India has witnessed extraordinary growth and the realities of life for many have improved dramatically in recent times, but to the dismay of some of its critics mainstream Bollywood continues to peddle escapist fantasy.
The most popular films in India are so-called masala pictures - diversionary fare delivering a combination of romance, comedy, action, melodrama, song, dance and nearly always an unrealistic happy ending.
Some cultural commentators maintain the country's mainstream film industry produces fantasy because, despite improvements, many Indians still live under conditions of extreme poverty.
Bollywood films are very often seen as reinforcing and reflecting the values of a patriarchal culture with women portrayed in stereotypical roles.
Top Indian director Shekhar Kapur agrees. "We hang on to this idea of the Suffering Woman that in her suffering that she would be the Great Woman."
But one of Bollywood's biggest female stars, Priyanka Chopra, sees it rather differently. She believes there has been some progress.
"One of my most critically and commercially acclaimed films was a film Fashion that was entirely on my shoulder(s). It was a girl's journey in the fashion industry and her ups and downs, so yes, I do think that Hindi films have evolved in terms of female parts."
Although Bollywood films are evolving some areas are still taboo. Portraying certain kinds of sex can be fraught with difficulty, top independent filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has discovered.
His 2010 film - That Girl in Yellow Boots - showed massage parlours selling sex in the sleazy underbelly of Mumbai. It provoked a backlash.
"The moment you deal with sex, for a lot of people, it becomes morally upsetting, and because you're dealing with it in a very real way. If you do it in a very suggestive way or a dramatic way, it's fine.
"A lot of people involved with the film were embarrassed about the film. A lot of people we thanked in the film who actually lent us money, they said, 'Please take our names from the film,' because they don't want somebody to see and say 'You gave the money to make this film!'"
Middle-class revolution
India's large young population is stirred by the same issues and topical debates found in the West.
While Hollywood may still be reluctant to address certain hot button subjects such as abortion and gay rights there's much more opposition in India.
Bollywood actor - and heartthrob - Ranbir Kapoor, 29, says: "It's still a little taboo for a mainstream actor to do a gay role, but we are hopeful. We're not pushing the boundaries that much to actually make a film on abortion or just gay rights.
"I think someday we'll get there. Someday we'll have total freedom of making anything and everything we want."
The biggest move towards more realistic cinema comes from India's burgeoning new wave of filmmaking fuelled by the country's young middle class. While the vast majority of Indians go to single-screen cinemas, the urban generation with money to spend flock to newer multiplex cinemas seeking films that are a little more daring and challenging than Bollywood crowd pleasers.
One of the directors catering to the needs of this growing audience is Dibakar Banerjee, who sees his most recent film, Love, Sex aur Dhokha, as a reaction against Bollywood.
He thinks his picture portrays a realistic view of love and the impact it can have in the lives of ordinary Indians - a portrayal that he argues stands in contrast to Bollywood love stories.
Bollywood, he says, might preach love conquers all but his film presents a very different picture.
"What happens in real life is that when a person from one caste marries or falls in love with a person from another caste, they might be killed for that in some places in India," he says.
Replacing fantasy with reality can bring big rupees to the box office as the makers of Delhi Belly discovered. Their film was one of the biggest successes this year in India's multiplex cinemas.
The picture is an irreverent crime caper replete with lavatory humour. It's seen as India's first mainstream move into "gross-out" adult comedy.
The screenplay comes from writer Akshat Verma - a man on a mission to inject more lifelike and relatable portrayals into Indian films.
"My biggest problem growing up, watching a lot of Indian films, was characters in situations I did not relate to," he says. "So my desire was to try and write characters which were some of the people I'd known, friends who had a rudeness or irreverence to the way they approached the world, with a certain dark humour."
Although there are divisions within the Indian film industry over storytelling and content a workable equilibrium appears to have been established.
Bollywood has a well-established star-system that continues to bring escapist fantasy to the masses. While the country's growing independent film movement strives to bring Indians more gritty and realistic movies.
But both these sectors happily co-exist - and both are flourishing.
Bollywood actor - and heartthrob - Ranbir Kapoor, 29, says: "It's still a little taboo for a mainstream actor to do a gay role, but we are hopeful. We're not pushing the boundaries that much to actually make a film on abortion or just gay rights.
"I think someday we'll get there. Someday we'll have total freedom of making anything and everything we want."
The biggest move towards more realistic cinema comes from India's burgeoning new wave of filmmaking fuelled by the country's young middle class. While the vast majority of Indians go to single-screen cinemas, the urban generation with money to spend flock to newer multiplex cinemas seeking films that are a little more daring and challenging than Bollywood crowd pleasers.
One of the directors catering to the needs of this growing audience is Dibakar Banerjee, who sees his most recent film, Love, Sex aur Dhokha, as a reaction against Bollywood.
He thinks his picture portrays a realistic view of love and the impact it can have in the lives of ordinary Indians - a portrayal that he argues stands in contrast to Bollywood love stories.
Bollywood, he says, might preach love conquers all but his film presents a very different picture.
"What happens in real life is that when a person from one caste marries or falls in love with a person from another caste, they might be killed for that in some places in India," he says.
Replacing fantasy with reality can bring big rupees to the box office as the makers of Delhi Belly discovered. Their film was one of the biggest successes this year in India's multiplex cinemas.
The picture is an irreverent crime caper replete with lavatory humour. It's seen as India's first mainstream move into "gross-out" adult comedy.
The screenplay comes from writer Akshat Verma - a man on a mission to inject more lifelike and relatable portrayals into Indian films.
"My biggest problem growing up, watching a lot of Indian films, was characters in situations I did not relate to," he says. "So my desire was to try and write characters which were some of the people I'd known, friends who had a rudeness or irreverence to the way they approached the world, with a certain dark humour."
Although there are divisions within the Indian film industry over storytelling and content a workable equilibrium appears to have been established.
Bollywood has a well-established star-system that continues to bring escapist fantasy to the masses. While the country's growing independent film movement strives to bring Indians more gritty and realistic movies.
But both these sectors happily co-exist - and both are flourishing.
I think Indian society is changing very fast, with the rapid economic growth of country and the development of the middle class, mentality are changing with more open mind set, we can take the example of the “legalization” of homosexuality in India, on the 6th of September declare homosexuality was now legal, a big advancement for the country, therefor I think its logical that we see the a change in the cinematographic taste in India at the same time. Classic Bollywood with impossible romance and unrealistic happy ending is still big in India, but doesn’t attract the younger generation anymore, from middle class, they grow up with internet and social media, they now want to see movie that talk about social problem and social change, a film with characters they can identify to, with a true representation of life in India, and it’s also a role of movie to promote social change.
ReplyDeleteI should say that Bollywood has given world some of the great movies, since many Indian actors are go International and known by the world, such as Shahrukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra (Miss World 2000 Pageant). Compare to Hollywood, Bollywood has always been very musical. Singing and dancing scenes, melodious songs as backsound, and traditional-colourful dresses, that is how I describe Bollywood. Both the movie and music industries are tightly interlinked. I think it is something that cant be separated. Indian movies that I know are mostly romance comedy as it is famous for its conflict of the couples, they also have a good sense of humor. I can say that the jokes are brilliant and easy to understand. India is particularly complex market, encompassing many languages and cultural phenomenon. Since the vast economy gap that is found in India, this factor has allowed film to become an art for the people, not just for the upper class.
ReplyDeleteMost Bollywood movies I watched were always full of dance, song, and the infamous physic defying stun that sometimes just plain obviously fake. It’s always been the unique characteristic that almost all Bollywood film has and certainly there are a lot of people liking this kind of movie that very fantasy oriented. This trend even went outside India like in Indonesia where there are many Bollywood movies being show in TV. But recently there are movies that more grounded to reality rather than using usual fantasy romance formula that has become stereotype of all Bollywood movies. These more realistic movies have become a success in India especially from middle class people that’s been growing rapidly in India. This is a good sign for India, this means the taste and the condition of Indian get better in both economy and socially. Although there are still many people prefer movies that has unrealistic happy ending, movies with more realistic approach will become more relevant for India viewer as India economy and society improve in the future.
ReplyDeleteBollywood seems to have reached an interesting cross-road. In one hand, they can continue to glorify the popular and, no doubt, lucrative "classic" Bollywood storylines or they could branch out to more experimental and eye-opening movies that depict real life struggles and situations. Both types of movies have a good amount of following, though the former is known better by the global citizen. And both of these movies types deal with the theme of love quite frequently. The usual and most common depiction of love stories in a classic Bollywood movie would involve grandiose scenes that had numerous accounts of dancing, colours and singing. The more recent types of approach involves integrating a more realistic tone to the movie while occasionally these types of movies try to deal with social issues that are arising as well. I think both types of movies have their respective attractions, and I am glad they could co-exist. But the thing is that the more realistic a movie tries to be the less entertaining it would be because don't we go to movies to get away from reality?
ReplyDeleteI suppose Bollywood movies are indeed not for everyone. Some thinks that all the drama is too much drama, some thinks that all the singing does not make sense, and some just think that they are just unrealistic. And all the reasons mentioned are absolutely correct. Yet for some reason, I am one of those people who actually enjoy Bollywood movies. There is a mysterious appeal about Bollywood movies which hooked me into watching them. Started out with joining my grand mother for a Sunday night TV classic, has turned into a peculiar preference of mine. I know some people might underestimate Bollywood movies, and thinks that it is incredibly overly dramatic. Yet I think, entertainment doesn’t have to be realistic. As long as I have fun watching it, I don’t really have any objection. I hope the next time we watch Bollywood movie, we should have a new appreciation for them.
ReplyDeleteIn my view, the growth of Indian masala fantasy flicks and its cheap tricks and cheesy plot devices is inseparable from the market reforms enacted by the Indian government since 1991. The existence of said “crowd pleaser” type of movies is an example of how capitalism attempts to commercialize everything it can get its hands on, even something that could influence the masses such as blockbuster movies. Flicks like the masala is similar to the Indonesian sinetron, in a sense that they sacrifice all semblance of rational plot development in favor of cheesy acts that belittle the audience’s mental capacity. The sole purpose of these movies is to earn as much profit as possible, so no regard is given to the role of cinema as an art form that should represent something other than being an emotional tear jerker. However, an interesting point made by the article is that along with economic development and the growth of the middle class, cinema audiences began to evolve in their tastes to move away from liking movies that only evoke their basic emotions.
ReplyDeleteBollywood movies have their own audience, not all people like Indian movies or series. I always see Bollywood movies or series full of dance and song, basically musical movies or series. I agree with the article that Indian movie consist of giving an unrealistic happy ending, as they called ‘masala’. There are a lot of movie have a similar story line, basically about how hard the characters life start and end the story with how success the characters. Even Though we know it is a fiction story or fake, people still like to watch the movie as it will happen to them. I think the type of story the society like will show what actually happen on the society and what they hope to be. As we know the story line has improved, that means the society has improve also in economy and social life. Some story still not accepted by the audience because they considered that taboo to talk about.
ReplyDelete