Critique of New Age Bollywood

The movie Love Actually (2003) by Richard Curtis demonstrates how the connections between people are limitless and that love is a concept that has the ability to lift people up and tear people down. The movie follows the lives of nine different relationships and the audience is able to see every aspect of love, romantic, platonic, familial and more. In an article by Ben Dreyfuss, he points out that most critics of the film point like to say that Love Actually “is a saccharine soulless picture that relies on an emotionally manipulative soundtrack and has nothing to say but somehow takes 136 minutes to say it” (Dreyfuss). However, that is not the case. This movie has had a lot of controversy since the release in 2003. In this paper I

Rarely has a film impacted an audience and held the test of time as the film Gone with the Wind. I have always been curious if director, Victor Fleming and producer, David O. Selznick and screenplay writer, Sidney Howard knew what they were creating a masterpiece and how this film would have such an enormous impact on audiences for years to come. Interestingly enough there were some who thought the film should not be made, as Irving Thalberg said to Louis B. Meyer in 1936, “Forget it Louis, no Civil War picture ever made a nickel” (Ten Films that Shook the World).

Bollywood films have often been criticized for their stereotypical and patriarchal representations of women that sexualize and objectify their female characters. Furthermore, many claim that Bollywood is a chauvinistic and misogynistic industry. Not only are women paid less, but their representation in films lacks the boldness and individuality that their male counterparts exude. According to research, over the nearly 50-year period, males are mentioned on average 30 times per plot on Wikipedia compared to female cast members, who are mentioned only 15 times (Bhattacharya). This suggests that an actress’s role is not given as much importance as the actor’s (Madaan et al) (Bhattacharya). Women characters are mostly described with surface-level qualities—attractive, beautiful—whereas men are represented as “strong” and “successful” associated with them. “…verbs like ‘kills’ and ‘shoots’ occur with males while verbs like ‘marries’ and ‘loves’ are associated with females,” (Madaan et al.) (Bhattacharya) While accepting that there exist problems in the industry based on gender differences, I believe that the representation of women in Bollywood films is neither always sexualized, nor always second to man or patriarchal. In Bollywood films, women are represented as having bold characteristics that are stereotypically “masculine”, when faced with adversity. I will use the films Mother India and Rang De Basanti to prove my thesis.

Action, suspense, love, and drama are all the makings for a great film. None of these key features to a film could have any substance or feeling without the help of music. Composers play a big role for setting the tone of the movie, developing characters, moving along or supporting action, and depicting the time and place the movie is taking place. In the movie Heat, Elliot Goldenthal does just that. Goldenthal was born in NY in 1954 and studied music under John Corigliano and Aaron Copeland. His partner is Julie Taymor and he won an Oscar for the movie Frida which Julie directed. Goldenthal has composed for several films as well as concert halls, theater and dance. He also has written an opera

This semester I chose the Art 160 class, which talks about South Asian art and culture. During study, I learned a lot from this class. When the topic came to Indian movie, it made me become interested. I watched many movies before, tried to learn how the music goes in many movies. One of my friends is in movie major, he told me Bollywood movies were pretty good. After the class, I went to watch some movies like 3 idiots, PK and Taare Zameen Par. I was shocked, because I never think that India movie could be that good. All of them show the society issue and problems. These movies helped me to understand more about

The term classical Hollywood cinema has been used to describe a narrative and visual style of film-making which developed between in the early 20th century, and as far as the 1960s. The style is characterized by a number of devices that establish a linear narrative logic and a realistic cinematic space; which soon became some of the most prevalent narrative techniques in cinematic history to this day. The heyday of second-wave feminism, saw the birth of feminist film theory, which became concerned with female representations in the media. This period ignited an era of scepticism felt towards classical Hollywood that lives on; as many believe that this narrative style set a sexist tone to cinema for the years to come. Motivated by both the aspiration to adequately depict female subjectivity onscreen and the aim to achieve social equality of the sexes, scholars often turn to the experimental cinema to appreciate feminist objectives thrive (Watson & Hill, 2015). Nevertheless, others believe that the audience’s familiarity with the

She must be faithful, loyal and a good manager of the household affairs. Bollywood films are popular because Asian has a large population therefore it appeals to all Asians around the world and has no certification so all ages can watch it. Younger audiences are able to watch Bollywood films as the violence is made unrealistic and so they can tell it is not real therefore they are made to be an active audience. In India there is an average of 7 million cinema audiences per week with 12,284 cinemas around India. For the film, “Armaan”, it received, £111,124 (UK) (18 May 2003) showing on 27 screens, so this just goes to show that Asian movies do get a response in England, or this just because a huge population of East London are Asian, most likely.

Films, have grown popularity rapidly in past decades, can be served as a good indicator of culture. As mentioned by the famous film producer, Tom Sherak, “Film is a reflection of society, both present and past.” Films are mediums for someone in the society to say something they want to tell the public. Films are a form of communication to provoke people awareness and self-evaluation of their own attitudes to the

Sontag's article ‘A Century of Cinema' describes cinemas cycle over the past hundred years as moving from glorious to dull and is an overall criticism of the industry now. She rightly points out that films nowadays have to really do something special, namely violate "the norms and practices which now govern movie-making everywhere in the capitalist and would-be capitalist world" in order for us to "admire" them (Sontag, S. 1997). Cinema has moved in a more commercial direction, concentrating on quantity, not quality, rather than remaining purely an art form. What this means for cinema today is that a movie is less likely to stand the test of time and leave a lasting impression in our mind because all they are good for now is their entertainment value.

While modern film productions have lost the ambitious classicism of early cinema, the idea to view cinematography itself as a self-governing construction of thinking has been carved into the history of continental philosophy. Due to the variety of material and conjecture, film manipulates the four-dimensional reality in which we live our everyday lives in. From A quoi pensent les films?, Jacques Aumont, a French academic writer on film theory, states that “film has the power of thinking” in order to express that the art form has the ability to release us from the restriction of our realistic judgements and radical perceptions, producing a poetic and dreamlike reality.

Different films are composed of different structure, sound, genre, cinematography and of course actors. I think it is safe to say everyone at least once in their lifetime has watched a movie before, it does not necessarily have to be for entertainment it can also be for educational purposes. But how many actually sit and really take in the art of the film itself? To me, movies can be considered a work of art. There are so many things that go into creating a film to ensure that the message is clearly delivered across to the targeted audience. Movies are actually a mirror of life, they focus on real life problems, and the only difference is that the problems are being unfolded on a screen. Movies are such great things because a film could be made in South Africa or even in London, and people all over the world could see it and relate to it. This essay will focus on the differences among three international films, international meaning that they were written and directed by individuals outside of the United States. The three movies assigned for us to watch are: Yesterday, The Stoning of Soraya M, and Red Lantern. Each film mentioned above, contain a different outlook on life and have different film structure in general.

The Philippine cinema is a roller coaster ride of different emotions and genres that serves the Filipino people entertainment and enjoyment. Over the past century or so, we’ve been filled up with a lot different stories of characters that are relatable to the people. From the adventures of Fernando Poe Jr.’s Ang Panday to the comedic acts of Babalu and Dolphy, we can say that the Philippine film industry is very reputable and prestigious just like those of in the other countries. In today’s generation, personally, I think people are getting sick of movies that depict mistresses and anything about them. I also think that one of the genres that are on the rise is the Independent films. Erik Matti’s Indie film, Honor Thy Father, brings a very different tone and story to the plate. The movie starts off with Edgar (John Lloyd Cruz) picking up his daughter from school. The scene shifts to their house where Kaye (Meryll Soriano), Edgar’s wife, is persuading a group of friends to invest in her father’s business where everyone gets significantly rich. Edgar sits from behind, listening to how people believe in his wife’s words. The next scene shows the essential part of the story because the movie uses religion as a device to show the irony of being projected as pure and wholesome can hide the evilness and cruelty of a person. Edgar’s family is part of this religious organization called the Church of Yeshua but Edgar is seen staring at the money being donated by the people and

Ask any Indian who Karan Johar is, and I assure you at least 9 out of 10 Indians will know who he is. He is a famous Indian film director, screenwriter, costume designer, actor, producer and television star; you could say he has multiple identities within the Bollywood industry. In Bollywood, he is known to have a ditzy personality, be gossipy, overdramatic and witty. In my opinion, the life of people in the Bollywood industry or any film industry is a bit of a gray area; people make a lot of assumptions about their life. We have a preconceived notion of how the Bollywood industry functions, most of our assumptions are based off the media's depiction of their world. Reading Karan Johar's autobiography, The Unsuitable Boy, unveiled a new side to this "glamorous" industry. By flipping a few pages, I got an insight into the unsuitable boy's "actual" identity through pure self-disclosure.

Cinema is a great source of promoting culture, values and norms of the society, it shows how exactly the people of that specific region are and how they live, think and do their activities.

The term Bollywood is relatively new title that congregates various types of films that stem from all around India and sadly get put into one single category, often times the films being underestimated by U.S. pop culture. The films’ subject matter and themes have continued to evolve, as does the country of India, and the change is all seen reflecting from the films social and political themes and concerns. When the industry began the films plots spanned from all across the map, in order to compensate for language differences almost key terms were created which would set the staple for the themes and motives. These phrases or words were about lust and love, revenge or justice for wrong doings, good and bad as well as killing. With these themes people all across the nation were united, one way or another people related to the films that were being viewed. It was at this point and time that Hindi cinema became a voice for those who could not be heard in politics, but actions would be glorified or exaggerated to appease all status of the caste system. Throughout pivotal moments in history, new themes would be expressed throughout film.