Customer Reviews

Bollywood Hero

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Hollywood is able to get to the essence and charm of Indian film making in this mini-series. This series makes you smile throughtout, how did they do that? I can see from the heartfelt participation of the entire star cast and technical. "Kattan" in the Malayalam language means unsophisticated tribal man from the forests just entering the city, and that is at the core around which Indians try to adapt to new environments and succeed. Seems like Kattan has that old world connection. You see him submitting himself to the moment removing all pretensions and sophistication of a Hollywood personality and just loving India unconditionally. This is an unassuming good natured movie not typical of Hollywood and more spice,color, music and drama. Typical of Indian films, you can see comedic characters (eg, the auto driver) here and then. I think a few more songs (for example while Kattan was riding on the road, a must song situation for a priceless scene like that) and a little more tension and background score may have helped push this beautiful movie out of the shy zone. The songs were smart and good, though hardly addictive like Indian film songs, kept in vein with the tone,elegance of the America brand. The dance song Bachna He Haseena is a hint of Indian film songs. However, I did not like foul language, took the innocence out of the beautiful script. Like Bride and Prejudice, Bend It Like Beckam, Bollywood Hero I hope to see more and more lovable collaboration between the two of the great entertaining nations. ( Examples of exciting film music - [..]

This movie is great for people who love bollywood movies. It is primarily in English, and the small parts that aren't have subtitles. Chris Kattan is funny. I really enjoyed it. Definitely recommend it.

Haven't done a Bollywood review in a while and after this one, I still won't have. BOLLYWOOD HERO is about as legit a Bollywood flick as Chris Kattan makes dashing leading man material. And that's the core conceit of this three-part television mini-series, really. Chris Kattan as the romantic lead? Who would've thunk it? At first glance (and second and third), the guy doesn't have the looks or height or charisma to pull it off. Dude has the sex appeal of icky and he's about as polished as a salty longshoreman with pit stains.

Chris Kattan, the most hated man in India? How did that come about? Chris Kattan, in one of those meta-fiction moments, plays Chris Kattan and the thing starts with what may be a close approximation of his life and career in real. Chris has had enough of languishing at the bottom, playing his silly parts (his latest opus has him playing an alien called "Klaptar"). He yearns for the leading role, yet realizes he'll never get a whiff in Hollywood. He runs into fledgling director Monty Kapoor (Ali Fazal) who offers him the lead role in a Bollywod movie titled Peculiar Dancing Boy. Chris snaps it up.

But Mumbai, India isn't kind to Mango, culture shock being a mothereffer. Hapless and bumbling, forced out of his comfort zone (if that's what you call getting kicked around in Hollywood), Kattan takes on this endearing underdog quality. It turns out that when refraining from mugging so much in front of the camera, dude becomes quite likable. And I think that this toning down results in better comedy. And we've all been there before, with committing some social gaffe. In Chris's case, it's a grossly inappropriate public display of affection which makes Chris persona non grata in the eyes of India, and this jeopardizes Peculiar Dancing Boy. Can Chris Kattan, stranger in a strange land, rally the fractured cast and crew? Can he turn himself into a respectable dancer? Because in Bollywood, song & dance productions are a big deal. Can he be the romantic lead in real life and win the level-headed but suspicious movie producer Priya (Pooja Kumar)? Answers: Yes, no, maybe.

BOLLYWOOD HERO was broadcast on the IFC network on August 2009 and I caught up with it in its weekend re-airings, liked it enough to tune in on three separate Sundays. This is a send up of Hollywood and Bollywood, although the actors do make you care about the story. I'm a big fan of Bollywood, so I got all the digs. People not familiar with Indian cinema and its sensibilities may be a bit at sea with some of the bits. Chris Kattan not being able to dance - or dance well - is a bigger deal than you might expect. Bollywood supporters who aren't into westernized versions of Bollywood may also turn up their noses at this. So be it. This isn't to everyone's taste.

The ladies of India, exotic and gorgeous, and I'll try to restrain myself from bringing up Aishwarya Rai, surely the most beautiful woman on the planet. Ash isn't in this one, but we do get lovelies like Pooja Kumar, Rachna Shah, and the stunning Neha Dhupia. Several of Kattan's SNL pals pop in, as well as a hysterical, self-mocking cameo by Keanu Reeves and a co-starring turn by Julian Sands who, oddly, doesn't play himself (every other western actor plays him/herself). Chris Kattan is surprisingly good in the lead and is believable in the romantic scenes (he and Pooja Kumar have nice chemistry). Again, I think it's key that Kattan tempers his usual over-the-top antics (although, okay, a bit of foolish trickles out). This may be the only crack dude gets playing the leading man, and he makes the most of it.

There are several song & dance numbers here, and they're... okay. But don't kid yourself that the musical production is as lavish as what you'd see in your average Indian cinema. But I dig that the film borrows the very catchy "Dhoom Taana" song from Om Shanti Om.

It's a spoof and sometimes it gets really silly, and yet there's a solidity at the core of BOLLYWOOD HERO. There's even a bit of that same message from SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS thrown in. A recurring annoyance when I saw this mini-series on the IFC channel - and, holy Sharukh Khan, I hope they don't make it in the DVD as a bonus feature - are those commercials of Kattan shilling for the Palm Pre smartphone. I got fed up with all that "AllaKattan!" nonsense (it's what Kattan yelled whenever he used his "magic" smartphone). There's silly, and then there's just inane.

Surprisingly, BOLLYWOOD HERO deserves a rating of 3.5 stars out of five. And this is in huge part because of Chris Kattan's performance, not in spite of it. I'll also mention that the third act doesn't really live up to what the first two episodes had built up to. But if it inspires you enough to give Bollywood a try, then it's done its job. If it inspires you to give Kattan's other films a try, well, that's just flirting with disappointment.

If you are familiar with Chris Kattan's work then you know what you are getting with this DVD.

I'm a fan of many Bollywood movies. Of course, with the huge number of movies being produced, you are going to get some "not-so-great" films too.

Bollywood hero does a nice job of setting up a situation where Chris Kattan, playing himself, can explore the world of Bollywood, half Hollywood and half 19th century traditional India.

The bit up-front with Keanu Reeves (Actor) demonstrating the pretentiousness of Hollywood was absolutely brilliant! The catch to get Chris Kattan to head to India was a bit of a fun stretch. There is a brilliant supporting cast. Ali Fazal plays the son of the great Bollywood mogul; the son is desperately trying to make ends meet as well as make his own mark as a Bollywood studio owner. Pooja Kumar plays the real directing talent and heir to the father's movie acumen, and eventually she plays the romantic foil to Katten. Julian Sands plays a long-time Brit in Bollywood who is also a charming sex addict.

The film is divided into three segments. The first covers Chris' move from a comedian playing a space, alien superstar to struggling Bollywood actor. The first segment includes a look at Chris Kattan's Hollywood family. Maya Rudolph plays a decidedly understated version of herself, and her relationship to Chris Kattan is muddled at best. At first, it seems that she is his wife, maybe then a girlfriend, and in the end, their relationship is not clear at all. Whenever Chris calls his home in Hollywood, Maya is there, and she interacts with Chris' decidedly bizarre mother and father. Because of issues with Chris Kattan's credit card, he ends up being thrown into the streets; cue the first big musical number, "untouchable." It is a fun romp down Bollywood musical lane with all of the staples. Chris ends up staying with the Kapoor family at their home. Ali and Pooja are at their brilliant best, playing off of each other, both trying to make the family business a success, and both with their own tragic flaws. Ali is overconfident, and Pooja does not believe in herself.

The first section introduces us to the matriarch in the Kapoor home, played by Ruma Sengupta. Ruma steals the show in many scenes. She cannot stand Chris, and her sub-titled digs at Kattan are sometimes pants wettingly funny. For example, the whole scene where she tells Chris in Hindi that she could not help herself from using his toothbrush to scrub the "hard to reach places in the toilet" while Chris pretends to understand only every third word is one of the highlights in all three episodes.

Chris Kattan is slated to play the lead in "curious dancing boy, a musical exploration of the caste system." The movie is supposed to be serious, but Chris Kattan turns it into a farce. The Kapoor family fights it for awhile, but eventually they give in. The film becomes a blockbuster.

In the end, Chris Kattan accepts himself as a comic who will never be Harrison Ford. Chris gets the girl, young Ms. Kapoor; that makes the odd situation with Maya all the more odd, and Julian Sands is reformed from his sex addict ways and settles down with the Hindi woman of his dreams.

Roll the credits.

The movie is done in the traditional three act format. The first two segments of the movie are very well done, but the troubles introduced in the first two segments could not reasonably be resolved in the last segment. There is more than a bit of Deus ex Machina in the third portion.

If you are watching this movie for a great cinematic experience then you missed the point of the first line in this review. Chris Kattan plays himself in all that hammy-goodness. Julian Sands is a brilliant supporting actor.

Go rent this movie now!

While I added it to my collection, buying it would certainly be a matter of taste.

In service,

Rich
[...]

This is a great short series that finally made it to DVD. It is quite self-aware of the flwas and difficulties of making a career in film (and in Bollywood films of course), and the theme is reflected very well throughout the story. Its combination of dance and expected storytelling works very well. Kattan surprisingly works well in this role (I say "surprisingly" because I am not a Kattan fan, but there is a lot of good work here). It definitely is worth watching.

Bollywood Hero tells the story of how Chris Kattan tries to go to India to work on a Bollywood film in order to achieve respect after he gets fed up with not being taken seriously and/or considered for big movie roles like actors such as Keanu Reeves does by Hollywood. The series is funny but the DVD is way overpriced...and....sorry, Chris Kattan is funny in this series however, Keanu is a A-line star and needed to be in this series more than 5 minutes in order to keep me from fast forwarding though most it; Be warned, Keanu portrays himself in only the 1st episode for about 5 minutes.