No sooner did I finish my last post than my weather radio flipped on and the local tornado warning sirens started blaring. I feel like I should take it as a hint, but I don't know if the hint is supposed to be that my writing will bring about natural disasters, or that the fact I finally did something with this page for the first time in six months was literally such a cause for alarm warning bells had to go off.
Hmm. After reading this back to myself it appears that no matter which option I go with, I come off as having an inflated sense of self-worth either way.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
"Benny": Not Bolly.
Wow. It's been...awhile. Sorry about that.
Warning: Bit of a rant ahead.
I thought maybe this had finally fallen off the radar, but after seeing a link to it for the hundredth time this morning I wanted to throw my two cents in about the infamous "Benny Lava" video that's been making its way around the glorious series of tubes we call the internet. On the off chance you're one of the five people who still hasn't seen this clip, have a taste of the loony bun.
Everywhere I turn, whether it's this one, the guy sliding his horse under a truck, or the other guy making his tractor do a bunny hop over his enemies, I see comments like "lol awesome" or "what are they putting in the curry over there," which is all right I suppose, but I also see ones sniping about how "weird" Bollywood is, followed by more comments wanting to know "who watches this crap" and "why are they always singing" and "I heard this movie had an astronomical budget of $40" and then I become slightly cross-eyed because THAT ISN'T F**KING BOLLYWOOD.
Let me say it again for the cheap seats.
JUST BECAUSE A MOVIE WAS MADE IN INDIA, THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT A BOLLYWOOD FILM.
Okay? Good.
Allow me to elaborate. Take for example our boy Benny up there. Benny is in actuality Prabhu Deva, who according to his Wiki entry is known as "India's Michael Jackson" thanks to his flashy dance moves. For his sake, I sincerely hope that's the only trait he's borrowed. (By the way, in case you wanted to hit up iTunes later the actual title of the song is "Kalluri Vaanil.") Prabhu is a star in what's known as Kollywood, one of the other centers of the larger Indian film industry. Just as Bollywood is a combination of "Bombay" and "Hollywood," Kollywood movies are produced mainly in a place called Kodambakkam and filmed in the Tamil language, as opposed to the Hindi used in Bollywood films. The other two clips I linked to above are from Tollywood, the Telugu variant. To put a more Anglo spin on it, while a movie made in Scotland and a movie made in England could technically both be called British films, you'd know the difference between Trainspotting and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels if you saw them.
So, now that we know what isn't Bollywood let's take a look at something that most definitely is. In fact, it's one of my favorites-- "Yeh Ladka Hai Allah" from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
You notice it, right? Different style of singing, different style of dancing, the way it's filmed, the way it's edited...we're talking night and day here. These are clearly two separate entities. If you prefer though, we can also go with something a little more contemporary.
This is "Ticket to Hollywood," from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. In terms of theme and style it's at least somewhat closer in spirit to "Benny" than "Yeh Ladka," but still, as far as execution goes it's a pretty sharp contrast. (Speaking of pretty sharp, Lara Dutta...Jesus. She falls under that category of woman I like to refer to as "insanely freaking hot.")
I'm not saying every Bollywood film looks like these two; I've got some titles from the 90's that I would generously call "rough around the edges." And I'm not trying to knock Kolly- or Tollywood either, because if I knew where that tractor jumping scene came from I'd consider it a moral obligation to scour eBay for a copy. My point is that rolling out these cheesy clips from low budget productions as if they're the standard for Bollywood or even Indian films in general is like saying the best we can do is Bratz: The Movie or one of those schlock disaster flicks Sci-Fi plays every Saturday (all of which star Costas Mandylor for some reason- gotta be the name). Anyway, just something that kind of irks me and I felt like hopping up on the soapbox for a minute. Thanks for playing along at home.
[/rant]
Warning: Bit of a rant ahead.
I thought maybe this had finally fallen off the radar, but after seeing a link to it for the hundredth time this morning I wanted to throw my two cents in about the infamous "Benny Lava" video that's been making its way around the glorious series of tubes we call the internet. On the off chance you're one of the five people who still hasn't seen this clip, have a taste of the loony bun.
Everywhere I turn, whether it's this one, the guy sliding his horse under a truck, or the other guy making his tractor do a bunny hop over his enemies, I see comments like "lol awesome" or "what are they putting in the curry over there," which is all right I suppose, but I also see ones sniping about how "weird" Bollywood is, followed by more comments wanting to know "who watches this crap" and "why are they always singing" and "I heard this movie had an astronomical budget of $40" and then I become slightly cross-eyed because THAT ISN'T F**KING BOLLYWOOD.
Let me say it again for the cheap seats.
JUST BECAUSE A MOVIE WAS MADE IN INDIA, THAT DOES NOT MAKE IT A BOLLYWOOD FILM.
Okay? Good.
Allow me to elaborate. Take for example our boy Benny up there. Benny is in actuality Prabhu Deva, who according to his Wiki entry is known as "India's Michael Jackson" thanks to his flashy dance moves. For his sake, I sincerely hope that's the only trait he's borrowed. (By the way, in case you wanted to hit up iTunes later the actual title of the song is "Kalluri Vaanil.") Prabhu is a star in what's known as Kollywood, one of the other centers of the larger Indian film industry. Just as Bollywood is a combination of "Bombay" and "Hollywood," Kollywood movies are produced mainly in a place called Kodambakkam and filmed in the Tamil language, as opposed to the Hindi used in Bollywood films. The other two clips I linked to above are from Tollywood, the Telugu variant. To put a more Anglo spin on it, while a movie made in Scotland and a movie made in England could technically both be called British films, you'd know the difference between Trainspotting and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels if you saw them.
So, now that we know what isn't Bollywood let's take a look at something that most definitely is. In fact, it's one of my favorites-- "Yeh Ladka Hai Allah" from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
You notice it, right? Different style of singing, different style of dancing, the way it's filmed, the way it's edited...we're talking night and day here. These are clearly two separate entities. If you prefer though, we can also go with something a little more contemporary.
This is "Ticket to Hollywood," from Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. In terms of theme and style it's at least somewhat closer in spirit to "Benny" than "Yeh Ladka," but still, as far as execution goes it's a pretty sharp contrast. (Speaking of pretty sharp, Lara Dutta...Jesus. She falls under that category of woman I like to refer to as "insanely freaking hot.")
I'm not saying every Bollywood film looks like these two; I've got some titles from the 90's that I would generously call "rough around the edges." And I'm not trying to knock Kolly- or Tollywood either, because if I knew where that tractor jumping scene came from I'd consider it a moral obligation to scour eBay for a copy. My point is that rolling out these cheesy clips from low budget productions as if they're the standard for Bollywood or even Indian films in general is like saying the best we can do is Bratz: The Movie or one of those schlock disaster flicks Sci-Fi plays every Saturday (all of which star Costas Mandylor for some reason- gotta be the name). Anyway, just something that kind of irks me and I felt like hopping up on the soapbox for a minute. Thanks for playing along at home.
[/rant]
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