NEW: Bol Bachchan is full of ridiculous laughs — and why I love Bollywood comedy

I sadly have been very remiss in updating the blog, even when I have had the time to go see new movies. I promised myself after this one that I would say at least something brief.

Synopsis: Orphans Abbas Ali (Abhishek Bachchan) and his sister, Sania (Asin), have lost everything in Delhi, so they move to Ranakpur with their father’s friend, Shastri. Shastri promises Abbas a job with Prithviraj (Ajay Devgn), the powerful man who’s basically the benevolent ruler of the village. But they end up lying to “Prithviji” about Abbas’s identity, instead saying his name is…Abhishek Bachchan. Oh, yes. Hijinks ensue to keep up the ruse to avoid Prithviji’s wrath, including convincing him that Abhishek (who is really Abbas) has an identical (but half) brother named Abbas who is a gay dance instructor.

Sum total? I liked it. But then Bol Bachchan is exactly my cup of comedy tea that I don’t expect everyone to enjoy, just like many AkshayKumar comedies are. If you’ll pardon a mixture of talking about Bol Bachchan in particular and zany Bollywood comedies in general, I’ll proceed.

What’s to like about Bol Bachchan:

·         Bromance: I’m increasingly convinced that Bollywood has mastered the art of a good bromance, and this one is rife with brotherly love and suggestive jokes about something more than brotherly between Abbas/Abhishek and Prithvi. (See below for more on why I love this.)

·         Humor: The humor here just doesn’t stop. There’s physical comedy, dialogue comedy (Prithvi’s English? HAHAHA), situational comedy. All mixed up together.

·         Action: Good guys beating up a ridiculous amount of bad guys. That is always fun, right?

·         Abhishek Bachchan: I know he gets a lot of flak, but I love Junior B because he’s not a miniature Amitabh Bachchan. He’s a gangly goofy giant of a man who’s unafraid to act like a complete fool if it’ll generate laughs.

I'm thinking this is a good look (and role-type) for Ajay.

·         Ajay Devgn: I’m hardly Ajay’s biggest fan, especially in a typical wooing romantic role. BUT give him a power-role and I think he’s made for it. And his muscles (and tattoo!) certainly don’t hurt either. ;) If Ajay wants to run around being the badass good guy, I’m okay with that.

Hellllllloooo, senor.

In that way, Bol Bachchan is kind of like Singham 2.0 … times two heroes with Abhishek also doing double (or triple, considering the dual role) duty as comedic relief.

One reason I think that I love Bollywood comedies — while American comedies rarely make me laugh and I think the “romantic comedy” in Hollywood has very, very little humor — is that they’re unafraid to embrace all types of humor. Colorful is another way of putting it. No gag is too easy or too low or too ridiculous, and so they’re able to have a mass appeal.

I mean heck, we get to watch Abhishek (playing Abbas playing Abhishek playing Abbas) practically lap dance on Ajay. Who looked wildly uncomfortable. I don’t see how that could not make you laugh. I laughed so hard I couldn’t breathe.

Bromance time. (I think in this photo, John Abraham looks
jealous of Abhi's new bromance.)

I think what makes the bromance such a great comedic tool — really a great tool in all fiction — is that it effectively stands for a level of pure (nonsexual) love and understanding where two men are so close they’re unafraid to act ridiculous and yet they have trouble admitting feelings to one another. Because they’re men and that’s just how they are.

To fully understand my sense of humor, you perhaps have to understand that I come from a family where my father is something of a hybrid between Jim Carrey and George Lopez and we speak our own improvised language. “Embracing ridiculousness” is probably an apt way to describe what I love in a comedy. (Heck, one of my favorite Hollywood comedies is the 1944 screwball Arsenic and Old Lace in which two sweet old ladies kill people and bury them in the basement.) I don't want Hollywood's films that like to revel in their own cleverness. I want absurd hijinks that make me laugh. That’s exactly what many Bollywood comedies — Bol Bachchan included — provide.

NEW: Housefull 2: Insane is the only adjective (and long-live bromance!)

Where to begin on Housefull 2... (After never having seen Housefull...)

Let's just say this film is INSANE. Like...whoa. It is absolutely nuts.

There are not words to describe it. Let's just say for an idea...there are four friends pretending to be "Jolly." ...all under the same roof. Add in feuding families, several arranged marriages (and love that crosses all of those planned marriages), a dad with a criminal past, a revenge plot... Yeah, it gets crazy.

But it's an awesome never-stop-laughing kind of crazy. It's kind of scattered all over the place, but it's hilarious. It's fun. I'd recommend seeing it if completely off-the-wall nuts is your cup of tea -- but I totally understand how it could not be your cup of tea.

Oh, that and crazy-long list of stars might be your cup of tea too:

Akshay Kumar, Asin (Thottumkal), John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez, Ritesh Deshmukh, Zarine Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Shazahn Padamsee, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty, Boman Irani, Chunky Pandey, Johnny Lever, Ranjeet.

My thoughts otherwise are pretty scattered.

Everyone's favorite jodi. Or maybe just mine.

One: Out of the 5 million jodis in this movie, the best? Akki and John. Total bromance. This might as well have been a continuation of the Desi Boyz bromance. (And God, I do so love to look at John Abraham. Mmmmmmm.)

I love Ritesh Deshmukh. He is adorable. And I've never seen a movie with Shreyas Talpade/didn't know who he was, but he was pretty adorable too.

And who can go wrong with Rishi and Randhir Kapoor? (Also, random side note I just observed, Randhir could totally pass as white.)

Someone else I love -- Johnny Lever. ALWAYS makes me laugh. Perfect comic timing.

Asin, the only worthwhile female in this film, gettin' down.

On the other hand.... Chunky Pandey's character got annoying after five minutes and I was glad when he unceremoniously exited the movie. Which is sad because I love Chunky.

Except for Asin, the entire female cast could pretty much have fallen off the face of the earth in the movie and I wouldn't have cared. They had very little to do but dance (some of them poorly) and be pissed and introduced to people.

I loved the music. So, on a positive note, I end with THIS SONG of the four friends in college was one of the most hilarious things I have seen in a VERY long time.

NEW: Ready (2011): Hilarious, top to bottoms!

So I’m actually now stranded up in New York for the summer, away from my beloved Florida and my fellow fruits. But despite a lot of aggravations that have set my relationship with this city as rocky already, I have found a serious redeeming factor:

INDIAN FILM CINEMA! Specifically, Big Cinemas Manhattan.

Tonight, I was able to go to a theater and see the much-anticipated Salman Khan film Ready on the day it was released – which is pretty much unheard of for me! I had to catch a late show because of work, but it’s OK because YAY, I got to see a film right away!

So I’m now still awake at 3:30 a.m. my time because I want to be one of the first to chime in on the film.

Synopsis (of which there are NO good ones yet on the net): Prem Kapoor (Sallu) has made a habit out of helping couples in love to have their happy endings but is meticulously avoiding love himself. When Sanjana Singh (Asin) sneaks her way into his heart by conning him and his family into believing she’s a potential bride come from America, Prem is reluctant but of course falls anyway. Then reality strikes: Sanjana’s uncles are two feuding dons who are each out to marry her to their choice of man so they can lay hands on her inheritance. Prem now has his hardest case of stealing the bride yet.

Going into it, I read a couple of the very mixed reviews, but as usual, THE REVIEWS MEANT NOTHING. I laughed HYSTERICALLY throughout the entire movie! It was that fantastic! Yes, parts of it that I’m sure were meant to be serious were so absurd to be laughable, but when a movie has the dialogue and antics generally geared to make you laugh, how else can you take the over-the-top serious stuff? (Also, many people were saying it was too close to Dabangg. Not having seen Dabangg, I can't be a fair judge of that, but hopefully that won't be problematic for anyone else.)

Yes, it’s true, this film has no great substance to it, no overwhelmingly great message, but he bhagavan is it entertaining! I took four friends with me to the theater who had NEVER seen a Hindi film before, and most of the inside jokes and nuances of puns were lost on them, but they all thoroughly enjoyed it anyway. It was that universal.

My Bollywood-virgin friends couldn't appreciate the long line of cameos, including these. But the comedy... That they could. Definitely.

The movie was full of more crude humor than I've ever seen a Hindi film have. There was peeing (intermission is referred to as "Pee Break" while Salman urinates on a haystack), farting and lots of bad things happening to butts (sitting on hot pots, getting a fork stuck in a cheek, etc.). Now that may not be your cup of tea, but there's plenty of other humor to go around -- witty dialogue, absurdness, those deft inside filmy jokes, lots of innuendo (see below) -- there was a dash of every kind of humor.

 I’ve heard Ready pegged as masala, which I’ll take. It’s a dash of romance, a dash of (sometimes painful) action, a little family drama and a whole lot of comedy. On top of that, it has a plot! One that gets crazy and out of control, of course, but it does have a definite and distinct plot.

The other thing I’ve seen Ready called though is a family film, which I will NOT agree with. There was more innuendo (some of it RIDICULOUSLY blatant) than I’ve ever seen in a Hindi film. For a genre that manages to skirt the sex issue even when hookers are around, this one really lays the references on thick. (Almost as many innuendos as this Weiner scandal going on in the U.S. right now.)

Sallu does have the tendency to get on my nerves with his attitude as you might have gleaned from my previous posts about him. Yes, there are moments when Salman’s attitude made me roll my eyes, even during songs (especially when he takes off his shirt in a fight scene because someone says he won’t because he’s gotten fat; sorry Sallu, you’re not fat by general standards, but you’re definitely getting older and pudgier). But for the most part, he’s so caught up in making you laugh that you don’t have time to be PO’d at his attitude.

I have kind of a love-hate relationship with Sallu. Sometimes I wish he'd just be less full of himself.

Asin also brilliantly pulls off a witty, spunky girl who’s willing to give Prem his what-for. I honestly don't see why some people said they had no chemistry. The jodi worked just fine for me. The cast of supporting characters likewise has all of the quirks and character you could hope for, including a couple of poor schlubs who become the butt of SO MANY jokes.

Yeah, these two schlubs.

In essence, yes, this film has no enduring message quality, but PLEASE don’t tell me you go to all films purely for the message. There’s a reason it’s called entertainment, people.

(Also, apparently this film is a Tamil film remake? I really want to see the original.)