Even if I could watch them with English sub-titles, those dance and song routines would be very distracting. I like some of the songs and even have some of them on my Ipod, but I just can’t bring myself to watch a 3 hour movie or should I call it musical? with no kissing, no love scenes and no real plot lines.

I heard Karan Johar say that shahrukh khan was more popular than Tom Cruise? That was funny to hear.

I also heard Hrithik roshan doesn’t even speak Hindi, which would mean that not only is he lip-synching the songs, he is also lip-synching his lines! He has nothing on Irfan Khan (that’s another real actor)

Where in a bollywood movie does any real acting take place?

Some of them are very, well-trained, very talented dancers…and let’s not forget the music. Sure there’s some crap music, but god when I hear some songs by Rafi, Lata, Asha etc, it just draws me in and I don’t even understand Hindi ….I love the old stuff, reminds me of my childhood visits to Kerala when my young aunts/uncles would play popular bollywood songs in the background; even in malayalam territory, the hindi/urdu music that bollywood artists would churn out was extremely popular at least in my mom’s household.

Those people can’t act. Actually, they don’t act. They lip-synch

Amitabh is actually a very good actor. There is absolutely no doubt about it. He has made even otherwise average movies stand out by the strength of his performances. And the lip synch is mainly limited to the songs, even though Amitabh has sung many of his own songs. If you don’t like standard masala movies, there are movies like Chupke Chupke, Abhimaan, Anand (and I am not even counting non regular movies like Aks, The Last Lear and Black), where his acting has been inspirational. Watching his temple scene in Deewar gives me goosebumps every time. Jaya was an accomplished actress too. I can’t say the same things about his son and daughter-in-law though. And frankly, Rahul Bose is seriously overrated.

the dance routines they do, don’t even require them to be trained dancers

Quite a few of them are trained dancers as a matter of fact. Some of thm are even trained in classical Indian dance forms (Vyajanthimala, Hema Malini, Sridevi, Rekha, Madhuri, even Aishwarya) Try watching a Hritik Roshan dance routine and then replicating it, and you will understand. Parallel cinema is improving. It was often pretentious and extremely boring in the ’80s and early ’90s (only surpassed by Messrs. Merchant and Ivory).

I don’t know why the Bachan’s expect anyone outside of India to take bollywood seriously. Those people can’t act. Actually, they don’t act. They lip-synch and I heard that the dance routines they do, don’t even require them to be trained dancers or even, to be very good at it, mainly because they practice them in short stints and the director then pulls the whole thing together for them.

The parallel cinema in india is sooooo much better and they use real actors like Nandita Das and Rahul Bose.

Melvin is always funny… this was hilarious

In the words of George Carlin “It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it”

And also, when Bachchan brought the wrong gun to the airport!

Anyhow, personally I prefer chicken karahi to milk.

Also, David Hasselhoff winning a BMA cracks me up more than anything else, for some strange reason.