083 (USA) (10 October 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Different Tree Same Wood, Téléfilm Canada, Canadian Television Fund

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lisa Ray fractured her leg when she went to Canada to shoot this film.

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Quotes

Twinky: Jesus Christ!
Mummy ji: Twinky, don't take God's name in vain.
Twinky: For God's sake ma, he's not our God.

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Crazy Credits

Akshaye Khanna as his own good self

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Connections

Features Khubsoorat (1980)

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Soundtracks

"Rooftop Party"
Composed and Directed by Sandeep Chowta
Performed by Sonu Nigam and Alisha Chinoi

User Reviews

Hilarious Bollywood parody

One caveat: if you have never seen a Bollywood movie, you probably won't find this very funny. The point is, director Deepa Mehta has taken just about every Bollywood cliché, exaggerated it, swirled it around and mixed it with a Hollywood love story and created a perfectly funny Bollywood parody that had me in giggles from the weepy deathbed scene at the beginning through most of the movie.

Depth? Don't expect any. This is about as lightweight (and sometimes silly) as comedy can get, with the usual suspension of disbelief necessary for Bollywood movies.

The title doesn't really have anything to do with the plot; it's more of a programmatic statement, as Mehta tries to intertwine Bollywood and Hollywood elements into a musical romantic comedy.

The Bollywood bits are the more successful, as Mehta sems to have the necessary expertise to exploit them for parody and quirky humour; sadly, the weakest point of the movie is when the Bollywood/Hollywood formula shifts too much towards the Hollywood side and tries to incorporate too much of the typical Hollywood 'romantic comedy' storyline. All of a sudden the script seems to take itself too seriously, and the whole thing, which had been very fresh and entertaining up until then, suddenly tastes very stale, and we get the umpteenth reprise of "love in danger through misunderstanding", and whereas the Bollywood melodrama had been masterly turned into brilliant parody, the Hollywood drama just stands as it is and is presented at face value, which is a major disappointment.

However, the 75 minutes of hilarious Bollywood parody will more than compensate for those 15 minutes of Hollywood lameness. So will the excellent Bollywood-inspired (and Hollywood-compatible) music. Just don't expect depth.