Seriously, What is Wrong with Everyone?

published July 2007 on Dr.Desi.com

Bollywood – an embarrassment or great fun? Most people can cite a long list of reasons why they hate or love Bollywood – but is it really as simple as that? To find out what really appeals and appals we asked Bollywood newbie Erika Spaet to review the recent Bollywood release Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.

Here is what Erika had to say:

Over-the-top acting, blindingly bright costumes, and an incredibly unrealistic love story: I ask you, what’s not to love? I had never seen a Bollywood movie before, so when all of the above greeted me on the silver screen in the form of Yash Raj Films’s Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, I was truly delighted.

The film tells the story of two incompatible strangers who meet in Waterloo East station while waiting for their fiancés. RikkiAbhishek Bachchan) is a smooth-talking, oh-so-slick, small-time illegal antiques dealer/bookie who is very connected to his Indian roots. Alvira (Preity Zinta) is a prim and proper Londoner with Lahore blood who’s ‘not Pakistani. I’m a Brit.’ A very delayed Birmingham train and a shortage of table space at the station’s café bring the unlikely pair together. (

I found both characters rather difficult to like in the beginning; Rikki certainly isn’t my type, and Alvira is a little too stuck up. Besides, their respective fiancés are much more interesting: Rikki’sgirlfriend is Anaida (Lara Dutta) who is the assistant manager at the Ritz in Paris the night of Dodi and Diana’s car accident. Alvira’s love is the rich and powerful barrister Steve (Bobby Deol) who sweeps her off her feet (quite literally) when a wax Superman in Madame Toussad’sAlvira, who promised herself that she would never fall for a fellow ‘dark skin,’ is in luck: Steve’s half Brit. He’s also not a bad dancer as the two twirl around Madame Toussaud’s and the streets of London in the song Kiss of Love.

This film should be a delight for any Londoner; we have all traipsed around Tower Bridge and Southall, and these places turn out to be an excellent setting for Bollywood.

The characters had successfully enchanted me by the end, especially the hunky Rikki, and, though I’d been warned that Bollywood films are very long, the story’s plot captured my attention the whole way through. It was very evident that director Shaad Ali made a strong attempt to introduce world issues into the movie: Indian/Pakistani relations and history are a topic of constant yet jovial banter, while South Asian allegiances to Britain are discussed via the great tragedy of Diana’s death.

But don’t start thinking it’s a deep film; in classic Bollywood style, sudden close-ups, awkward innuendos, and an ethereal scene with a clown make sure the viewer doesn’t take anything too seriously. In fact, the whole film is very much like one big party. The songs are wonderfully catchy, especially the recurring Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, and I thoroughly enjoyed my first Bollywood experience. If every one of those films can get me humming all the way home, then I’m sure to be a fan for life. threatens to squash her.