My First hindi Movie

I was working on a movie theater client, so we got treated to a PVR gold class movie to introduce the gora in the office to the Indian cinema.
I was pretty frikkin amped. An afternoon out of the office, a promise of 'better than first class' movie seats with a waiter bringing you nachos and cocktails AND my first Hindi movie.

The only movie showing on the day was Kal Kisne Dekha.
From the movie poster it looked like a Bollywood version of high School Musical but with college students. It pretty much was.
I had to keep my hand over my mouth to prevent the outbursts of laughter.
My favourite scene was when the 'hero' beats up the college bullies with a soccer ball. He kicks the ball into their chests, they fall down and the ball having bounced off them returns directly back to his foot so that he can get the next guy.
It was hysterical. Hysterically bad.
The copywriter I went with was cowering in embarassment. I'm not sure if it was because of my laughter or because of the movie, I'm guessing the movie as there were only 4 other people in the theater.
Even though there were no English subtitles and the entire dialogue was in Hindi, I could totally follow the story: Poor and lazy guy leaves his mother's village to go to college, makes friends with the 'cool nerds', falls in love with the prettiest girl in the class, sings a song, beats up the bullies (with a soccer ball), prettiest girl in the class falls in love with him after realising how masculine he is with a soccer ball, he realises there's a plot to blow something up, develops a gift to see into the future, stops the bomb while saving the heroine, beats up the bad guy, saves the day, leaves with the prettiest girl in the class to enjoy the rest of his life.

Even though it was an awful movie, I love it. I have never seen such a mix of movie genres. Just like the music playlists in India, a movie has no specific genre, it is not a drama or a romantic comedy or an action movie or a sci-fi, or a thriller, it is all of the above. A mad mixture where there is space for everything.
A dramatic sci-fi-rom-com-action-thriller. Fabulous!

The other thing that I loved was that part of it was shot in Cape Town. About 15% of the movie was shot on Jammie Steps at The University of Cape Town and there was a long scene on Glen Beach with the 12 apostles in the background. I was jumping out of my seat in excitement to see my home on the Indian Cinema screen.

All in all a fantastic experience.

I have now watched a bunch of excellent hindi movies and am glad to report that it competes with Hollywood in the best of movies as well as the worst.