Masala (1991)
Both these films, made eleven years apart, are surrealistic comedies about Indo-Canadian families in Toronto. I first saw Masala with a roomful of friends, some of South Asian background, some not, but all Canadians raised in Toronto. I think we all enjoyed it more for its “Toronto-ness” than for anything as dourly serious as “identity politics”. It had the feel of our city, and the same goofiness that you would see in Strange Brew. Seeing the venerable Saeed Jaffrey as the God Krishna in a Leaf’s goalie uniform had us rolling on the floor with laughter. And the same actor portrays the long-suffering postal clerk, to whom Lord Krishna delivers the rarest Canadian stamp, but who is unwilling to sell it either to satisfy his wife’s craving for appliances, or the government’s pressure, and is the Canadian Everyman in a nutshell.
Bollywood / Hollywood is a slicker film, with better production values, but it isn’t as funny. The characters are less likable and less innocent. It’s harder to sympathize with the identity angst of people who live in huge suburban mansions. What makes the film funny is that it regularly breaks out into full-scale Bollywood-style musical numbers. That’s the big joke in the film: how the weird fantasy world of the musicals ground out by Mumbai’s huge film industry fits in with the attitudes of this financially successful immigrant community in Canada. The funniest part is when a horde of non-South Asian business executives break out into one of these absurd song-and-dance numbers. 
Hollywood / Bollywood (2002)
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