D106 -- Bollywood

This morning we visited the fort-palace in Amber, which is just a few miles outside of Jaipur. The palace sits at the top of a hill and can only be accessed by a 15 minute walk uphill or by paying $10 to ride up on the back of an elephant. Fans of The Amazing Race may recall the contestants riding the elephants and visiting the palace in one of the show's early seasons. Unfortunately, we arrived too late for the elephant ride option, as the elephants are only allowed to make 2 trips a day. This is a recent limitation that was enacted only a few months ago after one of the elephants went wild from heat exhaustion and killed its handler. The palace itself was very nice with lots of great architectural details, although one had to wonder about the cost involved in building it. Elva had read that many historians believe the reason the state of Rajasthan is so impoverished is because of the lavish spending by the maharajahs on palaces like the one at Amber.




We spent the afternoon touring Jaipur's historic buildings and also doing some shopping. Elva took this picture of one of the guards at the city palace, and she also caught this scene of an elephant amidst the hustle and bustle of the market in downtown Jaipur.






The day's highlight came in the evening when we attended our first Bollywood film. For those not familiar with Indian cinema (commonly referred to as “Bollywood”), it is the largest movie industry in the world, as measured by both number of films produced and number of tickets sold. We chose to see the most recent blockbuster release, a film called “Humko Deewana Kar Gaye” (no idea what this translates to). It was fantastic and probably the most fun we've had in India. Bollywood films are well known for their song and dance sequences and their sappy romantic plots. Although the movie was in Hindi, we were able to follow the plot fairly easily: Boy falls in love with Girl, but both are already engaged to someone else through an arranged marriage. Boy and Girl clearly love each other but feel compelled to honor their parents' wishes and marry someone else. Oh the tragedy! Of course, in the end true love prevails (but only after a lot of singing and dancing) and the Boy and Girl are released from their arranged marriages so they can be with one another. Some of the more interesting aspects of the movie experience:

-there were about 7 song and dance numbers, and they often involved bizarre transitions during a single song, such as going from the top of a snow-capped mountain, to a shopping mall, to a dude ranch, to jet skiing

-all of the songs appeared to be lip synced – we know this because the syncing was pretty awful

-the two romantic leads didn't kiss once the entire movie, and the audience clapped each time they came close to kissing, as if urging them to do so

-every now and then we would catch a snippet of English words or phrases, such as “nice parking job” or “get your facts right”

-totally over-the-top melodrama was the norm, but that is what made the movie so fun

-it was really really really loud in the theater, and there was a large number of infants and young children

-at one point the lead actress raised her arms during a dance number and we could see armpit stains on her blouse --- several westerners in the audience started laughing when this happened, but I don't think a single Indian laughed, which made us feel pretty horrible about laughing

-Tom