Bollywood casts a proprietary eye on Hollywood in “Kambakkht Ishq,” a comedy set in Los Angeles starring two of India’s hottest stars, Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor. Viraj (Mr. Kumar) is a stuntman; Sim (Ms. Kapoor) a model/surgeon. When they meet, it’s aversion at first sight.Slick and fast and set to a thumping techno soundtrack by Anu Malik, “Kambakkht Ishq” (“Damn Love”) is Bollywood, 21st-century style: kissing; women (American women, that is) stripping down to their skivvies; swearing (in English, at least); and South Asians everywhere (but India nowhere in sight).
The film, written and directed by Sabbir Khan, has only one frantic desire: to entertain. It spottily succeeds, despite its frequently crude humor, relentless pace and a few unpalatable racial bits. Viraj sports black face in one scene, and in another, during an airport search, he is violated by a large African-American woman.
Also along for the ride are some Americans, playing themselves. Sylvester Stallone (“the man, the legend”) gives Viraj a stuntman of the year award and later materializes out of thin air to save Sim from a cartoonish pack of miscreants. And Denise Richards plays one of Mr. Kumar’s many girlfriends. (“I want to have golden babies with you.”)
Viraj and Sim’s “I hate you, I hate you, I love you” plot breaks no new ground in the gender wars. But “Kambakkht Ishq” is aspirational in another sense. To end the opening montage of Hollywood sights and glossy American stars, Mr. Kumar comes flying through a window on a motorcycle. Bollywood, the film seems to be saying, is ready to crash Hollywood’s party.
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