Watching a melodramatic Indian musical in Bollywood’s home city of Mumbai is a great way to tap into local culture.

Watching a Bollywood film in its home city of Mumbai (Bombay) relays a true sense of Indian culture, one you can’t pick up by just walking the streets or touring historic sites.

You’ll see glittering, neon cinema billboards and posters of the latest release pasted all over the city. Lenghas, a skirt with a top, and saris imitating the outfits worn by the lead heroine of the recent blockbuster are modeled in shop windows. Discos blurt out remixes from Bollywood songs, and men frequent salons asking their hair to be styled like Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan, two of the industry’s hottest male actors. A rare sighting of a Bollywood star will lather the crowds up into a frenzy, with streets blocked and scores of extra police present.

Bollywood’s appeal is in its ability transport viewers to a magical, dreamlike world, where the burdens of everyday life disappear. Lovers run across wheat fields to meet in a passionate embrace, the poorest men become rich, and the deadliest illnesses are overcome. Though all of the films are in Hindi, they are increasingly subtitled in English.

Plots tend to be melodramatic and employ recurring themes such as star-crossed lovers, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate. You’ll witness dramatic reversals of fortune and convenient coincidences.

Bollywood films are almost always musicals. The three hour-plus extravaganzas include elaborate song and dance numbers filmed in exotic locales. An emotional scene between lovers might suddenly break into a song and dance sequence, transporting viewers to the pyramids of Egypt, the hills of Switzerland or the snow-capped peaks of New Zealand.

To an outsider, these songs may seem unnecessary, even inopportune, but to Indians, they are the heart of the movie. The first question someone will ask after you tell them you’ve seen the latest release is not, “How was the movie?” but “Gana kese the?” How were the songs? Though the songs are all lip-synched, since few actors can sing, they showcase elaborate jewelry and clothes that set the fashion trends for that year. Few movies, even serious war films, are made without at least one song and dance number.

You won’t see much sex, though. Indians consider even kissing on screen too risqué. At most, lovers may hug or kiss each other on the cheek. Yet Indian directors like Yash Raj and Rakesh Roshan, known for their soppy love stories, have devised ways to make their movies seductive, with alluringly exposed skin or the caress of an arm. Lack of physical intimacy may leave a Bollywood newcomer frustrated. After all, when lovers unite in Western films, it is the kissing scene that leaves the viewer with a feeling of completion. In Bollywood, though, the satisfaction comes from knowing that the lovers will be together. Though in the early 1990s the government did away with the law that forbade on-screen kissing, movies that incorporate too much sexual promiscuity have notoriously bombed.

Don’t be surprised if the audience participates in the movie. “Lagaan,” a movie about cricket and a 2003 Oscar nominee, featured several scenes where fictitious Indian and British cricket teams played against each other. The fervor with which viewers stood up, cheered, booed and clapped made it feel like a live sporting event. During screenings of “Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham” (“Sometime Happiness, Sometime Sadness”), audience members stood and sang the national anthem along with a small boy on the screen.

There is usually at least a half-hour intermission. It is during this break that Indians enjoy their snacks. To Bombayites, the food is almost as important as the film. While the more modern theaters offer typical American movie snacks, for an authentic experience, you should try a samosa, the quintessential Indian moviegoer treat. You’ve probably tasted the triangle shaped, potato- and pea-filled pastries at your local Indian restaurant, but as the long lines attest, there is nothing like the taste of a samosa at the movie theater. They are always prepared fresh and emerging hot from the fryer, glistening with oil, crisp and begging to be dipped in the accompanying coriander and tamarind chutneys. The ideal partner for the samosa is a steaming cup of masala chai, a sweet milky blend of tealeaves and spices, like cardamom and ginger. For 30 rupees — less than $1 — you can get two large samosas and a tea.

At about $1, a Bollywood ticket is cheap for a foreigner. Of course, that is for a theater with no air conditioning, old-fashioned squat toilets and broken seats. Admission to an upscale theater costs about $8, an exorbitant sum for the average Indian middle-class person, though manageable for the increasing legions of wealthy Indians. Whatever the sum they pay, Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with good entertainment referred to as “paisa vasool” or “money’s worth.”

When the movie is over, viewers awaken from their dream. As they stream out of the theater and back into their normal lives, part of the fantastical quality of the movie lingers within them and makes them believe that true love prevails, poor men become rich and the sickest people healthy. It leaves them with a feeling of hope. You may not relate to that emotion and might even think it’s over the top. But the experience will leave you with an indelible impression of Mumbai’s people.