You may remember all the way back to Intro #2: Some Helpful Ideas where I spoke about a few practical ideas to help you learn Hindi. I wanted to expand on this today, more specifically I wanted to briefly talk about the huge help that Bollywood can be in learning and practicing Hindi.

3 Idiots, a 2009 Bollywood comedy film; the highest grossing Bollywood film of all time. 

For those of you who don’t know, Bollywood is a huge global Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai, India. In fact the word Bollywood is a combination of the words Bombay (the old name for Mumbai) and Hollywood. Bollywood films are usually what ‘westerns’ would call musicals and are categorised by their Indian singing and dancing. You’ll find that almost everyone in India, or in fact everyone with an interest in Indian culture, will be talking about the newest Bollywood blockbuster. The entertainment news pages are always focused on the newest gossip about Bollywood actors and actresses! 

Paa (2009)

Anyway, now for the actual point of this lesson! Bollywood is actually the biggest gift in the world to any learner of Hindi. Last weekend I watched a Bollywood film called Paa and I think this made me realise just how helpful watching films can be. Not only did I really enjoy the film, but I learnt so much while I watched it. With the English subtitles on you can really use the film to reinforce words you have learnt. No matter what your level of Hindi is there will be words and phrases that will be spoken in any film that you’ll recognise. This is going to be an invaluable help with your listing and speaking skills. If you have no way of accessing a native Hindi speaker then Bollywood really is your next best bet! I would recommend to anyone learning Hindi to watch as many Bollywood films as you can, honestly! And not only will it help you learn Hindi, but you’ll learn all about Indian culture andcustoms through the films! 

To start you off heres a full film released this year called Raajneeti (राजनीति - meaning politics) on Youtube with subtitles available (by clicking on the CC symbol on the bottom right of the video). Click here to view it! Enjoy watching!