Pop Rocket
It’s “Bollywood” Time for the Prescott Film Festival!
by Helen Stephenson
On November 18th the Prescott Film Festival & Series inches a bit towards “Bollywood!” Waking Dreams was mostly shot in the USA, (Midland/Odessa Texas in fact!) and is primarily in English, but the back-story of the film touches on the classic “Bollywood” films. It’s about Indian culture on a collision course with growing up in America.
This coming-of-age story centers on a first-generation Indian American young woman, Latha, whose favorite pastime is watching old “Bollywood” movies with her sweet grandmother. She finds herself spending more and more time in daydreams, picturing herself as the beautiful actress in the movies; dancing perfectly in costume with the handsomest men on the screen, with a backdrop of colorful dancers all around her.
But Dad is the wake-up call. He wants Latha to be a doctor like he is. She has her bachelor’s degree; playtime is over and he pressures her to get on with her life. He finds her a job so she can start paying her own way. But the job he finds her isn’t conducive to the medical field. She ends up working at a video game company populated with mostly eccentric computer geeks and creative types. Though she’s hired as the receptionist, she soon finds herself drawn into the world of computer gaming.
The film features the handsome man who’s basically a hollow distraction, the nice looking man who is the “real” good guy, and the paranoid corporate type who thinks Latha is after her job as they compete for the same guy. As Latha’s creativity is awakened she finds a passion for something in life besides Bollywood movies. She learns what and who she wants to be. And… it’s not a doctor.
This fun romantic comedy has a lot of heart as it looks at relationships between parents, young college graduates, siblings and grandparents. All wrapped around the whimsy of Indian music, beautiful filmy costumes, and fun dancing. Part of the movie was filmed in India. And, it’s a bit autobiographical as November’s guest filmmaker will attest to.
Deepika Daggubati, the writer and director of Waking Dreams was born in India and raised in Texas. She’s been making movies since the age of 10, and her parents, like Latha’s, wanted her to go into the medical field. She got her bachelor’s degree in English and Psychology and her M.F.A. in Film Production from the California Institute of the Arts. She has also written a script for Disney and is working on several future projects.
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