To what extend have Hindu values and ideologies dominated the representational agenda of Indian cinema?
Cinema was first introduced in India in July 7, 1896, when the Lumiere Brother’s Cinematographe showed six soundless short films in the Watson Hotel in Bombay.
Indian cinema is named Bollywood. This name is conflation of Bombay, the old name of Mumbai, and Hollywood, the center of the United State film industry. Bollywood is also commonly referred to as Hindi cinema. The Bollywood industry is usually tha largest in terms of films produced and office receipts.
The first Indian film concerned with honor, sacrifice and mighty deeds. For in that period many “mythologicals” were made and took India by storm.
In the 1930’s, Indian films adopted a modernist outlook essentially converging of society, addressing social differences of caste, class and the relations between the sexes. The most important film in the period, Devdas (1935), the director created a tale of love frustrated by social distinction and masculine ineffectuality. This film focused on indecision, frustration and a focus on failure and longing rather than on achievement.
Indian cinema has made a unique contribution towards evolving a new popular culture by reconstructing the traditional performative themes and idioms, using western narrative forms and positioning implicitly in the narrative many contemporary tensions and encoded messages of social change. It provided an intimate cinematic interpretation of Indian identity in its sentiments, outlook and diversity.
Indian Cinema has built its narrative around the notion of enlightenment, taking up a well-informed discourse on the human connection with the metaphysical, at the same time presenting a sound critique of the orthodox worldview, age-old social hierarchy and the social tensions and suffering. Some of the major concerns of Indian literature were also incorporated in their films. During the classical period when film-making was at its highest artistic peak, it fulfilled an important social function by translating the main agenda of Indian society at that time by interpreting human suffering in an inequitable society, and to release and reinstate the cultural traditions from the influences of the recent colonial past.
The basic emotional basis or structure of Indian films has its roots in living a life in the puritan, sublime love through a cycle of union and separation. The protagonist was presented essentially as an introvert, a restless soul in search of his identity in love and suffering. But the large part of the cinema is characterized by the reflection of internal suffering of a nation at large. The film-makers submerge the nation’s pain in highly appealing story-telling, which interpreted the uprootment and loss in different ways and help people incoming terms with it.
Hindu films act as the interface between the traditions of Indian society and of the disturbing Western intrusions. The function of Hindu film is to externalize an inner psychological conflict and handle the inner passion generated by social and political processes as problems created by events and persons.
Bollywood films are usually musicals. Movies are made with song and dance number. Music and song form an integral part of Indian cinema.
Bollywood films are filled with themes of jealousy and unrequited love. The three elements common to many Hindi movies are wealth, love triangles and references to caste system. Wealth, love and caste are prominent in Bollywood because these elements are missing in real life of the majority of Indians.
Over half of Indians are povertly-stricken and it would be a relief to see wealth in the film. Also, Indian films seldom show the characters working while in real life Indian people are known for their good work and ethics and high standards of education.
Love is also popular in Indian cinema. In real life of Indian people, romance is not typical for marriages are still arranged. Marrying for love symbolizes freedom to make one’s own decisions. Even the people acting as poor people look richer than most people of the status they play in the movie.
The characters also of the movies are light skin for it represents wealth because they don’t have to do the manual labor which is associated with lower castes and darker skin color.
Films influence public opinions on matters relating to nationalism, social reforms and war. Films began to reflect the dynamics of the contemporary social and political currents. It brought about a political awakening and consciousness. Films in India have themes on political expressions and social reforms.
In the films of 1930’s, injustice in women was the frequent theme and the choice in marriage also has been a theme of the films in this period. The tradition of socially conscious cinema slowly developing. These films were not mere entertainment but were charged with nationalistic ideas. Indian cinema was being used for political propaganda.
Cinema’s close interaction with politics is one of the dominant characteristics Indian cinemas. This happens when British government attempt to prevent the depiction of political propaganda in films and tighten the censorship. During this time, the popular entertainment was commercial drama.
When sound was introduced in cinema, the politicized, nationalistic group of drama artists moved into the world of films. They brought with them into cinema their ideology and a penchant for political activism. Patriotic films were produced and cinema became an instrument of political propaganda. Many film artists began taking direct part in politics and lent their charisma to the nationalist cause.
The modern image of Bollywood is of fantasy and glitz, with a ‘disco-lifestyle’ of glamour and wealth. On the surface everything looks very simple, but the core values of these films remain immovably tied to 5000 years of religious tradition – most of it Hindu. In India, religious thinking and values surround you in everything you experience – from the saffron robed holy men in the streets, to the sacred cows which wander freely through the traffic. Religion is so much a part if Indian life. Religion and a code of practice through religious belief is present in nearly every theme.
In most Bollywood films there will be scenes built around people praying to the gods, in the temple or at home, with stories structured around grand themes of sacrifice and morality. At the heart of them, it is the struggle between Good and Evil.
Of course, without songs, there would be no Bollywood! Music is an essential part of Indian cinema due to the tradition of the narrative style. The great epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were both written in verse and memorised by singing through the ages.
The origins of Indian cinema were built on the dramatization of the great mythological epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The pioneer of early Indian cinema was Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, who realised the popular appeal of having Lord Krishna or Ram as your onscreen hero. His debut film Raja Harishchandra (1913) set the trend for mythological films which were to dominate the silent era and form the basis of all plots to come.
A story with a moral at the end is necessary in a Bollywood film. Indian cinema has largely survived on the support of the rural and semi-urban masses. They prefer simple good verses evil scenarios, drawn from the ancient mythology. Glorification of the family, individual sacrifice for the sake of others, respect for age and authority, and the long-term futility of crime are the basis for plots in Indian cinema.
Indeed in these early days of film in the 20s and 30s, the cinema was very much an extension of the temple. Great cinema tents would travel from village to village and be set up next to the temple. When people had finished worshiping the gods in the temple they would then go next door into the cinema and see their gods on the screen.
In time films moved away from the simple dramatization of mythological tales, but have nevertheless rigidly held onto core values and morals. Much of the accounts and triumphs of Krishna or Ram are now translated into metaphors acted out by the screen hero towards his lover, family or whatever his general situation may be.
Film producers and directors are adept at making things look simple on the surface, but there are layers of cultural and religious codes which lie beneath, informing the way characters behave with each other, the way they dress, or even what they are called. If a character is called ‘Vijay’ then the audience will know he is a Hindu. If he is called ‘Akbar’, then they will know he is a Muslim.
The Hindu-Muslim divide has been the most explosive political issue in the sub-continent since India gained her independence from Britain in 1947 – resulting in riots and bloodshed. Thousands died following the destruction of a mosque in Ayodhya in 1992 and from communal riots in Gujarat just 2 years ago. For Bollywood, Hindu-Muslim relations have dominated plot lines for decades.
Bollywood prides itself on its claim to transcend barriers of religion, culture and caste. In this industry people of all faiths and backgrounds work together in communal harmony – from the big-screen stars to the lighting director to the make-up artists .
India’s recent history is a sign of cinema’s growing maturity and a healthy move away from the morass of enervating escapism into which visual entertainment seems to have irredeemably fallen.
The trend suggests, in a particular genre some themes remained dominant and many movies were made based on a pet theme. For instance in the fifties and the sixties it was the poverty, squalor and umpteen hardship that formed the base material of the movies. At that time the audience connected themselves with the sorrows and the miseries around them with the protagonist on screen.
In seventies and eighties the trend changed to plots that portrayed angry young man’s fight against the injustices of the society. The new recipe in nineties that’s struck upon is to ‘sex up the script,’ pump up with item songs of semi clad women; throw up some ‘Baywatch’ shots on the road, make the female dress and undress, over doze it with heavy necking scenes.
The New Indian cinema is almost always concerned with the common man. The heroes are not supermen with extraordinary ambition, who have to rise from poverty, tame the rich girl and fight the evil landlord, but ordinary men and women acting under the pressures of ordinary living. It is a form of individualization.
Bollywood movies are with their distinctive approach to storytelling. Usually woven together by six songs and at least two lavish dance numbers, the movies are about unconditional love, the conflict between fathers and sons, revenge, redemption, survival against the odds, the importance of honor and self-respect, and the mission to uphold religious and moral values.
Indian cinema is unique to Indian culture and history, its energetic style, the emotional appeal of its themes, the glamorous lifestyles portrayed, the enduring melodies and lush settings, all contribute to its increasing popularity worldwide.
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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