HOLLYWOOD CALLING
As we’re inundated with Hollywood-style films gussied up in Bollywood clothing, it’s hard not to think about those who make these movies and those they’re made for.
NOV 1, 2009 – WATCHING RECENT RELEASES LIKE ACID FACTORY and Blue (and even not-so-recent ones like Dhoom) – films that make reviewers reach for rote adjectives like “stylish” and “cool” and “jazzy,” because it’s all about how they’re made, rather than what they’re made of – there appears to be a diminutive, vaguely-disreputable sub-genre of Indian cinema begging to be recognised: the Hollywood film for those who don’t watch Hollywood films, made by Bollywood filmmakers who aren’t terribly interested in making Bollywood films. (I use the term “Bollywood” a bit loosely, for even Tamil moviegoers, for instance, are subjected, on occasion, to embarrassments like Dhaam Dhoom, which strive to bring the slam-bang action-adventure aesthetic to a culture more attuned to the one-against-many dishoom-dishoom.) Only the spoken language in these films is Indian. Everything else – the stunts, the locations, the attitudes, the clothes (Dia Mirza’s catsuit in Acid Factory?) – is imported wholesale from the West.
When earlier filmmakers “borrowed” from elsewhere – how I love that euphemism, as if intellectual property were something that could be taken, used, and then “returned” with interest – they at least took the trouble to Indianise these ideas. (To be fair, though, it’s easier to condone such uncredited copying in the olden days, when concepts such as intellectual theft and plagiarism were still cloudy constructs.) Namak Haram may be the bastard child of Becket, but there’s a legitimacy to its existence – it was reworked, assiduously, from the ground up. The king became a capitalist, the priest transformed into a communistic union leader (his allegiance, therefore, transferring from God to suffering fellow-men), and more importantly, the palace setting mutated into the kind of slum that was instantly recognisable to people across the length and breadth of the nation.
Such considerations are alien to Blue, which sits smugly in the knowledge that hits are no longer dictated by commoners across the length and breadth of the nation but by the elite sitting in the multiplex pockets. Take the sequence, early on, where Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt face off in a boxing ring. The banter consists of lines like, “Boss, gehne par mat maar dena,” and “Main abhi paida nahin hua hoon.” Translate these, and you get thoughts that are Western in idiom. (“Boss, mind the family jewels,” and “I wasn’t born yesterday.”) We are increasingly seeing films being made by the elite who think in English – and yet, later on, Akshay spouts a line of dialogue with the word “sampatti” in it, when he could have said “treasure” or “wealth.” This pure Hindustani word fits in neither with the Westernised character nor the Westernised tone of the film.
Why, then, is it employed? The reason, paradoxically enough, is in order to reach out to the very audiences that the multiplexes have spurned – the audiences who do not watch Hollywood movies. There’s an infuriating smack of condescension in these tactics, when filmmakers think that by tossing out a few “Indian-sounding” words as sops, their films become “Indian,” and therefore palatable to viewers of the traditional Bollywood movie. The ploy is downright risible in the scene where Lara Dutta, in a crisis, grabs the radio controls of the boat and yells, “Mayday, Mayday, Come in coastguard, hamein madad ki zaroorat hai,” – because, you know, the oceans of the Bahamas are patrolled by officers fluent in the tongues of India. The effect is parodic, as if we were watching not a bad Hindi film but a gently indulgent spoof of a bad Hindi film, from the makers of Quick Gun Murugan.
Even the character outlines reflect years and years of watching not our films but theirs. Akshay Kumar and Sanjay Dutt are essentially playing straight-up (i.e., undiluted for Bollywood) embodiments of cherished adventure-movie archetypes – respectively, the opportunistic hustler and the grizzled veteran – that have been kicking around from the days of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and perhaps even earlier. The deference to Bollywood tradition comes simply in the naming of Sanjay Dutt’s sea-faring character as Sagar, the way our peace-loving protagonists are typically – not in the “usually” sense but in the sense of conforming to a “type” – named Aman, our villains are called Durjan Singh, our valiant heroes go by Bahadur or Veer, our truth lovers are hailed as Satyapriya, and our younger brothers answer to Anuj.
In Blue, though, the younger brother (played by Zayed Khan) doesn’t pretend to be Indian – he is Sameer, and he wants to be called Sam. You’d think he’s the Bollywood equivalent of a Hollywood movie-brat – but the crossover isn’t complete, and there’s still a dash of Bollywood in him. Sam is an example of the confusion that plagues our filmmakers. “How Western can I be without completely alienating the moral and cultural sensibilities of the sap who watches Hindi films and only Hindi films?” That’s the tightrope many of today’s filmmakers are walking – teeter too much this way and you get labelled a hedonistic wannabe and risk losing out on single-screen audiences, lean too much that way and you court derision by the kids who haunt the multiplexes, who’ve all been there and done that. (They too, like the present-day filmmakers, have been weaned on the West.)
When Farhan Akhtar, in Dil Chahta Hai, coloured the relationship between Akshaye Khanna and Dimple Kapadia in purely asexual terms, you could sense that he’d already pushed the envelope far enough (with his narrative) and he didn’t want to shock an audience that had little clue about what a multiplex was, let alone a “multiplex culture.” That was, after all, 2001 – liberalisation had, long ago, made inroads into our lives, but not into our cinema, which was still conservative in many ways. But in 2009, the protagonist of Wake Up Sid shares living space with a girl and there’s still not a hint of sexual tension in the air (though, in most other respects, the “Westernisation” evident in Wake up Sid is far more real, more valid than that in Blue, not wannabe but reflective of the intersection of East and West where many of our lives collide).
Sameer, a.k.a. Sam, is like Sid. He talks like a stud and acts like a stud, he makes leering come-ons to Katrina Kaif – but in accordance with a Hollywood-style film being made with Bollywood audiences in mind, he’s been modeled after the traditional (namely, virginal) Bollywood hero. Therefore, the only zipping up he does is when he helps Akshay Kumar into a scuba suit, and the only throbbing between his legs comes from his souped-up motorbike, the Ducati 999. That’s another hallmark of these wannabe films, the fetishistic worship of shiny accoutrements of a life lived on the edge. (Acid Factory, similarly, drooled over the Lamborghini Murciélago.) Just who are these films for? The average Hollywood-movie-watcher would only hoot at these mad-scientist experiments in grafting two incompatible moviemaking sensibilities. That’s perhaps why we need a new label for these films: the Hollywood film for those who don’t watch Hollywood films.
But with Hollywood films being dubbed in Indian languages, do we need this family of films at all? Do we want to be inflicted with more such casualties of the have-money-will-spend mindset, crafted by directors who are so distanced from Bollywood tradition that they don’t even know, say, how and when to use songs? But what about the “pure” Bollywood movies? Do our filmmakers know their way around at least those narratives? For that matter, with our films having turned nuclear with a vengeance – even a romantic melodrama like Main Aurr Mrs. Khanna dispenses with parent-figures; it’s the friends who step in to assist and advise – is there even such a thing as a “pure” Bollywood movie any more? The discussion, dear reader, will be continued next week – for space reasons, yes, but let me add that I couldn’t resist ending a Bollywood-based article on a Hollywood-style cliffhanger.
Copyright ©2009 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
Adithya
October 31, 2009
I am not sure if this is such a big issue currently as for a Blue, we do get a movie like Wake Up Sid. I am more worried about the state of affairs down south. When would we get to see a movie like Wake Up Sid(at least)? Where you have live in relationships, pre-marital sex etc. Unless it’s a movie from the stables of KB, Mani or Menon or someone. Not in the near future I guess.
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pradip
October 31, 2009
Really enjoyed the article. As I finished reading, the first thing that came to my mind was ‘Kaminey’.
I guess here is a movie that has been hailed as India’s answer to Hollywood and yet it’s very bollywood to the core..
Would like to read more about such movies in the sequel 😀
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 1, 2009
Hi Baradwaj,
Enjoyed your piece. However I feel that the target audience for these pseudo Hollywood films. These movies are primarily targetted at the NRIs and the non-Indian overseas audience who follow Bollywood (I hate that term)films i.e. the Pakistanis. That is the main reason why there is absolutely no reference to Hindu culture in these movies. I don’t remember when I last saw a Hindu temple in a Hindi film.
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Sara
November 1, 2009
Interesting article – but don’t you think these same allegations can be made for Guatam Menon’s films (“Ilaavukkaaga” in KK, and many others in his later movies). I bring this up because you once came to his defense in this blog, when he was accused of bringing in so much Hollywood sensibilities into his films that it feels contrived.
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Rajesh
November 1, 2009
BR: Completely agree with you on the condescension part but can we expect anything better from filmmakers who think their lead characters are too cool to be Indians living in India?
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Rohan
November 1, 2009
@Adithya: “I am more worried about the state of affairs down south. When would we get to see a movie like Wake Up Sid(at least)? ”
Great point! When WILL we get to see movies like that down south? Baradwaj, your thoughts on (and taking off from) that?
Also, Baradwaj, about “But with Hollywood films being dubbed in Indian languages, do we need this family of films at all?”:
In my view film-makers deserve a lot less blame for the crap movies they’ve been churning out recently than we (and critics) lay at their doorstep: they’re just satisfying a “need”. All you have to do is go to a “club” or a mall in Delhi to see exactly why film-makers give urban audiences the kind of “wannabe” movies that they do – including these hindi-speaking hollywood-bollywood movies you refer to.
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Adithya
November 1, 2009
And I would have loved a Basterds review to this one as it has finally released in Chennai. Next week?!
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brangan
November 1, 2009
Adithya/Rohan: I don’t expect to see such films made in the Tamil film industry simply because of the business model. Yes, it’s true that most filmmakers aren’t of that mindset (in that, save a Mani Ratnam or a Gautham Menon, we don’t have many “urban” directors) — but even if there were more of this breed, the “family audience” consideration would make such movies impossible.
Like I said in the UPO piece, even in Hindi cinema, such stories are sustainable only because of one great development — and that’s the multiplex culture, which allows these urban-centric films to be profitable/viable from just the metros. And we just don’t have the multiplex system (and even if we did, I doubt we’d see too many “liberal”-minded films, but that’s another issue.)
Also, growth is a gradual thing. I’m grateful that we’ve at least crawled out of the “thaali sentiment” kind of films. There’s certainly a wider range of Tamil cinema being made now, and for that I’m grateful. (I’m not talking about whether these films are good or bad — just about the wider range. The fact that the Vikraman-type sob-fest has exited Tamil cinema is in itself a good thing IMO.)
Sara: The “Hollywood sensibilities” in the films of GVM don’t bother me that much because the core is still very much Indian. As I’ve said earlier, an Anglicised-Tamil culture *does* exist in certain pockets, and just like the Anglicised-Hindi films (like Wake Up Sid) needn’t work for everyone, these films too may not appeal to all. Take away the Hollywood-style, and you’ll still have a solid story, some good acting, some sense of camera placement (in order to serve the story), a decent script. None of this was there in Blue.
PS: This is what I wrote in an earlier comment, which seems more relevant here: “As for the Anglicisation, the Tamil writer Rajesh Kumar has a series going under the caption “Crime.com.” The story installments are titled along the lines of “Tik Tik Lipstick” and “Million Dollar Kelvi.” (Why not “Latcha Rooba Kelvi?”) Now, you’d expect such a thing to be published in, say, Kungumam, right? But it’s published in Kalki, that bastion of high-minded magazine literature. What does one make of this? Sure, you could label the phenomenon what you want — “wannabe” or whatever. But that doesn’t change the fact that the phenomenon exists. There *are* pockets that easily straddle English and Tamil. You can’t generalise.”
Adithya: Not doing a review. More of an article. Will be up the Sunday after next.
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 1, 2009
I might sound paranoid, but I think that this westernisation of Hindi films is part of a conspiracy to undermine Indian and Hindu culture. I think that people like Shahrukh Khan, Karan Johar, Aditya Chopra, Farah Khan, Sajid Khan and the Nadiadwala brothers are part of this conspiracy. I know that in the film New York the male protagonists are Muslim and the girl is Hindu. Similarly, in the upcoming films Kurbaan and My name is khan, the female leads happen to be Hindus who marry Muslim men. I think that this is a subtle encouragement to the Hindu girls to go ahead and marry men of other faith and abandon their original religion. The impressionable young girls in our cities and towns will now think that it is ‘cool’ to marry outside their religion. And our pseudo-liberals, biased media and pseudo secular politicians will applaud. Hindus wake up! Sorry Baradwaj for a long post and for raising other issues.
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raj
November 1, 2009
Raasu paalakiuttinarae, amaidhi amaidhi. Don’t credit so much intelligence to saarug gaan and co to have a vision of society for future and implement it through the influence of their films!
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sukh
November 1, 2009
mr balakrishnan, all I can say is , I’ve heard many conspiracy theories-yours is just plain weird. if you have’nt noticed,we live in a country with different communities and religions, but a certain commonality of culture,which has nothing to do with being muslim or hindu. what are you talking about?do you seriously think that showing inter religious marriages is going to inspire a flood of ‘young, impressionable girls’to abandon their bhole bhaale hindu suitors and run in pursuit of (good grief!imagine!)muslim men.why,are they devils?
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 1, 2009
sukh,
I have nothing against the muslims. But Hindus who marry the muslims would have to abandon their religion. Hindu men who marry Muslim women do not insist on a conversion.
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ashok
November 1, 2009
Raj Balakrishnan: Surely a Hindu man/woman who is open-minded enough to marry outside their religion is also sensible enough to not “abandon” their religious beliefs lock stock and barrel? I know a Hindu-Christian couple as well as a Hindu-Muslim couple who post-marriage are secure following their respective beliefs. (Their children are being brought up to respect both religions). What do you have to say about that? Your view is too black-and-white sir, open your eyes!
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Rohan
November 1, 2009
“I don’t expect to see such films made in the Tamil film industry simply because of the business model.”
Baradwaj: Is there a way of making these movies on a lower budget, so that they are viable in a limited-audience scenario? There *are* several movies that come out every year that are clearly aimed at a Chennai audience (although not necessarily at an anglicised-Chennai audience). Movies like Kanda naal Muthal, Mozhi etc were aimed at a certain section of an urban audience implying limited theatre release, what sort of model did they follow?
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Rajesh
November 1, 2009
Shouldn’t we thank the megaserials for the exit of thaali sentiment and Vikraman-type stories from Tamil films?
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Harish S Ram
November 1, 2009
Mr. Raj Gauri Khan is example enough that SRK is not into this conspiracy theory becomes close enough to be considered a theory later .. his son named aryan i presume? anyway whats wrong if hindus marry muslims or what ever religion the other person belongs to and the vice versa? it wont create any war so whats the problem if v loose religion? do v really riligiously follow our religion? do v actually know the meaning of at least half of the things v do in the name of religion? v r just being “aatu mandainga” following some unknown person just because our parents told us we should – stop and think and follow what u truly understand and believe in … we indians critise our education system only allows us to mug things and not understand the concept – dude wake up call our religious deeds are also like tht v blindly mug, read, believe, follow things without knowing for what reason our ancestors thought their progeny should do these things.
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Niranjan
November 2, 2009
Actually the problem with these movies (this breed you are talking about) is not about Hollywoodish flicks. For instance Akele Hum Akele Tum was very ‘un-Indian’ (at least for that time!) in concept (of course till at the last scene the estranged couple HAD to get back together in some stupid way) but it was still very believable in the Indian context. Another example – Farhan Akhtar version of Don too was stylized, fast paced and all that – it had good screenplay, and nobody said anything there because FA decided to call the movie Don – a movie which had already been accepted as a cult classic ‘Indian’ film.
These supposedly uber-cool movies really have no story, no screenplay, contrived plotlines…what amazes me really is how they managed to get someone to spend so much money for them.
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Raj Balakrishnan
November 2, 2009
Ashok/Harish,
Your liberalism is one of the many reasons why Hindu culture is in danger. “it won’t create any war”..are you sure Harish. There would not be any Hindus left to fight a war.
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Harish S Ram
November 2, 2009
in a world thats becoming a nuclear village and family becoming a nuclear as possible ( now thts an irony) ppl aren’t bothered much anymore or slowly ppl will not have time to think of these trivial things … thts y i said there wont be any war for this purpose
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Deepak
November 2, 2009
Wouldnt you slot ManiRatnam under the “Film makers who think in english” category?
“Vaa inge” instead of “Inge vaa”
I know thats very generic, but im sure there’s more…
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brangan
November 2, 2009
Rohan: Yes, these movies could be made on lower budgets, but then getting theatres becomes a problem. It’s a lot of mixed-up issues till we have enough multiplexes. Also, for these movies to truly work, you’d need “casual” actors who are like Imran Khan or Ranbir Kapoor (i.e. not necessarily great performers, but people who’ve grown up in this milieu and are therefore playing themselves, and are therefore convincing; the perfect Tamil equivalent would be Madhavan in Alaipaayuthey). But Tamil movies rarely get greenlit without the usual “star-faces” and I don’t see many of them doing such films.
Yes, Kanda Naal Mudhal is a good example of this type of film, even if it was pretty conservative (the usual love triangle and all). But Mozhi is more of a “family entertainer masala,” no?
Deepak: I do think Mani Ratnam is someone who thinks in English. As much as I love Kannathil Muthamittal, I have to admit that there are places where you yearn for a more authentic “Tamil” voice. (Thankfully, the filmmaking is so wonderful that it makes up for a lot of sins.)
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Anonymous
November 2, 2009
But is this just a question of how “good” your vision is?
I haven’t seen Rock On and only snatches of Dil Chata Hain but certainly respect the fact that Farhan is honest to the ethos he has grown up in – making his films a success. Blue et al are surely the equivalent of the countless thrashy “revenge” melodramas inspired by the success of Zanjeer?
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Rohan
November 2, 2009
brangan: “But Tamil movies rarely get greenlit without the usual “star-faces” and I don’t see many of them doing such films. ” Baradwaj I would have agreed unreservedly until Chennai 28 and Saroja came out in quick succession and both of them (same cast/crew?) did reasonably well without any of the usual glitter. (Of course a Chennai 28 has a broader audience base to appeal to than the hypothetical english-tamizh movie does).
As for how many theatres a low-budget movie can get into, surely a good run of a couple of months just at Sathyam and Inox — and hopefully a bit of DVD sales at Landmark and Odyssey with the ensuing publicity — will be enough to break even? Or am I completely mistaken on that?
PS: I don’t mean to sound like a script-in-hand ready-to-shoot aspiring filmmaker looking for free advice on the scene (because I’m not!)
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Vinay
November 2, 2009
Thanks for raising the issue BR. It has been a constant source of annoyance and pain for me.
I think the heart of the matter lies in incompetency. There’s simply not enough homework, if at all, in the “localization” of the character or the story.
Earlier, when an idea was “imported”, the people who were in-charge of taking that idea and developing it were well-versed in the target language. Now, the entire process is in a language that is very detached to the culture of the characters as well as the audience. Idea, story, screenplay, execution, all non-technical processes are also being carried out in English. Many of our current actors are not well-versed with the standard Hindi language, let alone with the differences in usage, dialects, and accents of various Hindi speaking regions. I don’t think a truly great representative cinema can come out very often from this setup.
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Anand
November 4, 2009
BR: But I am not sure if this wannabe Hollywood is because of the multiplex phenomena. 20 years back we had Aatish. I think the credit should go to Sanjay Gupta who brought this genre of ‘Wannabe-Hollywood-films-for-those-who-doesn’t-watch-Hollywood’.Thats the reason why I enjoy films like Main Hoon Na. They are the true Indian-Action-Emotion-Comdedy-Romance masalas!!
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brangan
November 4, 2009
Rohan: You answered your question right there: “Chennai 28 has a broader audience base to appeal to than the hypothetical english-tamizh movie does.” About theatres, there’s constant rotation of films at Sathyam/Inox because there’s such a demand for screens. I doubt a niche film will last long enough to make back its money, unless it’s really low-budget. The scene may change in a couple of years, with a slew of multiplexes waiting to open.
BTW, what’s the deal with that AMPA mall? Is it open? I keep hearing yes and no.
Anand: Aatish is 20 years old? That does it. I’m old. I need to retire, like, right now 🙂
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raj
November 4, 2009
I guess aatish is 15 years old baradwaj. You can postpone the retirement, until 2014 🙂
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Anirudh
November 4, 2009
Well written article.. But I guess it is a little biased.. In an industry that produces so many movies every year, there are bound to be a few directors who come up with movies such as blue and acid factory(haven’t seen that one yet).. On the other hand if you look at movies that have come up over the last year, I am happy to see that the number of movies that can be said to be Indian at heart and yet have the class of a hollywood movie has increased significantly over previous years.. Dev D, Kaminey, Gulaal, Wake Up Sid, Luck By Chance are the names that come of the top of my head..
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Rohan
November 4, 2009
“BTW, what’s the deal with that AMPA mall? Is it open? I keep hearing yes and no.”
No clue, haven’t heard anything yet except that there’s *some* construction going on there… haven’t been to that side of town myself in ages!
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Deepak
November 5, 2009
Ampa mall is open..opened last month…but its not the “finished article” just yet 🙂
Some construction is still going on and only a few shops have opened. Cant wait for PVR to open though. Wont have to drag my ass to Satyam after that 🙂
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Deepak
November 5, 2009
Btw..its bigger than Spencer Plaza!
There’s another mall coming up called Express Mall or something, which is supposedly going to be bigger than Ampa
P.S: The ad agency my wife works in has Ampa as its client. Hence the facts 🙂
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brangan
November 5, 2009
Deepak: That (Indian) Express Estates mall will be a monster. I know the area — my old stomping grounds. It’s right behind the new Taj.
About AMPA, it’s the opposite in my case. I’ll probably “drag my ass” there just to check it out and then stick to Sathyam/INOX, thank you very much 🙂 I mean, who builds a mall in Amjikarai? 😉
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Deepak
November 5, 2009
“I mean, who builds a mall in Amjikarai?”
That is exactly what I told my wife!
But then people who live in this part of the city will conveniently leave out the fact that it’s in Aminjikarai and tell you that its on Nelson Manickam road, near Nungambakam railway station 🙂
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Adithya
November 5, 2009
Lol, same case as Deepak for me. I don’t have to drag my ass all the way to Sathyam after this. But am unsure about ticket prices of PVR and how it’ll impact Sathyam prices. If it all it does.
@Deepak: Any idea if Rajdhani has opened?! I am simply waiting for the awesome Gujju thali. The Bombay one I visited 2 yrs back was amazing.
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Adithya
November 5, 2009
*I heard Rajdhani is coming up at Ampa. Not sure if it’s one of the shops that has opened.
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Deepak
November 6, 2009
@Adithya: Yeah Rajdhani is gonna open there..Not sure if it has already.
The main problem with the food court is that you cant buy directly from the shop. You’ll have to get one of these debit card type of things for a specified amount. You then have to go swipe that card at the outlet where you want to eat. Crazy eh? 🙂
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Priti
November 6, 2009
another sathyam is coming up in vadapalani. finally cinema hub kodambakkam gets its own swank multiplex (sort of. vadapalani is close enough). i don’t have to drag my ass to THAT sathyam and INOX anymore!
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Rishi
November 6, 2009
Just saw thsi article.
One of the most well-written pieces on Bollywood I’ve read, I believe, the entire year. You sum up my feelings on Hindi films perfectly and definitely hit the spot when it comes to exploring how filmmakers think.
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Anand
November 11, 2009
Sathyam Cinemas is also coming up with a 9 screen multiplex at Express Mall.
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