"Thousands of Bollywood songs are shot with madcap little unreal backdrops; Bhansali has just used one of those for his entire film"
well what are bollywood films if not 'unreal'? so what if a whole movie was shot before an 'unreal' backdrop? isnt it consistent with the 'unrealness' of Bollywood? the grandeur, the lavishness, the musicals?
"in a stylised world impossible to relate to.." so how many bollywood movies do we relate to every day? how many characters, sets, plots or backdrops? the song sequences? Bollywood movies arent meant to depict reality. they are a piece of escapism for those who wish to indulge.
and i would say the whole aestehtic of the film was to portray that very sense of surrealism, sense of other-world, a poetry, and the subtlety comes in your own interpretation of the cinematography and art be it blue or not, the architecture, whimsical or not and the dozen or so songs, impeding the narrative or not (arent the songs meant to propel the narrative? i thought they did so)
I guess if we wanted reality or 'subtlety' we'd go see Om Shanti Om now wouldn't we? ;)
I didnt go to see a plot unfold, or a spectacular never-heard before story to launch, knowing very well it was an SLB creation I went for
