Dance Baby Dance
Caught the 11pm screening of Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (Dance Baby Dance) at the Naz 8 in Lakewood / Artesia. The movie, of course, stars my favorite actor Abhishek Bachchan, who does a great job. Preity Zinta also takes a nice turn as his love interest. She’s so cute and pretty at the same time, a little Drew Barrymore-ish, but that comparison doesn’t do Preity’s dimples justice. A campy, romantic comedy, the story follows a couple who meet at a London train station and fall in love with each other, despite both being engaged, or are they? The silly, over-the-top script - a wax Superman statue at Madame Tussaud’s flying down and almost hitting Preity who gets saved by an ultra-suave lawyer played by Bobby Deol, as one example - is a fun romp. Also enjoyable is the intergenerational cast, always nice to see father and son, Amitabh and Abhishek, together. 
The only irony was that the dancing was pretty weak considering there’s a big Southall dance competition in it and the word dance is in the title. The choreography was simple, and Preity and Lara Dutta were stiff. Their moves made me wish for Aishwarya and Bipasha to come in. Aishwarya does make a voice cameo as Abhishek’s cell phone ringer voice, "Hey handsome," so says Wikipedia. For snacks, the samosas were warm and delicious. The Naz staff were also very polite and nice, which goes back to my previous posts that South Asians are the nicest Asians. Seriously, compared to Chinese and Koreans, South Asians are like royalty in the manners department.
Preity and Abhi have great chemistry! Both excel in playing mini con artists, who try to one up each other. The European locations, the hip and colorful costumes (Abhishek sports a one-of-a-kind jacket) and decor make this film a great escape. The soundtrack is bumping, but I would have liked to hear more traditional singing. I give this movie 4 out of 5 samosas. If you want to see this movie, you should hurry for it looks like it’s about out of the rotation at Naz. For more Bollywood posts, please click here.
UnHip LA’s Bollywood screenings thus far: Dhoom 2 (5 samosas), Cheeni Kum (5s), Bunty Aur Babli (5s), Bluff Master (5s), Kuch Naa Kaho (4s), Dhaai Akshar Prem Ke (0.5s), Partner (0s), Yuva (4.5s).
