Valley Chai

desis may have left the motherland, but we don’t leave the movies (or food) behind. i for once, gladly traveled from sacramento to go watch “Hum Aap Ke Hain Kaun” in San Jose. we like a few elements in our movies

• patriotism - anything that says india is heaven on earth
• tons of spend - the richer the movie looks the better. themes around sad/bad state of affairs don’t work that well.
• traditional naach/gaana - this one is the sure shot (e.g. any shah-rukh/ karan johar)
• eye candy : salman khan survives probably only because nri cred. girls scream aloud in the theater
• phoren locales : story has gotta include folks going to some foreign country
• punjahi/bhangra ingredients : a song, a few dialogs, or even a scene from the fields of punjab. gotta have something there

so here’s the list (in recent memory)

1. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge : this is probably when yash/srk discovered the gold pot that is NRIs
2. Swades : what can you say! all expats want to be like srk
3. Dil Chahta Hai - the kind of swankiness expats crave.
4. Sivaji - good old rajini serving. always delectable
5. Kal Ho Na Ho - probably first big-budget hindi movie to be set 100% abroad
6. kabhi alvida na kehna - another 100% us-based movie, slick/rich, and the theme
7. dhoom 2 - what’s not in there! people (girls, boys) didn’t scream - they were busy drooling
8. hero no. 1 - those thumka’s bring out the ‘mass’ without apology
9. any sallu film, and lately, any abhi film