Mumbai's Tinseltown on the boom

When it comes to magamovie spectaculars, all the glitzy showmanship of the Oscars in Los Angeles and the hordes of starlets strutting their stuff at Cannes are but a single frame of celluloid compared to that epicentre of Indian film-making which goes under the name of Bollywood.

While the industry has outposts all over the country, Mumbai still reigns supreme as far as creating epics for the silver screen is concerned, altogether the Indian movie machine produces an astonishing 700 features or more every year in 16 different languages.

On a sub continent that is home to more than 800 million people of hugely ethnic backgrounds, going to the cinema is a universal entertainment open to all. The movies produced by Bollywood have been described as a glorious gallimaufry of magic and confetti.

The plot is secondary to the stars - many of whom work on several different films at the same time, and can count an legions of adoring fans who breathlessly follow their every move on and off screen. Add to this exotic locations, gaudy backdrops and a wealth of all-singing. all-dancing musical numbers broadcast at top volume.

Throw in a burly handsome hero, a delicious heroine, a couple of odious villains and a dash of thwarted love and ambition, and you're some way to comprehending the first scene. In short, sitting through one of Bollywood's hallucinogenic cabarets is a bit like an extended version of an Oriental Sound of Music played at fast forward.

Film first came to India at the end of the 19th century, and quickly created a major industrial boom by injecting a breath of life into popular folk-music dramas based on ancient religious myths, which previously had been performed by groups of strolling players.

Despite the fact that - with the advent of the talkies - films had to be produced in as many as 10 regional languages, the rejuvenation of these tuneful, toe-tapping mythological and historical tales played an enormous role in winning acceptance for the new medium and encouraging the growth of the fledging industry.

Even in the 1930s, an average of 230 films per year were being released, almost all for domestic consumption. And audiences never seemed to have their fill, always coming back asking for more.

It's interesting that over a century after Bollywood's genesis it is still movies with a grand historical sweep, strongly defined themes (like the battle between good and evil) and clear-cut characters which the audience can sympathize with, that pull the cinemagoers in.

And just as films the world over have provided a measure of escapism to the masses, so the over-the-top scenarios and stunning camerawork served up by the alchemists of Bollywood provide an outlet for the dreams of millions of fans from the sun-drenched southern tip of the continent to the icy borders of the Himalayas.

Of course, Bollywood would be nothing without its pantheon of stars, who practically rank alongside the gods and goddesses of mythology. Currently rated No 1 in Bollywood, and the so-called "Star of the Millennium", a Tom Cruise or Kevin Spacey in his own right, Shah Rukh Khan has a string of hits to his name and is - to the intense jealousy of swathes of heartbroken female fans - happily married.

A highly successful actor, whose Adonis looks are bended with a "guy-next-door" charm, these days he is venturing into production. Another famous Bollywood shover and maker, Sooraj Barjatya, sprang to fame in 1989 with the release of the block-buster Maine Pyar Kiya and has capitalized on his fame with saccharine Indian family dramas which have found their way into the audience's hearts and pockets.

He's also credited with making one of the biggest grosses in Indian film history, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, which earned a very respectable US$ 20 million. And just to show that this was no flash in the pan, he's since produced a modern version of the mythological epic Ramayana, which sold for a phenomenal price overseas and earned its worth in India just two weeks after release.

Men hold no monopoly in Bollywood, as the likes of Pooja Bhatt amply demonstrate. Coming from one of India's foremost families, Pooja began her illustrious career as an actress and made the leap to production with films like Dushman. With a dozen awards to her name, she is now involved in a television serial called Dhund is enjoying spectacular success.

For outsiders, one of the most amazing things about present-day Bollywood is that it is almost like an entire foreign country in itself, with its own rules, culture and orthodoxies that the average person in the ticket queue assumes are common knowledge.

For anyone not in the know, the titles Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rahte Hain and Hum Saath Saath Hain could be so much gibberish, but for denizens of Bollywood, they are as familiar as American Beauty or the Insider.

"These three films were some of the biggest hits of 1999," says Kavita Awasthi, one of the subcontinent's most respected movie critics. "They made us laugh, they made us cry and they made us live our lives all over again. They basked in the sun and of course they raked in the moolah."

However, all that glisters is not gold, especially in Bollywood. "There were some movies that tried their best but failed misterably in the endeavour," adds Awasthi, who slammed the movie Hello Brother as "hugely gross" and one of last year's biggest flops, outlining its plot as typical of the genre.

"Starring two brothers, Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, it goes overboard in all departments. Salman plays a courier who falls madly in love with a girl, but is then killed by a smuggler. Arbaaz then has Salman's heart transplanted into his body, falls in love with the same girl but has to suffer the attentions of his brother's ghost!"

As the old saying almost goes: "Well, that's Bollywood!"

Courtesy Sawasdee