May your dreams be more vast than your arms can stretch: Bunty aur Babli

Well, now, that was fun!

That's about all I can think of to say about Bunty aur Babli, a superwow-supercute movie if ever there were one. Even a cheeseball like me enjoyed a plot that put the romance on the side, letting the characters just enjoy being their dream-addled, fun-loving selves. Even lots of the minor characters were so delightfully written that you want to see more of each of them. Oh, except for the random rich American guy, who was pretty pointless and not well acted.

Things that this sugary goodness seduced me into loving, some of which might, in other movies, have been a little peculiar or annoying:
  • Vimmi's transparent, stripey clown pants. Somehow Rani really made those work. Snaps to the costume designer.
  • Vimmi's I Love Lucy-inspired crying ("Waaaaaaah, Bunty, I wanna be in the pageant!") was just genius. Rakesh must have really loved her to put up with that.
  • Rakesh seeming to have to pee in the shower in one of their hotel bathrooms, out of sheer desparation as the loo was overrun with Vimmi's stuff. That was just funny.
  • the Inspector talking around a cigarette - I can't understand him anyway, so it just added to his fake-pretend grizzled, gritty character
  • the basic premise of "isn't it fun to rob people?" Honestly, that's leaning towards morally bankrupt, but somehow I didn't care here. Maybe becuase they seemed to rob either richies or people who otherwise deserved it somehow.

    Also I really liked that Vimmi and Rakesh didn't wuss out when they had a kid. Women don't seem to get to do that very often. She knew that home life was not for her and that she had to do something else or she'd go crazy.

    Watching the male Bachchans dance gives hope to us all, doesn't it? I've never seen senior dance when he was younger, so I'll cut him some slack, but what's junior's excuse? If there is a world so forgiving that we tolerate (and even positively reward) their moves, surely there is a chance for world peace. C'mon everybody, thrown down your weapons! C'mon with me - just clap your hands and shuffle in rhythm! There you go! Global dance sequence! Don't we all look great?

    Oh, and best use of a parodic puppet show ever!

    PS I'm noticing a lot of italics in this post. That's what kind of movie this is. Plain type isn't enough fun.
  • Comments

    Raka said…
    I must disagree on the Kajara Re comment. The Amitabh steps were actually very cheeky parodies of the kinds of steps he had in his old dance numbers such as Don and Amar, Akbar, Anothony, etc. The whole scene was like one giant homage to old movies, be it the Umrao Jaan-esque setting or the numerous Devdas references in the song. The dance that really bothered me was Naach Baliye, wherein the steps for Jr. did not fit and Rani's costumes made her seem short and stout.

    But overall the movie was excellent.
    Thanks for your comment! You make a great point - and one that I, as someone watching Bollywood in basically no order at all, just watching things as I come across them, would never be aware of if people didn't tell me! :) I'm always delighted to find out about paradoic elements, and as I finally get to the original Don and AAA (which have both been on my list for ages, of course!), I"ll really enjoy knowing that - as I will next time I watch B&B.

    And as for Naach Baliye, I totally agree!

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