Hooray for Bollywood!

They sat within view of the Brooklyn bridge drinking Starbucks.

The woman was impossibly beautiful and the man was an unattractive goofball. I guess he was supposed to be charming. They spoke English (if my lip-reading skills can be trusted) but they were dubbed into German. Suddenly, they broke into an extravagant song and dance number in some language I didn't recognize, except for the refrain, which included the phrase "Rock N' Roll".

This must be Bollywood.

The film I saw this afternoon on German TV, whose German title, Bis dass das Glueck uns scheidet, roughly translates, 'Til Fortune do us part', was a basic cheesy romantic comedy set in Manhattan, with a few differences.

All the characters were Indian. I wonder, is it typical to set a Bollywood movie outside India? I guess that's pretty typical of Hollywood movies, too.

The men were overcostumed in a euro-trashy rather than the typical L.A.-trashy way. The women, on the other hand, were stunning, and perfectly put together.

Then there were the crazy Indian-pop musical numbers, which were a little startling, but that doesn't mean I didn't like them. At least the big dance numbers, which included an array of showgirls in vivid saris. The ballads, on the other hand, were shot just like a Celine Dion video (read 'very bad').

The acting was good, but the story was emotionally overwrought. More so than a typical Hollywood romcom? It's hard to say, but I think so.

It was definitely much more glamorous than most recent Hollywood movies and, ahem, most recent German movies. And that always gets two thumbs up from me.