Just about to watch the film but I have some questions.
I heard that Asoka has a great sound track but I thought they meant background music. Does Asoka have any musicals?? I don't understand why it would though it was trying to make its way to the West (Westerners like myself don't like the cheezy musical parts, we like good action, background music, drama, and philosophy in a historical drama/epic).
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Roshini Se was positively haunting. Magnificently picturized. I thought the other music was quite good and fit the scenes well.
shareI beg to differ- in indian bollywood movies- the musical part of the movie is a level of cheese unattainable by normal humans, and may cause tissue damage.
shareI'd rather watch Indian musicals than anything musical out of Hollywood. Music in movies has been perfected by Indian cinema.
'A wed wose, how womantic'
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And yes , I would definitely prefer Indian musicals over ... Hollywood musicals
I fully agree. I nearly always cringe when viewing Hollywood musicals (those like "Singin' in the rain" (1952)). I do not even like the famous 'West side story' (music is better than the visualisation). I think the only western musicals up to now, which worked for me are the British 'Cats' (of which I like mostly the ballet but not the music) and 'Phantom of the opera' (Andrew Lloyd Webber) and from Hollywood the musical 'Kiss me Kate' (1953) which is mostly due to Shakespeare's play 'Taming of a shrew'. But the Bollywood inspired 'Moulin Rouge!' (2001) was abominable for me, could not abide to watch it until the end. Even worse for me was 'Chicago' (2002). I switched the channel after the first song.
So it might well be that someone who likes Hollywood musicals would not like Bollywood's dance-songs. And someone who even dislikes any musical will probably dislike the Indian dance-songs as well.
--- each brain develops its own preferences ---
I like both!
shareI forgot to mention one western musical film that I really like: 'Hair' (1979).
The film is by far not as good as 'Asoka' in my view but as a musical 'Hair' works the best for me.
--- each brain develops its own preferences ---
I in general do not like western musicals, never have. However I fell in love with Bollywood from the first moment.
My brother had huge prejudice against BW and he was not at all interested to see any film. Finally I was able to persuade him to watch Don (-06) and he found out, that the films are not necessarily bad, just because they have song secuences. He has since watched more films and liked them. I'm planning to give him Asoka for his birthday next month and I'm really hoping he will like it...
Being a westerner myself I like to disagree with the generalisation "Westerners don't like the cheezy musical parts". But since you limited your statement to "Westerners like myself" you are completely right. Many westerners have no experience of the Indian type of cinema and thus are often repelled by dancing and lip-synch-singing heros.
Nevertheless, "Asoka" has a great score (Sandeep Chowta) as well as a good soundtrack of 5 very good dance songs (Anu Malik). After having seen about 100 Indian movies for me this soundtrack is still the best of all. My favourite song is 'San Sanana' but the other four follow closely. Best and most innovative picturization has 'Roshni Se' which is a dreamlike recollection. The best choreography in my view shows 'O Re Kanchi' where the whole village dances.
--- each brain develops its own preferences ---
My best friends are white Americans and they love the music-filled films too, so speak for yourself, OP.
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Please speak for yourself and not all westerners. I happen to be a westerner of long standing and I love Bollywood flix. ASOKA was my first and is still one of my favorites.
share