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Indian Shakespeare

Indian Shakespeare

Here we are in the fifth act talking about by far our favorite adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Tyler Clark
June 16, 2023

Good morning Consumers. This is Please Consume, the Film newsletter that loves you more than Ben Affleck loves being from Boston.

Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela

June 16th, 2023 - Written by Tyler Clark

Here we are in the fifth act talking about by far our favorite adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, or as it translates in English, A Dance of Bullets: Ram-Leela, is a modern take on the classic tale with the backdrop of gang violence in Gujarat.

It’s a Bollywood film, which as anyone who read our edition on RRR (or just people born of Indian descent) knows is not the only film industry in India, but is the most well-known and was for many years the dominant industry.

Bollywood specifically refers to the film industry in Mumbai. The film we’re covering today is directed by one of the biggest directors working in India today, Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

What Genre is It Again?

One of the first things you will learn about Indian cinema is that a big portion of their popular films belongs to a genre called Masala.

When you read that word you may think about spices and that is correct, masala is a mix of spices, but in film terms that means a mixture of genres. So, something like today’s film is a romantic tragedy but it is also a zany comedy, a musical, and an action film/gangster tale.

This is part of what makes these movies so entertaining. You really are getting the whole package when you watch one of these!

Case in point, today’s clip is incredibly slap-sticky and silly, but the film's second act (most Indian films are split into two acts with an intermission in between) takes on a much more serious tone.

The Name you Need to Know

This film is directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, a veteran of the Bollywood film industry.

To give you an idea of this guy's talent you need to understand that his second film Devdas was the most winning film of all time at Filmfare (Mumbai’s Oscars), winning ten awards.

That record stood until he beat it with his followup film, Black, the next year.

They were also massive hits: Devdas was the highest grossing film of its year and Black was the second highest grossing of its year.

Bhansali is a superstar in India in a way most filmmakers are not and is also seen as a mad genius by many. You can read quotes all over the internet of producers and stars saying they didn’t think the films would ever be finished and that it felt like they were just wasting money and resources.

Those same people would also go on to say that when you watch the final product it’s proven to be totally effective and worth it in the end.

When you watch his films you get a filmmaker with a perfect understanding of composition, color, and how to fill up every image on screen with as much visuals as possible.

Bhansali is like an incredible mixture of 90s Spielberg in terms of fame/respect and 2000s Michael Bay in terms of pure madness.

Approaching a S+X Scene

In India, there are many rules and a lot of censorship of what you can and cannot show on film and the number one thing you definitely cannot show is sex and nudity.

Today's scene is a very creative workaround. It is an incredibly silly dance number that acts as the movie’s sex scenes.

At times it feels a lot like how you would do a screwball comedy back during the code era of the 30s in Hollywood. The number has some provocative moves as the dancers clearly want to jump into each other’s arms, but it’s done in such a cartoonish manner that no one could possibly take it seriously.

And with lines like:

(Translated into English)

You're a fighter plane but you're my beloved the bed that we share Is a battlefield

You're a fighter plane but you're my beloved the bed that we share Is a battlefield.

If you pull the trigger then I'll fire the kisses

It is made all the goofier and more ridiculous.

Fun fact

When making the film, Panchali pointed often to Baz Luhrman‘s Romeo + Juliet as a film he wanted to mimic and a big reason he picked the screenplay in the first place.

It’s genuinely really cool to read about this as Luhrmann himself is a massive fan of Bollywood and the greater Indian cinematic landscape, so for him to influence a movie that would go on to be the fifth highest-grossing film of its year is genuinely rad!

Disclaimer

If you are interested in delving deeper into Indian Cinema, we would highly suggest starting with films by Bhansali, which is how I was first introduced to Indian Cinema.

Or, read the work of Siddhant Adlakha, linked here: https://www.siddhantadlakha.com

He’s a fantastic writer I have been reading for years and is somebody I constantly defer to when learning about Indian cinema. I am a fan of the world of Indian cinema, but at the end of the day I’m just a casual fan with a Wi-Fi connection, not a scholar of the medium itself.

So, for that reason, I encourage you to seek out more qualified and knowledgeable sources in order to really learn more about this subject.

Today’s Scene

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