BollyWOOD! is the answer.  It's a popular nickname for the most popular cinema on the planet: the Hindi-language film industry based in Bombay (AKA Mumbai), India. Last year alone, Bollywood sold a million more tickets worldwide than Hollywood did (source: Business Week, 12/2/02).  No wonder!  Hundreds of millions of people -- from Delhi to Dubai, Johannesburg to Jackson Heights, Perth to Prague and Southall to the San Francisco Bay -- recognize Bollywood as their first choice in entertainment.  If you, too, are in the mood for high drama -- whether it be an epic romance, a swashbuckling adventure, a revenge saga, a comedic extravaganza, or a reaffirmation of familial love -- why, then there's no other cinema for you.

As you can see in the still from Raja Hindustani, sometimes the characters do. But it's rare. The censor board is notoriously unpredictable; no one wants to risk getting a rating that would scare away families. Also, Bollywood plays to a diverse range of people, from the illiterate and provincial to the worldly and urban. Ideas of morality differ widely from group to group. Why include a kiss when you can easily leave it out and avoid the risk of offending customers? Also, actresses don't want to lose their conservative fans, nor do they want to endure salacious flak from journalists. So they're not too keen on kissing on-screen, and many proudly trumpet their refusal to do it.

You tug your ears in a variety of social situations, but mainly when apologizing, as a physical admission of wrong-doing and as a demonstration of repentance. Here Aishwarya, in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, is about to let Salman out of the doghouse, though recent events would suggest her decision is misguided...

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Touching someone's feet is a sign of respect usually accorded solely to elders, as in this still from Mann, when Manisha meets Aamir's grandmother. Why is this considered respectful, you ask? Well, Hindu theology, and Indian culture in general, holds the feet to be the most polluted part of the body (the head, farthest away from the ground and least likely to come into contact with it, is the most pure). This is why you take off your shoes upon entering a temple (your shoes have been in constant contact with the ground), and also why you should never point the soles of your feet at someone (very rude!). Therefore making a point to touch someone's feet is a sign of your immense respect for them: you honor them so greatly that touching even their feet is a privilege.

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You'll see in the films that, upon first meeting someone, a character will press his palms together and say "Namaste." You can equate this to a handshake if you'd like, but pressing your palms together connotes a respect the handshake no longer does (unless you consider the significance of refusing to shake hands, the gravest of all insults, which accordingly implies that a handshake does, indeed, show respect -- but enough, back to Bollywood!). For example, in this still from Raja Hindustani, Karisma is facetiously paying homage to Aamir, pressing her palms together and bowing to him subserviently.

In the song "Yeh Ladka Hai Allah" from Kabhi Kushi Kabhie Gham, Shahrukh (along with others) waves his hand at (usually it's over) the bride's head and then, making a fist of his hand, presses his knuckles to his own head (cracking them). This action wards off the "evil eye" by symbolizing his willingness to take onto himself any evil that may target her. It's actually a way of expressing admiration for how beautiful she looks (i.e., her beauty is so resplendent and her marriage is so auspicious that it's sure to excite jealousy and evil wishes). Similarly, in this still from the song "Saajanji Ghar Aaye" in the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, the matron has done it because she is overwhelmed by Salman Khan's...er...masculine charms.

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In this still from Jaanwar, Akshay and Karisma, who seconds before almost kissed, are being upbraided by the wagging thumbs of fellow wedding guests. Making a fist and extending your thumb, as in the Western "thumbs-up!", then wagging it back and forth, is used as a "shame on you" gesture; also, occasionally, as a "nah nah" -- equivalent to the old "thumbing your nose" at someone, though that particular gesture fell out of fashion in the West a few centuries back.

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When someone looks especially beautiful, it's assumed that she'll attract a great deal of jealousy. Putting a dot of black on her face as a makeshift "blemish" serves to ward off the evil eye that might otherwise be attracted by her perfection. This is most often done to babies, but women occasionally place a black smudge on their faces when they're especially well dressed. Bharatanatyam dancers, for instance, will occasionally wear one during a performance. In the scene at left, during the song "Aankhiyon ki Gustakhiyan" in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Aishwarya places a smidgen of kohl on Salman's lip as a compliment to his allure.

Usually this occurs in two different contexts in films: when greeting a guest, and when worshipping God. In the latter instance, a lamp, or a burning dish of clarified butter (ghee), is waved in circular motions around the image of a deity -- a ceremony called aarti. The person waving the tray is making an offering of the tray's contents to God. Oftentimes there are also sweets on the tray; after these sweets have been offered to God, they are given back to worshippers as sacred food, or "prasad." The tray is waved before human beings as a way of acknowledging the sacred within them; since guests are considered to be sacred, greeting them this way acknowledges their divine nature and conveys what an honor it is for them to visit. In the scene above from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kajol honors her fiance thus because as her future husband, he is a form of God to her (at least until Shahrukh shows up).

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It means you have to go to the bathroom...or, in the case of the still at left from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, that you just have. This explains Kajol's scandalized expression: she's just asked Shahrukh's character what took him so long in that church they'd been visiting. His wordless response prompts her to shriek, "In the CHURCH?!?"

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A few people have asked for a rundown of words commonly used in film titles, so here are some of the most popular, with translations.