Have You Watched "The Bollywood Episode?"

TV shows have been doing one-off episodes forever.  Christmas episodes, reunion episodes, "very special" episodes which helped teach us kids not to do drugs (Saved By the Bell anyone?) and where babies come from—these were a staple when I was growing up.

But more and more producers are writing a new type of "very special" episode: the Bollywood episode.
Bollywood is still a bit of a novelty in most parts of the United States, and the success of films like Slumdog Millionaire and Bride and Prejudice have TV studios jumping on the India bandwagon faster than you can say "Jai Ho."  

The result has been a flood of Bollywood-themed plot lines on shows ranging from daytime soap operas to popular sitcoms (and everything in between!), and while most of these episodes are written in an honest and good-hearted attempt at having fun, some miss the mark badly and veer dangerously close to mockery.

Without further adieu, here are some of the best (and worst) Bollywood episodes I've come across.  Which ones have you seen, and which shows (if any) managed to nail that special filmi style?

(linked titles to go Youtube videos where available, which weren't embedding properly at the time I wrote this post!)

Passions

The hilariously bad soap opera featured a couple desperate to escape the plotting of a man-hungry woman, so they plan to run away to India together.  Cue the dream sequence, which involves not-so-bad dancing and hilarious music (sample lyric: "I'm tired of your meddling, get lost Theresa!")

Hotel Babylon

Late night British soap/drama Hotel Babylon started its fourth season with a bang when a wedding at the hotel between film star Omar (Chris Bisson) and Aishia (Preeya Kalidas) goes horribly awry.  Determined to still have a good time, the hotel staff don their best saris, crank up the music, and dance the night away.

Psych

Sean and Gus help a man (the gorgeous Sendhil Ramamurthy) who believes he has had a curse put on him which is causing his girlfriends to suffer tragic accidents.  Bonus points for casting Sendhil, I guess?

Smash

The less said about this one the better.  Poor Raza Jaffrey.

The Big Bang Theory

Now we're getting to the good stuff.  Raj (played by the very funny Kunal Nayyar) expresses his love for Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) the only way he knows how—by imagining a cheesy Bollywood dance sequence.  The scene works by not taking itself too seriously.  The result is fun and adorable—just like Raj.

The Simpsons

Bollywood's so popular even cartoons are getting in on the action!  This one's a classic, and is the only "Bollywood episode" I've seen which bothers to feature an actual Hindi song (the glorious "Pal Bhar Ke Liye").  In the words of Mr. Burns: "Oh go ahead and join them Smithers.  I know you want to."

I Discover Bollywood

This probably should have been the very first thing I posted.  Why the obsession with Indian films?  Unlike so many people for whom these movies mean so much, I wasn't raised with them.  I have no fond family memories of sitting around the tv watching Deewar, or of being one of the hundreds of millions who saw Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in a crowded theater.  I came late to the party, without an invitation and without any connections to these films or the culture which celebrates them.

I saw my first Indian film before I knew what an Indian film was.  In high school, bored and flipping through the channels late at night, I caught a brief glimpse of a man staring in perplexed disappointment at a canopy of marigolds, petals showering down as he yelled over the phone.  Though I changed the channel that night, the film--Monsoon Wedding--later became the one I love best.

Fast forward to my sophomore year of college, when my grandparents, for reasons I still can't fathom, suggested we see Bend It Like Beckham at a small theater in Greenbelt.  When the film ended, one thing stood out: an intensely overwhelming desire to experience more of what I had just seen.  The actors, the music, even the food in the film became my new raison d'etre.  I purchased the soundtrack, forcing my roommates to listen to encore after encore of "Jind Mahi" and "Tere Bin Nahin Lagda Dil."  I hunted down Indian restaurants, and became jealous of the time my grandparents had spent in Calcutta and Darjeeling, decades before I was even born.  I craved India.  A year later a roommate offered me use of her DVD collection while she was away on spring break.  The only film I saw on her shelf was Devdas.  I watched it every day.  I was in love.

Starting a blog seems the most reasonable thing I can do.  I'm long past the point where my friends will tolerate my need to listen to nothing but film soundtracks, or my spiels on Saif Ali Khan's script choices.  I need a place where I can get everything out, where people can take it or leave it without hurting my feelings.  I want to share the things I love, the films and songs that I find beautiful and which make me, above all else, indescribably happy.  This is my way of sharing my passion with the great big world, and if even one person takes away from this the idea that this "stuff" is worth watching, I'll be overjoyed.