Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

paddlin_jones Deepa Mehta takes a break from her much more serious Earth, Fire, Water trilogy to present a very light bit of Indo-Canadian fun filmed in Toronto.Boy has to find a date to fill a family obligation, boy/girl fall in love-forget obligation, boy loses girl, boy gets girl again. Of course.Even so, the female roles are quite strong and cultural norms (the little I understand them) are pushed and, in some cases, shattered. That doesn't change from Mehta's other films that I've seen. Consequences in this go around, however, are much more fun. Family remains central.Did I appreciate it? Very much.Do I know Indian culture? Very little.It holds up very well to other light, large-family-oriented (aunts, uncles, 3rd cousins, grandparents, etc.) comedies. A terrific break from fare that makes one think a great deal.Also recommend Monsoon Wedding if you liked this one.I do wonder, though, if there are comedies from Indian culture that present other than rich folk. In spite of one character identifying himself as "middle class", I have to say that in my experience "middle class" doesn't mean chauffeured limo.

smorani Its a bit surprising frankly that this and Republic of Love are more recent works of hers than 'Fire' and 'Earth' which are far more sophisticated. Mehta obviously has a critical and satirical mind but her delivery in this film was weak at best. Sure, there were enjoyable bits -- the opening scene with the dying father relaying sports metaphor after sports metaphor - dying pearls of wisdom to his son like many a Bollywood film, -- Mehta favorite Ranjit Chowdhry doing his 2 cross-dressing acts... but in the end the overall effort was disappointing and this seemed more like the work of a first time filmmaker than someone as accomplished as she. Visually the film was blah which is a shame because if you're going to play up the bollywood tropes at least engage in the richness of the choreography and the costuming. There didn't seem like enough of a commitment to the absurdity of 'Indian melodrama in a foreign land' where old country values clash against a new world setting. This is really not a new subject. Similar films that I think are far more effective in their satire and comedy are 'Masala' (1991) directed by Srinivas Krishna (really an under-rated film IMO)and 'Anita & Me'(2002) directed by Metin Huseyin. Even Chadha's 'Bride & Prejudice' while fairly cheeseball has more laugh out loud and absurd moments than this one. This film could have tried to stay the course with an absurdist theme but getting mired in the my whole 'is she a prostitute?/do i trust her/do i love her' just seems to derail it into a hopeless cliché.This was probably a fairly low budget film with a tight schedule. Its a shame that someone of Mehta's talents couldn't make it richer than it was. This and Republic of Love really come off as sappy love conquers all stories. I know that pretty much all her movies deal with the love story but at least there are multiple levels of profundity in her remarkable trilogy (Fire, Earth, Water).

Charles Herold (cherold) I see some of the reviewers here describe this as a parody of or satire on Bollywood musicals. Having seen nothing of Bollywood except a few music clips, I can't talk about that. I have to take this movie at face value, and on its face this is a moderately diverting musical with a few good moments amidst too many rather drab ones.The story is somewhat interesting, the character of Sue, who fulfills the role of shaker-upper-of-things is quite appealing, and some of the musical numbers are pleasant (surprisingly, no one sang in that helium-junkie pitched style the girls all seem to have whenever I see clips from Bollywood musicals, although I don't know if this is because they were trying to make the movie more appealing to the west by having a more western-style voice singing these Indian songs or whether that high-pitched voice isn't as common as it seems to be). But the movie feels underdeveloped (even though I found it a little dull, I still felt it needed to be longer to flesh itself out) and most of the characters are overly generic (except for the grandmother and Sue's father). Ultimately watchable but nothing more, unless you're a fan of Bollywood films in which case this may work on a whole different level I don't see.

Tom Murray Bollywood/Hollywood is a parody of Bollywood musicals, which are a Bengali version of the old Hollywood musicals. Therefore, everything is intended to be either stereotypical, zany, melodramatic or trite etc. One must be prepared to accept the unlikely and even the outright contradictory, when watching parodies. The film's comedy aspect may at times seem obvious but is still clever and subtle in it own way. The director, Deepa Mehta, made this film in the wake of being thrown out of India because the Indian government felt that they could not guarantee the safety of her or her crew because of the rioting of Hindu fundamentalists inspired by her two great but controversial (in India), dramatic films, 'Fire' and 'Earth'. This zany film may have been a reaction to the reception, in India, of her heavy dramas.