Dear Bollywood

I recently heard that you will be releasing Kites in the US. I have been waiting for this since I heard it was filming, and am excited that it is coming out.

However, I heard something recently that makes me less excited:

“the foreign version of the film has chopped out all the song and dance sequences that are hallmarks of traditional Bollywood productions. (The numbers will be included in the Indian version.)” (Via this WSJ link, through Ultrabrown)

Um, what? I will explain something here, since the article goes on to say that this move is an attempt to appeal more to Western audiences. I am totally not the usual target market of Bollywood films. However, I love the dance sequences in Bollywood films. They are half the reason I watch. I completely appreciate the desire to make different sorts of films, ones perhaps without dance sequences. I really do. However, if you made the film with them in it, then remove them for a foreign audience, you’re short-changing your fans who already love the films the way they are. Additionally, although I have heard much debate about Hrithik Roshan’s acting (I find him charming), it is generally accepted that he’s a spectacular dancer. In my opinion, cutting these scenes out is like cutting Gene Kelley’s routines out of American in Paris. Why? Aargh.

I certainly hope that at least one theater in the Atlanta area shows the Indian version, or that when it comes out on DVD, I can watch the whole thing, unadulterated.

In conclusion, please don’t mess with something that’s pretty good the way it is (again, I’m fine with no singing and dancing, just when it was intended to be that way from the start).

Your recently disgruntled fan,

Happygoth

(As a completely unrelated aside, I am dismayed to discover that there is no actual “gruntled” in the English language, though I will continue to use it as I always have, for comic effect.)