Bollywood And Me

More than half the world knows that I'm into Chinese opera, and many people know that I'm interested in Thai music and movies. However, not many know that I'm into Tamil movies as well. It sounds unbelievable, to the extent that when I told my ex-colleague, who is an Indian-Chinese, he thought I was fooling him

Of all genres, why Bollywood movies? If it was Thai or Malay movies, I can still understand a sentence or two out of the entire show, but Tamil is one language which I don't even understand a single word, except for "Vannakum!" Actually I have been watching Tamil movies since I was young. Not that I watched under the influence of my parents, since they do not understand the language either. At that age, I was too young to understand what's going on in the shows on television. Hence I just watch whatever there was available, anything that was not boring to me. Tamil movies somehow was interesting to me. In fact it wasn't just Tamil movies, but Tamil cultural shows like those short dance segments that were shown in the evenings (at that time, Tamil programmes were shown for only a few hours a day on the Mandarin channel). Of course I did not know what they were singing or talking about, but I just find their language interesting. Their music was also rather fascinating, especially their percussion instruments

Bollywood movies, either you like them or you hate them. The main reasons why some people do not like them are that typical Bollywood shows are too draggy, with stereotypical plots and illogical dance and song segments in between scenes (I have seen one movie whereby one of the dance segments was shot in Singapore, although the story of the movie does not happen in Singapore). No doubt Bollywood movies are quite lengthy, but the plots are not as draggy as in the past. As for the dance and music, I think you just got to get used to them! In recent years, Bollywood film music is getting better, and the dance segments are becoming more enjoyable to watch. Just like yesterday night's "Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai" and last week's "Mujhse Dosti Karoge!" are fine examples; a far cry from those "running around coconut trees" stereotypes. These movies not only have a following in India, but also in U.K. and U.S. too

In short, I think Bollywood movies are interesting mix of drama, music and dance. At times you just have to stop thinking in logical terms before you can fully enjoy the essence of the movie!