After a long day of teaching, when I feel like, as we say in this house, “Anywhere but here” a good Indian movie is just the thing. We have recently gone through not just “Jodhaa Akbar” and “Eklahva” which I reviewed, but “Jai Santoshi Ma” and “Ashoka” and finally, most recently, “Om Shanti Om.” The last two star Shahrukh Khan — an Indian actor and producer whose top-dog status in Bollywood led to him being named one of Newsweek’s 50 most powerful people in the world in the world in 2009.

Why our current fixation on Bollywood? There are a number of reasons. First of all, we enjoy the multicultural experience. Anything procuded in Bollywood is bound to involve something new and different. Then, there’s the length of these movies. At three hours long, average, a Bollywood movie can last us, who watch for a half hour or hour before bed, for days, prolonging the reflection and discussions you can get from viewing with your spouse. Then, there’s the interesting family and spiritual storylines of Indian film — in this cosmology, mothers and mother in laws really are conniving and try to control children and wreck marriages, and religion and God or gods are part of the action — there is reincarnation, goddesses coming down from heaven, karma, dharma, all kinds of interesting things. Perhaps most unexpectedly, we have begun to enjoy the trademark musical numbers, long, drawn out song and dance routines reminicient of 50′s era Hollywood musicals. Over all, it adds up to a very amusing package.