LaForge's home page (Posts about bollywood)https://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/tags/bollywood.atom2022-06-21T07:49:57ZHarald WelteNikolaAvailability of Bollywood DVDs in Bangalorehttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20081202-bollywood_dvds-planet_m/2008-12-02T03:00:00+01:002008-12-02T03:00:00+01:00Harald Welte<p>
I've been visiting Bangalore many times throughout the last five years. Every
time I've spent a visit to "Planet M" on Brigade Road for buying some Bollywood
DVDs.
</p>
<p>
And for some unknown reason, the size of the racks with Bollywood DVDs is
shrinking from year to year. And with it, obviously the choice...
</p>
<p>
What you can get are sort of the last five major blockbusters, and tons of
cheap re-releases of old movies from the seventies through nineties. But what
about the last five years? What about anything that was released recently but is no longer part of the top-10? _nothing_!
</p>
<p>
Oh, and then you can get tons of Bollywood VCDs. But who wants that low
quality? It's definitely no pleasure to watch a VCD. Even DVDs have way
too little resolution to capture e.g. the details of costumes in a
lot-of-people-dancing kind of scene.
</p>
<p>
It's really sad. Are people no longer buying those DVDs? Do Bollywood
fans go to different places? Where should I go in Bangalore for a decent
selection? Hints welcome, please send e-mail.
</p>
<p>
As a side note, yesterday I've also been at Planet M in the Esteem Mall. It's
sort of a joke. Never seen a CD/DVD store that small. Obviously no choice
at all.
</p>In Switzerland again. Feeling like in a Bollywood moviehttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20081006-switzerland/2008-10-06T03:00:00+02:002008-10-06T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
I'm back to Switzerland for some Swisscom related work. Right now I'm sitting
in the Intercity train between Zurich and Bern. And believe it or not: Half of
the car is occupied by (loud) Hindi speaking Indian tourists ;)
</p>
<p>
It really feels like I'm in a Bollywood movie. Indians in Switzerland. And
not only in Switzerland, but in the Train. Couldn't be any more cliche ;)
</p>Drona - what a disappointmenthttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20081005-drona/2008-10-05T03:00:00+02:002008-10-05T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
In Berlin there are not many chances to watch a Bollywood movie in an actual
cinema. Those few movies that they show, I usually try to watch, at least if
I'm in town. So far they've always made a great selection and picked only
blockbuster movies that actually were any good.
</p>
<p>
Since I haven't been staying up-to-date with the latest Bollywood releases
(mostly due to time constraints and lack of access to Indian DVD's in Taiwan),
I didn't even check about the background of the latest movie they've started
to show here: Drona.
</p>
<p>
After watching the first five to ten minutes of the film, it became already
clear to me that I should have done better and check beforehand. Never seen
such a trashy movie before. What a disappointment.
</p>Dorhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20070318-dor/2007-03-18T03:00:00+01:002007-03-18T03:00:00+01:00Harald Welte<p>
On my China Airways flight from Frankfurt to Taipeh, I have continued my
tradition of watching the [usually] only Bollywood movie that the in-flight
entertainment system offers. In this particular case, it was <b>Dor</b>
</p>
<p>
I had not yet heared/read anything about that movie, and not even the name
sounded familiar. So I was a bit skeptically if this was one of those cheap
superficial "B-class" movies that I try to avoid.
</p>
<p>
To the contrary. What seems like a low-budget production without any major
actors [that I would recognize], is actually a masterpiece. Very unlike the
cliche Bollyowood, it is not "overdone". Nothing is exaggerrated into self-irony.
Everything feels real, down-to-earth. No princess-like costumes, no palaces
and no super-rich Indians in their mega-cities. This impression is further
substantiated by the somewhat simplistic editing. Scenes end abruptly, and the
audio track does not spawn such 'hard cuts' smoothly either.
</p>
<p>
Dor is a sincere and honest movie about two women who have nothing in common,
and come from completely different cultural backgrounds of Indias diversity.
However, both of their husbands go abroad to work in Saudi Arabia very soon after
marriage. A terrible accident involving those two Indian workers sets the stage
for the remainder of the plot.
</p>
<p>
The whole movie is shot at various locations on the country side. The only
remnescent of modern india is a cell phone with SIM card, and the mainstream
bollywood songs that are sometimes playing on some squeaky radio.
</p>
<p>
It seems like this is the next DVD on my 'to-buy' list. Let's see if I manage
to pick it up during my trip to Bangalore in early April.
</p>Seen "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" in the cinemahttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20061209-kabhi_alvida_na_kehna/2006-12-09T03:00:00+01:002006-12-09T03:00:00+01:00Harald Welte<p>
Just by coincidence I noticed that yesterday was the only show of "Kabhi Alvida
Naa Kehna" anywhere near Berlin _at all_. So no matter that it was some 60km
away, and I had to drive all the way to Potsdam, I had to go. And that
decision was right. It definitely has become of my personal "all-time top ten"
Hindi movies. It could have been a bit more serious, according to my taste.
But apart from that: Great music, fabulous choreography, camera, costumes,
acting, .... - everything!
</p>
<p>
So as soon as it becomes available here, I have to buy the DVD. Oh, and yes, I
still have to buy that LCD projector for my home cinema, the one I intended to
buy for several months now...
</p>Bollywood Musical in Berlinhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20061005-bollywood-musical/2006-10-05T03:00:00+02:002006-10-05T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
Tonight I've been to <a href="http://www.bollywoodshow.de/">Bollywood - The
Show</a>, a Bollywood musical that is touring through (I guess among other
countries) Germany for the next couple of months.
</p>
<p>
It was truly amazing. First, there is the irony of playing a story that is
remotely based on a true story - probably an idealized form of the story of the
musicians and choreographer family behind this musical: The Merchant family.
Secondly, the number of dancers is actually quite limited, so they need to
danca and dance and dance for hours. What is usually done in many takes (with
breaks) when shooting the song sequences of a Bollywood movie - those musical
dancers have to do it all in one row. One some days even two shows on one
day. What an amazing talent and stamina.
</p>
<p>
It's too sad to learn that such musicals can only exist in the west, since
their cost of production is just too expensive for India, plus apparently the
lack of a musical culture there.. quite strange, isn't it? I bet a lot of
Indian Bollywood fans are definitely sad to lack the opportunity to see this
(or another upcoming one, such as the <a href="http://www.bharati.de/">Bharati</a>).
</p>Bollywood / Hindi-pop Web-radio: Radio Teentaalhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060812-radioteentaal/2006-08-12T03:00:00+02:002006-08-12T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
I've recently discovered <a href="http://www.radioteentaal.com/">Radio Teentaal</a>, a web-radio dedicated to "100% Indian music" - being streamed live from <i>Paris</i>.
</p>
<p>
It's certainly no surprise to see the radio being shoutcasted from some
western country, since [that kind of] bandwidth is still not really affordable
in India. But it's surprising to me that it's not from UK, US, Canada or
another English-speaking country with large NRI community.
</p>
<p>
Anyway, they seem to play the latest popular Bollywood beats, no commercials,
no interruptions, not even one the otherwise omnipresent self-advertisement
jingles. Just pure music, at 128kBps stereo mp3.
</p>Retrospective on Shah Rukh Khanhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060720-bollywood-srk-retrospective-berlin/2006-07-20T03:00:00+02:002006-07-20T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
The much-to-be-thanked <a href="http://www.rapideyemovies.de/">Rapid Eye
Movies</a> cinema movie distributor for Asian cinema brings a retrospective on
SRK into German cinemas. It includes the movies Baazigar, Dilwale Dulhania Le
Jayenge, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Dil Se, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Swades and
Pardes.
</p>
<p>
They start with showing those movies from July 20 (today!) to August 8th in the
<a href="http://www.babylonberlin.de/bollywood2.htm">Babylon Theatre
Berlin</a>.
</p>
<p>
I've seen most of those movies before, but on DVD. And I'm definitely going to
watch many of them in the cinema, since Bollywood movies are just too colorful
and rich in detail to watch them on something as "low-res" and compression
artefact encumbered as DVD...
</p>
<p>
So I'd expect some drop in productivity over the next two weeks, but I can't help myself...
</p>Krrishhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060703-krrish/2006-07-03T03:00:00+02:002006-07-03T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
Yes, apparently it's Bollywood season in Berlin, thanks to <a href="http://rapideyemovies.de/">rapideyemovies.de</a> who has
brought <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432637/">Krrish</a>
at least for one week into one of Berlin's smaller cinemas.
</p>
<p>
I definitely enjoyed the movie quite a lot. I believe it would be a good
example for a "masala movie". Love, Romance, Action, Eastern, Sci-Fi,
Thriller: all-in-one. And that with the most excellent dancer and "India's
Schwarzenegger" Hrithik Roshan and former Miss India Priyanka Chopra as the two
lead actors. And despite all the action scenes, the film actually is still
cheesy enough to fulfill the Bollywood cliche :)
</p>
<p>
I also think it marks a new milestone in the area of special effects for
Bollywood cinema. As a sequel to "Koi Mil Gaya", it definitely goes way
beyond its prequel.
</p>Rang De Basantihttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060701-rangdebasanti/2006-07-01T03:00:00+02:002006-07-01T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
It doesn't happen very often that one of the many Berlin cinemas shows
Bollywood movies. Last Thursday, even two of them started simultaneously.
So yesterday I had no chance but to watch <b>Rang De Basanti</b>. I had
to go, even though I had seen that movie in Bangalore before. Obviously
at that point without any subtitles, so there certainly was a lot of the
plot that I didn't realize yet.
</p>
<p>
The movie was as good as the first time. There are very few movies that
don't get overly pathetic when it comes to telling/interpreting a story about
[past] heroes. But in this one, everything feels real. The strong emotions,
the incredible pain, hate...
</p>
<p>
Definitely one of the top Indian movies that I have seen, even though it isn't
not a very typical cliche Bollywood movie at all ;)
</p>
<p>
On Monday, I'll be watching Krrish. Let's see how Hrtik Roshan plays Krishna ;)
</p>KRISH in German cinemashttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060612-krish/2006-06-12T03:00:00+02:002006-06-12T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
Thanks to <a href="http://www.rapideyemovies.de/">rapideyemovies.de</a>, the
follow-up to the Bollywood sci-fi "koi mil gaya" called "krish" will be shown
soon in cinemas all over Germany (well, at least in all major cities).
</p>
<p>
I'll certainly make use of it, especially since I'll be missing the <a href="http://www.filmmuseum-potsdam.de/de/398-1141.htm">Bollywood night</a> at
Filmmuseum Potsdam because of my trip to the GPLv3 conference in Barcelona.
</p>Swadeshttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060515-swades/2006-05-15T03:00:00+02:002006-05-15T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
I've had the chance to watch <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367110/">Swades</a> at the home cinema of a
friend. Swades is a quite impressive film, and definitely [for me] one of the
best recent Bollywood films.
</p>
<p>
I think the most interesting aspect is the way how they display the
transformation process of an initially extremely alienated NRI
(officially "Non Resident Indian", in the movie jokingly referred-to as "Non
Returning Indian") back ti a "true Indian".
</p>Family - Ties of Bloodhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20060121-family/2006-01-21T03:00:00+01:002006-01-21T03:00:00+01:00Harald Welte<p>
Tonight I enjoyed the rare opportunity to watch a Bollywood movie in Berlin,
almost at the same time the movie is released in India. We usually only get a
hand full of Indian movies every year, to very small cinemas, and about one to
two years after they ran in India.
</p>
<p>
I personally enjoyed the film quite a lot, even though the critics in India
seem to be disappointed by it. But well, what do I care about those critics ;)
</p>
<p>
One advantage of watching Bollywood movies in Germany is that you don't need a
ticket reservation, since very few people are interested in those movies
anyway. Second, you can actually enjoy a film without some 20 to 30something
minutes of advertisements and anti-screener propaganda.
</p>My first Bollywood party in Berlinhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20050918-club_deewane-bollywood-berlin/2005-09-18T03:00:00+02:002005-09-18T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
The frequent reader of this blog will have noticed that I love Indian
Bollywood cinema (and of course the corresponding music).
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately there are very little Bollywood movies in the cinemas in Germany,
and other Bollywood events are almost as rare. However, <a href="http://www.club-deewane.com/">Club Deewane</a> now organizes more or less frequent parties in Berlin.
</p>
<p>
Due to my frequent travel, yesterday was the first time I was around when the
event took place. It was quite an experience... I wouldn't have imagined that
such an event could actually draw some 200+ people. I'd say no more than 20%
of the guests did were of Indian origin/decent, the rest was the usual
multicultural "Berlin mixture". </p>
<p>
Anyway, I had a great time, and was surprised how much of the music I actually
recognized ;)
</p>The largest original collection of Bollywood actresses rendered in ASCIIhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20050414-bollywood-ascii/2005-04-14T03:00:00+02:002005-04-14T03:00:00+02:00Harald Welte<p>
It's amazing what kind of websites people are starting. <a href="http://www.asciibabes.com/bollywood.html">This one</a> is definitely one
of the most geeky subjects I've seen so far.
</p>Source for Bollywood movies at least temporarily down :(https://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20050321-desitorrents/2005-03-21T03:00:00+01:002005-03-21T03:00:00+01:00Harald Welte<p>
Some months ago, when I first discovered <a href="http://www.desitorrents.com/>desitorrents</a>,%20I%20was%20really%20happy%20to%20have%0Afound%20a%20reliable%20source%20of%20Indian%20movies%20(you%20just%20can't%20buy%20them%20here%20in%0AGermany).%20%20%20Unfortunately%20desitorrents%20seems%20down,%20at%20least%20temporarily%20:(%0A</p>%0A<p>%0AAfter%20some%20searching,%20I%20discovered%20<a%0Ahref=" http:>bwtorrents</a>, but that's "full" with 40k
users... seems like a strange idea to me, since the torrent distribution
mechanism works better the more users you have.
</p>A really big Bollywood fanhttps://laforge.gnumonks.org/blog/20050215-bollywood/2005-02-15T03:00:00+01:002005-02-15T03:00:00+01:00Harald Welte<p>
Since there's a severe lack of non-technical subjects in this blog, I decided
to write something about a passion of mine that developed over the last two
years: Bollywood Movies.
</p>
<p>
Most German readers of this blog will probably not have heard about Bollywood
before, it's India's mainstream Hindi cinema, from Mumbai aka Bombay (guess
that's where the 'B' is coming from).
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately Bollywood DVD's with English subtitles are very hard to get here
in Germany, so I've had to order the initial couple of movies from Canadian
NRI-oriented mail orders.
</p>
<p>
More recently, my friend <a href="http://www.atulchitnis.net/">Atul Chitnis</a>
was kind enough to bring a stack of DVD's every time he travelled to Germany - despite his personal dislike of Bollywood cinema. Thanks again, Atul.
</p>
<p>
Since a very short time ago, I also know <a href="http://www.desitorrents.com/">DesiTorrents</a>, a forum related to all kinds of Indian cinema, music, music videos, ...
</p>
<p>
Now you will ask yourself, "hey, isn't that the same guy who prosecutes
copyright infringers?". Yes, it is. However, I have no way of legally obtaining
the DVD's of the respective movies over here. I haven't found even a single
DVD mail order specializing in those DVD's within .de. And ordering from abroad
is very impractical, due to the high cost of shipping, and even more due the
complicated customs procedure here in Germany.
</p>
<p>
So as soon as anyone can point me to a less problematic source of desi movies
here in Germany, I'll immediately stop using DesiTorrents!
</p>