Bollywood babylon

>>Accès Asie brings the best of Eastern
culture to Montreal with their closing
party The Garden of Love

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES: Bollywood Blast

by RAF KATIGBAK

Unless you’ve lived without the convenience of things like “the Internet” and “eyes,” you’re probably one of the over 9,775,575 people that have viewed the YouTube clip “Indian Thriller” since its appearance in 2006.

If you haven’t, do yourself a favour and check it out right now. Seen it? Good. Pretty crazy right?

Judging by the number of views and the comments left on YouTube, for better or worse it’s pretty safe to say that this viral video was many people’s introduction to Indian film.

Artistic director and Bollywood film buff Caroline Tabah has never seen it. In fact, her discovery of Bollywood film was possibly the furthest thing from watching an Indian man ape Michael Jackson on a computer screen.

In 1999, she was in the Israeli desert and heard the strained wavering of a singer coming from a dusty old cassette player. “I remember it was at the end of the afternoon, there were other people around me, and everybody else found that kind of high voice really ridiculous and people just started to laugh, but there was something that touched my heart and I said, ‘What is it, what is it?’”

What it was, she later discovered, was the voice of Indian singer and Bollywood playback star Asha Bhosle. She was hooked. Since then, she has dedicated herself to discovering and exploring the world of Indian cinema and culture, and in the last four years has brought together artists from varying aspects of the country’s dance, music and film culture for events for the Accès Asie Asian Heritage Festival. The Mirror recently had a chat with Caroline to talk about Michael Jackson and this year’s event, The Garden of Love.

Mirror: Have you seen that Indian Thriller thing?

Caroline Tabah: No, I didn’t see it.

M: It’s pretty good. It looks exactly like the “Thriller” video but redone in a Bollywood style... so it’s kind of funny. I think in the popular world, Bollywood has become known for these kinds of spoofs…

CT: It’s funny, but I think it’s a bit sad to reduce Bollywood movies to only that aspect. For me, Bollywood cinema is a beautiful expression of humanity.

M: I’ve seen a few Bollywood films—why is everybody all super dramatic all the time?

CT: It’s because of the diversity of India. Most Bollywood movies are produced in the Hindi language, but not everyone in India speaks Hindi so they use that kind of extreme play so that even if people cannot understand the language, they can feel the emotion of the actors.

Not in all Bollywood movies, but often you find similarity with fairy tales, you find difficulties in life, and there is a kind of journey you must undertake, and I think that’s why people enjoy it. It helps bring joy in their life.

M: Tell me about the theme for your party, The Garden of Love.

CT: The heart is in the middle of this cinema. It’s really love. It’s really pure in a way. In other world cinemas, you could find these things, but it’s differently expressed, it’s more hidden.

In Bollywood, you have music, songs, poetry, dances, also the lyrics and music are written usually from great authors at the time, people really in the arts. So you find all these wonderful parts of that culture in Bollywood. The genre is a kind of celebration of human feelings, a celebration of love and life too.

M: Your programming for the night includes the great singer Vinay Bhide, Katak dance from Northern India, Bollywood and bhangra dancing, Dhol drummers, and then, um, whirling dervishes. How do those guys fit into the picture?

CT: When I’m programming the evening, I always try to keep in mind human love, terrestrial love or divine and spiritual love, so they’re there to represent divine love. Oh, and they also appear in Bollywood movies. There were whirling dervishes in Jodhaa Akbar.

M: So we can expect whirling dervishes but no Michael Jackson?

CT: Well, you will find both. It’s funny and we’re not too serious, we like to have fun, so you might find it…

With Vinay Bhide, dancer/choreographer
Sudeshna Maulik, dance troupe Bollywood Blast,
Manijeh Ali from Silken Dance, Dervishes from
the Naqshbandi Sufi Centre of Montreal, Gabroo
Punjab Dey, Sanaa Dance troupe etc. Studio
Just for Laughs Museum (2109 St-Laurent)
on saturday, May 24, 10 p.m., $20.
Proceeds go to Asha Foundation.