Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writer:

Deepa Mehta (writer)

Release Date:

25 October 2002 (Canada)

Genre:

Romance | Comedy | Drama | Musical

Tagline:

Nothing is what it appears to be.

Plot:

The Seth family reside in Canada. While Mr. Seth has passed away, his mom is still alive, living with her daughter-in-law...

Plot Keywords:

India | Canada | Singing | Bollywood | Nudity

Awards:

3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

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
Jazz Mann	...	Bobby
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

Also Known As:

Bollywood Hollywood (Canada: English title) (DVD box title)

MPAA:

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

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

Canada | India

Language:

English | Hindi | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Netherlands:MG6 | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:13 | Canada:PG | Germany:o.Al. | South Korea:12 | UK:12A | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | Iceland:LH

Filming Locations:

Thornhill, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Different Tree Same Wood

Trivia:

Killer Khalsa is a real wrestler, and the website listed when he appears is his official site. When he heard Deepa Mehta was making the movie, he contacted her as he wanted to break into acting.

Quotes:

Rocky: Shakalaka Baby!

Movie Connections:

Features Zubeidaa (2001)

Soundtrack:

Because the Show Fits

Parody? Yes. But With a Kicker

B/H stands up as a comedy AND an affectionate parody of Bollywood formula romances. The very title underscores the love-hate relationship many contemporary South Asian filmmakers feel about the Hollywood hegemon (see http://www.thefilmjournal.com/issue9/bollywood.html ). As such, it offers a sly reworking of the Pretty Woman formula, with an Indian twist – which raises the question of why Mehta's writers chose THAT Hollywood movie to build a comic plot upon. One answer requires examination of how women, especially young women, are depicted in Bollywood movies, which valorize – even enforce – Ramayana-like ideals of female purity versus the reality and problems of female identity in a modern world. Compare Mehta's Fire. The comedy and parody in B/H offers a different take on a Mehta theme. The Shakespeare-quoting grandmother reflects another aspect of the film's comic concern with the clash between tradition and modernity – here, the kind of British-inspired education the grandmother would have received, which often required students to memorize whole scenes from Shakespeare (whose plays were and are very popular in India). The comic turnabout at the end might be examined in light of equally sudden turnabouts in movies like DDLJ, the difference being that the main blocking character at the end of B/H is Sunita herself. Her father, minutes before, reverses himself BECAUSE he has seen movies like that one. A very "filmi" intrusion into the comic plot, but (true to Mehta's sympathies) it is Sunita herself who becomes – for a moment – the blocking character whose needs must be recognized. It's a matter of HER identity, albeit within the framework of Bollywood comic romance. As such, her situation offers, for the perceptive, a bittersweet comic take on a question Mehta raises more seriously elsewhere. B/H is a parody, yes, but it has a serious side as well. Think about this while you laugh.