The Wailing Maharaja and Sitar player...

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2004)

Gosh, I can't believe some of the comments I've read about 'Moulin Rouge'. Guys, if you like this, you'll love all Hindi movies! This is like a Hindi movie dubbed in English! The saving grace of this whirling musical is the cinematography and 2 of the songs, 'Spectacular, Spectacular' and 'Roxanne'. Otherwise, the movie is just tedious...with the characters breaking into a song at the drop of a hat, prolonging the ordeal even more, so much so that the audience was impatient for Satine to actually die in Christian's arms...The plot was one of the stalest and its unfolding too was ridden with clichés...It's so ironical when such movies become hits, become the 'piece de resistance' at a Film Festival like Cannes and are nominated for the Academy Awards. Because except for the aforementioned cinematography, there's nothing in this movie that's not done before all over the world, especially in India, in Hindi movies; it's just done with more razzmatazz over here. Why am I insisting on seeing parallels between this movie and Hindi movies? Well, because, Hindi movies still have songs as an integral part of their makeup. And albeit, the quality of all Hindi movies may not be that great, or they may not be blessed with Luhrmann's technical wizardry, they are all that 'Moulin Rouge' claims and more. 'MR' even has a Hindi song and that unfortunate Sitar player story...I wished the movie had more to offer than just good camera effects. It suffers from defects that plague even Hindi movies, namely a stale plot and tedious unraveling of it. Given that, Hollywood's condescension for Bollywood(read Hindi movies) seems hypocritical...
Kidman is as she always is and I hope to see Ewan McGregor in some better movie. As against 'MR', his role in 'A Life Less Ordinary' seems too good! This movie can be a "novelty" for people only familiar with Hollywood movies. I'd not recommend it for any other thing than the cinematography.