Saluun

This is the first Bollywood film I've ever seen. I chose it from the offerings at the Houston Film Festival because it was billed as a comedy, and because the plot synopsis (out-of-control government is taken on by outraged citizen) appealed to me.

Technically the film is not as slick as any Hollywood film I've ever seen, but the roughness of the editing and characterization seems to be intentional, to add to the hero's building sense of despair and frustration. The main characters, Asok and his father, were nicely developed and acted, though the rest of the cast struck me as friends of friends of the producer. The writing may have been uneven, but that may only be the fault of the subtitle-writers. The first half of the film was decidedly un-funny, but by the end everyone in the theater was laughing, and not just from relief.

As a glimpse into an exotic culture it is well worth the ticket price; I particularly enjoyed the unexplained celebrations during the Festival of Holi -- no doubt they are common knowledge in India, but I had never heard of it. The plot was straightforward, but I thought the means used by Asok against the municipal bureaucracy was as clever as any twist in the tail. In many ways its success or failure depends on cultural attributes, but enough of that cultural underpinning is found in American culture that the plot vehicle translates very well.