For Your Consideration... Bollywood

After a brief vacation hiatus (to Iceland, not to India, but a movie from that country will be profiled in a future post), I wanted to talk about Bollywood, especially that now all of you have had a chance to see the movie, 3 Idiots. Bollywood is a pretty unique film industry for many reasons... not only is it one of the largest national film industries in the world (if not the largest), but most of the movies feature song and dance, and if they don't, then it doesn't feel like a Bollywood film.

Bollywood is the nickname of the Indian film industry. Bollywood, unlike Hollywood, isn't an actual place you can visit, but rather a name that sums up the country's industry (so don't pack your bags just yet). Most Bollywood movies have a formula, and they revolve around themes involving as forbidden love, education, marriage, difference in values between generations, and terrorism & violence. While these central ideas are visited over and over again, the songs, dances, and actors are what keep people coming back to see different movies with similar plot lines.

Song & dance is so intertwined within Bollywood movies that if a movie doesn't feature these elements, the movie generally tanks at the box office. The song & dance tradition in Indian entertainment can be traced back to the 2nd or 1st century BCE. In drama pieces, these elements have always appeared, so it was only natural that they would be carried over to the film industry in the 20th century. While American movies with song & dance are considered musicals, Bollywood movies without song & dance are considered "art films".

The moral of the story is that if you like (or even dislike) Baz Luhrmann (yes, the guy who told you to wear sunscreen), you will most likely love Bollywood.