Bury my heart at Moulin Rouge

Sonam Kapoor

Will the pretty young maiden ride off into the sunset with the singing, dancing, joyous eunuch who worships the very ground she walks on? Or will she settle for the brooding drifter who’ll guarantee her days of hardship and nights of multiple orgasms? Yes, it’s still the same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die. Where the object of affection will inevitably be swayed by the package in his lordship’s pants.

    No expense is spared in Saawariya (2007); it’s a visual feast with a superbly arranged musical score by Monty Sharma, wardrobe to die for and a handful of capably choreographed musical numbers. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, however, seems to have overdosed on Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) in an apparent bid to broaden the appeal of Bollywood — working from a short story by Dostoevsky, no less. The results are, as all that implies, eyepoppingly mixed.

    I found Ranbir Kapoor overbearing as the yappity minstrel; a little of his gushing goes a long way. Sonam Kapoor is excellent as the naïve waif blind to his love, but sharp enough to realize what a tediously high maintenance prick he’ll surely become down the road of life. She also supports my theory that India may be giving birth to more beautiful women than any other country on the planet. This is further backed by Rani Mukherjee, who plays the playfully seductive neighborhood hooker. They dance, they sing, they watch Ranbir wear his heart on his sleeve for one-hundred-and-forty-two minutes. When Sonam goes off with Salman Khan’s badboy and the screen fades to black, we realize we’re never going to see the best part of the story.

It looks fantastic on Blu-ray

The music is mostly excellent