Watch our Bollywood here I come!

For anyone who doesn't know what Bollywood is (not sure what planet you live on!), it's the Bombay film industry. Its like discovering a whole new world. And a very bright, dancing and singing world at that. You cannot compare it to Hollywood.  Brad Pitt is a minnow compared to the idolised and worshiped Shah Rukh Khan. When Amitabha Bachan dies, the whole of India will go in a prolonged period of mourning. Theses actors are gods… it's a phenomenon I have never seen nor experienced.

So what about the films you may ask? Well they fit into 2 categories. 1) The entertaining, singing and dancing, man meets girls, dances in the rain type. Or 2) the cutting edge ground breaking dramas (Omkara, Dor) . Both are great.

Nowhere else would you get an action flick, where the macho male character will suddenly break into song about eating paan (Don). The songs are huge. They dominate the charts. And god are they catchy. Film soundtracks are another phenomenon… I cannot get songs from Who Lamhe out of my head. There is of course a lot of nonsense in the all singing and all dancing films. Cheesy stars wearing bad clothes.. sorry but Hrithik Roshan fits into this category. Wife beater vests and tight leather trousers went out of fashion circa 1992! As did the assumption that if you wear sunglasses you are "macho cool!".  Also lots of the male stars who are supposed sex symbols are just not good looking (Salman Khan, Ashkay, Sanjay Dutt to name a few). It goes without saying that all the women are stunningly beautiful.

My friend Meeta has a great blog on Bollywood movies: www.withoutgivingthemovieaway.com. She is a Bollywood buff and is slowly introducing me into the movies here!

To cut a long story short… I now have a new ambition. To be in a Bollywood film! As an extra of course. I am learning Hindi already and have now started Bollywood dance lessons. Which is hilarious. Shavani, Radka (all from local businesses) and I, three times a week go and learn how to wiggle and jiggle to the likes of "Yeh Mera Dil". Its great fun and bloody hard work! A famous choreographer takes the class. I have to say lots of the dancing is reminiscent of Boyzone and Take That from the 90's …. But we shall soon be busting some cool moves ya on the dance floors of Pune! I would be very afraid!

Watch out Bollywood here I come!