A New Nightmare: Cambodian American Deportation Carries History’s Weight (Feature) Local and National Reports Document Sept. 11 Backlash (in National News) Airport Screeners Pick Up Final Paychecks (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: Inside the Twilight Zone (in Business) Mark Chung: American Soccer’s Coolest Man (in Sports) ‘Bollywood/Hollywood’ Celebrates Double Vision (in A&E) Emil Amok: APA Judge Grants Screeners Temporary Victory (in Opinion)

‘Bollywood/Hollywood’ Celebrates Double Vision

Rahul Khanna plays Rahul Seth in Deepa Mehta’s latest film, Bollywood/Hollywood.

By Neela Banerjee
AsianWeek

In a relatively unpublicized U.S. premiere, acclaimed Indo-Canadian director Deepa Mehta’s latest film, Bollywood/Hollywood, opened at the Naz8 Cinemas in Fremont, Calif. The event was a fund-raiser sponsored by local nonprofit foundation Stree: Global Investments for Women, and benefited the San Mateo County Health Services’ program for at-risk teen mothers.

A relatively new organization, Stree was founded in May 2001 by Dr. Malini Alles as a foundation dedicated to health care for women in poverty in the United States and internationally.

“100 percent of the proceeds of this movie will go towards in-need teen mothers in San Mateo,” local journalist Hari Sreenivasan said in his introduction of Stree. “That’s a lot more good than if you went to see 8 Mile.”

Bollywood/Hollywood’s loving send-up of Bollywood production values versus Western lifestyles is a departure from Mehta’s past few films. Mehta was nearly finished with a planned trilogy of socially relevant dramas concerning South Asian issues — including the controversial Fire (1996), which was one of the first commercial Indian films to address homosexual issues, and Earth (1998), based on the Bapsi Sidwa novel Ice-Candy Man, about Hindu-Muslim strife during India’s impendence. In 2000, Mehta was forced by Hindu conservatives in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to halt production of the third film in her trilogy, Water, and look for a new location.

Top to bottom: Jessica Paré (Kimberly Stewart), Lisa Ray (Sue Singh), Moushumi Chatterjee (Mummy Ji/Ruby Seth), Ranjit Chowdhry (Rocky) and Dina Pathak (Grandma Ji).

After dealing with the intense, political and violent controversy surrounding Water, Mehta wanted to do something to make herself feel better. Bollywood/Hollywood — a light-hearted, campy look at love and tradition — manages to do that for everyone.

The opening film of the Toronto Film Festival, Bollywood/Hollywood — made with just $2 million — tells the story of dashing dotcom millionaire Rahul Seth, played by Mehta-regular Rahul Khanna, who is both rebelling against and giving into the traditions of his family.

The film opens in true melodramatic style on a stormy night with Rahul at his father’s deathbed. His father, prone to hilarious sports metaphors, makes Rahul promise to marry and keep the family together. Jump 10 years ahead and Mehta brings in the Bollywood with a full-on dance and music production number that introduces Rahul’s love interest: a spiritually-enlightened (Deepak Chopra-style) white pop singer played by Jessica Pare.

When his over-the-top mother, played to perfection by Moushumi Chatterjee, and his Shakespeare-quoting grandmother scare off his love — who then dies in an unfortunate levitating accident — Rahul vows never to love again.

But then his mother threatens to call off his sister’s wedding unless Rahul finds “a nice Indian girl,” which prompts Rahul to hire a seemingly Latino call-girl named Sue, played by Lisa Ray, to accompany him to the 10 days of celebration leading up to his sister’s wedding.

Pretty Woman-meets-Bollywood antics ensue as Rahul and his faithful driver Rocky, played by ubiquitous actor Ranjit Chowdhary, school Sue on the finer points of Indian culture, outfitting her in the finest saris and jewelry and telling her not to look anyone in the eyes.

Mehta’s weaving of song-and-dance numbers, a la Bollywood hits, works fluidly both in a comedic sense and as a tribute to the lyrical flow of Indian movies. The obvious wedding setting is the perfect place for the mix of opulent party scenes and song numbers, rife with costume changes and sentimental love songs. Sue reveals her true ethnicity at Rahul’s sister’s sangeet, or pre-wedding celebration, by demurely singing a catchy Indian hit — it’s a moment out of every Bollywood film of the past 20 years.

Sue manages to ingratiate herself into Rahul’s family, moving herself into their house, boosting the confidence of his younger brother and even cracking the hard shell of the stern grandmother. Rahul’s own hard shell starts to crack as he sees Sue for who she is, and not just a working girl.

Mehta brings up a riot of issues, touching upon gender roles, queer identity, sexuality and the struggle with tradition, all while keeping the audience laughing with subtle twists and brilliantly placed song and dance numbers.

Rahul Khanna and Lisa Ray’s Bollywood banter and love affair were too glossy, and Ray played her part like the model-turned-actress she is. The movie’s strengths definitely lie in the eclectic cast of supporting characters, like Rocky’s exquisite alter-ego, a drag queen named Rookini; Grandma-ji’s (Dina Pathak) stern matriarch, whose well-placed Shakespeare lines draw a great connection between the pop-culture of Bollywood and the popular appeal of the Bard’s works back in the day; and Sue’s father (Kulbhushan Kharbanda), a man lost in nostalgia for his homeland and who sees everything through a Bollywood filter. Also, note hilarious cameos by Rahul Khanna’s brother Akshaye, star of huge Bollywood hit Dil Chahta Hai, and South Asian WWE star Killer Khalsa.

Even though Mehta keeps things fluffy, the underlying story of whether a man can accept a woman in the face of her past — the same question discussed in Kevin Smith’s Chasing Amy — was a refreshing conflict in South Asian film, even though it was buried so far underneath the overlying East vs. West story line that it lacked development.

Overall, Mehta proves that she can’t be pigeonholed as a controversy-stirring auteur and that her love for Indian film transcends location. Bollywood/Hollywood is a true celebration of the mish-mash that makes up the immigrant Indian experience.

Bollywood/Hollywood is unrated and will open nationwide Friday, Nov. 22.

Photos provided by www.bollywoodhollywoodmovie.com.