My First Bollywood Movie
I usually get a rather disappointed reaction when I tell those that inquire what the first Bollywood movie that I saw was. It’s not one that they expect, nor was it a hit. But still I am very proud to proclaim it, for I think it is a truly great and terrifically entertaining movie; it remains a favorite to this day and I cheerfully will watch it over and over again.
How did it become my first Bollywood movie? I had certainly had other recommendations, not the least of which was, of course, “Sholay”. But at that point I had not yet discovered Al Mansoor Video stores, and even when I eventually did, a copy of “Sholay” and the other recommended titles were not in stock.
Not long after I first saw Amitabh Bachchan on the red carpet at the Dubai International Film Festival, my wife and I were on a plane trip. At the time I wasn’t in the mood to watch any movies on that flight, but naturally many of my neighbors were doing so within my view, and several times I noticed one being watched that had Amitabh in it. It looked rather delightful, with some colorful musical numbers and amusing physical comedy. So even though I didn’t watch it at that time, I looked it up on the in-flight entertainment system to note what it was for future reference. Shortly after that when I happened upon a DVD of the movie I purchased it right away.
I found the movie to be absolutely delightful. Mr. Bachchan certainly lived up to my expectations and exceeded them; the charisma I had witnessed when he was on the red carpet was absolutely there in his screen presence. He was terrific in the comedic scenes, the musical scenes as well as the dramatic. It was very clear why he was a big star!
Now that I have seen many more of his movies- several dozen at least- I know that owning the screen is par for the course with the Big B. He has been doing so for 40 years now, in a multitude of roles. Getting to know his body of work, I have seen him in his most loved roles and his greatest performances, but I still just as much love watching him in the first Bollywood movie I saw.
The movie was “Aladin”, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Sanjay Dutt and Jacqueline Fernandez.
I have yet to find anyone who likes “Aladin” as much as I do, except perhaps for my wife and my daughter. I have never gotten a very good explanation when someone turns their nose up at it. One person said that the role of Genius was “too easy” for Amitabh, which sounds pretty funny to me. I can see how it could be true, but it doesn’t at all seem like a bad thing to me! So Big B can easily play such a colorful and exuberant character, what’s wrong with that? It certainly is fun watching him do it.
Perhaps it is that “Aladin” is not a typical Bollywood movie. It is a bit “Disney-ish”. That’s not something I would normally apply in a positive way, but here I mean it quite favorably. It does borrow a bit in spirit from Disney’s “Aladdin”, and is basically a fantasy story, presented in live action instead of animation, and quite effectively.
But even though it’s not typical Bollywood fare, and even after becoming much more familiar with Amitabh’s body of work, I think it holds up very well as one of his most enjoyable and endearing performances. So it will be staying on my DVD shelf, right next to many of Mr. Bachchan’s other great performances in movies such as “Sholay”, “Namak Halal”, “Don”, “Baghban”, “Black” and… well it’s a very, very long list, isn’t it?
DaddyBird
