Cinema India!

CINEMA INDIA! FRI. & SAT., APRIL 16 & 17

OUTSIDE OF A few Satyajit Ray films and the stray Bollywood song-and-dance extravaganza, the astonishingly prolific Indian film industry remains little more than a rumor for most American moviegoers, a shadowland on movie screens and DVD players dominated by Hollywood. A six-film series of Indian films, opening this week at the Asia Society and continuing later this month at the American Museum of the Moving Image, while little more than the tip of the iceberg, seeks to remedy this imbalance. And based on the provided sample, the cream of Indian commercial filmmaking will make for a wonderfully refreshing, and thoroughly unfamiliar, repast.

Aditya Chopra's Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The Braveheart Will Take the Bride) is the longest-running film in Indian history, released in 1995 and still chugging. The story of two star-crossed lovers who find true love against all odds, the film is enlivened by the otherworldly beauty of star Kajol, and to a lesser extent the Mentos-commercial-quality mugging of manchild Shah Rukh Khan. The film is a winner for simultaneously tackling heady issues like the assimilation of Indians in the West and the struggle of women for increased control over their lifestyle choices, while featuring some wonderfully absurd musical sequences. Braveheart is a sterling example of Indian cinema's avoidance of traditional genre distinctions, choosing instead to work with whatever material is maximally pleasurable. If at times Braveheart feels like 10 different films edited into one, rest assured that each of them is equally sensational.

Kandukondain, Kandukondain (I Have Found It) (2000), directed by Rajiv Menon, is a similarly schizophrenic assemblage, starring the ravishing Aishwarya Rai and Tabu as sisters struggling in the big city and coping with the complexities of tangled romantic relationships. The sisters' combined three beaus allow Menon's film to take on explorations of three of India's most prominent industries: the military (complete with jungle-war flashbacks!), Bollywood filmmaking and big business. Kandukondain, Kandukondain is a surprisingly powerful romantic drama, stunningly photographed and featuring the music of the legendary A.R. Rahman.

Rituparno Ghosh's Bariwali (The Lady of the House) (1999) is an artsier work, a domestic drama about a prematurely aged spinster whose house lightens up on the arrival of a film crew. Subscribing to the motto that 90 minutes won't do when you can have 150, Bariwali gives watching paint dry a bad rap. More like a parody of Satyajit Ray than a tribute to his oeuvre, Bariwali could take a lesson or two from the commercial filmmaking it sneers at. A big musical sequence at a Scottish castle, like the one in Kandukondain, Kandukondain, would do wonders for this snoozer.

Asia Society, 725 Park Ave. (70th St.), 212-288-6400; American Museum of the Moving Image, 35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria, (718) 784-0077; call for times, $10, $5 st.