I havent seen many of these movies, what is worth seeing? I'm very used to HK/Japanese cinema etc but not Indian, strange.
Back in the day I used to rent them from my library but they didnt have any English subtitles It looked like you were warching a pirate version, and every few secs there used to be an advert
Bisc/Slasher what do you think? I'm sure there are many Indian movies that don't ALL involve singing etc just as there are different sorts of HK movies
Actually Bisc, I was wondering have you seen JISM (The Body) which is a sort of erotic Bollywood version of Double Indemnity (sp?). It was on Channel 4 the other night.
There's not a lot of Bollywood stuff that's sans pole-twirling dance numbers, but there's some around. You could check out Raincoat starring the heavenly Aishwarya Rai. There's not a single song in that one, but the director Rituparno Ghosh is actually Bengali so that's why - so none of his Hindi films will probably ever have songs.
Then there's the not-yet-released scene-for-scene "remake" of Oldboy called ZINDA. This director Sanjay Gupta is not known for his originality - previously directing Kaante which is a remake of Reservoir Dogs. He's not a big fan of songs either so I wouldn't expect more than one or two. I'm really hoping for dance number in the hammer scene. Official Website ZINDA Trailer #1 ZINDA Trailer #2
Is there a DVD of Kaante? City-Hunter used to rave about it.
I've also heard of one called MISSION KASHMIR which sounds good (though is that technichally Bollywood? Certainly Indian).
I would also recommend
Veer Zaara
Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tearjerker)
Kaante
Koi Mil Gaya (Indian version of ET)
Mission Kashmir
Sholay (The best indian film of all time, you can see why Amitabh Bachchan is a superstar)
Bhoot (Very good Ringu style indian movie - no music at all)
Saaya (Similar to Bhoot but with songs)
Madman have released Kaante, but its cropped to 1.78, when it should be 2.35
Kaante is a load crap if I'm brutally honest. Where reservoir dogs had tension, drama and cool dialogue this dosen't.
Dil Chata Hai - one of my all time personal fav. Great drama about three friends.
Sholay is class. Infact most of Amitabh Bachans early stuff is top notch.
Black is really good and I'll recommend that. Amitabh Bachan hams its up a bit but its still very good. Why on earth it wasn't India's nomination for the oscars is beyond me.
Devdas is worth watch. Very good with amazing sets!
Some recent films i've seen:
Garahm Massala. Great laugh out loud comedy about a good for nothing womansier who tries to juggle three simultanious relatonships with air hosteses. Well worth the watch.
Mongal Panday (sp?) aka The Rising. Amir Khan doing another period epic like Lagaan. Unfortunaltly its not as good as Lagaan but still worth a watch.
Lucky No Time for Love- Salman Khan crapulance. But my friends (who are asian) liked it.
Kyon Ki - Not bad film about a mental paitient and his recovery (he went nuts after his gf croaked in unfortunate circumstances. Kinda funny actually). Salman Khan is not bad. Starts strong but is let down by a very very very weak ending.
I hear Raincoat, Veer Zara, Sarkar and Muna Bhai MBBS are supposed to be good. I have them on DVD knocking about but not had the time to watch them yet.
Bisc how was the Bharat? Did your relatives manage to arrange a bride for you :mrgreen:
''My dad's B.A. Baracus Only with a JCB and Bruce Lee's nunchuckas...''
Dude don't joke about things like that! My dad is already breathing down my neck.
The closest I got was handing a bouquet of flowers to this (kinda cute) security guard at the airport - only because I couldn't be arsed carrying it with me on the domestic flight. She was surprised but I didn't wait around too long, just walked through the gates.
So you liked Garam Masala? I didn't think it was that great... but tbh, I really need English subs. I understand only the bare minimum of Hindi (Bengali on the other hand, I know very well). I'll tell you something, the ladies in the film were stunning, as was the cinematography during the song numbers.
Sendit.com have run out of stock for the Bollywood discs I ordered (Black, Veer Zara and Ramayana)... managed to send Layer Cake though. I'm really in the mood for watching Bollywood right now more than anything - must be the post holiday blues.
There's plenty of the Hindi non-Bollywood films:-
Salaam Bombay! (1988) - Mira Nair's critically acclaimed debut film about the lives of street kids in Bombay (duh). It was quite good from what I remember of it.
Monsoon Wedding (2001) - Mira Nair's critically acclaimed return to her independent roots. I haven't seen it.
Maqbool (2003) - An adaptation of MacBeth in an organised crime setting. Critically acclaimed. Haven't seen this either.
Bandit Queen (1994) - A really unglamourous (READ: as far away from Bollywood as possible) biopic of a woman who rose to be a Robin Hood-like figure. Again critically acclaimed. Has a few really nasty moments. I couldn't properly appreciate the film cuz the transfer was truly fucking awful.
Monsoon Wedding is the only Indian film I've seen so far.
I've enjoyed it, but found that I'm allergic to bollywood music and silly dancing.
(as soon as they start dancing, I'm getting the urge to throw my remote at the TV screen).
I used to be "the man who loves the movies you hate".
Now I'm just "that weird french guy with a cat avatar who comes to BnB once a year for no reason and then disappears again".
BiscLimpkit wrote:Dude don't joke about things like that! My dad is already breathing down my neck.
If your parents are on your back I give you 6 months to a year before you cave in. Just accept it yaar. Now you've got a degree your a stud in many a asian parents eyes. (please remember to invite me)
BiscLimpkit wrote:So you liked Garam Masala? I didn't think it was that great... but tbh, I really need English subs. I understand only the bare minimum of Hindi (Bengali on the other hand, I know very well). I'll tell you something, the ladies in the film were stunning, as was the cinematography during the song numbers.
I'm guessing your from Calcutta since you speak Bengali and went to India. I'm from Bangladesh (shylet area) but I doubt I can understand the Bengali dialect you speak. Might as well be a foreign language. I can understand about 80-90% of hindi/urdu dialogue mainly because I grew up on Amitabh Bacchan, Rishi Kapoor, Mitun Chackrabati & Gitindra films but I can't speak any of it. odd eh?
Are any of the independant english speaking indian films available on DVD? I remeber watching a channel 4 season of them a few years ago. They were excellent on the whole. Alot more risque than your typical bollywood fare.
''My dad's B.A. Baracus Only with a JCB and Bruce Lee's nunchuckas...''
If you're after Mira Nair films, get the following dvds:
Monsoon Wedding - Region 4
Salaam Bombay! - Region 1
Kama Sutra - Region 1 Unrated
Independant cinema from India.
My family are from Calcutta yes. Good guess! I always thought that Bengali was the same no matter what? I've heard Bangladeshians speak and I can understand them no problem. Unless Bangladesh also has a lot of dialects/languages.
I'm very used to HK/Japanese cinema etc but not Indian, strange. 
It looked like you were warching a pirate version, and every few secs there used to be an advert 
