Yeh Dil Deewana
Pardes is one of my all time favourite movies. It is on the subject of NRIs, Swades, Pardes, Indian culture, US culture blah blah blah …. but these days I have become more interested in knowing about the places/cities where my fav movie has been filmed … my geogprahiya knowledge about US is much more better now than it was earlier say 6 months back …
Hmmm … I am interested to know about the cities and places in US where this movie is picturised …. which is the city where Amrish Puri & family lives in the core part of the movie … which is the bridge where Shahrukh khan drives car when “Yeh Dil” song starts … it may be possible that the Bridge is not in the city where the movie is based upon (not a big deal in bollywood movies as I know, me & my PL from last project noticed this in HUM TUM which I would blog some other time) ….
anyways .. if I try to recollect the movie (i watched it long back) .. i think i heard words like Los Angeles in the movie … there was a scene where Mahima and Apurva Agnihotri where sitting in Casinos .. so that city can be Las Vegas …. hmmm … I can watch Pardes again but too lazy to get a DVD from somewhere …. so Armed with these questions I started googling like I always do ….
First relevant hit I got on google ..
And surely the presentation of American Born South Asians isn’t correct, as with this movie most people in the subcontient will feel as though American Born South Asian Males are all flirts and have hundreds of girlfriends.
And whats up with the showing of a Vancouver bridge in Los Angeles? Why not just show a bridge in Los Angeles.
Hmmm … as I thought it’s based in Los Angeles …. and like I expected the Bridge is from Vancouver
Second relevant Hit on Google ..
The film’s many pleasures include great cinematography and songs (including the hit “I love my India,” sung by Khan and a pack of cute kids), as well as—for non-Indians—the curious and perhaps disquieting experience of seeing the Othering of their own Desh (country). Hey, Hollywood does this with India all the time, reducing an unknown culture to a series of generic sight-bites—remember the few seconds of turbaned (Hindu?) masses praying fervently in front of the Taj Mahal (a Muslm tomb!?) in INDEPENDENCE DAY? Or the faceless bazaar extras who get mowed down by Harrison Ford in TEMPLE OF DOOM? In PARDES, the faceless extras are white people, and the glittering urbanscape (actually Vancouver, BC) is Anytown USA, situated within a vague geography: Los Angeles and Las Vegas are apparently just down the road, and Rajiv and Ganga’s engagement photo appears incongruously on the front page of The New York Times (clearly, Family Lal is so rich that the world is their chapati). But after hitting Universal Studios and the Vegas Strip, the principals eventually find their way back to Bharat for a spectacular finale in one of India’s own top attractions: the ruined sixteenth-century palace of Akbar the Great, at Fatehpur Sikri outside Agra. Will, the true lover take the bride? (You tell me….)
Then, after getting engaged, Ganga goes to San Francisco with Rajiv while Arjun stays back for a while so he can establish a music school.
He soon transfers Arjun to a different city though it is not mentioned where he is going.
Soon, Rajiv takes Ganga to Las Vegas for his ex-girlfriend’s wedding.
So … that clears it …. Amrish Puri’s business & family was at SFO … Rajiv took Ganga to Las Vegas (during this time “Yeh Dil” songs comes into movie i think ..) … hmmm I guess I’ll have to watch this movie very soon to confirm my findings …..