I'm new here, so I hope I'm not making a faux pas by starting this thread :)
But I just thought it would be nice to have a place to discuss the Indian cast of this film. I'm a bit of a Bollywood addict at the moment, so I'm using the opportunity to ramble on about some of the actors Johnny either will or might be starring with :)

Indian cinema is a lot more popular around the world than most of us in the West ever get to know (when I finally started discovering all of this I was quite shocked and awed). For example Sholay, the 1975 hit with Amitabh Bachchan, has the highest ever TV ratings in Iran. And there are many countries (I think particularly in Asia and Africa) where Indian cinema is at least as popular as American cinema (in fact according to statistics Indian cinema sells more tickets worldwide than American cinema). But commercial Indian cinema is stylistically a very different kind of cinema to what we're used to in the West. I won't go too much into detail, but the first thing that will probably stand out to a lot of you if you ever watch a Bollywood film is that every film has song and dance numbers (it's not exactly the Western musical formula since a 2,5-3h film usually has about 5-8 songs - a lot less than a Western musical would and most of the plot is told not via the music and songs). It's almost kind of appropriate that Johnny is doing a musical just before doing a film in India ;)
India is apparently so dominated by cinema that something like 80% of music sales in India are soundtracks! And that brings my ramblings finally to what I want to write about ;) Because Indian cinema is such an important part of Indian culture, the stars are very major celebrities. And Mira Nair has signed on and is trying to sign some pretty big names, so for me at least this is very exciting. It's I think the first time ever that we're going to see a combination of such major Hollywood and Bollywood stars in a film together. Very few Bollywood actors have made it to Hollywood - mainly I think because there's not really any good parts for Indian actors and a lot of them have turned down any offers they have received. Aishwarya Rai seems to be the only exception, but then none of her Hollywood films have done well.

Anyway, lets get personal ;) I'll start with Mr Amitabh Bachchan since we have confirmation that he's going to play Khaderbhai (a philosophical mafia lord who becomes a kind of father figure to Lin - the character played by Johnny Depp). I'm very excited about seeing him make his Hollywood debut and alongside Johnny! And I hope I can get you excited about it too ;)
Mr Bachchan (and I'm putting the Mr in on purpose, he is often referred to that way - or sometimes simply as "Big B") is a huge legend. In 1999 BBC did a worldwide poll for the best actor of the millenium and it was Mr Bachchan who came first, ahead of actors like Charlie Chaplin, Laurence Olivier, Robert De Niro etc. You can read up about the poll and his career in two BBC articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/381017.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/394226.stm
I've not seen any of his 70s films, but I can definitely tell you that nowadays he's great to watch. He has a very strong presence on the screen and he'll definitely have no trouble at all portraying that authority that Khaderbhai has that makes people respect and love him. But I'd very much recommend that you see it for yourself :)
Here's a clip from a promotional campaign that Mr Bachchan took part in. From what I've understood it was sort of a way to bring more optimism to Indian people and to encourage them to be bold (I think in particular in economic context - India has one of the highest annual growths in the world right now, only China's is bigger). It's in English so you shouldn't have any trouble with the language :)
Also if you want to see him in Indian cinema context then here's one of the promos for Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Never Say Goodbye). For most of the major films they usually release lots of promos not just for the film but also for the songs and this is one of those (even 60 year olds have to dance in Indian cinema ;) ). Btw, he's dancing alongside his son, Abhishek there :) And here's a trailer (unfortunately no subtitles) for Mr Bachchan's most recent film - Cheeni Kum.
Finally, if you want to see him just in interview then here's a promo for an episode of a very popular talk show with Mr Bachchan and his son being interviewed. Abhishek by the way is no longer single ;) (the interview is quite old)
I've been very careful about selecting content that has been released for promotion, so I don't think there's any copyright problems there :) (just saying cause I know your policy is strict :) )

Let me know what you think of the choice of Mr Amitabh Bachchan for Khaderbhai :) I'm really excited to hear from you! Do you think he's right for the part? How do you think he'll gel with Johnny on screen?

:welcome to :jdr, rozoweskarpetki, and thank you so much for starting this thread!
I am really looking forward to becoming aquainted with all these wonderful Indian actors, and seeing this story brought to film.
I fell in love with Tabu
http://imdb.com/name/nm0007102/
and Irfan Khan
http://imdb.com/name/nm0451234/
in The Namesake.

Many thanks for sharing the info about these actors.

I loved the Namesake too and was moved by the generousity of the director to her talented cast members.

:welcome
Welcome to JDR, rozoweskarpetki! I think we have a lot to learn from you, and I hope you enjoy getting to know all of us. Practically everything Bollywood is new to me, but I did know that Bollywood films always have musical numbers in them, but only because I read about it in Shantaram!

Looking forward to your posts.

Rose

Thanks for all the encouragement :)

Yes, I saw the Namesake quite recently as well :) For me it was actually also the first time to see Irfan Khan. I'd seen Tabu once before, but the part (in Fanaa) was quite small. I really loved Tabu in the Namesake. She's there in the Cheeni Kum trailer with Mr Bachchan by the way :)

Anyway, according to what we've had in the media (and has been posted on this site), Mira Nair is trying to rope Shahrukh Khan in for the part of Qasim Ali Hussein or if he doesn't have the dates then for Krishn (I totally don't remember this character - can anyone help me with this? I thought it was Prabaker's father, but his name was Kishan).
What I think is particularly interesting in choosing Shahrukh for Qasim is that Gregory David Roberts actually has an old photo of Shahrukh displayed on his site under the profile of Qasim as an example of what Qasim may have looked like in his youth. Shahrukh is now probably about 15 years older than he was on that photo, but that still is younger than what Qasim is supposed to be (I think he's supposed to be in his mid to late fifties, isn't he? And Shahrukh is in his early forties and usually looks younger than he is). Then again Qasim's age isn't particularly important to the plot, so they can probably get away with that. He also looks a little bit older with a beard (see here and here for pics of Shahrukh sporting his Chak de India look - the film will come out in August), which I guess he'd have to grow for the part of Qasim.
Despite Shahrukh's picture being used as an example of what Qasim may have looked like, he's actually not a very obvious choice for this part. There'll be a lot of people saying he's not the right man for the job (I happen to think otherwise but then I'm a big fan :P ).

Anyway, Shahrukh is pretty much universally accepted as the "King of Bollywood" and has pretty much been at the top of the industry since 1995. Nowadays his popularity seems to be dropping a bit in India (as in his box office collections are similar to that of other major Bollywood stars rather than larger as they used to be), but his films still have the biggest box office collections of any Indian films abroad (for example out of the 10 highest grossing Indian films in the UK, 8 were Shahrukh starrers - I think it's something similar in the USA) and therefore he still ends up being the biggest money earner of all the stars in India.
He's had a slightly unusual career in Bollywood standards. Firstly, he kept changing mediums - he started off in theatre, then went off to TV and then got into cinema. While in the West this is quite normal, in India such transitions very rarely work. For some reason few have made the transition from TV films to cinema successfully. He then went and married just before he started his cinema career which at the time was a bit of a career killer (a lot of the leads in Bollywood are romantic leads and for some reason the audience would not accept married actors playing them - this has changed now). Then after doing a variety of parts he suddenly got established as the guy who plays villains and anti-heroes. He became very popular in those sorts of roles and it looked unlikely that he would stop getting type cast this way. And then suddenly someone decided to offer him a romantic lead in a film called Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in 1995. Many people were very sceptical about this, but it was a huge hit. It in fact made a world record - there is a cinema in Mumbai that has been playing this film since its release in 1995 without taking it off to this day! So that is 12 years already. Just to put it in perspective - the previous record holder was Sholay with Mr Amitabh Bachchan in 1975 - it played for 5 years before being taken down. Since 1995 Shahrukh has been firmly established as a romantic lead to the point of people saying that he can't play anything else. I rather disagree since IMO he has experimented all throughout his career (though indeed most of the films he made since 1995 where he's not the romantic lead were not particularly succesful). What has always cracked me up is that he must be the only ever star so associated with romantic leads that has never kissed any of his heroines on the lips. He says he's too shy to. In India even though they do put kissing scenes in, they're a lot rarer than they are in the West (there was a recent case where two major Bollywood stars actually got sued for an on screen kiss because it's indecent). What cracks me up even more is that Shahrukh appears to not have any particular problems with doing bed scenes though ;) (those are even rarer in Indian cinema)
Other things that are probably worth knowing about him are that he's very clever and aggressive about marketing himself. Many thought he would overexpose himself with the amount of publicity he does - nobody ever did it like him before (in fact I rather think you'd be hard pressed to find an American actor who does that much publicity). He's famous for a very sharp wit (which sometimes gets him in trouble since it gets misunderstood). And is one of few major actors in the industry to whom no rumours about affairs with women ever stuck. Instead the tabloids usually write rumours about him fighting with somebody (like the recent Bachchan feud one) or there's a popular rumour (which no one really believes nowadays, but it still seems to get repeated a lot) that he's actually gay or bisexual. He seems to rather like that rumour and keeps cracking jokes about it.
In terms of acting he is probably one of the most critisized actors in the Indian industry. The main accusations he gets is that he hams ("overacts") and that he always plays the same character. But I don't think those voices are entirely fair to him.
I think he could be a very good Qasim, even though he's probably not a choice many would make. He's got a strong presence on the screen which Qasim really needs. And he's got something that is a huge plus in this part IMO - he's very good at playing love. Not just romantic love, anykind of love. It has ranged from what he did in his anti-hero/villain stage where it was an obssessive, "sick" sort of love when he played guys who would stalk their love interests, physically hurt them and kill (or try to kill) their husbands, to standard romantic leads, to fatherly love, to love for parents etc. For Qasim, something which I think is going to be quite difficult to capture is this sort of communal love he has for people. And I think it's a big challenge to find someone who could do it better than Shahrukh - but hey, that's just my opinion and I know many won't agree with me :P

Finding clips of Shahrukh considering the amount of various kinds of publicity he does is no challenge whatsoever. The challenge is deciding what to show you to give you a good representation of him and not overdo on the amount of clips ;)
I guess I should start with the classic Shahrukh - aka romantic lead. Funnily enough I have to go back to 2004 to show a trailer for a film in which he portrayed such a part (which just goes to show how unfair the "he only does romantic roles" line is). Here's the trailer for Veer Zaara which is the story of a romance between a Pakistani girl and Indian man (with lots of additional complications of course).
His latest film, Don is a remake of a 1978 film by the same title in which Amitabh Bachchan played the main part. It is the first time since the early 90s that he's played a villain and it has gone down well. There were some hilarious TV spots for it. Check this one out. And btw - he actually said in one interview that Jack Sparrow was a bit of an inspiration for that one - that like Jack Sparrow he wanted the character to be a bit feminine.
Finally, here's an interview with Shahrukh done in London. BAFTA did a special Bollywood weekend in London last July to which they invited many important industry people and then uploaded the videos from the interviews to google video. It's long - almost 40min. - so you might not want to watch the whole thing, but it might be interesting to you because it's not just about Shahrukh but also Bollywood in general and the changes that are happening (Indian cinema is starting to go global). NRI means non-resident Indian by the way (Indians living abroad).

THis is such great info that I fear it's getting lost right now in all of the Pirate frenzy. Please give us some time to get past the AWE opening weekend and I am sure that when we get closer to the Shantaram discussion we will be able to really appreciate all of this wonderful info even more! Many thanks for wanting to share this with us!!

Shantaram discussion will begin June 25.

Thanks Karen :)

I'll definitely be joining you in June for the Shantaram discussion :D (though I probably won't reread it since it is very long and June is exam time for me)

Very interesting information! Thanks for sharing it with us!

Karen,
You're absolutely right about POTC taking away the attention from the Shantaram discussion right now.

Once that blows over a bit, I'm really looking forward to the filming to begin on this film. I finished the book (at last <cheers> woohoo ) this weekend and walked through again to mark special sections or notes.

I thought it was kind of cool that some of the Bollywood stars mentioned in the book will be actually in the movie. I know nothing of these movies or actors so any insider tips, notes and information will certainly be helpful.

I'll mark the date in my calendar. I really want to get others' views of the book and how they think the movie will be filmed.

Again, Karen, thanks for the revisit.

Holly

I wasn't sure where to post this, so I'll continue in this topic...
Mr Bachchan recently wrote a text about his entry into films and Indian cinema then and today. You can check it out here.

Many thanks for this link! I'll get it read tonight when I get home!!

Thanks SO much for resurrecting this thread, roz! Somehow I'd missed it the first time - probably due to the arrival of some bloody PIRATES! :P Now I'm really enjoying getting to know more about the particular stars in Bollywood, thanks to your info and links. I am very impressed with Mr.B!! I think he and Johnny will be magical on screen together. Shahrukh looks like a good choice for Quasim Ali too...not signed yet though, right?
I'm also amazed to learn that a movie can play in theatres in India for upwards of 5 years!! Talk about legs!! Wouldn't it be great to still be able to go see CotBP on the big screen!?
Thanks for your wonderful report, roz!! :thumbsup

After watching Mira Nair's "Kama Sutra" ,,, I didn't really see anyone that would fit into Shantaram. Allthough Raman Tikiaram is good eye candy, and nice to look at, I can't see him fitting in, unless he's someone's assistant.

Nope, Shahrukh is still not signed *sigh* I've actually started doubting he's going to be signed. He's always been very careful about international projects. Here's a bit about his attitude to Hollywood:
http://www.ourbollywood.com/2007/08/shahru...terested_i.html
The most relevant part from that is:
If there is a (Hollywood) role which is interesting enough, I would do it," he told Reuters in an interview.” But so far I have never been offered a big role or a good role from Hollywood ... actually, for that matter, never a role from Hollywood -- big or small."
So while he's not said anything about Shantaram specifically it means that:
a. He doesn't think the Shantaram role is good (it's definitely small)
b. He hasn't actually been offered the part and the media created the speculation just because his pic is on the Shantaram site.
c. Because Mira Nair is an Indian director and has often worked with Bollywood actors, he doesn't consider her "Hollywood".
d. That is actually an old quote and not from the Chak De India promotion at all (he's said similar stuff many times before).

I guess it makes sense that if he's considering a part that might be small then he should want to see a finalized script before he says yes. And on the "maybe he's really considering it" side of the argument he's taking very long to announce his next project. Usually he'd have something announced by now. He did say he wants to take a small break, but still there's absolutely no news other than that he'll be doing Karan Johar's next, but I don't think there's even any dates fixed for that... Usually he'd have something like three new films lined up by now, so that's a bit mysterious...

Depputante, Kamasutra is one of the films I want to see but haven't gotten my hands on yet *sigh* I looked through the cast and there's no big stars there though. I think Mira Nair started working with better known actors a few years later.

I actually thought I'd write up some sort of whose who of Bollywood, but I was finding it impossible :P (imagine trying to do that with Hollywood ;) ), so instead I'm slowly starting a long list of recent films that have been much talked about and the "whose who" will just be an integral part of the film list. And it'll give you a good idea of how diverse the films are too :)
To start with I'll keep to the films that were or will be released in 2007. Then I'll go down in years (with probably less and less films per year :P).

Aaja Nachle (2007)
Teaser Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=v9sWtk7GoCY
The Stars:

• Madhuri Dixit
  She's probably the most popular female star that Bollywood ever had (in Bollywood - like in Hollywood - the biggest stars are usually male). To put that into perspective - someone actually printed a calendar which starts not on the 1st of January, but on Madhuri's birthday! One of her trademarks is her dancing - many feel she's the best female dancer in Bollywood. But also she's a fantastic actress.
  She's had a 5 year break from films, this is her comeback film and people are extremely excited about it!
• Akshaye Khanna
  Not strictly an A-list actor, but sort of on the verge of making it there. Quite a subtle actor in Bollywood standards and likes to mix it up. Not afraid to take up controversial subjects, though he's quite happy to do more commercial stuff as well.
• Konkona Sen Sharma
  I've barely been introduced to this lady, but she's definitely somebody worth keeping an eye on. She's not really had a big break yet, but she's being talked about. From what I can make out she's also a rather subtle actress in Bollywood standards and not afraid of more controversial subjects. She's not done many purely commercial films though.

About the film:
The selling point is definitely Madhuri's comeback. It has Bollywood's most acclaimed producer behind it (Yash Chopra), so the quality of the film should be high. It will release in November.
The plot description on imdb is "During the making of a play, an aging actress, her director (and ex-lover) and a young actress discuss love, life, aging and their work."
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Hard to say as I haven't seen it and that one teaser is really all one can go by. Basically, it's something for Madhuri fans. But the plot is quite subtle and so are all three of the main stars, so it *might* be quite a good, quiet sort of film. On the other hand Yash Chopra doesn't usually produce quiet sort of films ;)

Chak De India (2007)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSpW2ZaYxU
The Stars:

• Shahrukh Khan
  I guess there's not much I can add about Shahrukh that I haven't said earlier in this thread. He's the only big star in this film.

About the film:
This is another Yash Chopra production and it's in cinemas now.
The trailers seems to have gone down very badly and everyone was fully expecting the film to be a flop (sports films are risky in any country - they rarely work). But surprisingly the reviews have been very good and fans have been very happy with the film. Even people who usually hate sports films and went only because of Shahrukh seem to have enjoyed the film.
It's also quite a departure for Shahrukh as there's no romance in the film. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the only film in Shahrukh's career where he doesn't have even a background romance! Reviews have said that he's also much subtler than usual and lets the girls in the field hockey team carry the film (usually he's the centre of attention of a film).
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Again haven't seen it so don't know. If you don't like patriotic sentimentality this might be something to avoid though. It's supposed to be very strong on that.

Cheeni Kum (2007)
Trailer (with English subtitles): http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VqBjoZD58Ls
The Stars:

• Amitabh Bachchan
  Again not much to write about Mr Bachchan that I haven't already :)
• Tabu
  Tabu (who many of you know from "The Namesake") is not a very commercial actress, but she's very critically acclaimed in India. Many of her peers think very highly of her talent.

About the film:
It's a slightly controversial film as it's about the relationship between a 34 year old and 64 year old. But it went down very well with the audience.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Not seen it so I have no idea, but it seems like if you have the sort of sense of humour that's shown on the trailer and you liked Tabu in "The Namesake" then you're probably fairly safe with this one :)

Gandhi, My Father (2007)
Teaser Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=igK00d2byS0
The Stars:

• Akshaye Khanna
  See "Aaja Nachle (2007)" description.

About the film:
This is quite possibly the most controversial film in Bollywood this year.
It explores a relatively unknown aspect of Mahatma Gandhi's life - his family life. Apparently, there was a huge amount of tension between Mahatma and his oldest son, Harilal (played by Akshaye Khanna). Harilal was eventually disowned by his father, died an alcoholic and his family weren't present even at his death bed. The film tries to present both sides of the argument.
Many Indians have gone out on the street to protest the distribution of the film, but it has not stopped its release in India. Abroad the film has received a huge amount of critical acclaim.
It's in cinemas now.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I haven't seen it, but I think this film is relatively non-commercial and therefore probably not even particularly "Bollywoodish" in style. And by all accounts it's a great film, so I guess if it sounds interesting to you it's probably a safe bet :)

Guru (2007)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=QQRZHHY2oJM
The Stars:

• Abhishek Bachchan
  Amitabh Bachchan's son. Had a bad start to his career, but he's now really coming into his own with very versatile parts. The part in Guru in particular got rave reviews.
• Aishwarya Rai
  Abhishek's wife for a few months now.
  Was Miss World in 1994. Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful women in the world (apparently Julia Roberts considers her to be THE most beautiful woman in the world!). She is one of the faces of Loreal. Her acting skills have not been much raved about however.
  She's pretty much the only Bollywood star to be making Hollywood movies though none of them have done very well.
• Mallika Sherawat
  Probably the fastest rising star in the industry. She's a very ambitious woman and extremely confident. Gives very witty and provocative interviews and wears very revealing clothes. While uptil now she's been dismissed as a poster girl, more recently people seem to be considering the possibility that she can actually act as well ;) (I've not seen any of her films yet, so I've no idea!). Even Hollywood has taken note as she just recently won the lead part in Unveiled (2008) against Aishwarya Rai and Shilpa Shetty.
• Vidya Balan
  An upcoming actress - a lot of people are very excited about her.
• Mithun Chakraborty
  I have no idea who he is ;) But as he was mentioned during the Shantaram cast discussions I thought I'd put him down ;) He seems to have been a big star in his youth.
• Mani Ratnam
  The director of this film. He originates from Kollywood (the Indian Tamil film industry). Is considered one of most "autheur" directors in Bollywood at the moment. He usually has a pretty realistic style. He directed "Dil Se (1998)" which is the film with the Chaiya Chaiya train sequence.

About the film:
It's the story of a small town boy who becomes one of the biggest men in Indian business. The reviews have been great - particularly Abhishek has received a huge amount of attention.
A lot of excitement surrounded the on-screen pairing of Abhishek and Aishwarya of course.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Er, I know this is getting boring (why have I included this section at the end of every description lol), but I don't know ;) Mani Ratnam has sometimes been a bit sentimental, though with each film he seems to be getting less so.

Jodhaa Akbar (2007)
Trailer: none released yet
The Stars:

• Hrithik Roshan
  The best looking guy in Bollywood and the best dancer too - but I guess you know that by now from one of the other threads ;)
  Often considered to be the no. 2 star in Bollywood behind Shahrukh. But like most of the most popular stars he's often considered more of a "star" than an "actor".
• Aishwarya Rai
  See "Guru (2007)".
• Ashutosh Gowariker
  An actor (though never particularly popular) turned director (and the director of this film). Known for more subtle films and doesn't really have much of a "Bollywoodish" style of filmmaking. His camera is usually stationary and lighting simple (though at the same time he's not too realistic actually!). His "Lagaan (2001)" was the only ever Indian film to be nominated for an oscar.

About the film:
IMDb describes the plot as "A sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodha."
It will be Hrithik's first ever costume drama and a lot of people are very excited about how the actor-director duo of Hrithik and Ashutosh Gowariker will turn out.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Knowing Gowariker's films probably anyone who likes their films to be energetic should avoid it, though it'll be interesting to see how this changes with a costume drama.

Life in a... Metro (2007)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0SyDlrlLdsg
The Stars:

• Shilpa Shetty
  Catapulted to stardom by the whole British Celebrity Big Brother incident - most of you have probably heard of it? She was pretty much a B-list actress until then. Now there's gossip she might be the next Bond girl! It's quite amusing as it seems that she's actually currently more popular outside of India.
• Konkona Shen Sharma
  See "Aaja Nachle (2007)".
• Shiney Ahuja
  A young newcomer who some people have high hopes for.
• Irfan Khan
  Many of you know him from "The Namesake". From what I've gathered he's not much of a commercial actor, more of a character actor.

About the film:
IMDb's short plot description is "Six different stories, about nine people, each with different issues and problems, all occurring within one place: the METRO."
It's supposed to be a pretty urban and modern film with a little bit of controversy here and there (marital betrayal). It's received a lot of attention mainly because it's Shilpa's first film since the Big Brother incident. It did fairly good business at any rate.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
This time I reaaaally have no idea ;)

Naqaab (2007)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=NOvimKVdL-Q
The Stars:

• Akshaye Khanna
  See "Aaja Nachle (2007)".
• Bobby Deol
  One of many not quite A-list macho type actors (or at least that's the impression I've had of him so far).
• Abbas-Mustan
  This is actually two people - Abbas Alibhai Burmawalla and Mustan Alibhai Burmawalla. They're two brothers who direct very whacky films - usually thrillers, action films etc. They often rip off from Hollywood films (there's one film where they actually ripped off a bit from "Nick of Time"! ;) ), but usually in a funny way.

About the film:
A lot of people liked the trailers for it and the media were hyping it quite a bit. In the end the reviews weren't that great, but not that bad either. The film seemed to do pretty good business overall.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
If it's anything like the other Abbas-Mustan films I've seen then probably anyone who likes action films with a whacky sense of humour will like this one.

Nishabd (2007)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=r72xMhHB2CU
The Stars:

• Amitabh Bachchan
  See my first post in this thread.
• Ram Gopal Varma
  The director of the film originates from the Tamil section of Indian cinema. He made his name on raw gangster movies and has a specific, often very cynical style. Is considered one of the most "autheur" Bollywood directors.

About the film:
One of the more controversial releases of the year. It was called the Indian Lolita - a 60 year old and 18 year old fall in love. The relationship is only platonic, not physical, but that was quite enough to raise a few eyebrows. Many questioned whether Mr Bachchan should have taken such a part.
The film flopped in the end, though whether this was because the film was bad or because the topic matter was too difficult I have no idea.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I totally don't know...

Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1615552772643277992
The Stars:

• Saif Ali Khan
  One of the leading actors in the industry. He's mainly known for comedy and romantic leads, but more recently he's been mixing it up a lot and people have started taking him very seriously as an actor. Nonetheless this particular film happens to be one of his conventional romantic leads.
• Rani Mukherji
  Often called the queen of Bollywood ("rani" means queen in Hindi). She's one of the leading female actresses in the country. She does a lot of commercial parts, but she's done different sorts of things as well. Her role in "Black" got her much critical acclaim (she played a girl who was blind and deaf) and people have started taking her very seriously as an actress.
  She was in fact Mira Nair's first choice for "The Namesake". It didn't work out because of date problems and that's why the part went to Tabu.

About the film:
It's a Yash Chopra production and it's pretty much got a typical style for one. It's a family film with a bit of everything and of course lots of love. It's set in New York. The character played by Saif becomes an amazing car racer and starts a family. Trouble starts when he has a serious accident and finds that he doesn't have the guts to do some of the more dangerous maneuvers anymore. And as he was very irresponsible about money spending, taking up lots of credit etc. they end up in serious trouble.
The racing scenes are absolutely spectacular (for me watching motorsports is some of the most boring sport watching ever and yet I was on the edge of my seat for all the racing scenes in the film!). It's also as far as I know the first Bollywood film with a sequence with actors dancing with animated cartoon characters, but that unfortunately doesn't look that good (though you might enjoy the Jack Sparrow reference :P ).
The reviews for this were mediocre, but all in all it's a good crowd pleaser and it did fairly good business.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
As I actually did see this one I can give you a proper opinion ;)
Steer away from this if you don't like sweet family films or if you think you can't deal with over the top sentimentality (mind you, Bollywod sentimentality is a bit different to Hollywood sentimentality). Also you probably won't enjoy it if you can't take the plot being a little bit silly.
But if you want something fun, full of energy, a bit mindless and beautifully shot than this is not a bad film to see. Particularly the racing scenes are amazing - I swear that I haven't seen any sport sequence as engaging as that in a Hollywood film. Saif and Rani are great to watch as well (even if those particular parts don't show off their best acting skills).

I mentioned Mallika Sherawat when talking about "Guru" and since her interviews are usually very entertaining, you might like to check one out.

Mallika on "One on One", part one: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xS_Mh-DOAI0
Mallika on "One on One", part two: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mxVpcbgKY-Q

She talks a lot about the status of women in India and about female foeticide which is a very widespread problem in India. Of all the countries in the world, India has the biggest ratio of men to women (in most Western countries there are more women than men).
The choice to have abortions when the baby will be a girl is thought to be because many Indians don't want to be "burdened with" a daughter as it often involves big dowries and they want a son to help support the family rather than a daughter.

That is a very sad aspect of contemporary Indian culture, particularly since it's supposed to be an 'enlightened' Democracy. My little granddaughter is Chinese. In China they have the same idea about female children but don't go for abortion. Instead there's an incredibly active adoption scene over there, with tens of thousands of girl babies being adopted out every year to families in the West. It will be interesting to see how that impacts China over time...I've heard they're already seeing a glut of male children in the younger population.

That is a very sad, but interesing aspect of their life. Thanks for sharing the links with us!

The thing I've grown to appreciate about India is that even when really bad things happen (and there are some very gruesome things that do happen in India! Unfortunately female foeticide is just one of many :( ), there are always some people who talk about it very openly (as you see in that interview :) ).

I have a friend who is very interested in China and reads up a lot on China and its problems and I think that one of the biggest problems in China is that many of these things aren't spoken about so openly. I'm not sure about the girl adoption problem (I think in China probably what makes it all the more common is the one child policy, right?), but certainly talking about AIDS is very difficult in China whereas in India it's talked about very openly. My friend tells me that there are small villages in China where all the people there are infected (because of using the same needles etc.) and the government rather than talk about these problems, hushes them up instead.
Not to mention the Chinese policy about the internet. I still find it very chilling that you can go to prison for merely disagreeing with government policies on a blog (or even in e-mail!).

In many ways India and China are interesting to compare because I think they face a lot of the same kind of problems and also they're the two fastest developing economies in the world.

On a cinematic note, I really regret that the Chinese film industry is so small. Unless the statistics I read were wrong, China produces only about 80 films a year which for their population is nothing... I mean even when you take my country (Poland), and our cinema really isn't flourishing, we make about 35-40 films a year. And our population is a mere 38-39mln people! Countries like France and Japan produce 200-300 films a year and India produces 900-1000 films a year. That really puts the "80" into perspective, doesn't it?

Sorry this post is rather random *blush*

80 a year? Yes, it really does put things into perspective, doesn't it.

Right you are, roz ~ China's one-child policy has had a huge impact on the number
of abandoned female babies, even though the laws of inheritance, etc., have been changed to include female offspring. Old cultural habits die hard I guess. And China has a long history of suppressing the truth about the way things really are; they've been rather masterful at manipulating 'reality' for centuries ~ which you'd think would make for a lively film industry! Instead they've chosen to use the internet, in cahoots with American servers like Google and Yahoo, to edit out anything and anyone they don't want the people to know about. Shameful. India has a much better chance of overcoming their darker issues because, as you say, it's an open forum there. It's just a matter of time...which, unfortunately, in India is a rather longer expanse than we're used to working with in the West!

Well he did put one wife beating into the movie. I'm suprised he didn't put a wife burning into it too. I guess the slum fire was enough burning. At least they did do the child slave topic.

In Japan , peasant farmers in the Samurai Eras, used to sell their daughters to factories.

Since Sanjay Dutt was caught with illegal weapons shipping, AND released on bail last week, I hope he ends up in the movie, taking the trip to Afghanistan. Maybe he can be cast as Abdel Ghani with the passports. That would be really ironic! Ahhh...Bollywood! B)

I looked for some Chinese film statistics and found some surprisingly specific ones (I always have huge problems when I look for this sort of thing) and apparently my "80" was outdated. This was true in 2004 and 2005, but they had a big rise in film production more recently and for 2006 the figure is 235. For 2007 it is 169.

That said I really wish there were some proper global statistics somewhere. Whatever I find is usually compiled in a very iffy way (I found one place which ranked countries' film production based on imdb entries for that country which is of course totally ridiculous as many countries don't have all their films entered on imdb - for example the Philippines had only 53 films entered for that year and yet I'm pretty sure it produced at least 200 as it is one of the biggest film industries!).
Apparently UNESCO is going to release proper statistics about film production, but that's not until next year. Since I'm weird that way, I'll be pouring over them when they're released :writing

I really wish I knew more about China, but at the moment I'm too lazy to actually do any proper studying about this :P Parlez, I know very little about China's history - I had no idea that "manipulating reality" in China has been going on for that long, I thought it must have started around the time that the communist rule took over. So how did they used to manipulate reality before? :)

Depputante, Sati (which is the practice in which the widow is burnt alive with her husband's body - I assume that's what you meant when you said "wife burning"?) has been outlawed for a very long time. It's true that it still happens but the instances are very rare and far apart. Modern Indian law makes it punishable to even be a bystander at such a ceremony. And in the very rare occasions that Sati does happen it is only in rural areas where people are very uneducated. Since 1947 (when India received its independence from Great Britain) there have been only around 40 known cases of Sati. Most of the cases were in the state of Rajasthan.
So frankly, with the kind of setting Shantaram has (both the areas and the times), it would be very untrue to India to have a wife burning scene!
This doesn't mean that widows aren't still mistreated in India. They are unfortunately often shunned from society. But that is touched in Shantaram. If I'm not mistaken when Qasim Ali Hussein is introduced, we learn that he has three wives. One that he married for love and two that were widows and had poor chances of remarrying.

As for Sanjay Dutt, it's my understanding that he never did any weapon trading. He was accused of keeping weapons that were used in the 1993 Mumbai bombings in his house. But a lot of the details of the case are unclear and there are very mixed feelings about the case.
If you want to look at it in more detail, see the clips that were posted here, It's a documentary about Sanjay Dutt and the whole case against him. It's all very murky IMO.
Which doesn't mean Sanjay couldn't make a good character for the film B) I haven't really seen much of him, so I don't know...

Interesting...I always thought the word for was "suti".
But anyway, while we're totally off topic here, in a good way, I'll just take a moment and clarify what I mean by 'manipulating realty'. China isn't the only country where civilization and culture have developed along the lines of erasing, editing and otherwise rewriting history. I remember how amazed I was to learn that the heiroglyphics on the ancient temple pillars at Karnak in Egypt had been altered many times to replace the 'old' (pharoahs, religions, etc.) with the 'new'. China's history has been no different, although I think the Communisits took the concept of propaganda and mind-manipulation to new levels, mainly because they didn't just slaughter the people they suspected of not following the party line ~ which is pretty much what previous rulers had done ~ but went about 're-educating' them. The Samauri sword that used to have the power to define what was and was not 'real' was replaced by having people go through self-examination and self-cleansing regimens in order to align themselves with the new 'truth'. Of course we'll never know how many people didn't/don't survive those regimens...

India's history is unique because there's been less of that. India has been able to absorb the new ideas and religions and rulers that have made their way into the sub-continent by just adding on another layer or 'truth' to the pre-existing truths. Hence the whole 'masala' thing!

So I guess we're not so off topic afterall! :D

Yes, this discussion has gone in a slightly odd direction, hasn't it? :D

As India has a variety of different alphabets, it might be that some people transcribed the same practice as "Suti" rather than "Sati". There is often more than one way to transcribe words into the Latin alphabet - sometimes even some of the stars' names have a few different spellings (for example Shahrukh has been credited as both "Shah Rukh Khan" and "Shahrukh Khan").

I understand what you mean by "manipulatating reality" better now I think :) Though I think that by that definition it's difficult to find a culture that hasn't done so at some point. Certainly in Europe many ancient texts were destroyed on purpose in medieval times for example.
But perhaps China has indeed done more of this than some other cultures...
On a totally random note, I've been told that for a Pole who lived through communism here, a lot of things about China are quite easy to understand and don't seem as "foreign" as in some other Asian cultures.

But I'll go back on topic now :D I've been slowly producing a list of descriptions for the biggest 2006 Bollywood films, so here we go...


Dhoom:2 (2006)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PeKGl3aeG5k
The Stars:

• Hrithik Roshan
  See "Jodhaa Akbar (2007)" description.
• Abhishek Bachchan
  See "Guru (2007)" description.
• Aishwarya Rai
  See "Guru (2007)" description.
• Bipasha Basu
  She used to do modelling and she does a lot of sex symbol kind of roles. Uptil "Omkara" she wasn't taken too seriously as an actress.
  As you know, she's been roped in to play Kavita in Shantaram!
• Uday Chopra
  He's one of Yash Chopra's (big time producer) sons. He's not a very big star just yet, but he certainly has his group of loyal fans.

About the film:
It's a high tech action film produced by Yash Chopra - the sequel to "Dhoom (2004)".
Hrithik plays his first villain in this one. The film faced a lot of controversy because of an on-screen kiss between Hrithik and Aishwarya (particularly as Ash is now married to Abhishek who was part of this film!). Someone actually sued Hrithik and Aishwarya argueing the kiss was offensive (though the case was of course dismissed). Reportedely at Mr Amitabh Bachchan's request the kiss was later cut and does not feature in the DVD version of the film.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Anyone who thinks they can enjoy a film that mixes a lot of genres, is very silly, has spectacular action scenes and features a very hot Hrithik Roshan as the villain has a good shot of liking it I think ;)

Don (2006)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2Tn_bBKa3IQ
The Stars:

• Shahrukh Khan
  See my second post in this thread.
• Priyanka Chopra
  She's lately become one of the A-list actresses. Was Miss World in 2000.
• Kareena Kapoor
  A very popular star. Is from one of the biggest film dynasties in Bollywood. Her great-grandfather was already part of the film industry, her grandfather Raj Kapoor is one of Bollywood's most celebrated stars and filmmakers.
  She wasn't taken too seriously as an actress until "Omkara (2006)", but I think is still seen more as a sex symbol than an artist. She usually projects an air of huge confidence and is sometimes accused of arrogance.
• Arjun Rampal
  One of the many not yet A-list male stars.
• Chunky Pandey
  Rumour has it that we might be seeing this guy in Shantaram playing himself (he is mentioned briefly in the book). I don't think he's a particularly major star though. More of a supporting actor.
• Farhan Akhtar
  He's probably the most acclaimed director of the younger generation. His debut film "Dil Chahta Hai (2001)" made a very big impact in India. Don is his third film.

About the film:
It's a remake of a 1978 film starring Amitabh Bachchan in the lead. Don is an evil mastermind mafia lord. After many failed attempts the police manage to capture Don and wanting to infiltrate the mafia they put a Don look-a-like in his place.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I've seen this one so I can give a proper opinion *celebrates*
Generally if you read reviews, anyone who took the film at face value thought it was stupid and a waste of time. So anyone who likes their action flicks to be earnest - stay away from this one.
Then again I'm on a Johnny Depp board and IMO the best thing about Jack Sparrow is that Johnny never played him "earnestly" :) It was always obvious that he was having loads of fun with the irresponsibility and unpredictability of the character, that he loved the costume and accessories and had fun with that. And I think that's what made his Jack Sparrow so great.
So while Don is a very different setting, it's got a similar sense of humour IMO. Shahrukh clearly enjoys being evil in the silliest and most exaggerated ways possible. He has great fun with all the accessories like the dark glasses and the guns and all that. And of course like Jack Sparrow he gets lots of great lines. For example in a scene where TJ is holding Don at gun point the dialogue goes like this - TJ: I always liked you Don. Don: Me too TJ, I also always liked me.
If you like that sort of sense of humour in a high tech action film this might be for you :) And especially if you're one of the people who really enjoys seeing the villains cause the villains get quite a lot of screen time in this - much more than in a standard action flick.

Fanaa (2006)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2WL03Qa9CVU
The Stars:

• Aamir Khan
  He's one of the biggest stars in the industry. In fact both his films in 2006 did better business in India than Shahrukh's 2006 films (Shahrukh's still did better business abroad though).
  He's very short - just 5' 5" (1.65 m), but otherwise a pretty good-looking fellow. He is known as a perfectionist and an artist and has shown versatility for many years now. He rarely gives interviews and attends no award shows in India. He is known to be very picky about the scripts he chooses to do. Had a break of 4 years between 2001 and 2005 because he said no interesting script came his way! He is also often accused of "ghost directing" his films.
  Shahrukh and Aamir fans seem to always be at war with each other. If you ever go to their imdb boards then you're bound to find a recent war thread there. Whichever side of the barricade one is at, everyone is holding their breath about whether Shahrukh and Aamir ever make a film together. Anytime it seemed it might happen, there was always some problem and it didn't. Also, somewhat ironically perhaps, most of the parts that brought Shahrukh his initial fame in the early nineties (including one of his most famous villains where he played a stalker) were parts that Aamir had refused ;)
• Kajol
  One of Bollywood's biggest female stars. She was the heroine in "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)" (the longest running film in world history).
  She and Shahrukh make a very popular on-screen pairing. All 5 films that starred both of them as the leads were big blockbusters. Perhaps I should explain that in Bollywood there is a tendency to repeat the same hero-heroine pairings and people have their favourite ones. Kajol & Shahrukh is probably the most popular one ever.
  "Fanaa" was her comeback film (she took 5 years off) and everyone was surprised as they were expecting her to do her comeback film with Shahrukh. Their last film together was in 2001 and people are holding their breath waiting for when they are paired together again...
• Tabu
  See "Cheeni Kum (2007)" description.
• Shiney Ahuja
  See "Life in a... Metro (2007)" description.
• Laura Dutta
  Was Miss Universe 2000.
• Kiron Kher
  An acclaimed older actress.

About the film:
This is yet another Yash Chopra production. It is the story of a blind girl (Kajol) and a terrorist who fall in love with each other. It's one of the commercial Indian films that show a terrorist character in grey light rather than in black. I don't think one ever gets that in Hollywood or am I wrong?
As shooting in the Kashmir region was too dangerous it was actually shot in the Polish mountains lol Perhaps again I should explain that a lot of Bollywood films are shot in foreign locations. Switzerland in particular used to be a favourite for both the filmmakers and the audience. Even films where none of the plot took part in Switzerland would often have dance sequences shot in the Swiss mountains. Lately Switzerland is a bit out of fashion and filmmakers are looking for new locations and that's how they ended up in Poland lol
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Again I saw this one so I can actually give you a proper idea about it :D
Like most Yash Chopra productions it is a masala movie, so it does have sudden jumps between action, romance, drama, melodrama etc. And the plot of any masala movie is usually at least a bit silly. Its way of treating terrorism is by no means serious, but it is a very different take to what a Western commercial film would do.
It's shot very beautifully and from my Polish point of view I was quite shocked with how beautiful they made our mountains look! No Polish filmmaker in recent times has come close to that even though we do have some great landscapes and have a strong culture of cinematography (there are many Polish cinematographers working in Hollywood, for example the latest Harry Potter film had a Polish cinematographer). Just to give you an idea here's a teaser for one of the song's that has a few shots of the Polish mountains (all the snowy shots).
The Aamir-Kajol pairing works very well. Apparently Kajol thought that she and Aamir would annoy the hell out of each other but she was wrong because they ended up enjoying their work together ;)
So er... I guess avoid this one if you don't think the idea of mixing genres that way or unbelievable plots are your thing. But if you want a very well shot romance with an unusual terrorist portrayal (unusual in Western context I mean) then this is a great film to see!

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSiFn1CEwQ
The Stars:

• Amitabh Bachchan
  See my first post in this thread.
• Shahrukh Khan
  See my second post in this thread.
• Abhishek Bachchan
  See "Guru (2007)" description.
• Rani Mukherji
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Preity Zinta
  Preity is one of Bollywood's leading actresses. She's known for her dimples and "bubbly" persona. The word "bubbly" has been used for her so often that she absolutely hates it lol
• Kiron Kher
  See "Fanaa (2006)" description.
• Arjun Rampal
  See "Don (2006)" description.
• John Abraham
  He's in KANK only for a small appearance in a song. He's one of the upcoming stars who might soon make the A-list.
• Karan Johar
  One of the most commercially successful directors in Bollywood. He started off making happy family type films, but is now seriously departing from that.

About the film:
The film is about marital betrayal and problems in marriage. The parts were against the image of most of the stars associated with the film.
For Karan Johar, the director, it's an unusually confrontational film. So far all his films have been very sweet and strong on family values. The same cannot be said about this one!
Also the film talks about sex extremely openly in Indian terms (you've got a glimpse of that even on the trailer in one of the arguments :) ).
Even though this is hardly the first Indian film talking about marital betrayal, it is probably the most commercial film to do so with a huge host of A-list stars and an A-list director. It was widely debated and caused much controversy. It seemed to go down badly in the more rural areas of India, did much better in urban centres and abroad.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I've seen this one too wheeee B)
It's actually not as heavy on melodrama as the trailer would indicate. Most of the film is comedy, only maybe with slightly darker humour. Some of it is hysterically funny actually.
The film mixes entertainment and serious themes in a very odd way. So for me when I left the cinema I felt like it was a very exaggerated and "unreal" film and yet there were some good observations about men and women and what they want from relationships (ok, most of those observations are in the second half of the film as the first is totally silly :P ).
It's a difficult film to recommend because it's hard to say how people are going to react upon seeing it. I think this isn't the best film to start with if you've not seen any Bollywood films before because on the one hand it has a lot of the "weirdnesses of Bollywood convention" which might not be for everyone and on the other it's not a good representation of what Bollywood is either because it's breaking so many images and taboos. But if you watch something else beforehand and decide that you like the stars or director of this film then by all means try it :) It is very entertaining and odd!

Krrish (2006)
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-124745800986058644
The Stars:

• Hrithik Roshan
  See "Jodhaa Akbar (2007)" description.
• Priyanka Chopra
  See "Don (2006)" description.
• Naseeruddin Shah
  Is a slightly elder actor who is much acclaimed. He is not as big a star as some other actors, but there are those who think he is India's best character actor.
• Rekha
  She was a huge sex symbol in the 70s and to some extent remains one even now (those of you who have seen Mira Nair's Kamasutra may remember her). At some point in the 70s she was rumoured to be having an affair with Mr Bachchan (he married a different actress in 1973).
• Rakesh Roshan
  Famous Bollywood director and producer, Hrithik's father. Most of his films are action/macho kind of films I think (er... macho in Indian terms that is so male crying is still welcome :P ).

About the film:
It's the first superhero film made in India, a sequel to "Koi... Mil Gaya (2003)" (which was the first science fiction film made in India).
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I guess Hrithik Roshan fans might like it ;) It got good reviews in the US actually, so I think it must be a decent action flick, though I don't really know.

Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghn0owv6jb8
The Stars:

• Sanjay Dutt
  Er, am I right in assuming that everyone knows who he is thanks to the Mumbai bombings case?
• Abhishek Bachchan
  See "Guru (2007)" description.
• Vidya Balan
  See "Guru (2007)" description.

About the film:
It was one of the biggest hits of 2006, a sequel to "Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003)". It's a gangster comedy (Munnabhai is the main character).
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
For this one - I reaaally don't know. It's supposed to be quite a good comedy.

Omkara (2006)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=nHnAhaRFcAA
The Stars:

• Saif Ali Khan
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Ajay Devgan
  Kajol's husband. He started off as a bit of an action hero (he's great in fighting sequences), but nowadays he's very versatile. He's a slightly subtler actor than many others in Bollywood.
• Kareena Kapoor
  See "Don (2006)" description.
• Vivek Oberoi
  He's one of the newcomers that is becoming establihed. Even though he's got the kind of face that you'd think he'd be doing romantic heroes and stuff like that, he's shown a lot of versatility from pretty much the beginning of his career.
• Bipasha Basu
  See "Dhoom:2 (2006)" description.
• Naseeruddin Shah
  See "Krrish (2006)" description.
• Konkona Sen Sharma
  See "Aaja Nachle (2007)" description.
• Vishal Bharadwaj
  The acclaimed director and composer of this film. He will compose the music for Shantaram.

About the film:
It's Shakespeare's Othello moved to a small Indian village. Although not a huge commercial success it was one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2006.
Saif Ali Khan in particular got rave reviews as it was a huge and successful departure from his image (he plays Langda Tyagi which is the equivalent of Iago). But it was an unusual film for all the cast. It's not often that Bollywood actors have to do strange regional accents :)
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Again this I saw :)
I think it's a great film to see for someone who hasn't had much experience with Bollywood yet. It's got quite a unified style for a Bollywood film (as in it's not a true "masala" flick ;) ). And although it's a more traditional Indian setting with many traditional Indian customs shown, I think it's very easy to understand even for someone who isn't too familiar with Indian culture.
And of course it's beautifully shot and acted really well. Not to mention that you get to see Bipasha Basu and hear some of Vishal Bhardwaj's music.
So this would be among my top recommendations :)

Rang De Basanti (2006)
Trailer: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kpT5NhAVLmY
The Stars:

• Aamir Khan
  See "Fanaa (2006)" description.
• Kiron Kher
  See "Fanaa (2006)" description.

About the film:
It was India's entry for the Academy Awards 2006.
It's a political film about freedom fighters (based on real events and characters), who start off as very self-centered, crazy young people, but then start doing something much more serious and important.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I've not seen this one. I've heard opinions that while this is an excellent film, it's somewhat hermetic and difficult to understand for someone who doesn't already know quite a bit about the problems shown in the film.

Before we leave the Off Topic stuff, I just want to say that your comments about the Poles and Communism and China make perfect sense to me, roz. Oppressive regimes are oppressive regimes everywhere, and I think people living under such conditions would behave pretty much the same way. I recall an interview with Jacek Wozniakowski, the wonderful, distinguished art historian and survivor of 'the war Poland lost twice', where he talked about how the whole society in Poland changed and how people on the street no longer said 'hello' to each other or even made eye contact with each other for fear of being reported or turned in or whatever. An air of suspicion ~ of being watched and having to guard everything you do or say ~ hung over the heads of the citizenry. Everyone was told what they were supposed to think and nobody could say they didn't really think that way. He said he felt like he was living in a foriegn country because 'reality' had changed so drastically from before. I imagine the Chinese people would say the same thing. One can only hope that, like the Poles, the poets and artists and intellectuals in China have a lively underground network to sustain them. And I think someday they'll have their own Gdansk! :crossfingers

Okay, back to Bollywood!!
Thanks for your reports on the films!! :thumbsup I'm really learning sooo much!!

WOW Thanks for all of that info! It will take be awhile to get it all read, but I appreciate you sharing it with us!

I don't know what a Gdansk is , but it must be happening in Vancouver Canada. Alot of Poles here, and Mandarin speakers seem to used to be academics of China!
At least the ones I meet!

Thanks for the list of popular recent films, and the breif descriptions as how they will relate to Shantaram. Now I know what/who to watch for. :thumbsup

Gdansk is one of Poland's biggest cities and our biggest port. Its shipyard is where the uprising that eventually led to the fall of communism started (Poland was the first country in Europe where communism fell - 6 months before the Berlin wall did).
Apparently Stalin used to say that communism fits Poland like a saddle does a cow. We always had the biggest resistance against the communist regime and we're proud of it :D
On the other hand I think Poles tend to resist everything :P We're anarchists by nature and I tell you that on a daily basis this is not a good thing!

Parlez, I'm amazed that you know this kind of stuff! :blink: I very rarely come across people who know this kind of stuff about Poland! Even foreign politicians have made some embarrassing blunders like publicly saying that it's amazing that we adjusted to the Latin alphabet so quickly. Poland of course never used the Cyrillic script, we always used the Latin alphabet! The culture of many of the Slavic countries in Central Europe is quite different to Russia's actually (Russia does use the Cyrillic script), but we always get grouped with them because of our communist era. Not a lot of people realize that there's actually a lot of tension between these countries and Russia. I think the worst blunder I've heard of in terms of this part of the world was that both times when president Bush came to visit Slovakia the American media showed a map of Europe on which they marked Slovenia. You'd think that after one such blunder they wouldn't repeat it, but sadly no *sigh*

OMG I am getting even more off topic! lol Now we're not even talking about Asia *blush*

On a random Chinese note, I just noticed today that Ang Lee's next release is set in China. I read it will have an NC-17 certificate in the US and that surprisingly no cuts will be made to attain an R. Here's the trailer.

Er, finally on topic :D Expect some more Bollywood film lists to come :) I've done 2007 and 2006, but I'll be going down in years (with less and less films mentioned per year, but still ;) ).
Depputante, if you get round to seeing any of those films do come back to me with your impressions - I'm very curious what you'll say :)

I'll just take a brief moment to explain my interest in Poland ~
First of all, I'm a big fan of Pope John Paul II, even though I'm not Catholic. But his Being transcended religion, tak? In learning about his life, I also learned about the underground resistance movement in Poland during the war and during the communist regime. I was/am so impressed by the resilience of the Poles, and, yes, their stubborness! ;) Also their creativity ~ the literature, poetry and art of the country, even when it no longer existed as a country on any map, express a definite committment to the creative arts in general, and to Polish arts specifically. Very cool! I'm also a big fan of Lech Walesa ~ his story is sooo amazing! And as exciting as it was to be in Poland a few years ago, I was quite disturbed to find out Walesa isn't popular with the citizenry over there anymore. I thought there would be memorials to him all over the place, that the shipyards in Gdansk would be a museum or something, and that Solidarity flags would be selling like perogis! Not so. But to me, Lech is and always will be a hero. And then there's Jacek Wozniakowski and Villa Decius in Krakow...what can I say? Absolutely marvelous!

It doesn't surprise me one bit that the current American administration didn't do their homework before invading...oops...visitng Poland. Twice! :P Cultural awareness, intelligence, and overall tact are not hallmarks of this regime. And after all Poland has gone through to preserve their own unique language and culture and heritage, it's got to rankle when politicians don't 'get it'. I apologize on their behalf! :bow

Thanks for the heads up about the Ang Lee film ~ very interesting!

Parlez, you've just totally freaked me out :lol: That's amazing, you actually know some stuff about Poland that I don't! I had to check up Jacek Wozniakowski and Villa Decius!

Yes, even Poles abroad don't understand why Lech Wałęsa lost his popularity, but there are actually good reasons for that. As important as he was historically to us (and I think nobody in Poland denies that), he was a pretty lousy president of Poland. I was very young (7-12) and not that interested in politics during his presidency, so I don't remember that many of his blunders, but I'll give you one example that I remember specifically... And please excuse my English - I don't usually use it for discussing politics, so I lack certain vocabulary.

At that time we lacked legislation for many things and one of the things that needed to be fixed was the media - as in how channel frequencies would be given out to broadcasters (some frequencies were being illegally broadcast on at the time), who would take care of such issues etc. The parliament decided that there would be an independent body to do the job. At that time the body was to consist of 9 people, one would be the leader. 4 of the members were supposed to be chosen by the parliament, 3 by the senate and 2 by the president and also the president was supposed to choose who would be the leader. So Wałęsa chose his two members and his leader from amongst those two. But then something happened that Wałęsa hadn't expected. The guy he chose for leader didn't act according to what Wałęsa wanted him to do - he made his own decisions and was truly independent like the legislation intended. It shocked not just Wałęsa, but many politicians actually. Perhaps because everyone was so used to media issues done according to what was the most comfortable for the rulers. And so Wałęsa took away that guy's leadership and gave it to his other guy, who indeed made decisions according to what Wałęsa wanted him to. The Constitutional Tribunal got involved because it was unclear in the legislation whether the president did have the power to take away leadership and give it to somebody else. After weeks of debating it, they said he didn't. But Wałęsa had already done it and the law doesn't go backwards, so...
Wałęsa never did something really terrible (the sort of media manipulation he was trying to do is very small comparing to what the current president and government is attempting!), but frankly I don't think he ever quite got the idea of what democracy is supposed to be (not that many politicans in Poland do *sigh*). And he wasn't really the right person to be president in the first place. He has no higher education and doesn't speak much English.

And I think that it was all those minor things he did like that which turned people off him (and then when Kwaśniewski did a much better job at presidency it didn't help!). Because they were minor, you never got to hear of them abroad. But in Poland it was enough to change the perception of him.
Does that explain a bit why Lech Wałęsa lost popularity here? :)

I'm not sure that blunder with the Cyrillic script was an American one actually. It may have been though. Frankly, German politicians are just as bad *sigh* That said the current Polish government make blunders abroad which are much worse *bangs head into the wall* So I don't think anybody has anything to apologize for (other than the dumb politicians I mean :P ).

Honestly, I don't know how we've arrived at Polish politics in this thread lol My dad would be very impressed, I don't talk about politics all that much usually :P
Karen - do tell us off if we're taking all this off topic stuff too far!

Oh, this is a riot!! Every (off) topic on this thread is endlessly interesting to me! I'm not sure how we got from Johnny to casting Shantaram to Bollywood to Polanski to Walesa, but I like it and I'm glad we did!!
Actually, I'm not Polish, just to set the record straight - I'm Dutch & German - but my heart I think is Polish. :)
The story I heard about Walesa's fall from grace had a lot to do with his lack of education and how he came across as kind of crude to the international community, or so the Poles thought at the time. Afterall, the Czech's had Vaclav Havel as their first President ~who wouldn't be an embarassment compared to that guy?! :D But also I heard there was something about Walesa taking sort of a "let 'em eat cake" approach to changing from the communist system to the free market/capitalist system ~ and a lot of Poles who thought their lives were going to improve actually took quite a hit when all the previously free services and jobs and subsidies disappeared and nothing was there to take its place. Maybe your Dad would know more about that...?
Anyway, I find it remarkable that Poland has managed to land on its feet (again) with so many rapid changes. It's only natural that there would be a period of disequalibrium and chaos, but if Lech Walesa is the only casualty of that political upheaval, I'd call it an astounding success! :claphands Besides, no country is immune to having a President the people are embarrassed about from time to
time. :shistle
Also, I'd like to add that your English is perfect!!! It puts many native-speakers to shame! They say Poles have a special gene that lets them learn
foreign languages thoroughly and easily...I believe it! :thumbsup

You're Dutch and German, have a Chinese granddaughter, a Polish heart and live in the US? :D How cool is that? woohoo

I think capitalism was quite a shock to many Poles, but nowadays people have gotten used to it. That said, in Poland the president has very little actual power. So I think the parliament would have been more responsible for making the transition abrupt (though IMO it was difficult not to make it abrupt).

I think Wałęsa rehabilitated himself more recently when he critisized the current government very severely (the government retaliated by suggesting that Wałęsa was helping the communist regime! :blink:) and then supported Kwaśniewski for the first time in his life. At the time when Wałęsa was still fully active politically he said some very ugly things about Kwaśniewski. His most famous line doesn't translate well into English, but the gist was that he would never shake hands with Kwaśniewski and that Kwaśniewski was only fit to be touched by his foot. More recently they did shake hands ;)

I think some of the early stuff that happened in Polish politics was good, but lately it's really going down hill :( At the moment the way Poland is represented abroad by our politicians is terrible. The current president and government have for example suggested to the EU that they should think about bringing back the death penalty. They have also made homophobic comments and suggested that the EU should "stop promoting homosexuality" whatever that means. One particular group of politicians has been trying to get the EU to support the idea that man did not evolve from the ape, but was instantly created by God... You get the picture, right?
Not to mention what they're doing nationally... They're trying to limit freedom of the media (public TV is a joke at the moment, it's pure propaganda). There's a homeless man who they're trying to arrest because he called the president an asshole or something like that and apparently shouting that out on a train station is defamation. If they had a bigger majority in parliament than they do they would have passed a new constitution that doesn't have a word about freedom of religion in it (I'm not kidding!).
The only good thing in our current politics is that it looks like the coalition has broken beyond repair and a minority government is impossible so there will probably be early elections in October. The bad news is that although they're not going to win the October elections, they've manipulated the media well enough to still have a decent result in the next elections :(

As for my English - I moved from the UK to Poland when I was 8 (in 1991). My parents are Polish so they wanted to move back to Poland after the regime fell. So I'm sorta bilingual, although I tend to lack vocabulary on topics that I don't often use it for or sometimes there's words that I don't pronounce correctly because I've only ever read them and not heard them.

But back to er... I'm scared to call it the actual topic of this thread lol But er... what we were talking about earlier ;)
I came across two articles that relate to what we were discussing earlier. This is about the gender imbalance in China and actually it seems that for some time now abortions have become quite common :(
The second one (another similar article is here) is on a much happier note. Warner Brothers is doing a co-production with two Bollywood producers and the film is set in China :lol:
For the last year or so I've been observing the interest of Hollywood in Bollywood and it amuses me. It seems like they realize that there's a lot of money to be earned in India and as they account for only 8% of the market there, a lot of the major Hollywood producers (Disney, Sony, Warner Brothers) have clearly decided that they need to try to make films in Bollywood style lol I'm very curious to see if they succeed in making something that is truly Indian in style. So far similar experiments haven't really worked in India, though this time they are trying to tell purely Indian stories (rather than mixed American-Indian ones) and with Bollywood directors and stars, so maybe it'll work. For the Bollywood industry more investment can only be good...
What I like also is that Bollywood isn't being passive in all of this. Fairly recently one of the major Indian producers signed a contract with a guy who used to do special effects for Star Wars, so he's now working in an Indian studio :D
It'll be really interesting what happens between the American and Indian film industries in the few coming years :) For one it's very exciting because if producers like Warner Brothers are really going to make Bollywood films then that opens a whole new market for these films. The biggest problem for Bollywood films is that they don't get the promotion and wide distribution they need to become popular abroad. For example "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)" (it's somewhere in my 2006 post ;) ) opened at 40th place in the US box office, but out of all the films in the top 40 it had by far the highest earnings per screen. So clearly it could have been shown on more screens than it was!

Thanks for the update on the current political situation in Poland, roz ~ it doesn't sound so good. :unsure: All the info we get about Poland over here lately is that they've been alledgedly running secret prison camps for the US government. The irony of that, if true, is too acute to contemplate...
Maybe we'll see Walesa make a comeback!?! With that homeless guy as his aide-de-camp! :claphands

I guess it was only a matter of time before the Chinese people took reproductive measures into their own hands, so to speak, though not in the best way. What my daughter and her husband experienced in the adoption process in China was a little unnerving, and made me wonder more than once about the whole issue of human trafficking. And I also wondered how long the government would consider this a wise social policy, lucrative though it is.

Anyway, BACK TO THE TOPIC!!! :P
I LUV the idea of Holly/Bollywood combining forces and possibly coming up with
some new, rich, fun and entertaining hybrid! yaar!!! I believe Western, and even American, audiences can take (deserve to take) (need to take) something new and different. And I'm sooo glad to hear Bollywood is being pro-active about these collaborations and not just letting Hollywood come in and overrun things with their own formulas and templates. From what I'm learning about Bollywood (from you! :thumbsup ), the industry over there has the success rate and the confidence to be an equal partner with any other moviemaking industry.

Again, thanks for the info ~ dziekuje! :D

Yeah and now apart from possibly running camps for the US we might be America's missile base *bangs head on wall*

I don't think Wałęsa will make a comeback. And I think it's better for him if he doesn't :P But if he does some commentary on the political situation every now and then and continues in this new vein rather than in the old then I think that's good for the country :)


As for audiences for Bollywood - absolutely :) In Europe it's already starting to happen on a larger scale than it might seem. It's best in those countries that have big Indian minorities of course, but even where there are no significant Indian minorities (like Germany and Poland) it's slowly becoming commercially viable. In the UK where the minority is largest Bollywood films are regularly in the top10 in the box office - and this despite being promoted and distributed on a smaller scale than American films.
When some of the Bollywood stars came to Paris to promote their films, the reception was quite amazing, here's a short report from the event:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_Dv9ntg_BjA

The US has so far been harder to make a mark in. But I think it's not because Americans have difficulty with subtitles or can't enjoy films from other cultures (I've heard a lot of people argueing it that way). The problem is how the market is structured.
I mean lets compare some UK numbers to the US. The UK box office at the time when "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" was released looked like this:
http://www.imdb.com/boxoffice/?region=uk&date=2006-08-11
It was 6th in the UK box office and this despite releasing on only 60 screens (just look at the number of screens for the other films!). And please notice the numbers in the "per screen" earnings - that's 4 times more than any other film in the top10 that week!
So while the results in the UK are good one could still argue that with better promotion and wider distribution they could be better.
Now for the US numbers... A big release in the US is around 4000 screens as far as I know (a big one in the UK is 400-500) and yet "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" released on... *drums* 64 screens - just 4 more than in the UK! I remember reading that it took 40th place in the box office, but like in the UK it had muuuuch higher per screen earnings than any other film in the top 40.
And the US does this sort of thing a lot. I think one of the biggest shockers was a French film - "Amelie" which was a huge hit in Europe and they released it in the US on *drums* 3 screens!

And this is why I think Indian cinema could potentially gain a lot from American producers! :) Any European film that was at least partly if not totally financed by the US (like Borat for example) usually got a much wider release.

Ok, I've done a write up for 2005 this time :)


Black (2005)
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3850928599403067092
The Stars:

• Amitabh Bachchan
  See my first post in this thread.
• Rani Mukherji
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Sanjay Leela Bhansali
  He's one of Bollywood's most acclaimed directors. His films are very esthetic in nature.

About the film:
It's a very unconventional film for Bollywood (one could probably debate whether this should be called "Bollywood" or whether it's more of a "parallel cinema" kind of film). For starters, there's no song and dance numbers, it's only 2h (most Bollywood films are around 3h) and if I'm not mistaken the leading language of the film is English, not Hindi. Despite this it was a major success and the most critically acclaimed film of the year.
The story is about a girl who is blind and deaf and a man who becomes her teacher. It is Rani Mukherji's most acclaimed role.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I've still not seen this one (though with any luck that should change in a few weeks *does a mini dance*), but from what I heard it is a very sentimental film. Also Bhansali seems to like veeeery over the top acting. Some say that it looks like acting in the silent era, so you can expect all the emotions to be very over the top. On the other hand the exaggerated acting suits Bhansali's esthetic style.

Bunty Aur Babli (2005)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWuAXdv-DTg
The Stars:

• Amitabh Bachchan
  See my first post in this thread.
• Abhishek Bachchan
  See "Guru (2007)" description.
• Rani Mukherji
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Aishwarya Rai - special appearance
  See "Guru (2007)" description.

About the film:
It's the story of a couple (Abhishek and Rani) who do all sorts of small crimes and get famous for it. And then there's a policeman who wants to capture them.
It established Rani and Abhishek as a very popular on-screen couple (I think it's partly the height different that makes them look very cute together -he's one of the tallest actors and she's one of the shortest actresses ;)).
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
It's a nice and fun film :) (and one that I've seen :D) Quite Bollywoodish, but I think also quite safe in that it's not one of those films that uses conventions which are *that* far from what happens in the West.
Mr Bachchan is really awsome in this one although he doesn't appear until the second half of the film.
So probably this would be amongst my top recommendations. Maybe not the most exciting or original of films, but I think it's a fairly safe recommendation ;) It's unlikely someone is really going to hate this film, even if it's not quite their cup of tea. And on a Shantaram note you get to see Mr Bachchan in a really funny role.

Paheli (2005)
Trailer: http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/trailer/7579.html
The Stars:

• Shahrukh Khan
  See my second post in this thread.
• Rani Mukherji
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Juhi Chawla
  She was Miss India in 1984. Is appreciated most for her comedy roles.
• Amitabh Bachchan - special appearance
  See my first post in this thread

About the film:
India entered Paheli for the Academy Awards which was a very controversial decision (even the makers of Paheli were surprised!) because everyone had expected they would go with "Black". The people who did the choosing argued that Black was a very Western film in some ways (for one it's completely in English) and that it's too sentimental to be taken well in the West and that Paheli would have a better chance.
Like Black, Paheli could be argued to be an art house film rather than a "Bollywood film". It's just over 2h, so not the standard length. The story is a folklore tale about a ghost that falls in love with a woman and takes her husband's place. There's no English whatsoever in the film (which is rather rare) and the actors were putting on regional accents (again rare).
It was produced by Shahrukh Khan.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
If you want something that has a very traditional Indian feel and nothing Western about it whatsoever then this is worth a try. But otherwise I wouldn't recommend starting with this. It's quite a hermetic sort of film (when I saw it at a film festival there were even a few walkouts - though maybe I should explain that when you watch 4 films a day for 10 days a lot of people do choose to leave early!). It's also quite a calm and slow film - rather unlike most Bollywood films.
It is worth seeing of course, it's just that I wouldn't recommend it for everyone and particularly not to start with.

The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey (2005)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlKDQ6hR91o
The Stars:

• Aamir Khan
  See "Fanaa (2006)" description.
• Rani Mukherji
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Kiron Kher
  See "Fanaa (2006)" description.

About the film:
It's about one of India's patriotic heroes - Mangal Pandey. Legend has it that he started the uprising against the British in 1857. The truth is that most likely he did something stupid and violent under the influence of opium and his death sentence caused an uproar which became an uprising because of the general mood in the country at that time.
The film is more of a legendary take, but it tries to paint Mangal a little grey.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I find this one hard to write about because I didn't like it :D IMO it is very Western in style. To me it feels like something of the "Braveheart" or "Gladiator" sort, although ironically enough maybe a bit less sentimental and less "hero like" (for some odd reason even though sentimentality and "heroes" are a much more major part of Bollywood than Hollywood, when it comes to these kinds of topics they tend to be a lot more subdued about it than Hollywood!). The difference is of course that there are songs in the film, but even those have much less focus than in a standard Bollywood film.
If you like "Braveheart" and that sort of thing then by all means try it (I just generally don't go for that type of thing myself nowadays).

Salaam Namaste (2005)
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2475588454268985042
The Stars:

• Saif Ali Khan
  See "Ta Ra Rum Pum (2007)" description.
• Preity Zinta
  See "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)" description.
• Abhishek Bachchan
  See "Guru (2007)" description.

About the film:
It's about the young, urban generation. More particularly about a boy and girl who are living together even though they're not married, which is a bit shocking for some sections of the Indian people.
Saif and Preity are one of the more popular on-screen pairings.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
Can't really say as I haven't seen it, but from what I've gathered it's a fun, modern comedy :)

Water (2005)
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6349762904637312687
(the trailer is around the 3 minute mark on the video, there's an interview with Deepa Mehta after that)
The Stars:

• John Abraham
  See "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (2006)" description.
• Deepa Mehta
  Alongside Mira Nair, she's one of the most acclaimed Indian directors who work outside of India.

About the film:
Actually, I shouldn't be including it on the list because this film is absolutely not Bollywood :P It's a Canadian produced film and was nominated for an Academy Award this year in the foreign film category (representing Canada!).
However, I decided to put it in because I see from other threads that people are discovering Mira Nair's films and Deepa Mehta is absolutely on the same level of filmmaking and just as interesting to discover. Furthermore, Mehta has touched some very controversial subjects in her films, so there's an interest factor in that also.
"Water" is about the treatment of widows in India. The story is that of a little girl who is married while very young (in some parts of India child marriages are quite common even though they're not legal - from what I understand the girls usually continue to live with their parents until they're 15 but they can be married off when they're just a few years old). And then when she's 7 or 8, her husband (who is a lot older than her) dies, making her a widow and she has to go through all the customs to do with that.
Mehta tried to shoot it in Varanasi, India in 2000. She received permission from the Indian officials, but when they started shooting, Hindu extremists totally destroyed the set. When she finally came back to the project 5 years later she opted to shoot it in Sri Lanka instead.
Who might like it and who should avoid it:
I've still not had any opportunity to see it here in Poland, but by all accounts it's an awsome film. I've heard nothing but compliments about it. Of course it's not Bollywood by any stretch of the imagination, but I think Deepa Mehta is quite an important Indian director to discover :)

It's a bit weird to be posting three posts in a row *blush* but it just turned out that way...

I just saw the first teaser for the first Bollywood-Hollywood co-production and I'm awed, so I really wanted to share. The film is called "Saawariya" and is by Sanjay Leela Bhansali who was briefly mentioned... er... somewhere in my previous post :D As I said he's an extremely esthetic director and the trailer is absolutely gorgeous. The last time I was this awed by the esthetics of a trailer was for "300". See it in nice quality on the official site of the film:
http://www.saawariyafilm.com/

Thanks for the continuing info on Indian cinema, roz! Three posts in a row is not a bad thing! :D It's unlikely I'll ever get to see any of Deepa Mehta's films, since it's hard enough to find Mira Nair's work released this far inland in the US. But it's nice to know she's out there, crossing bridges and having an impact. The teaser for "Saawariya" is gorgeous!
:thanks

Do you use any on-line rentals? Most if not all of the films I've mentioned (including "Water") are available on netflix.com , don't know what other big rentals there are in the US and how wide the choice is, but you've got way better access to these films in the US than I do in Poland :) (even though I do have the advantage of living in Warsaw so that everything that releases in Poland releases in my hometown).
And a random note on "Water" - it's actually the highest grossing "Indian film" in North America. Largely thanks to its wide release in Canada rather than its release in the US, but still...

Good point ~ I'll check Netflix! I've never signed up for any online rentals, but this would be a good time/reason to investigate that option! :thumbsup