01-03-2008, 06:13 PM
Book Review that provides insight into Bollywood.
Pioneer 3 Jan., 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It's not just about Omkara
Prerna Singh Bindra
Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Inside the World of Indian Moviemaking
Author: Stephen Alter
Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: Rs 295Â
Once there were snake charmers and elephants; but the latest toast of Indian exotica is Bollywood, which has caught the fancy of writers Indian, of Indian origin, and those rooted in foreign soils. The latest to catch Bollywood bug is Stephen Alter, who has previously crossed the border from Amritsar to Lahore and explored the world of the rare Asiatic Elephant, more so from a mythological point of view. One cannot fault the author and his wide spectrum of subjects, nor his thorough treatment and avid interest on the focus of his affection evident from his writing.
There have been a plethora of books on The Making of... (please fill in the name of the film) -- among the first one being Sholay, which, incidentally, was the most interesting of the lot with a fantastic tale to tell. The latest to join the list is the Making of Om Shanti Om, which I haven't read, but seems as glossy as the film itself. What's good about the book is that the narrator is not an insider, thus lending objectivity to the work.
<b>Admittedly, Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief is amazingly obscure, but it conveys what it needs to the audience it is aimed at: The people of the West increasingly smitten by the quaintly bizarre world of Bollywood, so charmingly different from Hollywood, with its songs and item numbers and all-conquering heroes.</b> Though that stereotyped Bollywood is turned upside down when we import the Bard and his Othello to the dusty environs of Uttar Pradesh, or rather a town called Wai some 300 km from Mumbai, where the film Omkara was staged due to convenience.
Not that the book excludes the Indian reader; just that the concepts and terminology associated with Bollywood have been tediously explained -- what is a 'masala' film? Or the fact that kissing was almost taboo not just in more 'puritan' days, but even when songs and their thrusting pelvic moves leave little to the imagination. It is irritating at times to be told that the Kapoors are the first family of Bollywood and other such stuff. It is obvious that the author succumbs to the image of exotica -- the "dark, tumultuous shapes of monsoon clouds represent passion and desire".
The book is about the making of Omkara; and, as the subtitle suggests, it also gives insight about movie-making in Bollywood. There are spicy tidbits about the making of Omkara, some that would have provided good fodder to tabloids -- Saif Ali Khan, for instance, preferred the wig to going bald -- or almost -- for his character, primarily because his lady love of the time, Rosa, preferred it. However, professionalism won over passion, and to everyone's relief he turned up for the shoot with his crowning glory shorn off. What would have been the film had it been called O Saathi Re, as Ajay Devgan wanted, as he was convinced that a title as bland as Omkara would fail to get the audience? What would have happened had the director stuck to his original idea of retelling Othello using the background of the Indian cricket team? What would have been the film had there been no Bipasha Basu, who titillated with Beedi Jalai Le, for there were doubts whether she could play the role of a rustic gangster's moll?
The book is peppered with interviews -- Madhur Bhandarkar, Dev Anand, Shekhar Kapur, Mahesh Bhatt -- which is frankly old hat to the domestic audience suffering from an overdose of Bollywood, thanks to a frenzied media obsessed with its denizens, though one does understand their merit, considering the fact that the ambit of the book goes beyond the 'making' of Omkara. <b>The interviews provide a brief insight into the working of the directors' mind, thereby of the varied kind of films produced in the industry -- from low-budget slick flicks or rather 'erotic thrillers' as Alter terms them, to Madhur Bhandarkar's women-centric films like Chandni Bar or Page 3, which showed the not-so glamorous side of hi-society, besides the serious ones of Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalni. </b>
<b>What makes the book valuable is the focus on the amount of effort, time, energy and money that goes into what will be a three-hour show that might or might not pass the acid test at the box-office.</b>
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Pioneer 3 Jan., 2007
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->It's not just about Omkara
Prerna Singh Bindra
Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief: Inside the World of Indian Moviemaking
Author: Stephen Alter
Publisher: HarperCollins
Price: Rs 295Â
Once there were snake charmers and elephants; but the latest toast of Indian exotica is Bollywood, which has caught the fancy of writers Indian, of Indian origin, and those rooted in foreign soils. The latest to catch Bollywood bug is Stephen Alter, who has previously crossed the border from Amritsar to Lahore and explored the world of the rare Asiatic Elephant, more so from a mythological point of view. One cannot fault the author and his wide spectrum of subjects, nor his thorough treatment and avid interest on the focus of his affection evident from his writing.
There have been a plethora of books on The Making of... (please fill in the name of the film) -- among the first one being Sholay, which, incidentally, was the most interesting of the lot with a fantastic tale to tell. The latest to join the list is the Making of Om Shanti Om, which I haven't read, but seems as glossy as the film itself. What's good about the book is that the narrator is not an insider, thus lending objectivity to the work.
<b>Admittedly, Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief is amazingly obscure, but it conveys what it needs to the audience it is aimed at: The people of the West increasingly smitten by the quaintly bizarre world of Bollywood, so charmingly different from Hollywood, with its songs and item numbers and all-conquering heroes.</b> Though that stereotyped Bollywood is turned upside down when we import the Bard and his Othello to the dusty environs of Uttar Pradesh, or rather a town called Wai some 300 km from Mumbai, where the film Omkara was staged due to convenience.
Not that the book excludes the Indian reader; just that the concepts and terminology associated with Bollywood have been tediously explained -- what is a 'masala' film? Or the fact that kissing was almost taboo not just in more 'puritan' days, but even when songs and their thrusting pelvic moves leave little to the imagination. It is irritating at times to be told that the Kapoors are the first family of Bollywood and other such stuff. It is obvious that the author succumbs to the image of exotica -- the "dark, tumultuous shapes of monsoon clouds represent passion and desire".
The book is about the making of Omkara; and, as the subtitle suggests, it also gives insight about movie-making in Bollywood. There are spicy tidbits about the making of Omkara, some that would have provided good fodder to tabloids -- Saif Ali Khan, for instance, preferred the wig to going bald -- or almost -- for his character, primarily because his lady love of the time, Rosa, preferred it. However, professionalism won over passion, and to everyone's relief he turned up for the shoot with his crowning glory shorn off. What would have been the film had it been called O Saathi Re, as Ajay Devgan wanted, as he was convinced that a title as bland as Omkara would fail to get the audience? What would have happened had the director stuck to his original idea of retelling Othello using the background of the Indian cricket team? What would have been the film had there been no Bipasha Basu, who titillated with Beedi Jalai Le, for there were doubts whether she could play the role of a rustic gangster's moll?
The book is peppered with interviews -- Madhur Bhandarkar, Dev Anand, Shekhar Kapur, Mahesh Bhatt -- which is frankly old hat to the domestic audience suffering from an overdose of Bollywood, thanks to a frenzied media obsessed with its denizens, though one does understand their merit, considering the fact that the ambit of the book goes beyond the 'making' of Omkara. <b>The interviews provide a brief insight into the working of the directors' mind, thereby of the varied kind of films produced in the industry -- from low-budget slick flicks or rather 'erotic thrillers' as Alter terms them, to Madhur Bhandarkar's women-centric films like Chandni Bar or Page 3, which showed the not-so glamorous side of hi-society, besides the serious ones of Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalni. </b>
<b>What makes the book valuable is the focus on the amount of effort, time, energy and money that goes into what will be a three-hour show that might or might not pass the acid test at the box-office.</b>
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->