Rise of Bollywood Martial Arts Part I

I saw this while doing some research on the web. According to HindustanTimes.com, “Akshay Kumar, who has been promoting martial arts in the country… is set to take his passion a step further. The actor now plans to produce a full-fledged movie based on the arts. It will be the first of its kind in India.” This announcement made last year set off some speculation as to who would star in this film. Maybe some of the actors/actresses featured in this article might make the list.

After searching for years and even stopping in a store or two to ask, “Hey, do you have any Bollywood Martial Arts Movies?” and getting the cold stare, I finally found what I was looking for on NetFlix and YouTube.

I won’t give you a history of the Bollywood film industry and where the name came from, you can just look it up on Wikipedia, instead we’ll just share a few comments and links to some recent films with martial arts scenes or martial arts themes in them.

Mugamoodi – Movie

First we’ll start with my favorite Bollywood action film to date, Mugamoodi. It stars Actor, Jiiva (born Amar B. Choudry) as a martial arts expert who falls in love and falls in trouble as he gets mixed up in superhero style intrigue. This film sports, Wing Chun Kung Fu and even some Jeet Kune Do (JKD) with a tribute to “Grandmaster Bruce Lee” in the opening credits. The mention of Bruce Lee was the first clue that this movie would be interesting to watch and it was. It felt like a combination of Batman and Robin and The Last Dragon (Taimak- Bruce Leroy). Though obviously not a low budget film, don’t expect an over the top made for Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan or Jet Li type production here, just keep an open mind and you might be pleasantly surprised with the story and the respectful way the fighting is done.

Stay tuned… more movies and Bollywood action stars (you probably never heard of) to come, next week in part II.

Related Links:

Mugamoodi on IMDB