Bollywood/Hollywood (2002)

A wealthy East Indian man gives an apparently non-East Indian woman a crash course in his culture, so he can marry her with his family's approval.

Director:

Deepa Mehta

Writer:

Deepa Mehta

Stars:

Rahul Khanna, Moushumi Chatterjee, Dina Pathak

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
Killer Khalsa Singh	...	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:

watching tv | escort | wedding | hindu | indian | 

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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

Did You Know?

Trivia

Killer Khalsa (Killer Khalsa Singh) 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.

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Quotes

Rahul Seth: I don't question tradition.
Sue Singh: Mm, fools don't question tradition.

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Crazy Credits

Akshaye Khanna as his own good self

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Connections

Features Mast (1999)

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Soundtracks

Prayer Song
Composed and Directed by Sandeep Chowta
Performed by Rajesh

User Reviews

mild, occasionally entertaining

I see some of the reviewers here describe this as a parody of or satire on Bollywood musicals. Having seen nothing of Bollywood except a few music clips, I can't talk about that. I have to take this movie at face value, and on its face this is a moderately diverting musical with a few good moments amidst too many rather drab ones.

The story is somewhat interesting, the character of Sue, who fulfills the role of shaker-upper-of-things is quite appealing, and some of the musical numbers are pleasant (surprisingly, no one sang in that helium-junkie pitched style the girls all seem to have whenever I see clips from Bollywood musicals, although I don't know if this is because they were trying to make the movie more appealing to the west by having a more western-style voice singing these Indian songs or whether that high-pitched voice isn't as common as it seems to be). But the movie feels underdeveloped (even though I found it a little dull, I still felt it needed to be longer to flesh itself out) and most of the characters are overly generic (except for the grandmother and Sue's father). Ultimately watchable but nothing more, unless you're a fan of Bollywood films in which case this may work on a whole different level I don't see.

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 USA:

$5,470, 28 September 2003

Gross USA:

$1,492,472

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,130,190

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