SHAHRUKH AS PIED PIPER,
or, HOW I DISCOVERED BOLLYWOOD
©
bollywhat.com 2005
I'm
a 19 year old Australian-born-Chinese female in Brisbane, Australia.
My first foray into Hcinema happened when my friend from Perth
came back during holidays last year and she made all these friends,
mainly international students from India, and embraced their
culture. She wanted to hold a international movie fest, but
I was the only one who had time or was interested. I'll admit...at
first, I thought that I'd be laughing my arse off when the actors
suddenly broke off into song and dance, images that were slapstick
and quite stupid. Then my friend put on Kal Ho Na Ho.
I
then realised that my misconceptions about Bollywood was wrong,
although not totally since there was still a fair amount of
cheese to the movie. These were my main thoughts - the dancing
and singing was fascinating and in context (Indian cinema is
to dancing what Hong Kong films is to action); Saif Ali Khan
was hot, Preity Zinta was, well, pretty, and whilst the storyline
was nothing spectacular, it had so much charm that frankly,
it didn't matter. But my main fascination of the film was Shahrukh
Khan. I mean, this was a guy who wasn't particularly good-looking
but I couldn't take my eyes off him, so much charm oozing out
his pores. He was crying so much that he could probably cure
the drought that Australia is suffering at the moment, but he
made it work. Seriously, any guy who 'overacts' yet still being
so charismatic and endearing at the same time has to be something
special, right?
My
interest in Shahrukh led me to read as much as I could about
him (internet is a wonderful thing, ain't it) and to watch more
hindi films, like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (fantastic!),
Karan Arjun (slightly overrated) and Kaante (ok). However, while
i liked the guy, my true obsession for Hindi cinema (and SRJ)
didn't arrive til about a couple of weeks ago when the same
aforementioned friend sent me a dvd for my birthday with Baadshah
and Duplicate on it. Then it happened - after watching the films,
which weren't even all that great, i couldn't stop myself from
watching the dancing scenes. Suddenly the soundtrack in my head
wasn't something by an American rock band but in a language
I couldn't understand, yet was singing/humming anyway. I learnt
the dance moves from the movies via osmosis and actually have
to stop myself from busting a move lest I make a fool of myself
when I feel the urge in public. I even started to learn Hindi
to better understand the movies, although stopped since I realised
that I do not have a talent for learning languages. Then I realised
- I'm a bollywood geek!
I
have read everything I could find about the Hindi film industry,
which, by the way, can rival any soap opera on TV, with main
protagonists like Yash Chopra and the legend that is Amitabh
Bachchan. From there, I started to learn about Indian culture,
which is fascinating to say the least.
As
for srk...he has officially replaced Hugh Jackman as my no.
1 favourite actor, who has been at the top of that list for
at least five years. Seriously, even Tom Cruise seems seems
like small potatoes to this guy. Probably because Tom Cruise
can't dance!
-
Cora
