Hooray for Bollywood

Director Willard Carroll offers an English-language portal into Hindustani cinema.

By: Evelyn Tu

Actors Salman Khan (left) and Ali Larter star in Marigold, an American independent movie set in Bollywood.

   Cherry Hill native Ali Larter was unfamiliar with anything Bollywood when she agreed to star in the movie Marigold. Before Ms. Larter struck fame as Niki Sanders on the television hit Heroes, director Willard Carroll had approached her for the role of American B-movie actress Marigold Lexton in his musical romantic comedy. Mr. Carroll’s movie turned out to be an introduction to Indian popular cinema for both its star and its audience.
   The movie’s title character is stranded in India after her production, Kama Sutra 3, falls through. Despite a disagreeable attitude and two left feet, Marigold wins a Bollywood role that requires dancing. Real-life Bollywood superstar Salman Khan plays a dashing choreographer who tutors the actress in dancing and believing in herself.
   "It’s an example of life imitating art and art imitating life," Mr. Carroll says. "Ali had never been to India before, and she’s not a natural dancer. Two days after landing, she was in dance rehearsal for the film’s finale. At home, we learn routines all the way through, but this was a five-minute-long number. In Bollywood, they rehearse in bits and pieces. Salman said, ‘Watch how I do it.’ She learned a lot from him."
   Like Marigold, many popular Indian movies incorporate elaborate song and dance numbers into their plots. Mr. Carroll created Marigold as an English-language portal into the Bollywood universe. It had a short run this month at cinemas that usually show Hindi films and is expected to go into wider release in this area later this fall. The curious can seek out other Hindi musicals in local theaters now, such as Chak De India, a hugely popular film about a women’s field hockey team and the formerly disgraced coach who leads them, and Heyy Babyy, an adaptation of 3 Men and a Baby.
   Mr. Carroll says his film was made in part to introduce Americans to what Indian audiences regularly enjoy as escapist fare, without having to get on an airplane. "I’ve made a Western movie and set it in the Bollywood world," he says. "It would be nice if it led people to seek out the genuine article, as it were."
   Marigold’s story "explains what Bollywood is, so the audience doesn’t need to have prior knowledge," Mr. Carroll says. "America is not ready for songs that don’t propel a movie forward. Our movie-in-a-movie gives us an organic reason for the songs to be there."
   Mr. Carroll, who directed the Sean Connery film Playing by Heart, began traveling to India four years ago. By now, he has visited 16 times. He became smitten with Bollywood on his first trip, after watching Chori Chori Chupke Chupke (Secretly, Surreptitiously), about a surrogate mother who falls in love with the baby’s father, played by Mr. Khan.
   Mr. Carroll followed that with epic love triangle Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (I’ve Already Given My Heart Away), in which Mr. Khan also stars. The movie, which became Mr. Carroll’s favorite, delivers exquisite costumes, exotic music, classically inspired dancing and a story about beautiful people whose pureness of heart is almost guileless.
   "I love that director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali," Mr. Carroll says. "His films are beautiful. It really works on an emotional level."
   By his second trip, Mr. Carroll says he was determined to make a movie in India in order to gain an insider’s view of the industry. Particularly, he wanted to work with people responsible for his favorite film, including the cinematographer, set designer and choreographer. For the movie’s male lead, he went to the home of Mr. Khan, who is famously gracious with guests and friends.
   "I had seen all of Salman’s films," Mr. Carroll says. "At that point, he had been in 56. I had a vision of a certain kind of movie I wanted to make, so I told him ‘I’ll be out of your house in 15 minutes.’ I left four days later."
   Because Indian culture is so widespread in central New Jersey, we are fortunate to have access to popular Indian cinema in the same theaters where Hollywood blockbusters are shown. With rare exceptions, most Hindi movies presented here have English subtitles. Nearly all Bollywood films made from the mid-1990s onward feature cinematography with vivid colors. The best way to experience this is on the big screen.
   Audiences of South Asian descent already head in droves to films that premiere in central New Jersey the same day as in India. For instance, North Brunswick’s Regal Commerce Center 18 offers between one and four Hindi films each week alongside standard Western fare. Bollywood fans often pack the Regal’s two biggest halls for a highly anticipated new release for two or three weekends in a row.
   Production values have soared since 1998, when the Indian government recognized film as a legitimate industry and institutional financing became possible. Screenplays have evolved, too. Musical melodramas remain a staple, while other films explore significant political and social issues or appeal to growing urban and international audiences. Last year’s mega-hit Lage Raho Munna Bhai (Keep Going, Brother Munna) combined entertainment with a positive message by having the apparition of Mohandas Gandhi share his wisdom with a modern-day Mumbai gangster.
   Bollywood already has become popular in England, where Hindi movies frequently place in the week’s top 10 showings. It has been slower to enter America’s mainstream, but there are early adopters such as Mr. Carroll.
   "I wanted to communicate my enthusiasm, first for the country and its culture," Mr. Carroll says, "and second for the movies, in an affectionate way. Especially with a country like India, where the preconceptions are not very accurate or they are a small part of a vast welcoming country, people owe it to themselves to see the place." For the price of a movie ticket, you can.