the strange Bollywood fascination

Kalyanji-Anandji scored at the Grammies earlier this year, but the strange fascination that the West has for Bollywood continues. Although the term refers to the Bombay-based film industry that produces a ton (of tripe) every year, the West inappropriately uses it to refer to the entire Indian film industry -- an unfortunate case of vision obscured by quantity and bloat. When V for Vendetta hit the marquee last week, it managed to achieve something that Ram Gopal Varma productions do in India -- RGV's name is associated with every production of his even if he hasn't directed it. So the poor directors have to bask in his shadow (as it were). So everywhere I see Wachowski more often than McTeigue. But there was something more interesting. Remember navras from Matrix: Revolutions? The Wachowski brothers seemed to hit the riff again with the V film with a track called BKAB by Ethan Stoller that plays over the end credits -- the tune reportedly mashes and mixes churaa ke dil meraa from Main Khiladi Tu Anari and paradesii paradesii jaanaa nahii.n from Raja Hindustani along with the usual dark electronica and fuzz. {courtesy: Sepia Mutiny}

But that seems to be just the beginning. Spike Lee took a bite for his new flick Inside Man (from the looks of it, this is going to be Lee's biggest genre plunge ever -- makes me uncomfortable). Apparently the opening credits are accompanied by that famous train-top song chhai.nyaa chhai.nyaa from Dil Se; the end credits are blessed with a remix of the same song. {courtesy: Cinemarati}

Perhaps the West is fascinated with India as a whole and yet manages to repeatedly pick stuff from Bollywood's product tank. One never knows.