'Bollywood' a madcap, feel-good romp

By Jane Sumner
Dallas Morning News

•	'Bollywood/Hollywood' PG-13, for sensuality, partial nudity, crude language and drug references 103 minutes

First, a hostile reception forced Deepa Mehta's "Fire," about an Indian lesbian relationship, to be pulled from movie houses in her homeland. Then, Hindu fundamentalist protesters trashed her set for "Water," putting it on hold.

Depressed, the filmmaker changed course. She wanted to laugh and pay tribute to the fairy-tale factories of Bombay, with its music, hyperbole and morality plays, and Los Angeles, with its happy endings, sexy young femmes and romance.

"Bollywood/Hollywood" is the result. A madcap departure from her past serious, affecting fare, it's a cheesy "Pretty Woman"/"Cinderella"/"My Fair Lady" and "Dirty Dancing" curry.

Though it echoes Mehta's usual identity issues, the hybrid comedy is an affectionate, irreverent — the director has even called it "subversive" — parody of both Bollywood and Hollywood conventions.

As Ranjit Chowdhry's drag queen/butler Rocky says: "Holly, Bolly, different wood, same tree!"

Set in Toronto, where Mehta has lived since the '70s, the East-West romance keys on millionaire Rahul Seth (dashing Rahul Khanna), whose love affair with a blonde pop star (Jessica Pare) ruffles his traditional family's feathers.

When the Canadian Britney Spears dies in a freak mishap, Rahul is crushed. Rather than let him grieve, his drama-queen mother (Moushumi Chatterjee) threatens to delay his younger sister's wedding until he finds "a nice Indian girl" for a bride.

At a bar, he runs into Sue (supermodel Lisa Ray), a spunky "escort" whom he assumes to be Hispanic but who could pass for a faux-Indian fiancée.

For a fee, she agrees to play along with the charade until his sister's wedding. Sue is a beauty and charmer, but, of course, the ruse doesn't quite proceed as planned.

Shot in 30 days on a $3.2 million budget, the dance numbers are often clumsy and amateurish, but the leads are attractive. The Indian supporting cast, including the late Dina Pathak as the Shakespeare-spouting granny, is fun, and the East-West fusion rhythms are infectious.

If critics haven't all warmed to this film, the public has. Though neither big nor slick, it's a joyful, feel-good spoof that makes you want to run out and rent a real Bollywood musical.