The New York Times by Dave Kehr
Disappointingly shallow and not terribly funny romantic comedy.
Canada · 2002
Rated PG-13 · 1h 41m
Director Deepa Mehta
Starring Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray, Moushumi Chatterjee, Dina Pathak
Genre Comedy, Drama, Music, Romance
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Rahul Seth is a dashing young millionaire who believes he is "western" enough to rebel against his mother and grandmother. They are not too keen about his Caucasian girlfriend Kimberly who, to make matters worse, is a pop star. Before you can say "karmic intervention," Kimberly dies in a freak accident and Rahul is devastated. Instead of allowing him to mourn in peace, Rahul's mother sees the opportunity she's been waiting for. She threatens to call off his sister's wedding unless he finds himself a "nice Indian girl." Rahul enlists the services of Sue, a fiercely independent escort whom he believes to be Hispanic, and therefore not "married" to the conventions taught to young Indian women. With a wink in her eye, Sue accepts the deal to pose as his Indian bride-to-be. She needs the money and having never been a fan of the typical Indian male, she feels her heart is safe. The charade begins....
The New York Times by Dave Kehr
Disappointingly shallow and not terribly funny romantic comedy.
Perhaps it is simply impossible, even with affection in your heart, to craft an evocative homage to the expansive musical melodramas of Bollywood on a small-scale indie budget.
Depressingly parochial.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Lacks the sharpness and sophistication necessary for it to appeal beyond Indian audiences.
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
The direction is as flat as the script is thin, forcing actors to stumble through roles that make little sense. Costumes and sets border on the grotesque. Mehta is a fine enough filmmaker that this one can be written off as an aberration. Sometimes East and West really aren't meant to meet.
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Though occasional flashes of the radiantly bi-cultural romp that might have been peek through, writer-director Deepa Mehta's hybrid is strangely clumsy, given that she's an experienced filmmaker familiar with both Hollywood and Bollywood conventions.
Village Voice by Michael Atkinson
Too amateurish to lampoon or evoke either film industry, Bollywood/Hollywood is a movie that owes its presence in theaters to a certain ethnic soccer comedy still circulating like a virus.
It's just mediocrity, further soured by bad intentions.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
Fabulous idea/faulty execution is the review.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Sean Axmaker
Mehta's feisty, featherweight romantic comedy makes the case that even the most flamboyant cinematic conventions are as universal as they are exotic, especially when they conspire to produce that glow of happily ever after.
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