The Elements Of The Bollywood Cinema

The most favorite pass time of any Indian is watching a TV set or catching up the show of their desired interest in the local cinema hall. As people are investing a major chunk of their time in the reel world it is, but natural to affect their real world. But does it always happen that way? “Cinema has only been around for a 100 years; men have been treating women badly for much longer than that,” argues filmmaker and choreographer Farah Khan. “So how can one blame cinema for what is going wrong in our country today?”

Over the years, Bollywood has emerged as its own distinct identity in the global Film industry. Bollywood is the global leader in production of movies with a staggering 27,000 featured films and thousands of short films. ( Pillania 1) However, Hollywood is still the leader in revenues generated. Due to the growth of the Indian market and globalization, Bollywood has made its way to the international markets. Globalization is often misrepresented as the growing influence of the western culture in the world and so we tend to state that Hollywood is influencing Bollywood to a great extent. An argument can be made to justify the validity of that statement. However, this paper aims at presenting the influence of Bollywood on Hollywood in

Many Hollywood films have been inspired by Bollywood. The Western Musical Genre itself is an inspiration from Bollywood.

Bollywood is the biggest film industry in India, but is not the only film industry in India. Bollywood was born at the same time as Indian cinema itself. By the 1930s, Bollywood had already built several studios which, 10 years later, had produced approximately two-thirds of Bollywood’s 150–200 annual films. The name Bollywood comes from the American from Hollywood, the B is there for Bombay (now know as Mumbai). A typical Bollywood movie lasts for two-and-a-half hours, it has slowly unrolling storylines of epic proportions, usually incorporating the break-ups and make-ups. Film directors like to use six to eight songs and complex choreography, in which the leading characters themselves participate, to underly the story’s emotional high

Of all literary forms, if drama is the most dependent upon and sensitive to its immediate audience, Poetry is what matters most to a contemporary mind. I.A. Richards once said, Poetry is the revelation of scholarship in men who constitute the intellectual upper limit of a generation. Whatever may be the elements of truth in it, this much is certain that fifty years before when science and technology did not make a rapid headway, Poetry was treated as the be all and end all of intellectual activities of man. In terms of poetry the scholarship of a nation was measured and assessed. The literary milieu in which Dr. Jayanta Mahapatra impinged was a milieu that was imbued with a classical scholarship. Myth, legend and folkore dominated the intellectual

For this essay I will be looking at the Ramayana and it various Indian and non-Indian versions to understand why Ramanujan claims that the people of India and Southeast Asia never read the Ramayana for the first time. I will also look at how the mediums through which people learn about the epics affect the storyline and performances. There are many versions of the Ramayana which include written and visual formats. The major differences with the written versions entail

“To be a good writer anywhere, you must have roots - both in religion and family. I have these things.” R.K.Narayan has depicted himself. 'Man is a social animal' and 'a man living outside the society is either a god or a beast'. This proverb depicts the importance of society and relations for a human being. That is why, since the Renaissance-Humanism, and for that purpose the study of Humanities has become a sine qua non for the literary artists. It was established long ago, 'what a piece of work is man?' and 'The proper study of mankind is man." All this accounts for an exploration of a connecting link between two human beings, better expressed in the term, 'human relationship'. In the arena of Indo-Anglian Fiction, R.K. Narayan's contribution is that he is every inch an Indian, and though

Deepa Mehta’s films show India the way she believes depicts the true India, and not the India that westerners believe is a begging bowl or a spiritual wonderland. Although she attempts to create films that do not show India for those two conceptions, in her films it is clear that these conceptions are somewhat relevant in India. Although her films show these aspects, she does not dwell on them as negatives or conclude that this is all India has to offer, as some films that are westernized tend to do.

Great books are epic because they are retold in many ways since before 300 BCE. They are retold in various forms in different languages and mediums. Retelling in different languages and media forms makes it understandable for various audiences. For example, the Ramayana has been rewritten by R.K Narayan in a short prose from the original 24000 verses to 7 Kandas of the Ramayana written by Sage Valmiki (Rao 2005, 7616). Unlike the modern Bollywood version called Raavan which had been retold visually, storytellers changed the content and characters in such a manner that it connects more to our present stories. Even now modern dramatists compose and direct movies which relate to not just Indian culture but to foreign audiences too. For instance, the short film, Sita Sings the Blues relates to Sita and contemporary parallel lead Nina. They both have a tale of truth, injustice and a woman’s cry for equal treatment. Having different kinds of cinematic and written retelling, I chose to retell the Ramayana based on Sita’s life and growth as a person as a painting on canvas with an abstract art form. Using an indexical and symbolic style framework, I stayed honest with the story, presenting it using Sita’s perspective. This allows the audience to see the birth, marriage, forest hood (Aranya Kanda), fire test and death that led to her character growth. Also, the retelling can also be classified as symbolic because I have made my artistic references to specific characteristics of

The increase in globalization in the Indian subcontinent has brought along with it a series of new genres in Bollywood movies. Movies showcasing freedom being fought for by the youth and women are just a couple of interesting ones. I’ll be exploring two different movies Dor (2006) and Rang De Basanti (2006), each of which has its own take on ‘freedom’ and ‘choice’.

Bollywood, the primary component of Indian cinema, is a force to be reckoned with. By producing about 800 movies a year and selling about 100 million movie tickets each week, Hindi cinema has established itself as India’s principal movie manufacturer and typically follows a specific framework that audiences have come to love (Kolanad). Bollywood films are patently over-the-top, featuring countless song-and-dance routines and a story line that usually revolves around forbidden love. Like any strong influence from mass media, though, the messages these Bollywood films sends to its viewers shape their opinions on everyday life, even if those movies aren’t representative of what they encounter in their day-to-day lives. In a culture where arranged marriage, a caste system, and even dowry still prevail, it seems unusual that so much of what Bollywood has become is about romantic love and destiny. With this in mind, how might Bollywood films affect relationships in India and women’s roles within them?

“Women have mainly played decorative objects in Hindi cinema for a long time. Or, even in films where they had important roles, they are more victims and martyrs or victimizers of other women” – Dr. Shoma Chatterjee (Award winning author, film scholar and journalist, India). Even though Hindi cinema focused more on Male protagonist centrality but during the 1950’s and 60’s Hindi cinema produced films which highlighted Female characters as orphans, wanderers and even Warriors at times. Despite the fact that those films were not women-centric, they still portrayed women as strong characters having the qualities which were supposed to be associated with the male characters for example: Struggling against society for justice, freedom &

Yielding 28,000 featured films, and as one of the leaders of the film production India is one of the biggest film production country. Following the breakthrough of the Lumiere brothers producing the screening of a motion film, the trend soon followed into European and Indian countries during the 1890’s. By July 1896, the city of Bombay had films produced a variety of films in the same area as where the Lumiere brothers had there first film screened in India. The next year, the first featured show was presented at the Calcutta Star Theatre. The first bioscopes were shown in the theatres in Kolkata during this time as well. The Indian photographer, Hiralal Sen filmed the scenes from a show named The Flower of Persia and The Wrestlers, produced by Bhatavdeker during his first few months there. The film showed a wrestling match, this was the first film and Indian documentary filmed by an Indian.

The biggest obstacle any movie director must face is trying to please a critical audience. It is especially difficult if the movie they are producing is based on a popular novel, such as E. M. Forster’s, A Passage to India. Each reader has their own perspective of what the characters are supposed to be like and it is the director’s job to try their hardest to please everyone and give an accurate representation of the text. David Lean did a fantastic job with his casting decisions for his 1984 film version of A Passage to India. In fact, Lean manages to clarify the novel’s intentions. The characterization in David Lean’s film of A Passage to India mirrors the novel’s original intentions and provides even more depth to the characters.

Mahabharata has been an oft-cited Indian epic for its grey portrayal of characters, their foibles and the unique codes of righteousness it preaches. The story came into existence as conceived by the medieval saint Tulsidas, and spread by word of mouth for centuries thereafter. The first and most noted English text on Mahabharata has been “Mahabharata” as written by C. Rajagopalachari which is the central focus of discourse here. A lot has been said about the anecdotes, preachings and characterisation of the folklore Mahabharata at various social platforms and literary articles. For those of the opinion that the original Mahabharata is just a story from the standpoint of Pandavas; there are various other texts like Rashmirathi and Mrityunjay (Mahabharata in Karn’s perspective) and The Palace of Illusions (Draupadi’s perspective of turnings) for reference and takes on less focussed