film review: Khabi Kushi Khabie Gham

FINALLY.

Lots of dancing, wacky outfits, incomprehensible family drama, and an ever-present bobbling of heads. THIS is what i expected from bollywood. call me shallow, but i'm glad i finally found a flick that exemplifies indian cliches.  not to mention an all-star cast including, among others, Amitabh Bachchan. You may know him as the dude that kid in slumdog millionare swam in poo to get to. He is the biggest actor in the history of indian cinema, a totally educated dude and has that stylish two-tone hair / goatee thing going on.

you have to see some of this dance numbers for yourself (apologies for the german subtitles) not only do they take place in elaborate sets with hundreds of extras, they last for like 10 minutes a piece. seriously - the big number at the dad's birthday was like five chapters on the DVD. on top of all that, you've got the gorgeous Kajol (aka Kajol Devgan) who unfortunately is married. however, her husband does look like clive owen after being run over by a truck full of tanning lotion so who knows, maybe it's a wash. indian audiences, according to everything i've read, love a long movie and this one clocks in at 211 minutes with 130% of that being music and dancing. you heard me

the title, Khabi Kushi Khabie Gham can be interpreted a number of different ways. Kushi apparently means, more or less, "happy" while Gham means "sad." Wiki and other sources have the title as "Sometimes happy, Sometimes sad."  The subtitles of the DVD i watched translated it (rather poetically) as "Through Time and Tears." I'll take the middle road - "Though Happiness, Through Sadness."  Sort of a great title, considering the film is about the love and respect a parent has for their child, and the service and reverence a child shows for their parents.

before you run off to another, better written blog, do yourself a favor and watch this additional clip from the film. the really good stuff gets going at 1:19 with expert, break-neck head wobbling. expect me and eliot to dancing in several videos exactly like this.