Moulin Rouge

Well, what do you know - yup, Moulin Rouge was based on a Bollywood movie, Lol!

Sometimes we don't appreciate what we've grown in our own backyard. (I can't bear to watch any more just yet, I just wanted to share a positive sentiment w.r.t. Bollywood movies after that bilious bout of criticism.:)

Straight from wikipedia about the origin of it's glitter ...

When asked about his inspiration for Moulin Rouge, Luhrmann remarked:

"... We went out one night and there was a big poster up for a Bollywood movie. I said, "Let's go see that." We did - 2,000 audience members, high comedy, high tragedy, brother kills brother, [they] break out in some musical numbers, all jumbled up together in 4 hours of Hindi. We thought that was amazing. So our question was, "Could we create a cinematic form like that? Could a musical work?" A musical must be able to work in western culture again, and could it be comic-tragic? So then began this commitment of moving toward "Moulin Rouge."

There was also a play within a play, "Spectacular Spectacular," which itself may have been based on an ancient Sanskrit play, The Little Clay Cart.

We're unkind because we're immunized to the kind of magic we grew up in. Seeing a bollywood movie from the point of view of an industry that works, and that the machinery churns out more movies than any other place in the world, employs more entertainers than any other legit business ... it's unbelieveable. Kind of mind-blowing to reflect on it.