India (Frommer's, 4th Edition) (19 page)

The top-bracket Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan (who is nearing 70), the 40-something Shah Rukh Khan (aka SRK, “King of Bollywood,” and “King Khan”), heartthrob Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, and relative newcomer, former model John Abraham, are paid incredible sums by Indian standards, earning close to $1 million for a film simply because they are the names that will bring in the audiences. As it is all over the world, women get paid much less, often half of what the male stars are paid, but stars like Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai have their devoted followings.

Increasingly, the influence of Hollywood production values and obsession with consumer culture is becoming evident in major Bollywood releases; to keep the MTV generation (and yes, India has its very own MTV) interested, you can expect to see younger stars with an ever more visible sex appeal engaged in plots that echo some of the preoccupations of the Western silver screen. Bigger bangs, more powerful explosions, and longer chase scenes combine with racier moments, tighter outfits, and about enough attitude to put even the most self-indulgent posers to shame. But it’s not all bad. In fact, some wonderful experiments in storytelling have produced screenplays that pack a punch and wow with the twists and turns invented to keep more world-wise audiences on their toes. Also, collaborative efforts between Bollywood studios and the West are making for enterprising transnational story lines; perhaps the most interesting of these is the intricately crafted
Salaam-E-Ishq: A Tribute to Love
(2007), which travels between continents and across genres and generations to provide a fantasy romance that innovatively blends narrative techniques borrowed from a broad pedigree. It’s the type of cinema that cannot fail to steal your heart. Another development is the appearance of films that attempt to somehow deconstruct the Bollywood formula while still playing to the masses.
Dev.D
(2009), for example, is a contemporary, youth-culture oriented reworking of
Devdas,
the classic novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, which had already spawned nine film versions. The film is a good chance to get some insight into a very modern understanding of India.

In fact, to view Bollywood movies as the be-all and end-all of India’s film industry would be akin to thinking that big-budget blockbusters are the only movies made by the U.S. film industry; Bollywood is only responsible for a small part of the huge number of films produced by India in several languages. The first Indian director to make international art audiences sit up and take notice was Kolkata-based Satyajit Ray. Although he made his films in the 1950s, he received a Lifetime Achievement Oscar for his prolific body of work in 1992. Operating out of West Bengal’s “Tollywood,” Ray made movies that were the antithesis of Bollywood’s; he was the director who stated that “the man in the street is a more challenging subject for exploration than people in the heroic mold” and that he found “muted emotions more interesting and challenging.” Ray directed some 40 feature films, documentaries, and short subjects, of which
Pather Panchali
(Song of the Little Road) in 1955,
Aparajito
(The Unvanquished) in 1956,
Apur Sansar
(The World of Apu) in 1959, and
Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne
(The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha) in 1968 were the most internationally acclaimed. There are, of course, other exceptions, like Guru Dutt, one of Bollywood’s most successful directors of the 1950s, whose film
Pyaasa
(1957) has been nominated one of the world’s 100 best films by
Time
magazine.

Because India produces more than 700 films a year, it is in fact impossible to be monolithic about all products and speak of only a certain kind of film. Until recently, the government financed art-house cinema, and there are signs of a growing “indie” movement in which young directors scrape together the finances and make the kind of films they want as opposed to the formulaic catch-all colorful song-and-dance extravaganzas that financiers are comfortable backing. There are also some very serious and hard-hitting dramas, and one worth seeing—particularly if you’re visiting Mumbai—is
Mumbai Meri Jaan
(2008), which takes a poignant look at the impact of the 2006 train bombings that took 209 lives and left over 700 more injured.

These are probably more likely to be the types of films that provide insight into what India looks and feels like—as does, paradoxically, the British film
Slumdog Millionaire
(2008), directed by Danny Boyle and codirected in India by Loveleen Tandan. If you want a deep, hard look at the social consciousness of the country, look to the wonderful works of Mira Nair, who has crafted fantastic entertainments that tug at the heartstrings and probe many issues without stooping to cheap preachy politicking (the notable exception being her recent work,
The Namesake,
2007). You would be amiss not to see her
Salaam Bombay!
(1988)
,
about the life of a group of Mumbai street urchins, and
Monsoon Wedding
(2001), a beautiful and poignant romantic comedy about a well-to-do Delhiite family dealing with generational conflicts that complicate traditional marriage arrangements. Work on the much-vaunted film version of
Shantaram,
which Nair is directing, came to a grinding halt in 2007 due to a Writer’s Guild strike, but there is talk of production commencing in 2010; based on the riveting best-selling novel (see above), the Johnny Depp–headliner is destined to take the world by storm—if it ever gets made.

Another top-rated woman director to look for is Deepa Mehta, whose trilogy
Fire
(1996),
Earth
(1998), and
Water
(2005)
are superbly moving works of high-grade cinema—and certainly preferable to her slightly irritating and kitschy
Bollywood/Hollywood
(2002), set in Canada.

Art listings aside, playing in a theater near you in any city in India will be a film in which the rich hero meets the poor heroine and falls almost instantly in love. He will declare this in song, and the scene will change to New Zealand, Switzerland, or Southeast Asia, depending on which country is most eager to attract the new beneficiaries of India’s globalization. The couple will find obstacles put in their path, some by their parents and others by the villain, who will at some point have cast his lecherous eyes on the heroine. Fairly standardized violence will follow—after this comes a misunderstanding that paves the way for another song expressing the grief of betrayal or the pain of parting or that sets up what the industry calls an “item number” (which may have derived from Mumbai slang for a pretty young thing, or an “item”) in which a young dancer performs the equivalent of a pole dance for the audience. When the air is cleared, justice and peace have returned to the world, the good have been rewarded, and the villains are dead or rounded up. At the film’s end, you will either be floored by the extravagant color, ravished by floods of emotion, and converted to another way of telling stories; or you will be repulsed by excess and sickened by melodrama and the way in which Caucasian extras are used to represent the decadent sexualized Other. But you will not be unmoved.

Chapter 3: Planning Your Trip to India

Once the playing fields of only die-hard budget New Age travelers, India has in the past decade come into its own for top-end travelers who want to be pampered and rejuvenated as well as spiritually and culturally challenged. Given its vast size, the majority of India’s top attractions are remarkably easy to get to, using a clever combination of internal flights or long-haul train journeys and chauffeur-driven cars (no sane traveler would self-drive). With your own car and driver, it’s also simple (and increasingly recommended) to get off the beaten track, to avoid the crowds, and perhaps discover India as it was just a few years ago. Hotels, particularly in the heritage category, offer excellent value-for-money in Western terms, and every variety of accommodation, from long-term house rentals to houseboats and homestays, is available in a range of price categories. You will dine, or rather feast, on unique and exceptional flavors, and find yourself overwhelmed by the enormous variety of cuisines; vegetarians will rejoice and carnivores might find themselves rediscovering the pleasures of “pure veg” dining. Despite a number of potential health concerns, sensible travelers will enjoy their sojourn with little more than a brief tummy upset (although you’d do well to heed our warnings about hygiene and water consumption); arm yourself against mosquitoes and make sure you’ve had all the necessary shots before setting off. It is, however, very important to plot out your itinerary and make reservations well in advance. Finally, you’ll find almost everything you need here, particularly if you’re armed with a credit card and
Frommer’s
India, 4th Edition,
of course.

For additional help in planning your trip and for more on-the-ground resources in India, please turn to “Fast Facts.”

1 When to Go

Your choice of where and when to go will be determined primarily by the weather. India’s vastness means that the climate varies greatly from region to region, and sometimes even from day to night, as in the desert regions. The Indian year features six seasons: spring, summer, the rainy season, early and late autumn, and winter, but effectively there are but three—summer, winter, and monsoon.

You’ll be better off visiting during the
high-season
winter
months (Nov–Mar), when most of the country experiences pleasant, moderate temperatures (still hot enough to luxuriate in the pool), though cities in the north get chillier days as snow falls in the Himalayas. As a rule, always be prepared for warm to hot days, with the possibility of cooler weather at night. (If this has you worrying about how to pack, remember that you can pick up the most wonderful throwaway cotton garments for next to nothing and a real Pashmina scarf in every color to ward off an unexpected chill.) As with all season-driven destinations, there is a downside to traveling during peak months: From December to January, for example, Goa swells to bursting point with foreigners and city folk who arrive for the sensational beaches and parties. Lodging rates soar during these periods, so you may want to wait until the
shoulder season
(Sept–Oct, Mar–Apr), when there are fewer people and rates are very negotiable.

Summer
(generally Apr–June) sees little traffic, and for good reason—the daytime heat, particularly in India’s north-central regions, is debilitating, even for the locals. This is the time to plan your trip to the Himalayas instead, particularly to high altitude provinces such as Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir. Ladakh, a magical region in the far north of the country, can only be visited June through September—the rest of the year it remains a destination that’s strictly for hard-core adventurers looking to trek through ultraextreme cold conditions.

The
monsoon
drenches much of the country between June and September, usually starting its season in Kerala. Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh don’t get too much rain during this period; instead they get more rainfall from a second monsoon that hits just this region around mid-October and runs through December. In Rajasthan, central India, and the northern plains, the rains typically arrive by July and fall until early September. Some of the regions are at their most beautiful during the monsoon, but it can be difficult to move around, and there is a higher risk of exposure to diseases like malaria. Flooding, power failures, and natural destruction are also not uncommon. We have noticed, however, that the monsoon has become increasing fallible and locals will tell you that global warming has had a devastating impact on the rains. These days, it’s possible to spend most of June in Kerala and see only a few days of intense showers.

INDIA’S WEATHER MONTH BY MONTH

The following charts indicate the average maximum and minimum temperatures for each month of the year, as well as the average rainfall, in major tourist-destination cities and towns.

THE HIMALAYAS

Shimla, Himachal Pradesh