Ah, the infamous question. Yearned for and dreaded at the same time. Yearned for because I love talking about Bollywood, but dreaded because…well, I think Beth Watkins of the wonderful blog Beth Loves Bollywood put it best when she posted this on Bollywoodbloggers.com:

You hold in your hands the fate of someone’s relationship with an entire subcontinent of cinema. If you choose wisely, you’ve made a new friend or strengthened a bond - at the least have a new film-watching companion. But if it goes wrong, you find yourself justifying pleather pants or defending Kareena Kapoor or assuring someone that they need not worry too hard about why om has the all the resonance of the living universe and just to trust that it does or encouraging someone to just sit tight while we take a momentary detour to Switzerland because we’ll get back to Mumbai in just a minute. It’s even worse if you’re present for the watching, witnessing every little reaction, trying to figure out when you should pipe up to explain something or acknowledge ridiculousness - or trying to discern whether you’ll get chucked out of the room if you dance along to your favorite picturization.

So it’s a heavy thing to take on someone else’s entire relationship with something you’re so crazy about yourself. My solution is to throw out a bunch of different kinds of movies so the person can choose which one they think they might like best. Then I run away to hide and hope for the best. Sometimes people come back to me and say, “That was really cool, do you have any more?” Sometimes they return the DVD to me with a derisive look in their eye and I just know they’re thinking, “You watch this on a regular basis?” It is indeed a hard thing to recommend the right film.

So I say this to all of you who are new to it, who want to try it out. Leave your expectations at the door, loosen up your sense of humor and just go with the silliness. It will bring a little more joy into your life.

 Here is a recommendation I recently made:

Which movie do you watch? It all depends on your taste. Do you like romance? Adventure? Cars blowing up? Westerns? Song and dance? Well you can’t really get away from the last one at all when it comes to Bollywood.

You might want to start with Devdas (2002) a lush, sweeping historical epic set in 19th century India. It features three of Bollywood’s biggest stars. The cinematography is sumptuous, the overacting perfect, and the dancing sublime.

Or perhaps you should start with Sholay (1975), a Bollywood classic. It’s a curry western (instead of, you know, a spaghetti western). It’s rough and tumble with awesomely bad good guys and even more awesomely bad bad guys.

There’s also Parineeta (2005), a mostly dance-free movie set in sixties Kolkata about the trials of a boy and his girl next door. It’s moody and sexy, and beautifully shot.

Or for a big-budget, fun romp I would suggest Bunty aur Babli (2005) (which translates to something Bunty and Babli), a colorful Bonnie and Clyde like adventure with a happier ending. Watch out because the actor who plays the policeman chasing them is actually the father of the actor playing Bunty. This leads to one too many “You are practically a son to me!” jokes.

 Or you could rent the movie that’s been playing in Indian theatres for 12 years now, since it came out, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) (The Brave Hearted Will Take the Bride). It’s India’s favorite and it was one of the first movies to really address the conflict between traditional values and the Indian diaspora that’s been happening over the last half century. That analysis makes the movie sound really serious. It’s not. It’s ridiculously silly and (if you can get through the first half) really good.

~ Miss Bolly