Indian Cinema

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While I don't know if we have anyone here from India, I was wondering if anyone was a fan or knew that much about it.

Anyway, this thread is for discussing various aspects of it and your opinions. Anything said here could be used as a part of a field project that I'm conducting on it.

A basic background for those that don't know:

Indian cinema has its basis of operations in Bollywood, located in downtown Bombei. It is mostly musicals with singing and dancing within the film itself.

If you want to see some trailers and whatnot:
http://www.planetbollywood.com/

 

For people in Asia then sure, it must be great watching. For people in the UK it is a joke. Nothing about it appeals to me at all anyway. I mean c’mon, TV and Movies are bad enough right now let alone..

 

@Ssrevok Anchev.
Don't dismiss Bollywood so casually. The U.K has a growing indian population, so Indian movies are becoming a lot more popular over here. In Birmingham alone, ehtnic groups are rapidly overtaking white population in numbers. Also a larger amount of people from all cultures are getting into Bollywood. Just look at the popularity of Lagan when it was released.
I'm not a fan personally, but I know a fair number who are.

 

Like Takara said, it's popularity in the U.K, and even the U.S i believe is increasing significantly. Indian Bollywood cinema is becoming more and more global these days. Again, i'm no fan of it myself. I mean i HATE musicals! And Bollywood films are very much like musicals. "Kuch Kuch Huta Hai"(sp?) was very popular in the U.K. I've seen that (that is the only Bollywood movie i have seen). It is unbelievably cheesy. But due to the fact that Bollywood films are so formulaic (oh, i am a film studies student and wannabe director, so i have studied indian cinema), and the fact they don't take themselves very seriously, they are...easy-watching. They are films where everything is spelt out for you, they have lots of bright exaggerated colours, always involve a romance (which is usaully the central focus of the film) and make very heavy usage of the "star image" of their actors.
They require so little commitment and concentration when watching, that, if you let yourself, you can, technically, let yourself...enjoy them. Although none of that works for me personally. I hate them.
Considering Hollywoods' lack of producing a film that even remotely resembles, interesting and original in the past 5 years, and the fact that they KNOW this,(which is why they are making so many re-makes of old films or films from far eastern cinema at the moment, and that's a FACT) you should expect, and can already, see influnces from Bollywood cinema creeping into our modern day, Westernised, mainstream cinema. Not to mention Hollywood wants to get it's corrupt hands into the production of Bollywood films due to their popularity in india. And India has a very big population, hence spend a very large amount of capital on cinema going. Hollywood wants a piece of this capiatl. The same goes for Hollywood wanting to push production into chinese and Japanese cinema, for an example: it's involvement in "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". Big population means big bucks $$$. God i hate Hollywood...

 

I laugh at the name and I laugh at the ridiculous acting. When I say the UK people, I mean UK people, not Indians Bengalis and Pakistanis, they don’t count

 

well... when one says "indian cinema" I tend to think Satyajit Ray, etc. meaning there is of course an excellent cinema in India that has nothing to do with bollywood.

and it's tough to argue that even bollywood is cheesier than, say, the spice girls...

 

Indeed. But "UK people" ARE getting into Bollywood more now. Maybe it's because they either give Bollywood a chance, or have to watch the latest piece of trash hollwood has just churned out. I mean if they watch Bollywood, at least it's crap that they haven't got used to yet. A new formula (not necessarily a good formula but a new one). Hollywood however...well eveyone knows what crap that's capable of.

 

I actually believe there's more to Bollywood than cheesy love stories...
Anyway, maybe this is due to my "disturbed" mental state since I seem to see metaphysical questions everywhere lately.

 

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i cannot find a more offensive comment then those.

1 - Asia is a huge area, you don't need me to tell you that. India (and the adjacent countries) itself can be a continent of its own already. See how India is surrounded by mountains? People there developed their own culture, i don't see them use chopsticks while eating.

2 - People move around nowadays. If you mean UK people just by your "UK people" then it is your lost. A culture grow by interactions and incorporation. If the Spanish did not have the gun powderr tehc. from middle east and, ultimately, China, how do you propose them to wipe out the isolated Indian culture in south america?


But, back to the topic,
because of the racial diversity in Malaysia, i was exposed to Bollywood since i was a kid. Apart from the musical/dramatic movies, they do produce some epical and mythical movies. Rare due to high cost but they are all excellent production. The most recent one i have watched before coming to U.S., Asoka.

Among ourselves (me, my Indian friends, malaysians in general) we make fun of bollywood all the time. There are things we just don't understand.

How the actors can change costume in 1/10 of a second while singing and dancing?
How the couple can roll from the top of a hill with one costume and arrive at the bottom with another costume while singing and dancing?
Where are those people coming from with uniform costume and dance and sing with the couple as soon as the music starts? And they all know what to sing and what to dance when the content of the song is about secret between the couple??
The hero, no matter how bad he was beaten in a fight, never shed a tear but when all these injuries are treated by his love one, he will yell loudly and cry like a baby.
Not to forget the lame and fake punches sound effects that was used in 60~70's hong kong kung fu movies and they are still using it now.

i always wanted my indian friends to teach me summon tons of dancing sidekicks level 3 spell and quick changing cloth feat. But they said my level is too low. Of course, jokes like that can only be understood if one accpeted Bollywood movies.

An chinese saying "a thousand ideas of a wise man has one that is not good; a thousand ideas of a fool has one that is brilliant." Bollywood does produce lots of trash (low cost, fast production) but if i must go through thousand of those to find an excellent one, i will.
Excellent movie: priceless.

[ April 14, 2004, 22:17: Message edited by: teekc ]

 

You have to remember also, that in the u.k, a large number of "ethnic" groups were born in this country. As such they are as British as the rest of us. Otherwise I might as well start calling myself a German because I have saxon origin.

 

That does not make them British. Anyway, the majority of the ethnic groups over here are here working illegally and claming benefits illegally and costing this country a fortune. I was born in this country but it does not make me British one little bit, my bloodline is Italian and Irish.

 

It all comes down to cultral identity. What is British anyway? Just because my bloodline has been here for a while doesn't mean I qualify. I think if you are born here, then you have every right to feel a part of this country. I don't believe a person should be judged because they have a foreign ancestry. I know many people whose parents emigrated to this country, but they are just as British, and proud to be so as I am.
I suppose this is getting way off topic though.

 

Umm...I'm an Indian guy, so I thought I could probably comment here...

I've lived in India most of my life, (I'm in Sydney for Uni right now) and I've seen COUNTLESS "Bollywood" movies...and you guys have no idea how funny it is to see you comment about them. This is largely because the stuff you guys say is EXACTLY the same things me and my mates back in India said!

They have VERY little practicality and those song and dance sequences are EVIL!!

But over the years of watching them, I would say that there are certain very good movies. To dismiss them all as trash is extremely unfair, not to mention offensive.

Personally, I prefer English movies (or Hollywood movies) to Bollywood ones...almost everyone in India does.

But it is heartening to see that its making headway in foreign markets as well.

Another point to be made is that when these movies are made, the lowest common denominator for the intelligence of the audience is very low, or it is thought to be very low...which is why they tend to be highly dumbed down and formulaic, not to mention boring at times.

They're not all very good, but from what I've seen in Hollywood, there's loads to laugh at there as well...so, I would say laughing at the name and laughing at the movies is kind of stupid.

As for the movies being stupid, we Indians think the same thing!

 

I'd say you just about summed it up perfectly Faraaz