Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Thursday, April 12
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

To enjoy Bollywood films, you generally have to submit to their logic. Characters are going to be thin, motivations sketchy. The plots will twist and turn, often unbelievably. They will sing about what just happened, what is going to happen, what they wish would happen. Bollywood films are not, in a word, “realistic.” At least not inasmuch as how we in the West understand reality. This is not necessarily a bad thing. There is of course, first, escapism, which has its uses. But this distance from the real also often places the stories on the level of allegory. Amongst the artifice and the stereotypes there is a reach for the universal.

But every once in a while an Indian film is able to have it both ways, to still delight in the trappings of the form while simultaneously reaching a realistically rendered depth of characterization and, indeed, emotion. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, the story of three friends who go on a road trip in Spain as a sort of “bachelor trip” before one of them gets married, is such a film. It is a buddy movie and a romantic comedy and a musical and a crowd-pleaser, but it is also about three men struggling to find their places in the world. It may not all be “realistic,” but it is most certainly feels real.

Devdas
Thursday, August 25
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

We round out our month of Bollywood Nights with a big one! The story of Devdas has been filmed eight times but the 2002 Shahrukh Khan/Aishwarya Rai version is pretty much universally considered the classic. The most expensive Bollywood film ever made at the time of its release, you can be assured that there will be plenty of lavish sets and elaborate song and dance numbers.

Yet Devdas is not all lightness and joy. Quite the contrary, it is a tale of love gone wrong. When the titular Devdas and his childhood sweetheart Paro miss their opportunity for a life together, she ends up falling into a marriage of convenience and he takes refuge in a brothel and, eventually, finds solace in a bottle. So, yes, it’s a tragedy, but it’s an epic tragedy — big, bright, Bollywood-style!

Gulaal
Thursday, August 18
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

This week’s film is rather simple: a naive young man goes to law school and falls in with a bad crowd… who turn out to be militant nationalist separatists that want to discard democracy and return power to the royal bloodline. Other than that, this film doesn’t have much. Besides a love triangle. Or two. Maybe more of a love hexagon? And then there is the separatist leader’s brother, who idolizes John Lennon and sings only the truth. And the tabla player, an Ardhanarishvara figure (Google it!) in stark red and blue (or is that red, white, and blue?). Oh, yeah, and the many references to American politics and foreign policy. And the reference to Batman. Or maybe it is not supposed to be a reference to Batman, but it kind of is a reference to Batman anyway. Okay, the movie has a lot going on in it; Bollywood likes to give you your money’s worth. And this screening is free — and we’ll probably have snacks — so you are totally making out like a bandit.

Yaadon Ki Baaraat
Thursday, August 11
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

It is far too easy to describe a Bollywood film by its stilted acting, its wacko fashions, its baroque plot twists, or its outrageous song and dance numbers. Sure, they pretty much all have all of that (and this film is no exception), but to focus on those things is merely to succumb to a kind of cross-cultural misreading. For the implication is that Bollywood manages to touch us despite those things. But all movies use conventions and clichés to condense a slice of the human experience into a manageably short duration. Life doesn’t have jump cuts nor slow motion explosions nor (iPods notwithstanding) soundtracks, yet we accept all of these devices as part of a “realistic” narrative structure. The story isn’t told despite these conventional shorthands but rather through them. Bollywood is no different. Yet our cultural position in relation to it is different and thus the conventions seem unnatural. This is not to say that Indian films strive for “realism” — that would be ridiculous. But merely to urge that we not confuse the form for the content.

The Bollywood classic Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) tells the story of three brothers who are separated after witnessing the murder of their parents at the hands of a local villain. They grow up to be a musician, a thief, and an incorrigible ladies’ man. Yet they are driven by a need to reunite and avenge their parents’ death. It is not about bad wigs, thick glasses, acid trip set design, or the amusingly on-the-nose band name Monto and His Avengers (though, again, it has all of those). Those are merely its techniques for getting at the same thing most Bollywood films explore: the struggle to be a moral being in a world of disinterested misfortune.

Sounds heavy, right? Well, it’s heavy stuff. But thankfully we have all those framing devices to entertain us along the way. And entertain they do.

Love Aaj Kal
Thursday, August 4
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

By popular demand, Bollywood Night is back — for one month only. Every Thursday in August, Betalevel will be your best source for love triangles, disapproving parents, cruel twists of fate, and elaborate song and dance numbers!

As Bollywood becomes an increasingly mainstream, worldwide commodity, the films it produces have likewise become more worldly, less distinctly Indian. The settings, the costumes, the music, all have gradually shifted to a distinctly (or, all too often, blandly) Western aesthetic. They even have onscreen kisses now. Sometimes.

Love Aaj Kal has it somewhat both ways, however, by telling two parallel stories: one, a modern tale of transcontinental love, from London to Delhi to San Francisco; the other, a more innocent memory of long-distance love from a previous generation. Yet, though the attitudes and the fashions of 2009 and 1965 may be different, love remains basically unchanged.

Also: This movie was co-produced by Khan’s production company, Illuminati Films. There is therefore an 11% chance the whole thing somehow plays a part in the global conspiracy. Further study is required.

Pyaasa
Thursday, January 7
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

From Bollywood’s golden age and awash in gauzy chiaroscuro, Pyaasa owes more to film noir than Busby Berkeley. It tells the story of Vijay, who is a poet. Which is to say that he is unemployed, broke. He can’t get his poems – laments about the poor, damnations of the rich – published. He is not taken seriously by his family, who want him to find real work. His brother sells his manuscripts as scrap paper. Vijay takes to drink, gets in trouble with the law, ends up in a brothel. There he meets a prostitute who wants to help him get the recognition he deserves.

Chup Chup Ke
Thursday, December 3
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

A small-town hustler who is constantly dodging creditors and being told off by his family is forced to commit suicide in shame so his family can claim his life insurance and repay debts. But he fakes his death and two bumbling fishermen find him entangled in their nets. They mistake him for a wealthy businessman and hatch a scheme to extend his services to a money lender in exchange for the money they owe. The madcap hijinks really ensue when the reality that he is a pauper finally dawns on them all.

And a love story, natch.

Kasam Paida Karnewale Ki
Thursday, November 5
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

After the death of his father, the care of Prince Satish is entrusted to the evil and greedy Uday Bhan Singh. Singh, being greedy (and evil), plots to keep Satish from ever enjoying the fortune that is his birthright. Through an upbringing of systematic terror, Satish’s mental and emotional development is severely stunted. Not one to hedge his bets, Singh also frames the prince for besmirching a young girl’s honor. With his reputation thus tarnished, now no one respectable will want to marry their daughter off to Satish. And, without an heir, the fortune will pass to Singh’s own son.

However, while on vacation with his maidservant, Satish meets Aarti, a small town girl, and the two are paired for marriage. Unbeknownst to him, Aarti is part of a plot with her uncle to rob him. On their wedding night, she is supposed to run off with the jewelry that she will be given to wear. But, before she can make off with the goods, Satish’s childlike virtue wins her heart and she cannot bring herself to steal from him. Facing the wrath of her uncle for being unwilling to follow through on their plan, Satish is forced to defend her. His display of bravery scares Singh, who fears the prince might eventually take a stand against him as well. His own plan has been foiled by their marriage anyway, so Singh finds he has no choice but to kill Satish. Aarti vows to raise their son — for, yes, she is pregnant — to avenge his father’s death….

And that is just the first twenty minutes.

The other two hours of the film follows her, her son, and her son’s disco girlfriend’s elaborate revenge plot against the evil and greedy Singh.

(We did mention that this was an early 80s “disco” film, right? With not just a rip off of Billie Jean but also a near shot-for-shot, ahem, homage to the Thriller video. Yeah, it is.)

Chandni Chowk to China
Thursday, October 1
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

You know, sometimes we really have to get creative when writing these event descriptions. We know why we decide to organize our events, what makes them interesting, exciting, fun, but it is not always that easy to convey that information to you, our audience. So we often have to cook up some sort of clever anecdote or perplexing metaphor or historical curiosity in an attempt to get you as excited about what’s coming up as we are.

And then there’s Bollywood Night.

When, most of the time, all one has to do is give an accurate description of the plot and it is so crazy wack funky in itself that no further cleverosity is required. Case in point: this week’s movie, Chandni Chowk to China.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it:

“Sidhu (Akshay Kumar) is a lowly vegetable cutter at a roadside food stall in the Chandni Chowk section of Delhi. He longs to escape his dreary existence and looks for shortcuts with astrologers, tarot card readers, and fake fakirs, refusing to believe in himself despite his foster father, Dada’s (Mithun Chakraborty), best efforts. When two strangers from China claim him as a reincarnation of a famous war hero and want to bring him to China, Sidhu, thanks to devious translations by his con-man buddy Chopstick (Ranvir Shorey), believes he will be taken to an exotic land and feted as a hero. In actuality, the men want him to rid their village of the vicious smuggler Hojo (Gordon Liu).

“Sidhu blissfully sets forth to China with Chopstick. Along the way he meets Sakhi (Deepika Padukone), the Indian-Chinese spokesmodel known as Ms. Tele Shoppers Media, or Ms. TSM, who is travelling to the land of her birth, of her presumed-dead father, and of her twin sister, Suzy. Suzy, also known as the femme fatale Meow Meow, works for Hojo, not knowing Hojo tried to kill her father….”

Right?

Veer-Zaara
Thursday, September 3
Doors at 8pm; movie starts at 8:30pm
Free

Anyone who has been paying attention to our selections for both last year’s Summer Bollywood Series as well as the recently-started Bollywood Night will notice one particular actor has been getting a lot of play. Shahrukh Khan is box office gold in India and, with his easy-going charm, superior dancing skills, and ability to play both comedy and romance with equal dexterity, it is not hard to see why. They can’t get enough of him and neither can we. Simply put: we love him. So, it is a bit distressing to see that our fellow countrymen in Chicago apparently do not. Or maybe we’re looking at this all wrong. Maybe the airport personnel were just starstruck? Maybe they simply couldn’t pass up a chance to get a little handsy with the Indian superstar?

Whatever the case, this month we feature another SRK classic. Veer-Zaara is the story of an Indian man and a Pakistani woman (played by Preity Zinta, one of our favorite Indian actresses) who fall in love despite the historic conflict between their two countries. But, while they could transcend nationalism, they can’t escape fate. The bond between them is broken and they remain separated for twenty years — until an ambitious young lawyer steps in and tries to correct an epic injustice, an injustice against law and an injustice against love.