Sunday, October 22, 2006

Mohabbat (starring Madhuri Dixit, Akshaye Khanna & Sanjay Kapoor, 1997)


Hey Mads, that's a cool silver chain you got there!


You think so, Akshaye? I must admit, it's really heavy!


No, no, it's really neat! Can I borrow it?


But it helps distract from the unfortunate black bodysuit they put me in for this movie... I mean, the way this thing flings around as I dance is miraculous to behold!


True dat.


OMG, the chain is controlling me!


Finally, I got away from the chain... and at least the costume designer didn't put me in a stocking cap like the backup dancers in sundresses...

20 comments:

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

It is wrong - it probably is - that I can hardly notice the chain because I lurve him so much?

Such a burden, the FMPBF lurve.

Susania said...

I feel your pain; this was my very first Bollywood film, and his smile was probably what addicted me so entirely to the genre!

Have you seen him in Doli Saja Ke Rakhna?

DesiDancer said...

the "true dat" picture makes my day!

Anonymous said...

I hate to say this, but I feel this blog is a bit condescending. The term bollywood is itself a denigrating word to describe Hindi movies. The target audience for Indian movies are poor and mostly uneducated people, not "intellectuals". I hope it is not your intention to belittle Indian movies.

babasko said...

prasad in no way we want to belittle indian movies. if you head to our other blogs you will see that we´re all a bunch of non-desis totally crazy for indian cinema.
and as for the term bollywood. i know its been used (and created) to make hindi cinema look like hollywoods poor offspring.

but now its a trademark which goes so far (even if its not right) that if you read articles here in Austria/Germany it is used to describe all indian cinema.
btw. at speech in berlin 2005 the indian finance minister said that in 20 years from now american teenagers will think that the term Hollywood comes from the word Bollywood...

t-HYPE said...

I hear you Prasad.
This blog is only about bad outfits. We take the movies seriously on our real blogs.

Hey! Desidancer (Renu)--who hasn't posted yet!--is well, desi but in no way should she bear the brunt of any abuse for this blog. It was my (t-hype, the black girl) idea.

I've also cracked my fair share of jokes on black entertainment on my blog. Have you heard that new hit "Chicken Noodle Soup?" Don't. Unless you've brain cells to spare...

Susania said...

Prasad, here's how you will know that we love our Indian cinema:
1) We know the dating histories and family relationships of most Indian stars.
2) We firmly believe that the Bachchans are the royal family of Indian cinema.
3) We each own a copy of Monsoon Wedding and have lent it to friends so many times is is scratched and needs replacing.
4) We are more interested in what's coming out of Mumbai than Los Angeles.

I think I speak for most of us when I say that we have done our homework; we know the context in which these films are made, and we know the differences between films made to play in the villages and which ones appeal more to an educated urban audience. And we love them all, even when they're bad. Each one of us has a beloved film (or dozen!) that most would mock as being poorly made or unrealistic; we don't apologize for enjoying them, warts and all!

Whether you call it Bollywood, Indian Cinema, Hindi Cinema, or South Asian Film - we don't care, and for us, "Bollywood" as a descriptive title is a mark of favor and not (as it is in some cultural/artistic distinctions) a negative. The fact that we take the time and effort to continually watch these films, discuss/blog them, introduce friends to them, should convey the degree to which we love them.

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Prasad - I understand your worry, but as everyone else here has already said, we seriously like Hindi (and other Indian) films. Did you notice the title of my blog, for example? Because I do. I really love Bollywood. However, I try for my love not to be blind. There are some real stinkers in Hindi cinema, just like in any other cinema. And sometimes the stinkers are costumes.

To be fair, most of what I say on this site (or on my other one) could probaby be levied against Hollywood too. But Hollywood just isn't very interesting to me these days.

babasko said...

whoops, maaf kijiye desidancer. my bad ;-) didn´t see you were on board before i replied.

Alan said...

Well said everyone. Even Hindi films make fun of Hindi films (Neal n Nikki comes to mind).

Aparna said...

Never mind...just keep posting fuglies...the blog makes my day!!!
And as someone who reads your individual blogs...I cannot disagree more with Prasad's comment..

Aparna said...

How could I miss this:
The target audience for Indian movies are poor and mostly uneducated people, not "intellectuals".

What exactly does that mean?
Sorry for starting a fight in the comments section guys!

Anon said...

I have to agree with Prasad. The fact that you enjoy Bollywood movies does not dismiss the condescending tone of this blog. You claim that you are not denigrating the acting or quality, but the "fashion". To me, as an Indian-American, it would be far more appropriate to discuss the acting or quality than the fashion. As Prasad points out, the crowd these movies are intended for is not you people, and the fashion is similarly designed to appeal to Indians, who favor bright colors and eccentric patterns over the staid, often boring earth tones and monochromatic looks favored by Western fashionistas. Style is not some objective standard that you can apply as you see fit. I bet if you posted pictures of yourselves from the last ten years, I could find a lot of clothes you wore that are pretty hilarious.

Nothing upsets me more than a bunch of white people making fun of Indian culture. You can pretend this is something else (except for Renu), but that is precisely what it seems like to me. Perhaps the critique would be more tolerable coming from someone that actually knows what desi people dress like in Mumbai or Bangalore. The jet set in India often resemble the people in Bollywood films; I'm sure they would consider the way you dress "fugly"

Beth Loves Bollywood said...

Hmmm. Well, as you say yourself on your own blog, people inside a group can make criticisms/suggestions that outsiders just can't. I don't in any way disagree; even though that's one of the weird truths in life that I don't entirely understand, I certainly recognize that it's generally true.

I also don't disagree that it is probably, in the long haul, somehow more meaningful to talk about the acting in a movie, or the director, or the cinematography, or whatever - but costumes are part of a film too. I won't say that they're more important than other factors, but they are a component of the look and effect of a film too - there's even an Oscar for it. (Not that what the academy says, goes - just that a lot of people pay attention to movie costuming and consider it a big part of how a movie works/feels and its story is told and its characters are portrayed.)

Other points:
1) we do talk about other aspects of film on our other blogs. All the time, and often at great length. We just enjoy the clothing commentary, so we made a special place for it.
2) I have no idea what it takes to be a costume designer in any cinema. But I think it's safe to assume that, since money is being spent on these costumes, and they're intended to be seen by millions of people (if not more), some thought went into them. And it's fun, for me, to wonder what in the world happened in that process. And a lot of the time the process goes along just fine, leading to clothing that isn't noteworthy one way or the other.
3) fashion is, I think, somehow more accessible to lots of people. We all wear clothes, and many of us have opinions on what we wear and what others wear. I personally don't direct movies. That doesn't mean I can't have an opinion on direction, but it's a little more removed somehow.
4) you are totally right about my clothes. There are many days I look like a frump at best, and, yes, my outfits from 1996 are less than the pinnacle of personal style that I remember them to be.
5) I could easily make a blog about the costumes from any country's/culture's films, but I'm just not interested in those these days. And Go Fug Yourself is already handling a lot of that really well.
6) a five-week trip to India this summer in no way makes me an expert, but, for what it's worth, I didn't see many people wearing what struck me as totally filmy clothing. However, yes, definitely there are differences in how people dress. Even the countless Indian men I saw wearing button-down long-sleeved shirts and trousers, often in white, gray, blue, brown, or black - I would happily say that somehow even these clothes seemed different to me than the countless US or Canadian or European men I have seen wearing button-down long-sleeved shirts and trousers, often in white, gray, blue, brown, or black.
7) if you open Vogue or whatever, there are lots of colors on western clothes. Not every season has the same palette, of course - because heaven forbid people wear things for more than one year and don't need to shop for more clothes - but lots of fashionistas love color.
8) I haven't said so on this site, but on my main blog I have repeatedly mentioned that I know I'm not the target audience for popular Hindi cinema. But that doesn't mean I don't try to figure out the movies the best I can, and certainly doesn't mean I don't, or can't, or shouldn't, enjoy them. Right?

Just...please know I don't mean to offend, no matter what it may seem. My intentions are to have fun with this particular aspect of an art form/cultural expression/whatever you want to call cinema, particularly popular cinema, admittedly at the expense of costume designers. That is all. I swear, that is all. If there are aspects of what we're doing that I should have thought about further or more carefully, for that I apologize and will try to do better. I honestly do try to think carefully about, and sometimes flat-out love or find fascinating, almost everything I'm learning about India, a process that is admittedly haphazard. And I promise I'm not taking to heart everything William Dalrymple says.

Susania said...

I think Beth did a really good job of summing up the general attitude of the posters on this blog. But I also want us to be wary of fear-based political correctness. We are not making fun of a race, culture, or religion - we are making fun of CLOTHES. And in an even more pinpoint way, the fashion sense of film costume designers. It seems to me that of all the things we might poke fun at, that is the most innocuous thing for us to pick!

If I were to make fun of Japanese animation hairstyles (and heavens, there's plenty of material there as well!) I doubt anyone would be up in arms about that, and it's the same principle.

Another consideration - not one of us has EVER made fun of the indigenous fashions of India such as saris, kurtas, salwar kameez, etc. I'm envious every single time I see clothing like that, that is so eminently sensible, attractive, and plain-out GORGEOUS.

I was thinking that, lest we offend anyone else, perhaps we should take turns posting the appalling fashion choices of ourselves, friends and families from days gone by... but you know what? Humor offends... satire offends... comedy offends. Not everyone who comes across this blog is going to be happy with our postings, and we're not going to be able to make them like us. I'm sorry about that... but think of the dozens more who enjoy the site and see no wrong in our fun.

The popular new film Borat REALLY makes fun of the culture of Kazakhstan... by this token, we shouldn't go see it... right?

Anonymous said...

this movie is so sad...the beginning of the end for the iconic madhuri dixit. the once queen bee, relegated to doing a terrible movie with akshay. how sad

RY said...

few things:
1) i am an indian living (for the most part) in india. city dweller (banglaore). and NO, bidismoker, NOONE dresses the way they do in indian movie songs.

2) it is true that only an insider seems to have the right to diss a culture. isnt that sad? especially when we all know that once we find ourselves in groups of same-cultural-origined people, we diss other cultures anyway. wouldn't it be healthier/less hypocritical to do it in the open?

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Niranjan Actor Fraud said...

The movie was not a hit and had love triangle that used several times in Bollywood.

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