Saawariya

In the fun-house mirror of global culture, Bollywood’s manic stylings got refracted for Western audiences in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge—a film that influences Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest spectacle (funded by Sony’s bucks). Saawariya (“beloved”) takes place on a fantasy soundstage city of serpentine canals and gigantic Buddha heads. The cotton-candy-weight story concerns a puckish musician (Ranbir Kapoor) romancing an elusive girl (Sonam Kapoor) who still pines for the dark stranger (Khan) who abandoned her. The production is pretty, in a Euro Disney–ish kind of way, without ever tapping into the deep strangeness of truly inspired kitsch.