Friday, April 30, 2004

Critics trash Bombay Dreams - The Times of India:
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"The other critics were even harsher. USA Today begins with 'How do you say 'mind-numbing bunk' in Hindi? I couldn't tell you, but after attending a certain preview performance last weekend, I'd like to propose a new English-language synonym: Bombay Dreams.'

The Toronto Star calls it a 'Broadway nightmare' and adds that 'There's no other way to describe the misbegotten monstrosity, which opened in New York last night.'

The plot has come in for scathing criticism from most critics. The Washington Post said 'It's such a bubbly piece of kitsch, such a torrential downpour of showbiz cliche, that it almost qualifies as a lark...what sends the show spinning, spinning down the drain -- isn't the terminally dumb plot (a parody of the filmic conventions of Bollywood) or the insipid characters (stock figures from every romance you've ever seen). It's a tone deafness in the humor, a comic cluelessness that's hard to fathom...' "
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Friday, April 02, 2004

Desi masala, foreign mix:

"What would make it abroad, according to Dweyer, is not the aspirational Yash Chopra cinema, but a movie rooted in identifiable Indian modernity. "I think a Dil Chahta Hai could have made it," she expresses. "A tightened version of Ram Gopal Verma's movies have international potential," says Delacey.

"A Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, for instance, was a magnificent canvas. But everyone sniggered when they tried to pass off Budapest as Italy," smiles Dweyer. "So while you can't make boo-boos like that, the song and dance routine works just fine. Don't compromise on the Indianness of it; that's what makes Bollywood so unique," chips in Delacey."