Bombay

         The movie "Bombay" is a 1995 movie directed by Moni Ratnam.  This movie is about the struggles of marriage in India.  The lead male role is Arvind Swamy played by Shekhat Mishra Narayan.  He falls in love with Manisha Koirala played by Shaila Bano.  In the movie they are from families that have different religious views.  This causes much friction between Arvind's father and his son.  Arvind's family and Manisha's family feed off of each others business and the want to marriage is hurting both sides.  Arvind's father feels that his son is trying to marry her just in spite of him.  The two lovers meet in secret many times but Arvind can't take it any more.  He moves to Bombay and she joins him, they get married but Manisha has trouble because she misses her family and has some guilt about leaving.  They eventually have kids and this brings the two families together, though they still don't get along.  While the two fathers each take a child to their respective holy meetings and celebrations, fights and riots break out.  Caught by surprise, Manish's father protects Arvinds father from some people looking to hurt them due to their beliefs.  What had separated the two grandfathers in the past, has now brought them much closer together.  Riots continue to break out and the two children get lost in the chaos.  Arvind is filled with anger as he cannot find his children in the flurry of fights bombs and fires.  He then gives a adrenaline filled speech about how foolish everyone is being.  He uses himself and his family as an example for how it is possible for everyone to get along.
      One theme in this movie is Religion.  Throughout the entire movie Religion was mentioned.  Before Arvind and Manisha even wanted to get married, Arvind's friend was cautioning him that she did not have the same beliefs as him.  Their fathers drew swords against each other because they knew that their son and daughter wanted to see each other.  They stopped doing business and interacting because they believed that it was blasphemy that the two would date.  Arvind's father stated that he is no longer his father because Arvinds loved a woman from a different religion.
       I did not love this movie but in no means did I hate it.  This is the first "Bollywood" movie I have ever seen.  I felt that the music and dancing sort of took away from the legitimacy of the movie.  Singing and dancing always throws the pace of a movie off for me.  The music is very lively, energetic and fanciful, it makes the acting feel more bland and lifeless.  Once you get used to the pace of the regular acting a song starts up again and its five minutes of running and jumping and then back to standard acting.  Just because Bollywood may not be my favorite genre, I cannot say the movie was bad.  I am glad I saw this film, though I have no desire to really see another one.