« Breaking News - Jaguar/Land Rover change hands :+: Jay-Z “pimps” Obama at concert »

Entertainment

Race: A James Hadley Chase redux

By: Santosh :+: Under: Entertainment
On: ⋅ March 26, 2008 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

Looks like you are new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

So, I braved the gang bangers and prostitutes on Orange Blossom Trail in Orlando, FL, to go watch the latest Bollywood potboiler, Race so I can review it for you, our beloved readers of Über Desi.

I can go on and on about the actual storyline of the movie but since it’s a mystery thriller, I will let you watch it for yourself (not that I recommend you do) and not post any blatant spoilers on here - no, the bawarchi (butler) did not do it. Instead, today I shall dwell on some nuances which, you might pick up on when watching this version of rich desi brothas and sistas gone wild in South Africa.

To quote Dalton Russell (Clive Owen) from the movie, The Inside Man:
“Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself.”

Race, is about racing - horses and cars. Race is also all about double, triple and quadraple crossing.

It’s all about race, a Barack Obama wet dream come true. People of all races - brown, black, white, dancing and grinding together in what can only be described as an ungodly union of the macarena, country western line dancing and just plain ole’ Bollywood ishtyle tumkas. Race is a reflection of the heavy influence of the lyrics from 90s technopop numbers in current day Bollywood numbers.

As evidence to the above statement I present clips from all 5 songs in the move:
Song 1:

Bahaaon mein aake Ashiq banake
Come shake it shake it some more
O baby Rock da dance floor

2,

….I m not a love u every day
I m not a love u every nite
cos u know theres no time to waste
chao! Baby
Mujh pe to jaado
Tera jaado chal gaya ….

3,

Dono jahan
Meri bahon mein aa
Bhool Ja]2
Baby i love u 4 so more
Baby i love u

Need I go on? Or perhaps you be the judge. You get the point. I’m sure music director Pritam Chakraborty had to work real hard to come up with clever “English” lyrics like “rock the dance floor”, “love u every nite” and “Baby I love u 4″. Vengaboys, you’ve been put on notice.

Race is about cleavage and, perhaps, as a male viewer, that was the (only???) selling point of the movie to me. Between Bipasha, Katrina and Sameera there is enough cleavage to make the Grand Canyon redundant. Speaking of which, I’m a fashion expert by no means but Race also seems to be about the trailer trashifaction of Bollywood clothing particularly the female leads. Revealing clothes on the opposite sex, me likey. But as in everything else, in revealing clothes also, there’s classy and there’s trashy. Colors and design patterns look great in desi clothing. But colorful body hugging mini skirts with Pokemon designs, makes it look like someone rolled out a social gathering at a local trailer park and at least the good folks in trailer parks dress that way for lack of economic resources.

Race is about close knit desi families. Forget the dysfunctional desi family in the movie. When a character in the movie, cracks a double meaning “joke” (paraphrasing a Hindi sentence in English) “Do you want to suck on my sugarcane?” and everyone in the theater LOLs, including the family with the 8 and 10 year olds in the seat behind you is rolling in the aisle, tears well up in your eyes, at how close knitted desi families are. FYI, this movie was designated “A” - “Adults Only”. Of course no discussion on families is complete without babies. Nothing says suspense like a baby in the audience crying when someone important is about to be bumped off.

*** Potential Spoilers for the few - the perceptive ***

As for the storyline, you just need to know a couple of things.

Race is all about good ole’ Bollywood formulas. Watch for who really dirties the bedsheets with who in the movie, and how that plays out in the overall alliances in the movie.

And finally, Race is about James Hadley Chase. I quote Wikipedia (something I’ve been doing a lot lately) on James Hadley Chase:

In several of Chase’s stories the protagonist tries to get rich by committing a crime - an insurance fraud or a theft. But the scheme fails and leads to a murder and finally to a cul-de-sac, in which the hero realizes that he never had a chance to keep out of trouble. Women are often beautiful, clever, and treacherous; they kill unhesitatingly if they have to cover a crime. His plots typically centre around dysfunctional families and the final denouement justifies the title!

If you haven’t seen the movie, and for some unfathomable reason, plan to, even after reading my distorted ramblings, memorize the above paragraph.

Is there anything I missed about the movie? Any thoughts/opinions about this movie or any other? Is there any other desi movie you would like for us to review, in our own unique ishtyle? Use the space below and please spare us off-topic lectures, for instance, on how a Maoist invasion would enrich our culture.

« Breaking News - Jaguar/Land Rover change hands :+: Jay-Z “pimps” Obama at concert »