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