The
Kansas City Star
Wednesday,
July 28, 2004
Hooray for
Bollywood; In the 'burbs, Indians get a taste of home at the movies
“Deewaar” is the true story of Indian soldiers captured in the recent
India/Pakistan border war. Imprisoned in a brutal camp, they plot a mass escape
to freedom.
The film has all the elements you'd want: drama, action, suspense, likable good guys, dastardly bad guys.
And at the midpoint of the three-hour movie it has something else: a musical.
With original songs.
Dancing, even.
“You've got to have songs,” said Venkat Manda, a native of Hyderabad in southern Indian. “Every Hindi movie, no matter what it's about, has to have musical numbers.”
Manda came to the United States eight years ago to work as a computer programmer for Sprint. Three years ago, the married father of two launched a sideline business: He began to import Hindi-language films to serve Kansas City's substantial population of Indians.
He began showing the movies at the Trail Ridge Theatre in Shawnee and attracted a following of expatriate Indians eager for a taste of the homeland. He moved his operation to AMC's Oak Park Cinema. For the past 18 months, Manda has been screening the latest Hindi releases at the Glenwood Arts Theatre in Metcalf South Shopping Center, usually every other weekend.
On a typical Friday or Saturday night, the lobby outside the theater begins filling at 8:30 p.m. for a 9:45 show. Young people in jeans and T-shirts show up with dates. Entire families — from children in shorts to grannies in colorful saris — buy reserved seat tickets for $9 after examining the seating chart Manda displays on a table.
On a busy night Manda will pack the theater — which he rents — with 300 or more of his countrymen, plus a smattering of Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Nepalese and even a few Anglos curious for a new cinematic experience. Some weekends he has to schedule additional screenings.
“What I hope is that someday we'll see Hindi films being shown not just for two nights but for an entire week, just like other movies,” Manda said.
A moviegoing tradition
Indians are dedicated moviegoers and proud of their film industry, which turns out more titles each year than that of any other country. Even Americans who have never seen an Indian film are familiar with the idea of “Bollywood,” the Bombay movie studios specializing in lavish musicals.
Manda books Hindi-language films with English subtitles and usually shows films on their second week of international release.
“There's a tradition that Indian audiences want to be among the first to see a new movie,” Manda said. “Besides, within three weeks of release you can buy illegal videos of a new movie at local Indian groceries.”
Then there's the music. Most Indians love pop music, and the country's best composers are kept busy writing new songs for the movies. Typically a film's soundtrack album is released a month before the film. By the time the movie opens, many Indian audience members already know the songs by heart.
Another attraction of Indian films: They're chaste. Many Indians are uneasy with the sex, violence and profanity in American movies. Indian films are tamer.
Although that's slowly changing.
“There was a film a few months back called ‘Girlfriend,' ” Manda said. “It was India's first lesbian movie. We didn't book it here, and it was a flop in India. Everybody hated it. It went against the usual Indian attitude, which is ‘We know it exists, but we don't want to talk about it.' ”
The staple of Indian films remains the musical comedy romance, such as the recent hit “Hum Tum,” a boy-meets-girl yarn that has been described as India's musical version of “When Harry Met Sally … .”
The Glenwood Arts' weekend bookings of Indian titles also provide a social nexus for the Southern Asian community here. People come to meet friends, to see and to be seen.
Among these movie fans politics that seemed important back home no longer matter.
Raheel Humayoon, for example, a Pakistani who regularly attends Manda's screenings, showed up for “Deewaar,” in which Pakistanis are heavies who torture their Indian prisoners.
Humayoon, who owns a convenience store and has been in the United States for more than a decade, said he took the movie's depiction with a grain of salt.
“Before 1947, Pakistanis and Indians were the same people,” he said. “Same language, same country. Back home the politicians try to stir up feelings against the other side, but over here, nobody cares. It seems too far away. We just want to see a movie.”
Learning curve
Showing Hindi-language films has been an education for Brian and Ben Mossman, the twins who operate the Glenwood Arts.
“At first we had them line up outside the theater until the audience from the early show left,” Brian Mossman said. “But as soon as we opened the doors, there was a mad rush for seats. It was like a rock concert. We were afraid somebody's auntie was going to get trampled.”
They instituted a reserved-seat policy. Most customers buy their tickets in advance, either at Indian-run stores around Kansas City or on Manda's Web Site, www.kcdesi .com, which also carries news of interest to the local South Asian community.
Then there was the night that an audience for an Indian film erupted in cheers and started throwing handfuls of confetti. Envisioning a housekeeping nightmare, Mossman told the crowd that if there was any more littering, he'd turn off the movie and send everybody home.
“In some parts of India, movie stars are regarded as gods and goddesses,” Manda said. “People even build shrines and temples to movie stars. And with some audiences, it's a tradition to greet the first appearance of your favorite star on the screen with confetti.”
Another thing about Indian audiences — they like their movies loud, according to the Mossmans.
Manda said he's happy to see American customers showing up for his screenings. On a recent weekend, he was surprised by a group of 40 such adventurous moviegoers who filled two rows.
On a recent night Harvey Jetmore of Roeland Park, a retired salesman with a love of foreign films, drove out to the Glenwood Arts to check out a Hindi film.
“I was really surprised at the production quality,” Jetmore said. “But there are some things you have to get used to — like three-hour movies with intermissions.
“And it's unusual to have this violent story suddenly turn into a musical with soldiers singing.”