They may live in American cities, go to American schools but Bollywood runs in their blood. We’re talking of young Indian-Americans, thousands and thousands of them, scattered across American towns and cities. Weaned on Bollywood movies on DVD since babyhood, they learn the Shah Rukh moves, the Madhuri moves, the Shahid moves, almost by osmosis in family living rooms.
Later many of them learn dance, classical and Bollywood, at the scores of Indian dance schools that have sprouted up in towns and cities. They dance at family events, birthdays and weddings, as naturally as if they were in a Bollywood movie and it was written into the script of life.
Dance brings them closer together, builds friendships, and sometimes even finds them romance. They imbibe the ‘family values’ espoused by scores of Bollywood movies, learn about love and friendship, and even plan weddings around popular film songs.
The recent Naya Andaz Annual Dance Competition organized by 1947 Production & Entertainment, Inc at the State Theater in New Brunswick, New Jersey brought over 650 aspiring dancers together from several dance schools for a hotly contested evening. The icing on the cake for the Bollywood fans was the presence of sizzling Bollywood dancer Mallika Sherawat and comic Asrani.
Bollywood had come to Brunswick!
These colorful images tell a fascinating story, one which may intrigue anthropologists decades later – of how immigrants from India settled in America, looking for the American Dream but brought India in their suitcase, nevertheless. Along with the spiritual texts, the saris and the spice boxes came the music and the dance and the cinema. And when the children were born on American soil, they already had all these embedded in their DNA. Many of them have never been to India, some don’t even speak the language but they sure know how to dance.
These are American kids, kids who went on play dates, will attend sleepovers, rock concerts and the prom. Yet Bollywood is a part of their lives, their American lives. Many of them may become physicians, nurses, or professionals in corporate America but for one shining night, made up like movie stars, dressed in fantastic costumes, they dance to the seductive rhythms under the strobe lights.
And when a young aspiring dancer meets a Bollywood star like Mallika Sherawat, for a brief moment, life itself turns into a larger-than-life glittering movie.
(All Photos: Gunjesh Desai/Masalajunction)
