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Bollywood DVDS

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Hey, now that we've seen some of these splashy musical numbers we can say there's nothing any more embarrassing than the average Will Smith video going on here. But the best aspect of the three most recent Bollywood films (Kolya, Virasat and Yess Boss) is that they finally take advantage of DVD technology. There's an option where you can have all the musical numbers in the film played back to back automatically using a single auto queue - and have up to a half hour of uninterrupted musical enjoyment!

Kolya

Kolya (Shah Rukh Khan) is a flute player who wins the heart of a village girl. But he doesn't know she thinks he's to be her husband soon, not the deceitful and lust-driven coal-town boss Raja (Amrish Puri)! The natural settings of waterfalls and mountaintops are truly mindboggling.
In original language with optional English, Chinese or Japanese subtitles, interactive menu, multiple music scene autoqueue, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound AC-3, 167 mins., Color, 31 chapters, starring Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan, Amrish Puri, directed and produced by Rakesh Roshan, ca. 1998, $29.95

CATALOG # SDM98-DVD105

Lav Kush

We couldn't begin to give you the plot synopsis on the back of this DVD, of a story taken from the Uttar Ramayan. Suffice to say, a lord is crowned king, superhuman twin boys are saved by their queen mother, and three civil wars are endured! Fabulous costumes and sets you haven't seen since the heyday of the Hollywood musical...
In original language with optional English, French or Spanish subtitles, interactive menus, music scene menu, Dolby Digital 2 Channels, 166 mins., Color, starring Jeetendra, Jayapradha, Pran, Dara Singh, Arun Govil, Beena, Jayashree Gadkar, Tiku Talsania, Isha Gupta, and Churni Banerji Aditi Chatterjee, directed by V. Madhusudan Rao, with music by Ram Laxman, ca. 1997, with religious artwork insert, $29.95

CATALOG # SDVD-IA-135

Virasat

Who says you can't have a godfather saga and a light romance; comic violence crossed with a heartfelt rivalry of extranged father and son; an old fashioned wedding and a newfangled human beat box? This film has it all plus six hit songs! Here's a bit right now:
Beatbox (46K)!
In original language with optional English, Chinese or Japanese subtitles, interactive menu, multiple music scene autoqueue, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound AC-3, 168 mins., Color, 24 chapters, starring Anil Kapoor, Tabu, Pooja Bartra, Amrish Puri, directed by Priyadarshan, with music by Anu Malik, ca. 1998, $29.95

CATALOG # SDM98-DVD103

Yes Boss!

Star Shah Rukh Khan, who is of course doing his all to get the girl, makes like a cross between Gene Kelly and Jerry Lewis in musical comedy numbers so eclectic they mix C&W and hip-hop in a single mardi gras! The setting is the big city and Big Advertising.
In original language with optional English, Chinese or Japanese subtitles, interactive menu, multiple music scene autoqueue, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound AC-3, 165 mins., Color, 28 chapters, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, Aditya Pancholi, directed by Aziz Mirza, ca. 1998, $29.95

CATALOG # SDM98-DVD102

India's Greatest Epic, Vols. 1-4

The making-of doc here is only sometimes inscrutable, when a talking head interjects or someone's English is slurred. You can make out basic entire sections like the overview of the producer's long career and screen tests of the major players. It's too bad the whole thing wasn't subtitled, but we're lucky it's here on top of the entire Mahabharat - in a projected 94 chapter serial release originally done for television as a mini-series! The disembodied voice of Time itself narrates this amazing Hindi equivalent to Homer's Iliad. Lord Krishna's Celestial Song, The Geeta, is only part of its panoply...
In original language with optional English, French and Spanish subtitles, interactive menu, multiple episodes with separate installments of a multi-episode "making of" documentary (only partially translated or in English but still fascinating), Dolby Digital 2 Channel sound, with episode guide inserts, produced and directed by B.R. Chopra and Ravi Chopra, $29.95 apiece

Mahabharat... Vol. 1 Eps. 1-6 CATALOG # SDVD-I-041......
Mahabharat... Vol. 2 Eps. 7-12 CATALOG # SDVD-I-042....
Mahabharat... Vol. 3 Eps. 13-18 CATALOG # SDVD-I-043..
Mahabharat... Vol. 4 Eps. 119-24 CATALOG # SDVD-I-044

Monsoon

This goth-erotic thriller is an interesting cross-cultural experiment by expatriate director Jag Mundhra, who now works in Hollywood. There may or may not be reincarnation at the root of a betrothed couple's problems; but as they are set to tie the knot in Goa a fortune-teller warns them of the karma of a 500-year-old double suicide. The groom begins to stray with a mysterious woman already married to a drug smuggler. Is history going to repeat itself, and how? Who will survive, and at what cost?
1998, color, 96 mins., unrated cut (parental guidance suggested), theatrical trailer and theme music video, English or Hindi-dubbed in Dolby Digital 5.1, English and Spanish subtitles, 25 chapters, jump-to-scene menu, digital master, starring Richard Tyson, Matt McCoy, Jenny McShane Gulshan Grover and Helen Brodie, directed by Jag Mundhra, $29.95

CATALOG # SDM98-DVD 123