Saturday, September 03, 2011

Bollywood Soap Opera


"Bodyguard" is a rousing example of Bollywood-style pure escapist entertainment. Handsome, muscular Lovely Singh (Salman Khan) -- an unlikely name for a martial arts superhero -- is hired by a business tycoon (Raj Babbar) to guard his beautiful daughter (Kareena Kapoor) from kidnappers. She understandably chafes at Lovely's intense surveillance and mischievously pretends via her cellphone to be another woman who is smitten by him -- only to realize she has fallen in love with him herself.

But the dutiful and humble Lovely, so shrewd and indomitable in the face of danger, is naive and even innocent in the matters of the heart. Director Siddique switches from bravura action to heady romance, with moments of broad comedy relief. The gracefully dynamic style even carries off a soap opera-like tear-jerking finale with aplomb. Lots of fun.

No comments: