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Bhang Bhang You’re Dead: Bollywood’s Redonkulous Day-Glo Gangsters
07.24.2010
03:30 am
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Hollywood no longer provides the buzz that a hardcore movie junkie like myself requires. So, I’ve had to go to other sources for my celluloid kicks. For the past couple of decades, I’ve turned East to Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Bollywood to satisfying my cravings for a dose of the old silver nitrate.

As anyone who has followed my blogging on DM knows, I love Bollywood. And one my favorite Bollywood performers is Indian mega-star Rajinikanth. The guy is bigger than life, an action star, romantic lead, buffoon, singer and dancer. Like most Bollywood leading men, Rajinikanth can do all. And he’s never been better than in the 2007 film Sivaji.

Indian films are rigorously censored and sex is not allowed, so, whenever a couple is about to get it on, they usually break out in song and dance. But in Sivaji, instead of dance, sex is supplanted by a non-stop barrage of gunplay and violence. Bullets have replaced kisses, bombs orgasms, the scent of woman is gunpowder. It doesn’t take a degree in psychoanalysis to see the Freudian gun as cock symbolism in this shoot em up. 

As the hero of Sivaji, Rajinikanth displays his flamboyant style in action sequences that mash up Hong Kong bullet ballet with Spaghetti Western macho cool and psychedelic Peking Opera visuals. Note the incredible set design and use of color. No matter what the subject, be it lavish costume dramas or modern gangster films, Bollywood sees the world through prismatic glasses. In Bollywood, every day is the day the world turned day-glo.

Rajinikanth’s motorcycle entrance at the beginning of this clip is one of the greatest in the history of the movies. You’ll see what I mean.

The music is by A.R. Rahman, India’s greatest modern film composer.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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07.24.2010
03:30 am
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