Hyderabad Blues is a
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
movie directed by
Nagesh KukunoorNagesh Kukunoor is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. He is known for movies such as Hyderabad Blues , Rockford , 3 Deewarein and Iqbal .-Early life:...
. The film is about a
NRIA Non-Resident Indian is an Indian citizen who has migrated to another country, a person of Indian origin who is born outside India, or a person of Indian origin who resides permanently outside India. Other terms with the same meaning are overseas Indian and expatriate Indian...
vacationing back home in Hyderabad, India and finding himself a foreigner in his own land.
Plot
The protagonist of
Hyderabad Blues is Varun, played by the director, Nagesh Kukunoor. The movie revolves around his visit home after 12 years in the USA and his resulting
culture shockCulture shock is the anxiety, feelings of frustration, alienation and anger that may occur when a person is emplaced in a new culture.One of the most common causes of culture shock involves individuals in a foreign country. Culture shock can be described as consisting of one or more distinct phases...
. The movie is a
romantic comedyRomantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...
, following Varun's attempts to romance an Indian doctor and balance the local customs of
arranged marriageAn arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...
with the Western tradition of dating. The dialogue is primarily in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and
TeluguTelugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
, with some Hindi spoken as well.
Trivia
In producing the movie, Nagesh Kukunoor invested the money he made from his engineering career in the United States. It was made on a shoe-string budget of
Rs.The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...
17
lakhA lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand . It is widely used both in official and other contexts in Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and is often used in Indian English.-Usage:...
(roughly equivalent to U.S. $ 40,000) and shot in 17 days. Apart from being featured in ten international film festivals, it had theatrical performances that ran for more than six months in Hyderabad,
MumbaiMumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, and
BangaloreBengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
.
Cast
- Nagesh Kukunoor
Nagesh Kukunoor is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. He is known for movies such as Hyderabad Blues , Rockford , 3 Deewarein and Iqbal .-Early life:...
as Varun Naidu
- Rajshri Nair as Ashwini Rao
- Vikram Inamdar as Sanjeev Rao
- Elahe Hiptoola
Elahe Hiptoola is a Bollywood film actress, producer, and costume designer.Her credits include executive producer of 3 Deewarein, Hyderabad Blues 2, Iqbal, and Dor.-Career:Elahe Hiptoola frequently works with producer Nagesh Kukunoor...
as Seema Rao
- Anoop Ratnaker Rao as Harish Chandani
- D V Ramana as Darshan Naidu
- Revathi Alwar as Kusuma Naidu
- Anne Chengappa as Shashi Naidu
- Zain-Ul-Wara Zaheer as Sandhya
- Vidhya Uthappa as Woman riding scooter
Kukunoor made a sequel in 2004 called
Hyderabad Blues 2: Rearranged Marriage.
Awards
- Audience Award for best film at the Peachtree International Film Festival in Atlanta.
- Audience Award for best film at the Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
Film Festival.