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Just to ease
you into this article here are a few images from the Lollywood film 'Muhje Jeenay Do'. The
title is unfamiliar but if I tell you the plot is basically the same as 'Nikita' and
'Point of No Return' with a few songs and dances thrown in you'll get the general drift. I
don't know the name of the actress playing the Nikita character who blossoms from a
murdering street urchin to a glamourous hitwoman under the tutelage of a secret government
organisation. All the favourite Nikita scenes are here including the shoot out in the
restaurant and the sniper assasination in the bathroom plus one or two more..
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And now for another example of the West influencing Bollywood. 'Charlies Angels' was of course a 1970's TV series about a team of female Private Detectives which, unbelievably, was one of the most popular series of its time. Since then we have had films starring Drew Barrymore and Lucy Lui. However not to be outdone there has also been an Indian TV series called 'CATS' which adheres pretty closely to the format of the original TV series. The three girls working for Charlie are played by Ash (Kuljeet), Careena (Nafisa) and Tanya (Milini) - who all look stunning and who combine to make the opening credit sequence a marvelous display of girl power.OK, the actual stories are a lot less glamourous but this was still a very entertaining piece of hokum and better than it's big budget Hollywood cousin.
When you get a good villainess in a Bollywood film you get the whole nine yards. In 'Aag Hi Aag' the Indian actress Sneha plays chief henchwoman of a criminal gang intent on getting their hands on a vast haul of diamonds. Sneha is a joy to watch as she threatens, robs and kills to help gather the ill gotten loot. Okay she also sings and dances but you ALWAYS get this in a Bollywood film regardless of everything else. See the 'Snipers' section to see more of her in action.
Another
example of a good villainess is 'Madam X'. In this story we have a female Goldfinger type
character (played by the veteran Bollywood actress Rekha) who runs her organisation with a
rod of iron and who robs and murders her way to even greater riches.
Let's have a look at a few more Lollywood films. Overall these films have much lower production values than their Bollywood equivalents and this often reflects in the quality of the film stock. However you still get your money's worth with a film seldom shorter than two and a half hours. This gives ample time to introduce myriads of characters including gun toting good girls, icy villainesses, henchwomen and avenging angels.
I've got loads of more material from the Indian subcontinent so a follow up article will concentrate on the wild and wacky action films from Lollywood.
