Pardes
1997 · Directed by Subhash Ghai
Original language: Hindi
- drama
- romance
The story
Kishorilal wants an Indian bride for his westernised son. He gets him engaged to Ganga, his friend's daughter, and brings her to USA. But she shares a deeper bond with Arjun, Kishorilal's foster son.
What it’s like
Bright, saturated Bollywood colour moves between sunlit American suburbs and the green fields, marigold festivals and warm courtyards of rural India, with the camera sweeping through wide, crowd-filled frames and lingering on faces in close-up. The mood is warm and sentimental, with big set-piece song-and-dance numbers, lush orchestral score and plenty of melodrama, but the pace is unhurried, giving the family scenes room to breathe between the musical interludes. Its emotional register is romantic and tender, with a strong thread of longing and a gentle tug between tradition and modern life. A story about an extended family's expectations and a love that refuses to stay tidy, it suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a comfort rewatch or an evening when you want to be swept up in feeling. The violence is minimal and nothing is graphic; the drama is emotional rather than frightening, and there is only occasional sensuality, kept chaste by the conventions of the genre. It is made for viewers who love musicals, family melodrama and romance with a sense of ceremony.
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