Shriya NevatiaBollywood Dreamin'
October 7th 2006 08:48
Imagine a world where a motorist runs into the back of your car, then a swashbuckling male gets out of the car but instead of road raging you with a cricket bat, he does a shimmy to the left a shimmy to the right breaks into some incredibly cheesy lyrics and is followed a group of support dancers. Perhaps in response you would swing your hips in your bright orange sari, start singing your own cheesy lyrics and coquettishly fling a handful of pink dye at him while your own support dancers twirl around in unison.
This is the world of Bollywood. What a wonderful world it is. Who remembers the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where everyone is trapped in a musical? Well, in a Bollywood movie everyone is happy to be trapped a world where good and evil slug it out with bangles, bright colours, singing and dancing.
Bollywood Dreams showing at the Immigration Museum comprises photographs by Jonathan Torgovnik which depict the immense impact of the Bollywood industry on India. Though it sadly lacks a showcase of sari costumes or any three-dimensional object to convey the vivaciousness of Bollywood, it does have a mock cinema and enough colour and noise to make you want to bung on some bangles and bogan dance.
It comes as a bit of a shock to see behind the scenes of Bollywood in Torovnik’s images into the poverty of India. As well as a barren field with two lovers and troupe of dancers in the background, he shows us a photograph of a woman whose temporary home is made out of cinema posters and the rapture on the faces of the poor transported by watching a movie.
The Bollywood version of Jane Austen’s novel, Bride and Prejudice is probably the best know movie of the genre in the West and if Jane Austen can go Bollywood then anyone can. The exhibition is really a snippet of everything Bollywood, Torovnik’s images touch on a number of aspects but there is so much more, more, more to be sung about.
This is the world of Bollywood. What a wonderful world it is. Who remembers the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where everyone is trapped in a musical? Well, in a Bollywood movie everyone is happy to be trapped a world where good and evil slug it out with bangles, bright colours, singing and dancing.
Bollywood Dreams showing at the Immigration Museum comprises photographs by Jonathan Torgovnik which depict the immense impact of the Bollywood industry on India. Though it sadly lacks a showcase of sari costumes or any three-dimensional object to convey the vivaciousness of Bollywood, it does have a mock cinema and enough colour and noise to make you want to bung on some bangles and bogan dance.
It comes as a bit of a shock to see behind the scenes of Bollywood in Torovnik’s images into the poverty of India. As well as a barren field with two lovers and troupe of dancers in the background, he shows us a photograph of a woman whose temporary home is made out of cinema posters and the rapture on the faces of the poor transported by watching a movie.
The Bollywood version of Jane Austen’s novel, Bride and Prejudice is probably the best know movie of the genre in the West and if Jane Austen can go Bollywood then anyone can. The exhibition is really a snippet of everything Bollywood, Torovnik’s images touch on a number of aspects but there is so much more, more, more to be sung about.
Postcard from the exhibition: by Jonathan Torgovnik Dancers practice a dance sequence on the set of Chor Mach Shor at Filmalaya Studios Mumbai
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