No genre has had a greater challenge in melding the competing realist and escapist modes of cinema than the musical. Early talkies often used the pragmatic “put on a show” model, based on the Broadway review, which eventually evolved into more a fanciful treatment of song interpolated into story. In the 1960s, a massive cultural train wreck symbolized by the collision of The Sound of Music with A Hard Day’s Night resulted in the temporary demise of the screen musical. Current hits like Moulin Rouge and Chicago have hesitantly revived a stage-bound framework as a palatable 21st century version of the musical.

But, musicals cannot be logical; you either accept the premise, or you don’t. Modern Hollywood films are starting to yearn for saturated colour, talented musical stars (a quest still in progress) hummable tunes and unrepentant fantasy as exemplified by producer Arthur Freed’s ensemble in its glory days at MGM. These attributes can already be found in the mesmerizing and addictive output of Bollywood.

Just as a classic Hollywood film of the past contains cultural questions (did people really use that slang, wear those giant petticoats, drink so many martinis?) so too, Indian films entice the Western viewer with their mysteries. One must puzzle the language, the gestures, and the symbolism of clothes from a ferengi (foreigner’s) vantage point. Yet, recent Bollywood films firmly invoke the classic musicals of old.

First, they positively reek of class. The clothes, the cars, the houses! The artificiality of the studio set, the constant gentle breeze ruffling hair, the rain machines, (invoking the sexual metaphor of the marriage between Mother Earth and Father Rain, but really an excuse for showing the stars in clingy wet clothes) the exotic locales, all contribute to the creation of an extreme fantasy environment where the real India rarely intrudes. Is it possible anybody really lives in the fabulous Raichand mansion in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham? As huge as it appears from the outside, the constructed interiors make it seem even larger. Bollywood heroes tend to drive Ferraris, arrive home for visits in helicopters, wear Armani suits. The actresses may begin in Western clothes (often tiny, tiny ones) but later don saris as a sign of their maturity and desirability as a wife, as Kajol does in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

Do these glamour pusses ever work? Hrithik Roshan is supposedly supervising the construction of a factory in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon, but is it a cherry blossom factory to facilitate the singing of love songs? Shahrukh Kahn does drive a truck in Chalte, Chalte, but he, too seems to have the cash reserves to run off impulsively to Greece in pursuit of Rani Mukherjee. The fantasy of the bottomless bank account is a potent one, regardless of cultural background.

There’s no question why the stars are stars. Actors and actresses are gorgeous, and must make you laugh and cry as well as (sing) lip sync and dance. Their on-screen charisma is intense, in part through an exaggerated acting style that would be discouraged in Hollywood films. The supporting players who appear repeatedly (like the ubiquitous Johnny Lever) are a welcome sight, much as a classic film fan smiles at the sight of Virginia O’Brien’s name in the cast of a 1940s MGM film.

The music is an infectious masala of Western and Asian beats and thoroughly singable, even with a rudimentary knowledge of Hindi. There may be salsa, reggae, or a banjo interlude, but no hint of a “show tune.” The dance numbers are wildly anachronistic and often take place in exotic locales; the snowy Alps are an oddly frequent backdrop for production numbers. Young and old, male and female, everybody dances, so one needn’t despair of not being Fred Astaire or Cyd Charisse. It’s common knowledge that few of the actors do their own singing (superstar Amitabh Bachchan a rare exception) in fact, there may be different playback singers for one actor in a single film. And, what a shock to see what the playback singers really look like! But, they are allowed their fame and their Film Fare Awards, unlike in Jean Hagan’s foiled plot against Debbie Reynolds in Singin’ in the Rain.

Bollywood Indian culture is quite conservative, with little smoking or drinking, except by bad (or straying) characters. Although there is no on-screen kissing, chaste eroticism is raised to heights undreamed of in the Production Code era. An emphasis rests on what one might call “family values” if it was not such a disparaging term. Characters have extended family, parents, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and cousins, even if they don’t figure directly into the plot. And what sexy leading man would welcome his mother for a visit, and then even share his bed with her, as Shahrukh Khan does with Farida Jalal in Duplicate? While feminism is rudimentary in Bollywood films, heroes are quite tender hearted. At some point in the plot, they always cry.

Does this level of escapism have a place in modern Western film culture? It certainly seems a quality unlikely to be incorporated into Hollywood films obsessed with violent explosions and vulgar humour. Many thoughtful South Asian people, when I share my love for these movies quickly say, “Have you ever seen any Indian art films?” meaning, non-musical movies, since they think this reflects a more intellectual side to Indian film culture. Recent hits like Monsoon Wedding and Bend it like Beckham ambitiously attempt to combine the two forms by incorporating Bollywood exuberance with a reflection of real lives and problems, and actual street scenes, rather than life on the sound stage.

Realism can be overrated. Every serious movie-making establishment, from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, has had a complementary cycle of popular escapist cinema. A yearning for the classic Hollywood era may be alleviated by a dose of On the Town, but also by a plunge into the alternative universe of Bollywood musical fantasy.

Laura Boyes has been the Film Curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art, in Raleigh NC, USA for four years. She is on the Selection Committee for the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and is the sole author of the classic film essays on www.moviediva.com. Since discovering Bollywood films, she has rented DVDs from many interesting Indian grocery stores. She can be contacted at moviediva@moviediva.com.


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