City boy meets wholesome country girl. They fight, flirt, share bubbly drinks, and fall in love. He moves, she follows and is rejected. She pines, then moves on to become a pop star. It’s Romeo and Juliet meets Grease: the Bollywood movie, Taal ! If you’ve never seen a Bollywood movie, this is a good one to start with. Cue drums and dancing!

Singing, Dancing, Cheese…yup!

Prince Manav Mehta (Akshaye Khanna) is the son of a wealthy Bombay family who reside in London half the time. This year, they have decided to visit family in Chamba. Manav prefers to view the surrounding countryside with his new camera. During a song in the rain, he becomes distracted and falls off a cliff. Mansi (Aishwarya Rai), daughter of the local singer/composer Tarababu, is Manav’s rescuer.

Mr. Velveeta.

Of course, they eventually fall in love. Of course, both their families hate the idea. Manav is forced to return to Bombay. Hey, Tarababu has a cousin in Bombay! A visit is arranged, but it’s a disaster. What is a heartbroken Mansi to do? Become a huge pop star with the help of Vikrant Kapoor (Anil Kapoor), of course! Life is great – Tarababu is getting paid for his songs, Mansi and Vikrant are successful and happy, and Manav…okay, he’s not happy. Mansi’s not that happy, either. Love Trianglulation ensues!

This is his dance of grieving. Seriously.

Now, I picked this movie because A.R. Rahman composed the music. I saw the musical Bombay Dreams last year before it died, and I loved it. Loved the Indian Andrew Lloyd Webber, as it were (hey, Webber produced it). I wanted to hear more Rahman, and Taal, I’d heard, was one of the biggies to watch. Bonus: I get to hear the Bombay Dreams music all over again, because he pulled most of the tunes from this movie – awesome!

But even though I knew most of the hit tunes, I still liked this movie. Incidentally, taal means rhythm. Of course music’s a focal point, but I think it’s meant in the broader context of life and love here, too. Sure, it’s cheesy. But it’s a good cheese, like a nice sharp cheddar. The plot allows you to forgive some of the odd musical segments that seem to be there at random (this is typical of Bollywood movies), and even though it’s another familiar storyline, I think it comes off well. You almost forget it’s not in English, especially when English phrases are thrown around everywhere. I think it’s even better then Grease.

And hey, it’s way better than Phantom of the Opera.

I’m pretty sure Coke was a sponsor. This is as subtle as it got.