Barely legal alien

Kicking around waiting for shooting to start, we went downtown to see a Hindi movie. Apparently, if there’s no singing and dancing, it’s not Bollywood, it’s a “Hindi movie.” Asking if a Bollywood film is a musical is like asking if a Hollywood film is a non-musical. Matter of fact, for all my use of the B word, what I’m in is a Hindi movie. Much more on that in later instalments.

The film was “Nishabd.” The poster is very understated, no? You might get the idea it’s soft porn, but this is India. There were perhaps two kisses on the lips, no tongue. Even then, the film has provoked riots over its immorality. The film follows in the tradition of Lolita, To Sir with Love, Network, Sin City, American Beauty … gee, old men sure love making films about nubile young women falling in love with old men, don’t they. Admittedly I’m in an increasingly weak position to judge.

We sat in the first class section, which cost an extortionate $1.50. The audience made a racket, yelling at the screen, cheering, wolf-whistling etc. What amazed me were the languages: here was an audience of extremely poor uneducated Gujarati speakers, watching rapid-fire dialogue in a mix of Hindi and English without subtitles. And they were lapping it up.

The main Lolita character’s catchphrase was “Take light!” – which was apparently meant to mean take it easy. And her accent drifted from America to Australia to parts unknown. The film is obviously meant to be tragedy, but in the serious scenes, I couldn’t take my eyes off one of the supporting actors. He had such profuse ear hair (nay, fur) that it actually formed a kind of pointy halo, like an elf or Dr Spock. Good god man, get it dealt with.

PS – Harry has a blog of his own. He linked to mine a while ago, but I was too much of a primadonna to reciprocate. But now, all will be revealed:

www.myspace.com/breakersblog