Bollywood mania

You've heard of Mister Toad, right?  He is Frog and Badger's friend and has manias that his friends have to save him from.  Like the Wild Ride.  I go through those too, large and small.  Sometimes a weekend passion to make-my-own-clothes-that-actually-fit-dammit.  Sometimes a song on replay for a couple of weeks. One Christmas I kept making Chex Mix for months afterward. Other times it's a tangential string of movies featuring a theme or actor.  Luckily, nobody has to save me.  I participate loosely, not acutely, in my manias.
And then there's the times they're more like distance learning classes, like taking an online course in something.  That's where I am now.  Hello Bollywood.
The interest started back somewhere with Bride and Prejudice.  It's Bollywood lite but still fits into the category.  Lite because of the American actors, mild dance numbers and lack of Hindi.  And it stemmed from another streak I was on, versions of Pride and Prejudice.  It translated so well from the austere English to an Indian spin that I ended up buying it.

But then--oh then!-- Bride and Prejudice came up on my Netflix queue and by association (IloveyouNetflix) I came across Bang Bang! and holy moly.  This, folks, is where the mania started. 
So now I'm on a Bollywood kick.  Which is weird.  Because the quintessential fact of a Bollywood film is the singing and dancing.  All of which I usually avoid.  Not a fan of musicals at all.  Can't stand them.  And yes, I saw Singing In The Rain.  The whole time I live in dread of the opening chords of another musical number.  They stop the plot.  And anything plot related that happens during a song is difficult to understand.  Unless the whole song is about it.  And then the whole song is about it.  I cringe and think, "Get on with it!" This isn't fair, I know.  And there are some musicals recently that I think I would probably enjoy.  What's the one with the guy who's constantly slamming doors and plays all of 7 seven people?  That one.  I bet I'd like that one pretty well.  Maybe I just need crazier action.  That could be the root of my distaste.  I also have not had the benefit of Broadway.  Midwestern musical theater is not bad--it can be quite good--but it's not handsome enough to tempt me.  My sensibilities are not that refined.  Give me more Bang Bang! for my buck, please.

This latest craze started out as a movie mania but it's impossible to just watch--literally I have to read the subtitles--which leads to picking up a few words. Then there's the costumes; costume analyzing is favorite pastime anyway.  See enough movies and you start being able to identify the stylistic differences between the actors. Salman Khan always has a gimmick: whistling and flexing, twitching his belt buckle, sticking his sunglasses in the back of his shirt collar.  Shah Ruhk Kahn likes personas reflected in costumes, later movies becoming more dramatic with the effects.  Hrithik Roshan is a rubberband; his signature is a fluid and highly choreographed dance style. (Indians are more concerned with directors, choreographers and lyricists.  My American habits keep me focused on the things I know, the actors I can identify.  If I care enough and the mania grips me long enough, I might get there.) 

It's Roshan who stars in Bang Bang!, along with Katrina Kaif, another name I've followed in my queue suggestions.  This was the best introduction I could have had to a genre of films I usually avoid.  To start with there are only 3 songs--3!--in the whole thing.  Plus the bonus song at the end which really is filmed more like MTV.  I can't tell if they further the plot; I don't speak Hindi.  Sometimes songs are subtitled, sometimes not.  But that's the crux--it's all good!!
And here's another thing I've learned: the movies are long.  3 hours sometimes.  But, there's often an Interval.  And that's pretty fun too.  Not the instrumental score you find in Lawrence of Arabia.  Well, maybe, I don't see them in Indian theaters.  But on my t.v. it's a well-timed cliff hanger.  In the case of Bang Bang! it's the cover to a romance novel.  And another kicker, you can't tell they're that long!  They don't feel like it.  The plot and action is spaced out enough and (usually) well knitted together so it doesn't feel like you are sitting through something interminable to get to the last, good 30 minutes. 
Probably the best thing and what I found most surprisingly refreshing is the complete lack of Western theological sensibility. I shouldn't have been surprised.  But somehow, the lack of that particular dogma snuck up on me.  And it's been fabulous to watch a consistently non-blonde cast.  With all the diversity of American cinema, there's a whole world out there, yo.
So it has begun.  If I can source my clothes from India my summer wardrobe is going to be awesome.