Review of Loins of Punjab Presents (2007) by Nikhil P — 30 Oct 2007

The title will not only put you off, it will keep you wondering WTF. This is easily explained by the voice over in the beginning of the movie. The story is about a Desi Idol contest being held in New Jersey. Yes Bollywood seems to shoots more movies abroad than in India. And the story of the list of aspirants all of them Indians except for one very timid American Joshua Cohen (Michael Raimondi in his 3rd movie, or 1st movie with a proper presence) Joshua is a Indophile and his Indian girlfriend (Ayesha Dharkar she from the Terrorist) narrates that she met him in Bombay in a movie theatre, when she heard him sing the Indian national anthem.

The movie takes you on this nice humorous journey, but in the climax they hit you in the face with a hammer! I was having a serious lump in my throat, a choked voice (so I didn't speak to Suchitra about the movie until we reached home) and moistness in my eyes. A little more and I am sure I would have bawled. And mind you my brother had almost given the ending away when he was telling us how good the movie (he who doesn't watch Bollywood movies) and stopped short when he heard that the movie was still in town and we intended seeing it.

No no! No one is dying of cancer, or losing a beloved one to someone else or anything like that. And you all know I am a guns and bullets man as far as movies go;-).

In fact the character concerned actually finds that a loved one who decided to leave has come back, and the incident is as simple as the character singing a very simple well know short Indian song to win the contest. You will not believe this, but all of us in the theatre stood up when this scene played! Even now while writing about it and thinking about it I get shivers running up and down my spine. And this was NO horror scene, the most benign scene you could think of. You of course have to be an Indian to understand the scene.