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 Indian music Apr 06, 2008
Awesome music, and even better the movie adaptation to such a well known story. "The rythm is gonna get you!" to quote a character in the movie.
Welcome to Hollywood, Aishwarya!
22 of 22 found the following review helpful:
The Hindi soundtrack - a perfect complement to the US release Oct 24, 2005
The Balle Balle! Amristar to LA soundtrack is the true, Hindi version of the Bride and Prejudice soundtrack. It shares a couple of the tracks on the English release (including Balle Balle), but there are also some important differences between the two CDs. For one thing, this album does not include all of the songs from the English album; the excluded tracks are Arrogance, Pride, and Vanity, Lalita Walks Away, Ashanti's Touch My Body, and Marriage End.
On the plus side, though, you get a significantly longer version of Dola Dola, Hindi versions of No Life Without Wife and A Marriage Has Come to Town (Lo Shaadi Aayi), and three versions of Take Me to Love (Tumse Kahen Ya, Hum Na Kahen), including an instrumental that really showcases the beauty of the music. I love the English version of this song, but the Hindi version is even better (despite the fact I know nothing about the language whatsoever). It would be hard to find a more beautiful love song than this one.
The English soundtrack is all most Bride and Prejudice fans will need, but those truly enraptured with the film's music should not be satisfied until they acquire both versions of the soundtrack. In my opinion, Balle Balle! Amristar to LA is worth it for Tumse Kahen Ya, Hum Na Kahen alone.
5 of 24 found the following review helpful:
 Too much of a farce after BILB Aug 05, 2005
To most of my American friends, the movie was "exotic" and "new." Maybe so, but Chadha is presumably also going for establishing a reputation as a fine filmmaker, and unfortunately, for all the hype, this film is a farce.
It's an exaggeration of what Hindi/commercial cinema is in India--and there you suspend belief happily to watch a film, here all the "coincidences" were ridiculous, the songs in English were absolutely so. As silly as some Hindi songs can get, there is an actual attempt at some level of poetic content, and a lot of the times, it is not merely the tune that stays in your head, it is the excellent writing behind the song.
I laughed throughout the movie, and went home mildly entertained, but this is not only not just Chadha's not-so-good work, it might possibly be her worst. Rai is beautiful (as she always is) but lacks the intensity to make the "Mera Bharat Mahaan" statements she renders--she's a commercial film actress, something like this needs a great deal of subtlety.
I don't think Chadha is an indifferent filmmaker--I think she actually very good (see BILB)so I hope she does a better, more sensitive job with the Mistress of Spices film. It isn't easy to convert good literature into good films (usually only passable ones) and Mist. of Spices is a nuanced, great read. Handle it carefully, Ms. Chadha.
4 of 17 found the following review helpful:
Passable Mar 24, 2005
By now you probably have heard or read that film book is an Indianized version of the original English story,
Pride and Prejudice." The book worked well in the English version, but does not translate well in the Indianized version. I was disappointed by the film, and the sound track since I have seen all of Gurinder Chadha's films and have enjoyed all of them. This film tried to do too many things, and in the process the end product was not all that good.
The funny thing is I cannot recollect any of the songs in this track other than the "Balle Balle" song. I would probably listen to the songs once more, but am not sure if I would want to possess this track.
29 of 32 found the following review helpful:
Pros and cons of going for the import over the US release Feb 19, 2005
'Balle Balle! Amristar to LA' is the title of the Indian release of Gurinder Chadha's 'Bride and Prejudice,' her follow-up to the worldwide smash 'Bend It Like Beckham.' There are are pros and cons of going for the import version of the soundtrack over the domestic release. On the 'pro' side, you get each of these songs they way they were intended to be sung and heard, i.e., in Hindi. For fans of the 'Beckham' soundtrack, you know what an enjoyable listening experience that can be.
On the 'con' side, the import is quite a bit shorter. Ashanti's tune is gone (not a great loss...what the heck was she doing in this movie anyway?), but there are also a couple of numbers, quite captivating in the film, which didn't find their way onto the import. Notably they are: 'Marriage Has Come to Town' (the street scene with Aishwarya Rai and two friends surrounded by teeming groups of spectators divided into color groups - one of the film's indelible scenes); and 'Marriage End' the short piece the ends the film (featuring a great "will she or won't she" moment as Ms. Rai sidles close to co-star Martin Henderson and looks for a moment like she might bestow a kiss on him...but the Rai legend remains unbroken).
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