Director Willard Carroll's musical comedy Marigold promises a pleasant blend of Hollywood-Bollywood styles.
With the sizeable NRI community going gaga over Bollywood flicks in recent times, it is little wonder that Hollywood is sitting up and taking notice. Hollywood filmmakers are making a serious attempt to understand Hindi cinema and the great influence Bollywood movies have on a billion people.
Willard Carroll is one such filmmaker who has attempted to take a closer look at things and bridge the East-West gap in the process. The director of Marigold: An Adventure in India has achieved a casting coup of sorts by pairing Bollywood hearthrob Salman Khan with Hollywood beauty Allison (Ali) Larter.
Carroll is no mug behind the camera. He has worked with the likes of Sean Connery and Angelina Jolie as producer of Playing By The Heart. However, Bollywood is clearly uppermost on his mind.
Carroll, whose film claims to cater to Indian and American sensibilities, would like to look upon it as a truly international offering."I was determined to make a film that might marry the best of Indian and Western cultures and filmmaking styles. When I first explored India, I had only a vague notion of the movie I wanted to make. The script evolved out of my experience with the people and their exuberance, their candour and their affection," explains Carroll.
Carroll got so engrossed with Bollywood films that he spent 6 months of his career watching more than 150 DVDs of recent releases. But is Marigold a delicate blend of the best of East and West or just another tongue-in-cheek look at Bollywood? Carroll begs to differ. "I have no intentions of making any dig at Bollywood films. Some recent Bollywood films had such spirit and energy that they reminded me of the great Hollywood musicals of the '40s and '50s," he says.
Music and dance in pure Bollywood style forms the film's backdrop, quite unusual for a Hollywood flick. "Music is a key part of Marigold.
Although the film is firmly in the musical romantic comedy genre, I wanted my title character Marigold, played by Ali Larter, to come alive in the fullest and sincerest sense. My aim was to get the American audience to experience an unexpected new world, through my lead character, just as I did."
Larter plays the role of a bad-tempered American actress Marigold Lexten, who arrives in India without luggage, but loads of attitude to shoot for her low-budget Hollywood movie. When the movie lands in financial trouble, she gets a small role in a Bollywood movie, but ends up stranded in Goa. She meets and falls in love with Prem, an aspiring choreographer. In between song and dance, she finds herself softening up and turns into a new person altogether.
This brings us to the most interesting subject of how Carroll ended up casting Khan as the male lead. "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam was amongst the best Bollywood films I watched and I found Salman endearing in it. I also watched Chori Chori Chupke Chupke in which he was terrific. I decided that Salman had to be my first and only choice to play the male lead. I always felt that he had the unpredictability, sincerity and charm to appeal to American and international audiences," he says.
And was it difficult working with the actor? "Salman's commitment to Marigold was unwavering. In fact, much of the screenplay's accuracy in portraying the contemporary Indian family values and Bollywood industry is due to his active participation in the film," says Carroll.
Of course, with Khan in the forefront, the film has generated curiosity among his fans in India. Khan is not thinking about box office success. For the moment he is basking in the afterglow of the experience.
"It was a very good experience working with Carroll. He was very professional in his approach to work and very well organised, which captivated me when he offered me the role. The shoot was fun and we wrapped it up in less than one and half month," he says.
On his role, Khan says, "I play the character of Prem, who aspires to be a top choreographer. He is talented and hard-working and has left behind his family and privileged life to prove himself in the film industry. His life takes a turn when he meets Marigold and it leads to a series of events that have an impact on his life."
Khan and Larter struck up a good rapport on the sets, despite coming from different schools of acting. Acting styles, as expected, were poles apart. Larter used to rehearse her scenes while Khan was spontaneous. No rehearsing for him as he knew what he was going to do before even arriving on the sets.
Khan has nothing but kind words for his heroine. "Ali is a lovely person. She has adjusted very well to filmmaking conditions in India. She had to work extra hard on the typical Bollywood dance sequences. I think she is a talented, dedicated and beautiful actress," he says.
Larter is no rookie actor. She has already starred in big Hollywood hits such as Final Destination 1& 2, Legally Blonde and House On Haunted Hill. She is not lacking in the beauty department either having been ranked No.6 in Maxim's Hot 100 for 2007. Acting in one of Carroll's earlier productions landed her the title role in Marigold. But what really impressed Carroll was Larter's courageous approach in learning how to sing and dance onscreen for the first time.
With many firsts to its credit, Marigold promises to be a path-breaking film. It remains to be seen how much it appeals to international audiences. For Indian audiences, it could turn out to be an unique experience. Khan fans can watch him mouthing dialogues in English. Of course, the film is also dubbed in Hindi.
