An experience which in concept is like taking "Indian Curry" and passing it off as "American Spiced Meat"

Rating: Null/10 (10 July 2001)

Let's Start with Indian cinema as a genre - Indian cinema as a genre is a mixture of genres - love story between rich girl poor boy or vice versa, action thriller, musical (yet never called musical) suspense drama with a storyline that always has hero and heroine overcoming all odds to achieve the all popular "love triumphs over all". In that sense Indian popular cinema is not very adventurous. Western Cinema in comparison weaves a story around a single genre and that is its expertise.
Viewed in that context, Moulin Rouge is nothing more than Indian Cinema plagiarized or lifted to impress western audiences. And if one is to view the comments about the film it has served its purpose.
However what does stand out is the impressive use of the camera to draw out characters and personalities. Zidler for instance is a character of the camera more than of his own talent.
Above all Baz Luhrmann more than succeeds in using the conventional theatre settings to play around with sets. It is a new experience which gets better as the film progresses. The loss in dimensions are superbly staged giving one the experience of knowing what's happening at all points of time - much like a theatre audience. No, its more like surveying the entire landscape of the plot from a magic carpet. Never close enough to influence the direction of the story and never far enough to lose out on the emotions of any one of the characters. Notice carefully one never goes too far away from the main sets in the film which co-incidentally like theatre are practically next door to each other. Like a play that is being played out on stage as well as one that is being played out in the wings.
On the whole do go for the movie if your in the west, definitely for entertainment value as well as the concept. If your in India you've seen it all before. Does it look different with an all foreign star cast doing what Indian Cinema does for a living ? I don't know. Watch it for its theatrical brilliance - that makes it more than worth it.