Bollywood just entered puberty...

I think this is the first time I am able to recommend an Indian movie to everyone, including people who are not already fans of the Bollywood genre. (With the exception of Monsoon Wedding, whose director Mira Nair, is more of an independent/international filmmaker, and who I consider outside of the Bollywood world.)

Behold:



No songs. No dances. Two hours long.

Brilliant performances by the cast , especially the little girl whose first movie this is. Brilliant direction. Brilliant cinemtography. Brilliant script. The movie is slightly on the melodramatic side, and the plot is "straight out of a movie," but this must be the first time an otherwise masala movie (i.e., a regular Bollywood musical) director has made such a normal film with a big-name cast and big production values. Hats off to Bhansali. This is a huge step forward for Indian cinema.

And move aside Aishwarya Rai, because the new rani of Indian film is now, appropriately enough, Rani Mukherjee. (Rani means "queen" in Hindi.)

As a side note, this was one of the movies playing at the movie theater inside Virgin Megastore in Times Square, which I talked about a while back.