Don't Believe the Hype

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

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).

I saw a recent interview with Lisa Ray in which she stated that upon meeting Bollywood heartthrob John Abraham (her co-star in 'Water'), she never really expected much of him as an actor. Well Lisa, you aren't exactly Meryl Streep yourself. As a matter of fact, you ain't even a Jennifer Lopez. The nerve of this woman to believe that she is much of an actress just because she speaks English clearer than most other Indian actresses or the fact that she was born in Canada? Please! Right off the bat, I can name 5 actresses from India who could act circles around you starting with your contemporaries Rani Mukherjee, Kajol her cousin, Tabu, Preity Zinta and even Aishwarya Rai! Next time Miss Ray, refrain from thinking low of others because even John Abraham has got a better acting range than you! Only God knows what has got her thinking that she is to be considered something of a great actress enough to put others down.Phew! glad I got that off of my chest. Now to the drastic pseudo-spoof of a film! Deepa Mehta embarrasses herself as she attempts to poke fun at Bollywood and Hollwood clichés (she has the audacity to do so because she is the director of such internationally acclaimed profound stunner-s as 'Fire', 'Earth' and the most recent 'Water'). Her Hollywood scapegoat is 'Pretty Woman' starring Julia Roberts and Richard Gere (Okay, I'm fine with Rahul Khanna in the Gere role but Lisa Ray's asthmatic-like acting makes Julia Roberts seem like Bette Davis), and her Bollywood scapegoat is a toss up, I narrowed it down to 'Chori Chori' starring Rani Mukherjee and Ajay Devgan (Okay it's a long road from Ajay Devgan to Rahul Khanna but at least he's closer than Miss Ray is to Rani Mukherjeee who is in the stratosphere in comparison). Khanna's character is the first son of a dysfunctional but very wealthy NRI family living in Ontario, Canada. One day he brings home a Gori (Hindi for White Girl) and his family flips. They succeed is scaring the poor girl off and Khanna's character's mum threatens to put off his sister's wedding if he doesn't find an Indian girl to marry ASAP. Frustrated, Khanna's character goes to a bar where his meets Sue/Sunita (Ray's character) with whom he strikes an agreement for her to pretend to be his fiancé. Ray plays Sunita like a wooden recent graduate from the Angelina Jolie school of drama and performing arts. It's either that or she has just seen way too many Angelina Jolie movies.Every cliché and stereotype imaginable is employed before this film is over and not a moment too soon.Akshaye Khanna shows up half way through, playing a spoof-like version of himself. The only thing bearable about this film are the songs, especially the Sonu Nigam ones. Oh! and Mehta forgot to spoof the playback singers! perhaps it's because she needed them to make her film look lively and sound good. Hmmm!

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.

For all those who felt the film was not the most fabulous or felt it wasn't a representative of the Bollywood industry etc., then you need to know this:1) This movie was sold as a spoof of the Indian film industry like 'Not another teen movie' was a parody of 'Chick Flicks' and as the 'Scary Movie' series are for horror films; this film was meant to be exaggerated and outrageous.2) Also to understand the humour of this film, you need to a know a lot about the Indian film industry and the references to the 'gossip' and films; even the music that is played as a score are insinuations to various Indian films. The transvestite driver, 'Killer Khalsa' sequence are a citation to a lot of stereotypes; Indian movies have transvestites as they are a part of society and as for the 'Killer Khalsa' sequence, the allusion to the food and the absurdity of the matchmaking are ever present in Indian films.3) The segments of the film where it is obvious that Deepa Mehta's first language is not English are the segments where there are references to Indian sayings or style of speaking and that is true of many N.R.I's.I am astonished at the people who disliked it; the audience should be aware of the context of this movie because admittedly there are people who appreciate Indian style films (in which case that audience should not have watched this film). Deepa Mehta is renowned for her art films ('Fire' (1996), 'Earth' (1998) and the upcoming 'Water') and this movie was created for a satirical view of the current films, especially the N.R.I. films.What is commonly seen as a flaw of this movies is actually a part of the sardonic look at Indian films; of course if there are are filming discontinuities, I have not noticed. I give this film a 9 out of 10 due to the technical flaws (for example, 'Kim's' accident and the 'ghost' sequence) and also because of Lisa Ray's stylists' lack of fashion IQ as she was made to look pretty horrid through out this movie.