By Sheetal Makhan

When you think of films with a comedy genre, what do you think of? For me, in Bollywood terms, comedy is the real silly, slap-stick ala Govinda – Johnny Lever – Kader Khan kind of films. I got to thinking of recent Bollywood films that have been classified as comedy, and I was surprised to see that there was a common plot that ran through the films I’m about to mention.

They all dealt with infidelity! The films usually revolve around men and their mistresses and, most of the time the comedy lies in the way they sneak around trying to see “the other woman”.

I found it particularly interesting, because our culture prides itself on the sanctity of marriage. And yet, in Bollywood, marriage is torn to pieces and extra-marital affairs are made fun of and regarded as being cute!

I have decided to list only the films that come to the top of my head, but the common theme is about the “fun” that men want to have outside of their marriages. I just wonder – what kind of message is being sent out to audiences? That it’s acceptable to explore other options if you’re bored in your marriage?

BIWI NO.1 (1999)
Directed by: David Dhawan
Starring: Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen, Karisma Kapoor, Tabu

In Biwi No. 1, Salman is married to Karisma but when he hires Sushmita Sen as a model he falls in love with her, he leaves his wife for her.

GHARWALI BAHARWALI (1998)
Directed by: David Dhawan
Starring: Anil Kapoor, Raveena Tandon, Rambha

In this film, Raveena Tandon and Anil Kapoor are married – but unable to have children. His father (played by Kader Khan) urges him to find another wife, but he doesn’t want to. When he goes to Nepal, he somehow finds himself being married to Rambha – who, (to cut a long story short) has his baby. Meanwhile, he’s still married to Raveena!

MAINE PYAR KYUN KIYA? (2005)
Directed by: David Dhawan
Starring: Salman Khan, Sushmita Sen, Katrina Kaif, Sohail Khan

This story is about a bachelor (Salman Khan), who is in love with a model (Katrina Kaif). He doesn’t want the relationship to develop any further, so he tells her that he is already married. When Katrina insists on meeting his ‘wife’, he gets his nurse (Sushmita Sen) to act as his other half.

MASTI (2004)
Directed by: Indra Kumar
Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Aaftab Shivdasani, Ritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta

The film revolves around the Vivek, Aaftab and Ritesh and their lust for women. They are all bored in their marriages and decide to spice up their boring lives. Enter Lara Dutta. The men soon realize that they have made a terrible mistake and regret having their extra-marital flings.

NO ENTRY (2005)
Directed: Anees Bazmee
Starring: Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Lara Dutta

No Entry is the story of three men (Anil Kapoor, Salman Khan and Fardeen Khan) who are three friends. The bachelor of the group (Salman) persuades his friends to have fun outside of their marriages. His idea of ‘fun’ is the sexy club dancer, Bipasha Basu – which many men are unable to resist. The rest of the film is about how the two married men lie to their ever-doting wives to conceal their affairs.

A friend, an acquaintance, a colleague, whoever, comes up to you and says “You watch Indian films, right? Can you recommend one for me?”

Not to be taken lightly, right? You hold in your hands the fate of someone’s relationship with an entire subcontinent of cinema. If you choose wisely, you’ve made a new friend or strengthened a bond - at the least have a new film-watching companion. But if it goes wrong, you find yourself justifying pleather pants or defending Kareena Kapoor or assuring someone that they need not worry too hard about why om has the all the resonance of the living universe and just to trust that it does or encouraging someone to just sit tight while we take a momentary detour to Switzerland because we’ll get back to Mumbai in just a minute. It’s even worse if you’re present for the watching, witnessing every little reaction, trying to figure out when you should pipe up to explain something or acknowledge ridiculousness - or trying to discern whether you’ll get chucked out of the room if you dance along to your favorite picturization.

You’re responsible.

Possible outcomes:

• they spend the entire film with their nose scrunched up, bewildered and lost
• they spend the first half of the film with their nose scrunched up, bewildered and lost, and the second half completely unengaged and/or unhappy
• they hate it from the get-go
• they spend the first half of the film with their nose scrunched up, bewildered and lost, and the second half increasingly interested and/or taken in, maybe dancing a little bit in their seat
• they’re intrigued and want to see more
• and the holy grail, the convert, the kindred spirit, who turns to you, eyes wide, and says “this is genius.”

Here and there in life there have been things that I feel really strongly about other people getting excited about - the Beatles, Bridget Jones’s Diary (the book), my local pancake house - and my love of Hindi cinema does not allow me to be casual about acquainting others with it. I can’t help but take the whole process way too seriously. Sometimes I wonder if what I’m really worried about is that a rejection of Bollywood is a rejection of me, even though I know better, even though I do in fact realize that Indian movies couldn’t possibly be everybody’s cup of tea - universal themes and classic plot elements notwithstanding.

But with most people there’s a potential that they’ll like at least one or two films, or one or two things in any given film, that something in the masala will grab them, and it’s up to you to come up with just the right selection. But more often than not, even knowing the possibility for a good fit is out there, I still find myself frozen by my genuine hope that people will like what I choose for them.

After a year or so of recommending things to new watchers, I’m bored with Lagaan and Dil Chahta Hai, solid and reliable as they are. I’ve just had a request from one of my closest friends to recommend something for her husband, and I have no idea what to do. I quizzed her on his movie tastes, hoping for a clue, but I’m unable to translate his other likes and general personality into a film title. How do you all do it? How do you choose? What has gone over like gangbusters, and what has tanked miserably? Do you ever recommend titles or stars that you yourself don’t really like if you think the viewer will respond to them? Do you give disclaimers and explanations - “I know three hours seems long, but the musical numbers take up a good fourth of that” - or just hand them a DVD and hope for the best?

It’s a Shame: While waiting and searching the Web for truthworthy DVD Sellers who are able to sell me what i want to buy (e.g.: Daivanamathil, Bommarillu, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and many more) its so easy to get pirated copies. Searching Shop by Shop you (helped by Google) can’t manage not to find illegal downloads. Some month ago you’d to search for such illegal stuff a long time. Nowaday you can open find them: There are blogs offering links to free websharers like Megaupload or Rapidshare with Pirated Copies.

Don’t get me wrong: It’s not an alternativ for me getting such things (cause such things never have subtitles and cause i buy what i want). But its so confusing if you can’t get a original sale everywhere when you see everywhere pirated copies. Its boring.

It’s a good choice of RajShri offering legal ways of Downloading latest Movie Vivah for 10 bucks (and in lower quality any pirated copy would have) - but its an important step to reach people in indian diaspora. Hope this legal abilities will become more and more (and accessable for mac users)

Our friend-director-blogger Sanjay Jha wrote in his blog for the movie strings about mise- en- scene of independant cinema in india - interesting article for all of us, who we often don’t like dvd quality problems and the long delay between cinema release and dvd release. Its really interesting to hear this insider problems. Thanks for sharing, Sanjay.