Marigold (2007)

Director:

Willard Carroll

Writer (WGA):

Willard Carroll (written by)

Release Date:

17 August 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Ali Larter plays an American actress who becomes immersed in the Bollywood film world.

Plot Keywords:

India | Movie Actress | Film Industry | Dance Teacher | Character Name In Title

Cast

Salman Khan	...	Prem Rajput
Ali Larter	...	Marigold Lexton
Nandana Sen	...	Jaanvi
Ian Bohen	...	Barry
Shari Watson	...	Doreen
Helen	...	Prem's grandma (as Helen Khan)
Vikas Bhalla	...	Raj Sondi
Suchitra Pillai-Malik	...	Rani
Vijayendra Ghatge	...	Rajput
Roopak Saluja	...	Mani
Kiran Juneja	...	Mrs. Rajput
Gulshan Grover	...	Vikram
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Rakesh Bedi	...	Manoj Sharma
Catherine Fulop	...	Sister Fernandéz
Marc Allen Lewis	...	Marc
Lea Moreno	...	Valjean (as Lea Moreno Young)
Geeta Vij	...	Pooja Rajput

Directed by
Willard Carroll

Writing credits (WGA)
Willard Carroll		(written by)

Produced by
Reiko Bradley	....	executive producer
Michael Hamilton-Wright	....	co-executive producer
Andrew Herwitz	....	associate producer
Siddharth M. Jain	....	co-producer (as Sidhartha Jain)
Michele L. Jennings	....	associate producer
Susan B. Landau	....	executive producer
Christian Mills	....	co-producer
Praveen Nischol	....	executive producer
Charles Salmon	....	producer
Sandeep Shandilya	....	line producer
Glen Tedham	....	co-executive producer
Thomas L. Wilhite	....	producer (as Tom Wilhite)

Original Music by
Shankar Mahadevan		(as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)
Loy Mendonsa		(as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)
Ehsaan Noorani		(as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy)
Graeme Revell

Cinematography by
Anil Mehta

Film Editing by
Anuradha Singh

Casting by
Dianne Crittenden
Rajesh Latkar

Production Design by
Jon Bunker
Nitin Chandrakant Desai

Set Decoration by
Agnes Goveas

Makeup Department
Natalia Bronstein	....	makeup artist
Honey Dawn Faircrest	....	key hair stylist
Natasha Nischol	....	personal makeup artist: ali larter

Production Management
Pradeep Haldankar	....	post-production supervisor
Sherry Lynn King	....	production manager
Rajen Rajkhowa	....	unit manager
Sandeep Shandilya	....	production manager
Burton L. Warner	....	executive in charge of production: Firewall Entertainment
John Watson	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Terry Bamber	....	first assistant director
Natascha Charak	....	third assistant director
Rukhshida David	....	assistant director
John Penhall	....	first assistant director
Stojan Petrov	....	second assistant director
Aubin Sebastian	....	second assistant director
Varun Talreja	....	director: making video
Ali Abbas Zafar	....	first assistant director: second unit

Sound Department
Andrew Belletty	....	sound mixer
Ken Biehl	....	sound re-recording mixer
Ian Emberton	....	sound editor
Tony Gort	....	sound editor
Mark Hensley	....	adr supervisor
Jeff Jackman	....	sound effects editor
Nusrat Jafri	....	assistant sound
Roger Morris	....	dialogue editor
Craig Stauffer	....	sound mixer
Greg Stewart	....	sound re-recording mixer

Visual Effects by
Kris Anderson	....	digital effects artist
Paul Beard	....	visual effects line producer
Robin Beard	....	digital effects artist
Adam Christopher	....	digital colourist
James Foster	....	digital artist
Simon Frame	....	visual effects supervisor
Tom Hocking	....	digital effects artist
Matthew Jacques	....	digital artist
Isaac Layish	....	digital effects artist
Sherin Mahboob	....	junior digital artist
Tom Pegg	....	digital effects artist

Camera and Electrical Department
Arjun Singh Bhurji	....	key grip
Anirudh Garbyal	....	assistant camera
G. Monic Kumar	....	second assistant camera
Sanjay Sami	....	key grip

Editorial Department
Maryanna Aramian	....	post-production coordinator
Vivek Pratap	....	assembly editor
Alex Panton	....	digital intermediate producer (uncredited)

Music Department
Hal Beckett	....	conductor
Vikas Bhalla	....	playback singer
Mark Curry	....	music mixer
Dominik Hauser	....	orchestrator
Nihira Joshi	....	playback singer
Ali Larter	....	playback singer
Don Mann	....	music editor
Nikita Nigam	....	playback singer
Sneha Pant	....	playback singer
Ashley Revell	....	music editor
David E. Russo	....	music programmer
Shaan	....	playback singer
Shari Watson	....	playback singer
Alka Yagnik	....	playback singer

Other crew
Greg Bernstein	....	legal services
Jon Bunker	....	title designer
Shane Cole	....	office coordinator
Aliya Curmally	....	assistant production coordinator
Edmund Entin	....	assistant to producer
Gary Entin	....	assistant to producer
Farah Khan	....	choreographer
Nicolas J. Kimball	....	sales agent
Vaibhavi Merchant	....	choreographer
G.D. Murthi	....	production accountant
Remo	....	choreographer
Rainer Scheelisch	....	special equipment
Merewyn Wagner	....	first assistant coordinator

Thanks
Tamara Stuparich de la Barra	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Hyperion Pictures
• Firewall Entertainment (in association with)
• Becker Films
• Entertainment One Pvt. Ltd. (as Entertainment One Ltd.)

Distributors

• Adlabs Films (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Adlabs Home Entertainment (2007) (worldwide) (all media)
• Becker International Distribution (2005) (worldwide) (all media)
• Castello Lopes Multimedia (Portugal)
• Echo Bridge Home Entertainment (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• FS Film Oy (2008) (Finland) (DVD)
• Nu Metro Productions (South Africa)

Other Companies

• Post Modern Sound  post-production sound services
• Rocky S. Fashions  costume design (as Rocky S.)
• Vancouver Film Orchestra, The  score performed by

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for brief strong language

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA | India

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 | Finland:K-7 | Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12

Filming Locations:

Goa, India

Company:

Hyperion Pictures

Trivia:

Preity Zinta was offered a role in this film, but turned it down.

Hollywood fish-out-of-water diva meets Bollywood duty-bound-son in Willard Carroll's charming amalgamation of the two film genres

Mention Bollywood to anyone with a slight familiarity with the genre and the images usually conjured up are of tacky, over the top musical numbers peopled with costuming that makes Vegas seem a bastion of conservatism. This perception is not helped by the whiff of condescension that permeates most movies that have approached Bollywood from an outsider's perspective. Willard Carroll's romantic comedy Marigold, however takes a different tack. It is not a nudge-nudge wink-wink look at those silly people and their clueless antics but a sincere appreciation of Bollywood for its vitality, its lack of irony and self-consciousness.

It is obvious that the director has a tremendous affection and respect for Bollywood while at the same time is bemused by its kitschier aspects. And if you have a familiarity with Bollywood, you can appreciate what he does here in making a true hybrid of Bollywood and Hollywood movie conventions. From one of the opening shots, a flashback of the Salman character as a child by the sea, talking with his grandmother (played by Helen! - how many Salman movies start with this same premise?) to the flashback sequence that is incorporated into the movie that Marigold and Prem has been filming, anyone who has seen enough Bollywood movies will recognize these references. The story itself incorporates tried and true conventions from both Hollywood and Bollywood as well – the fish out of water meets duty-to-one's-family-at the expense of personal fulfillment. The structure of the film follows the typical Bollywood plot line of the more comical set up of the first half giving way to a more dramatic resolution of the second. Yet ultimately the sensibility of the film is that of Hollywood, with its understated, wry humor and its story of a woman learning to believe in herself, to reach self-affirmation.

You couldn't have a movie inspired by Bollywood if there weren't any musical numbers and this movie does not disappoint with seven of them. Unlike Bollywood, however, the songs do not pop out of nowhere and transport its characters to a European locale or Goan beach; they exist as musical numbers that are part of the film that is being made, reminiscent of how musical numbers were justified in Busby Berkeley movies as being part of a stage show. Or they come out of a situation where music already has a reason to be there – a sexy nightclub scene where Prem teaches Marigold to dance or a beach scene where there are musicians (including a cameo from the playback singer Shaan) performing. All reflect the emotional state of the protagonists at that point in the movie. Often the music will take a conventional song from one genre and put a twist on it from the other. So in one of the highlights of the film where Marigold comes into her own, the song picturazation is fairly typical of its genre – the female star singing and dancing among a line of women – but in this case it's blond Ali Larter looking like a total natural Bollywood film star, emoting and lip synching to the Hindi lyrics with no subtitles.

Also synonymous with Bollywood are sumptuous visuals and Marigold fulfills that aspect beautifully thanks to some of the top talent working in Bollywood today. The cinematographer is Anil Mehta who was also the cinematographer for Lagaan and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. The choreographer is Vaibhavi Merchant and production designer is Nitin Desai, both from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Devdas. You can really see the influence of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam on this film – in fact, the illuminated floor in one of the numbers was originally from Dholi Taro Dhol, which coincidentally has an embedded Marigold pattern.

As for the cast, Carroll obviously has a penchant for spotting acting talent as evidenced by Playing by Heart – one of the first movies for both Angelina Jolie and Ryanne Phillippe. And in this film he again hits the mark with Ali Larter. One of the main reasons the film works is because of Larter. She makes a bitchy, unappealing character sympathetic and her subsequent transformation believable and she is smart, funny, and sexy because she is smart and funny. She and Salman share excellent chemistry and that is one of the film's biggest strengths.

Salman Khan plays the role of Prince Charming here as filtered through his iconic role as Prem. This is old school Prem, however, so expect a quiet, subdued Salman - those used to him in his usual stripping avatar may be disappointed – or relieved! It's a sincere and sensitive performance from him marred only by poor enunciation of his English lines.

With a refreshing lack of cynicism and unabashed embrace of romantic love, the film is a love letter to Bollywood and Hollywood movies of yore.