They loved it!

It isn't a secret,  my husband and I watch a lot of Bollywood films.  We watch foreign films all the time and these Indian ones in particular.  Until recently they had some strict rules about intimacy in films so you never saw the characters actually kiss. Bollywood films are almost always full of romance so they use song and dance to show how people are feeling rather than just have the characters kiss.  Our kids know that we watch these films at night when they have gone to bed and have always been curious about these musical films that we often discuss with our Indian friends (who are just shocked that we even watch these movies).  Since we have read so much and studied so much about India this past week I picked up a Bollywood film at the library this week to show them.  Tonight we put it on.

I picked Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India
to show them.  This was one of the first Indian films I saw and I knew it was a story that the kids would get hooked into.  It isn't a true story but it does show some elements of India's history.  It shows some of the tension between the British and the Indian people.  It also has a lot of Cricket in it which I knew would be interesting to the boys. 

I was a bit shocked by how much the kids liked this. They had to read subtitles and there were many times Henry asked me what they were saying but the others followed along just fine with the subtitles.  The kids didn't get bored at all and sat through all 3 and 1/2 hours of this film in one sitting. We had a lot of popcorn and homemade bread and butter to keep up our strength as we watched but these kids were hooked almost from the start.

I had planned to just show a bit of the film originally.  Show one of the dance numbers or something and see how it went.  I didn't think the kids would be that interested.  I shouldn't underestimate these little guys. 

Now that I know my kids can handle subtitles maybe I need to show them a few more foreign films. It is a great way to get a taste of a culture. Can you think of any classics like Lagaan I could show my kids?