Beth Loves Bollywood

Abbas-Mustan's Race is largely disappointing and ineffective, though it does have its moments, like Akshaye in a fringed leather jacket

and boot-scootin' with Saif. This particular song also has a US Civil War-style confederate flag in the background - nooooo! - and interestingly I saw this movie the day after I saw the Sony Ericsson ad in which Hrithik might be wearing blackface (starting at :17)...eeep.

I do want to say one significant nice thing about Race: the two lead female characters, played by Bipasha and Katrina, actually have a lot to do in the story! They're not significant in the major action sequences, but they certainly do their share to move the plot along in other ways and have as much up their sleeves as Saif and Akshaye. And these are figurative sleeves, of course - BipKat usually wear tank tops, mini skirts, and wee dresses. There's a ton of skin in this movie, and some of it felt like the directors were compensating for the less-than-thrilling thrille…

I've heard about Raj Kapoor calling his baby brother a taxi, flitting from project to project when anyone waved money at him. I don't know enough about Raj in general or Shashi's filming schedules in specific to comment on this, but it seems a little mean, especially since one of the fares he took was a very unsympathetic role in Raj's troubling (and slightly lechy) Satyam Shivam Sundaram. Yesterday, on Shashi's 70th birthday, Glamsham ran an article discussing what this approach achieved for Hindi and Indian films. It's a much more generous assessment, noting his his appeal to audiences in a variety of roles and his tendency to share the screen, as well as suggesting that the range of projects helped bring international attention to the richness of Indian cinema. Now that's what I call Shashilicious.

Aside: I spent Shashi's birthday yesterday flying home from Vienna, and on my Heathrow/O'Hare leg, I sat next to a pleasant and chatty man from Chicago…

...and includes cute screen caps from Doli Saja Ke Rakhna. Though not the point of the post, the question of how someone so choosy could choose so strangely is a good one. Of the recent projects I've seen him in, usually the role itself strikes me as unappealing (Aap Ki Khatir, Shaadi Se Pehle) or the role is okay but the film overall just doesn't quite work (Salaam-e-Ishq, Gandhi My Father, 36 China Town). Le sigh. Fingers crossed for Race, which will be showing in Champaign four days after I get back. Yippee!

He's well-rested after his vacation in Vienna, and the future is so bright: soon he is off to Switzerland and France, lucky thing, and then back to Vienna for a Top Secret Project That May or May Not Involve This Jacket, Nigeria, India, and Japan as promised. Adventures will be on his official page as usual.

Too bad he can't be trusted to go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum with Umananda, Babasko, and me this afternoon. All he would care about is art for his vault, and, while I adore him and generally enjoy being part of his hijinks, my museumista self cannot abet art theft. He can stay home with the Sacher torte.

Has anyone seen Natu Odoru Ninja Densetsu? Based on View from the Brooklyn Bridge's review, I think I might need to.

Enjoying Bollywood Sing Star with Maini and Kaddele.

Here are Babasko's pictures from our Bollywood weekend. Unfortunately for her, she was the MC, tech support, and DJ on Saturay night, so she wasn't able to take photos at dinner, the awards, and dancing. I have tons, as do several other people, and they will be added to the PEIBBM pool on Flickr.

A note about these awards that keep getting mentioned. I'm referring to this year's Annual Central European Bollywood Awards, as determined by the readers of the German-language forum. The forum is also how most of the people at the meetue know one another. As you will see, Om Shanti Om swept the awards. For many German-speaking fans, Bollywood=SRK. My understanding is that this phenomenon is partially due to German tv stations broadcasting dubbed versions of mainly SRK movies, and German subtitles on DVDs are rare. "The Khanians" (apologies if this is a derogatory term - I find it cute) are a very strong and vocal …

Ohmigod! The madness is fully underway. And y and z are reversed on German-language keyboards, so please excuse typos more than usual.

Last night at dinner, the owner of the restaurant (called Bollywood, of course) made us put in someone's ipod and dance. As usual, the Europeans make me do things I wouldn't necessarily do. There's even photoraphic evidence, which perhaps will never surface....

So. What can I tell you about the events so far? Thursday night we played Bollywood SingStar at Kaddele's restaurant. The playback industry can rest easy knowing that we're not going to give them a run for their contracts any time soon. Friday people descended upon München for lunch and then more chatting and preparatory projects (decorations for tonight's dinner tables and props for the liveblogging film) at "the Bollywood flat" where nine of us are staying. There are at least 30 people here this afternoon, from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, the UK, and …