Dir. Deepa Mehta, 2003, USA/Canada, 103 mins
Cast: Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, Moushumi Chatterjee, Dina Pathak, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Akshaye Khanna The storyline bodes well for this romantic comedy, set in Canada. Good-looking millionaire Rahul (Khanna) is fed up of the constant interferences in his love life by his mother (Chatterjee) and grandmother (Pathak in her last film role aged almost 80). But he realises action must be taken when they threaten to cancel his sister's wedding. unless he sorts his romantic life out first and finds a good Indian girl. In an act of desperation, he decides to hire an escort, Sue (Ray), who he thinks is Spanish, to pose as his fiancée by dressing up in traditional costume. but where does she really come from? From the director of quality social commentary films such as Fire and Earth, you would expect a romantic comedy that is both funny and intelligent. But don't get your hopes up too high. This opportunity to portray a cross-cultural romance, taking the best of Bollywood and Hollywood, and make a film that would have won over audiences all over the world is sadly wasted. What we get instead is a sub-standard comedy drama with the occasional funny line or winning scene. As Sue tries to win over the family, they seem to be out to get her. There are some funny moments during a courtroom style interview where the grandmother pretends not to understand English while the mother translates. In fact, the two older women steal most of the comedy moments in the film, as does Kharbanda, who plays Sue's Bollywood-obsessed drunk of a father. There's definitely a lot of fusion going on as Mehta blends Hollywood drama with Bollywood fantasy. But what about the stuff in between? The dialogue is poor and at times, cringeworthy and it is difficult to care, one way or the other, what happens to the characters due to their total lack of depth. There's plenty of funky song and dance for those who enjoy a bit of Bollywood extravagance but the choreography lacks the slickness of a true Bollywood musical. The music, by Sandeep Chowta, also fails to provide those key memorable songs that are so much a part of the musical comedy. While Mehta is clearly spoofing many other films and playing on the many clichés that surround Indian romance and family life, it just seems to come across as cheesy comedy.
You can't help but hope that Bollywood Hollywood is a stopgap film in the otherwise illustrious career of Mehta. It's true that she was ready to film the final film of her trilogy, Water (after Fire and Earth) but had to stop when Hindu fundamentalists objected by destroying the set and threatening cast and crew. Bollywood Hollywood is the film you watch when there's nothing else to do - and for Mehta, the film you make when your current one gets sabotaged. Meera Dattani |
