BOLLYWOOD
Check it out. Bollywood, as the Bombay-based Hindi film industry is affectionately nicknamed, is the new cool in international cinema. The world's most prolific film industry has always been regarded with dubious interest by Western critics, film professionals and movie-goers. What else can you expect from a genre that requires every film to have a young good-looking romantic lead couple, half a dozen or more lengthy songs lip-synched by actors to playback singers, costume changes every five minutes and an utter disregard for most film narrative conventions? In spite of these quirky peculiarities. . . or hell, maybe because of them. . . it has come out of the kitsch closet and taken its place alongside the most respected ethnic films on the planet.