- Bombay Boys
Infobox Film
name = Bombay Boys
image_size =
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director =Kaizad Gustad
producer =
writer =Kaizad Gustad
narrator =
starring =Tara Deshpande
Naveen Andrews
Rahul Bose
Alexander Gifford
Naseeruddin Shah
Roshan Seth
Luke Kenny
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor =
released = 1998
runtime = 105 min.
country =India
language = English/Hindi
budget =
preceded_by =
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website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0168529"Bombay Boys" (
1998 ) is an unorthodoxcomedy film written and directed by the Indian directorKaizad Gustad . It follows the adventures of three young men in modern-dayMumbai (or Bombay). The boys are of Indian origin, but were all raised in the West. Krishna Sahni (played byNaveen Andrews ) is an aspiring actor fromNew York who wants to make it big inBollywood . Ricardo Fernandes (Rahul Bose ) is fromSydney ,Australia and is in Mumbai to search for his long-lost brother. Finally, Xerxes Mistry (Alexander Gifford ), a musician fromLondon , is looking to discover his "roots" in the land of his ancestors.ynopsis
The three meet each other for the first time at Mumbai's
airport and decide to find a place together. In the course of the movie, Krishna finds out that, in order to break into the local film industry, he must first win the (decidedly risky) patronage of Don Mastana, a godfather of the Mumbai underworld who's also afilm producer . Mastana is a violent man who thinks nothing of impaling alizard with a knife or shattering the skull of a fellow crime boss for making a pass at his girlfriend. The role of Mastana was played by the acclaimed actorNaseeruddin Shah , who received kudos for his hilarious, psychotic performance.Ricardo, the serious-looking Australian, finds out the sad fate of his brother, but also manages to fall in love with Mastana's spunky moll Dolly (
Tara Deshpande ), igniting further flames. Xerxes, who's a Parsi, is led to embrace his latenthomosexuality by their gay landlord (Roshan Seth ).Also present are the "Bombay Boys", a
rock band made up of musical no-hopers(led by promising newcomer and Channel V VJ,Luke Kenny ) who spend most of their time drinking and smokingpot . The band has no instruments (they break into a music store at night to practise) and no talent (their hit songs "Heyyy" and "Yeahhh" contain just one word in the lyrics, repeated over and over). Nonetheless, they are fond of asserting loudly - "We are the Bombay Boys! The coolest thing sinceAntarctica !". They are also apparently "huge inBangladesh ."The city itself plays a prominent part in the movie. It is set in Mumbai's bars and slums and markets, and its movie industry is caricatured throughout. It's also one of the very few films set in India to show a gay bar in Bombay in neutral light. Quite a few critics took offence at the mocking tone of "Bombay Boys", saying that it showed
India through the contemptuous viewpoint of certainNRIs . However, others defended the film, saying that it was genuinely funny and that beneath the satirical surface, it was the filmmakers' loving homage to one of India's great cities.
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