A Bollywood Primer
 

Since this is the theme of this year's NYE "event" I thought I'd start a separate thread to discuss just what Bollywood is, some general terms and add some links for further research.

The name Bollywood comes from a combination of Bombay and Hollywood and refers to the Mumbai-based Hindu language film industry.

Bollywood films usually contain musical numbers that are woven into the script. Bollywood films are usually 3+ hours long and often contain an intermission. The intermissions are often used to showcase songs from upcomming Bollywood musicals. Music from films are often released and promoted prior to the film opening to increase excitement for a film.

Most of the film music is recorded separately with the actors lip-synching to the songs. There are several well-known singers who sing the bulk of Bollywood film soundtracks. Asha Bhosle is one very familiar voice in Bollywood films and is the most recorded singer in the world with over 12,000 recordings credited to her name. However, her sister, Lata Mangeshkar, is close behind in number of recordings. Bhosle's distinctive voice is instantly recognizable to most everyone who has heard ANY Indian music.

Bollywood film music is refered to as Filmi

The music is incredibly catchy, happy and fun but more and more Western influences are entering the sounds coming out of Bollywood.

The plots often revolve around a "Hero" who has to overcome some sort of adversity (often a villan of some sort). There is often love and romance involved in the plot as wel with "love at first sight" being a common theme.

Bollywood has their own Oscar type awards called the FilmFare Awards.

The highest-grossing Bollywood film is Om Shanti Om which we plan on viewing on NYE.

Ringtones from Bollywood films are readily available and codes to get ringtones are often scrolled across the top of the movie screen while the song is appearing in the film.

A great source to listen to Bollywood film music is Superbindia.


Two other types of music you will be hearing on NYE are Bhangra and Modern Indian pop which came out of Bhangra and Bollywood traditions.

Bhangra is from the Punjab region of Packistan and is a very lively and dancable form of music which has spread into pop music all over the world. Famous DJ Bally Sagoo used both remixes of Bollywood hits and
Bhangra to create what has become modern Indian pop music. The film, Bend it Like Beckham featured the music of Bally Sagoo.



Feel free to add bits of your own information to this. I'm still scratching the surface of this HUGE industry.

Way more than I know. But I do know Lata Mangeskar and have her on some 1950's and 1960's era Hindi soundtracks. I've only seen a few Indian films and nothing more recent than the 1970s I think.

Will there be a test?

This is gonna be on edutainmentastic New Years! The closest I have come to seeing a Bollywood musical is "Bride and Prejudice".

Does the "but" mean that music is no longer catchy, happy and fun?Will there be an intermission?

I suspect there will be several lapses in attention span during the 3+ hour film. You may call them intermissions if you like. ;)

Hmmm, I wonder if I can get my daughter Shanti to make an appearance at NYE.

Another bit of trivia about Bollywood films is that you almost never see kissing on screen in a Bollywood film. That has relaxed a bit but a 2006 film - Dhoom 2 - has ended up in indian court because of a kiss:

(more info here)


Interestingly, kissing and sex were not taboo before Indian independence after when the censor board came into being.


More recently, Richard Gere stirred up a huge controversy in India by kissing Indian starlet Shilta Shetty on stage st an AIDS Awareness rally which resulted in death threats to the Bollywood star and protesters burning efigies of Gere. Gere was charged with obscenity and a warrant issued for his arrest. The charge and warrant have since been lifted.

Whoa... Deja vous!

No, the first one is perfect. Like an endless feedback loop of perpetual thread mandala, or like eternal thread reincarnation. So very Indian.

:) Love the theme.

So, if we're seeing Om Shanti Om at the party, which films should we netflix before then? I want to see at least a couple before the party...

There are so many Bollywood films to see! We have about 8 and we're not going to see all of them - unless the party does last as long as an Indian Wedding. You could see Bride and Predijuce which is an American film with Bollywood influences. Dil Se is a FANTASTIC film but it is terribly dark and we probably won't be showing it at the party.

Does Netflix even have Bollywood films?

WOW! That's impressive!

Here's a list of Top 10 must see Bollywood films.


Lagaan and Dil Se are the only ones on that list I have seen from that list, although I'm planning on getting Devdas, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Kaho Na Pyar Hai on my next trip to Little India tomorrow.

Shah Rukh Khan is an actor that appears in many of the films we've seen. He was the top actor in Bollywood until recently. He's great to watch.

NA: can I presume you have Bride & Prejudice already, or would you like me to bring it?

Oh, you were talking about that one woman having a really distinctive voice... is it that really high one you hear in the "Benny Lava" song?

Styles of Indian Dress

Women

Sari
A long piece of flat cotton, silk or other fabric woven in different textures with different patterns. A sari is wrapped around the body in various ways depending on the age, status, religion or region of residence of the woman.
The tightly fitted, bare midriff shirt worn under a sari is called a choli




Salwar Kameez



Lehenga, choli, and odhani

The women of Rajasthan and Gujarat often wear colorful swirling skirts called lehenga, paired with a short bodice called a choli. If they must cover their heads, they do so with bright veils called odhani.



Churidar
Similar to the salwar but is tighter fitting at the hips, thighs and ankles.

Over this, one might wear a collarless or mandarin-collar tunic called a Kurta.




MEN



Dhoti and Kurta




Sherwani

We're going to stick with actual Bollywood films for the party. While B&P is in the stule of a Bollywood film, it isn't technically a real Bollywood film - but it is good inspiration.

It sounds like her.

This is her in concert.

It's the perfect excuse for me to buy one of the many very affordable salwar kameez that I've been eyeing on Ebay.

I'll have to add that to my list for Santa. :)

I've been wanting one for dress-up outings anyway.

Hurray for Bollywood. I'm very excited.

Such lovely outfit choices! :) Can't wait to go shopping.

As usual, the boys stuff is almost completely boring. In fact, I recently tossed an authentic Indian outfit brought back for me from India because, well, I never wore it

Of course, now there's the irony of having the only opportunity i would ever have had to wear the darn thing.


But, yep, fashion is for girls. And me regrets it.

You could go in drag....

Don't forget, you can go British Raj, be a colonial in a linen suit

Or blue body paint.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the link above for the men's outfits and wishing I could wear those. They look comfy and totally rad. :) Of course, the truly gorgeous, decorated outfits, male or female, aren't going to be affordable anyway for a one-shot wearing...

I like this idea, and could totally see you doing that, iSm.

I still think he should do drag....

I agree with the drag suggestion, although... anyone remember the "chilled monkey brains" scene in the Indy films? Somehow I could picture iSm dressed up as the boy Raj with the fancy belt, silk pants and a shiny turban.

Not sure if that's really Indian though.

Ah, here it is. I guess he didn't go topless till the salt mines scene, but this looks to be a fancy male version of the salwar kameez:

http://www.stargalaxy.com/sg_imglarg...duction%3D1809

I just had a thought....

How are we going to fit bacon into a Bollywood theme?

Cows are sacred, not pigs.

Well neither is this and I suggest this for :iSm: ;)

But is bacon a part of indian cuisine?

Not for the vegetarians :P

Dude, who cares about bacon. Samosas! Pakora! Raita! Korma! Paneer! Tikka! Naan!

I love how you talk LSPE!

It was when it was colonized by the British.

Are those Indian Mouseketeers or the Corny Collins dancers from the Bollywood version of Hairspray? ("And I am Link.")

Because NYE without massive quantities of bacon is pure heresy.

Actually it's New Years Day when the bacon is traditionally consumed

A friend of mine just shared the following link (in case anyone's looking for dupioni silk): http://silkbaron.com/silk/index.html

dupioni for $10.50/yd... I assume that's a decent price (haven't seriously shopped it)

Mickey Mouse wears Indian clothes, jigs to Bollywood numbers

I really wish there were some photos with that article. I want to see the outfits!

I came back to this thread to find movie recommendations and noticed this -

Ha! As soon as I tried on a shiny, beaded masterpiece in Little India, I absolutely had to have it, even though it was out of my supposed price range. :D

Heh - it just means you'll have to find reason to wear it again ;)

Yeah, we kinda did the same thing.

I still laugh at myself that we found a really cool outfit for Susan that was really inexpensive (not the one she wore to the party: another one) and then I insisted on getting the matching Pashmina that cost four times as much as the outfit.

Anyone catch the Indian dancers on Superstars of Dance? I thought they were fantastic (and the show actually proved to be super-interesting to both J and I).

I went to bed halfway through the show, thoroughly bored somehow with the presenation of the show. The dancing was fine but the judging segments seemed designed to subliminally say "Change the channel...you really would rather be watching static...change the channel...maybe that Bones marathon is still going on...") Plus the camera work stank, it is a dance competition, I don't want close-up of faces; when it is a duo I want to generally be able to see both dancers.

The first Indian dance (the duo Bollywood number) was pretty but even I could tell they weren't great (they're synchronization seemed way off) and the scores were appropriately low. The second solo number was much better.

What sucks is I fell asleep during the commercial break before the last Chinese number which is the one I was waiting for.

Oops, I thought that was supposed to be on tonight.

It's on tonight as well "in its regular timeslot."

Presentation was definitely flat. I made it as far as pop&lock boy before I switched over to Independence Day and forgot to switch back. However I have it recorded. I'm hoping it will be much more entertaining with a FF/Skip button under my thumb. We'll see.

For lack of a better place to post this, KCET will start airing the 'The Story of India' series tonight. No specific mention of Bollywood, but it should at least be touched on.

Just spent another afternoon in Little India today, and I'm really enjoying comparing the culture to our own.

A big thing I noticed - there really aren't many "plus" sized Indian women, let alone much of a selection of large-sized clothing.

An even bigger thing I noticed - portion sizes are proper (we ordered sodas and received 16 ounces instead of 22+), most food is vegetarian, and sweets/confections are not loaded down with sugar.

The biggest thing I noticed - it's not a mere coincidence, and damn, Americans are fat when compared to other cultures. It's quite obvious that large amounts of red meat, sugar, and unnecessary portions are 99% to blame.

It reminded me a lot about my responsibility of my size.

And, it was quite inspiring to do something about it. I can enjoy wonderful foods without stuffing myself like a turkey.

Just saw Devdas, it was amazing, beautifully filmed, great tragic story, and one of the most erotic scenes I've seen from a Bollywood film. I recommend it.

Just to clarify - we saw the most recent Devdas with Shahrukah Kahn. There is also a very popular version of it filmed much earlier and well as many other versions.