If you haven’t already gathered, I’m a very obsessive person. I don’t just like things, I obsess over them and this year, I have come into a new obsession: Bollywood. I love Bollywood for many reasons so today I thought I would tell you where my love for Bollywood came from and why I love it so much.
As a Pakistani Muslim girl, I grew up in a household that loved Bollywood. My dad is originally from Pakistan and he would watch Pakistani TV all the time. Now, you’re probably thinking that Bollywood is Indian not Pakistani but the languages are quite similar so my dad loved to watch them. Therefore, I used to watch them. When I was young, I was entranced by the beautiful clothes, amazing dance moves and fabulous stories. I loved them. However as I grew up and went to school, I lost my love for Bollywood because I fell in love with the Western culture.
Earlier this year, I went to watch a British movie called The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel(sequel to the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which is a fantastic movie) which is set in India. The second film featured an Indian wedding and watching that wedding made me want to watch Bollywood again. As soon as I came home, I looked on Netflix and found some of my favourites on there. I automatically started watching them again and fell back in love.
Why do I love Bollywood? I grew up watching films from the late 90s and early 00s and for me this was the prime of Bollywood. Many would disagree but for me, the movies were at the best during this period. I loved the pure innocence of the films because they truly were family films. For example, my favourite actor Shah Rukh Khan made a pact to never kiss in a film yet he is known as the Romance King in India just because of how amazing he is at portraying romance. The romance is simple and innocent and I love that.
Another reason is because of the pure beauty of it all. The clothes that they wear, the songs that they sing, the dances that they dance to just make it all look so beautiful. Bollywood has some of the best set designs I’ve ever seen. It’s pure beauty. I am a sucker for the commerical Bollywood romance films and thankfully, there are a lot of them!
I also feel like I can relate to the world in Bollywood films a lot more. Whilst I’m a Pakistani Muslim and most of the characters are Indian Hindus, I still feel like a lot of the problems they face in their lives are problems that I could face in mine so I am even more invested in their stories.
So that’s a brief summary of why I love Bollywood but if I was to tell you why I love Bollywood in one word, it would be escapism. Bollywood is escapism in it’s purest form and I will always turn to Bollywood when I am fed up of my life. Bollywood came back into my life at a point this year in which I was struggling with stupid issues such as friendship but Bollywood helped me to escape it all and just laugh and be happy. Some of the best films I’ve ever seen are Bollywood films and it makes me sad that people haven’t seen them or won’t watch them simply because it’s in a different language.
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