LANGUAGE IN CINEMA

ENG 448A
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Anubhav Kumar (13132)
Harsh Shah (13290)
Raghvendra Kushwaha (13527)
Sandeep Kumar Jha (13613)
Sonu Kumar (13707)

Introduction
We normally tend to think of cinema as essentially a visual medium in which
language plays only a subsidiary and inconsequential role, lending support to the
ambitions of the visual images displayed on the screen.
But the relationship that exists between the voice and the image is complex and
many sided.
As modern film scholars, through their carefully conceived and detailed analysis,
have demonstrated, language and the soundtrack fulfill far more significant roles in
film narrative than such common assumptions would have us believe.

Functions of language in cinema

facilitates the forward movement of the narrative
reinforces the intent of the image

opens up psychological depths in character

guides the viewer through the cinematic plot.

Importance of Language in South Asian Cinema

In South Asian cinema, language is of crucial importance in the
constitution and communication of the filmic experience, moving the
narrative forward in culture-specific ways
In South Asian films, song and dance sequences, fight episodes,
dialogue, comedy, and so on while tenuously connected to the flow of
the cinematic narrative also have an autonomous life of their own.

 For example, dialogues play a crucial role in the cinematic experience

textualized in South Asian film, and very often they are enjoyed and
appreciated as independent and self-contained segments.
Thus, Amjad Khan in Sholay or Shivaji Ganeshan in Parashakti -two
highly popular movies made in North and South India are more
remembered because of their dialogues.
K. A. Abbas, M. Karunanidhi, and SalimJaved in India and Hugo
Fernando and Sirisena Wimalaweera in Sri Lanka are good examples
of writers who earned a national reputation as writers of memorably
powerful dialogues.

Languages of South Asian Cinema

India
India presents us with one of the most complex, and at times confusing, linguistic
landscapes found in any country in the world. The government has officially
recognized 22 languages and English as an associate official language.
This complex linguistic landscape, understandably enough, has generated many
conflicts, at times extremely ferocious, as for example between the advocates of
English and Hindi as national languages and Tamil and Hindi in the south.

 In the case of Sri Lanka there are three main languages, Sinhalese, Tamil, and
English, and the current civil war occurring in the island between the Sinhalese
and Tamils is largely language based.
Pakistan has got lots of variation in their languages be it Balochi, Sindhi, Punjabi,
Pashto etc.
In Bhutan, there is only one language called Dzongkha which is their national
language.

 Narrative films have been made in most of the officially recognized languages in
India, the languages that have and continue to dominate Indian cinema are Hindi,
Bengali, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Marathi.
(You must have heard the word Bollywood, Tollywood etc)
On an average there are almost 1800 movies made in India annually in about 2530 languages.

More than 90% of the movies are made in the 7 most dominating language
cinema industries above mentioned but slowly and steadily other language
cinema industries are also catching up.

Language

No. of films in 2015

Hindi

340

Tamil

291

Telugu

275

Kannada

204

Marathi
Malayalam
Bengali
Bhojpuri
Punjabi

180
168
149
67
45

Gujarati

45

Odia
Assamese

41
20

Rajasthani

10

Chhattisgarhi
Tulu

10
10

Konkani

English

Others

16

Total

1902

Breakdown of 2015 Indian feature films certified

by the Central Board of Film Certification sorted
by languages

Mother India (1957)

Sholay (1975)

Mangaru Male (2006)

Baahubali The Beginning (2015)

Sairat (2016)

Magadheera (2009)

 Similarly, although feature films have been made in all three languages prevalent
in Sri Lanka, the number of movies made in Tamil and English is negligible. The
dominating force is Sinhalese in Sri Lankan cinema.
Several cinemas in Pakistan are: Karachi cinema, Lahore cinema, Punjabi cinema,
Pashto cinema, Sindhi cinema and Balochi cinema.
In Bangladesh movies are made only in Bengali language.
Bhutanese movies are made only in Dzongkha language. Their cinema industry is
called Drukwood.

 The situation of language-based cinema in India becomes more and more

complicated when we realize that movies are sometimes made simultaneously in
different languages and are continually dubbed from one language to another.
For example in the studio era of the 1930s, identical takes were made of each
shot in different languages, very often with different actors and actresses, but
with the same music and crew of technicians.
For ex - V. Shantarams Kunku (Marathi) and Duniya Na Mane (Hindi) made in 1937
and tutak tutak tutiya (Hindi), Devi(Tamil), Abhinetri (Telugu) made in 2016

Formative influences
Classical Sanskrit Theatre and Ancient Epics
Classical Sanskrit Theatre and Two epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata
inspired the imagination of early Indian filmmakers.
One of the noteworthy feature of Sanskrit theatre was the linguistic hierarchy and it
was used by kings and people of higher classes and Prakrit was used by people of
lower social classes.
Language as an enforcer of social divisions was central to the classical Indian
theatrical experience and early Indian makers have preserved social hierarchy in
cinema.
Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side story, backstory and story within a story. Indian popular films often have plots which branch
off into sub-plots.

Folk Theatre:
Around the 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre due to some religious
causes folk theatre became very popular and they influenced the Indian film makers
as well.
They have also same linguistic hierarchization that characterized Sanskrit stage plays.
These regional traditions include the Yatra of West Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar
Pradesh, Yakshagana of Karnataka, Chindu Natakam' of Andhra Pradesh, and
the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu.

Parsi Theatre
Parsi theatre influenced the theatrical imagination of vast numbers of theatres in
South Asia especially in India and Sri Lanka.
The Parsi theatre represented a tradition of melodrama that combined realism
and stylization in equal measure to dramatize both social and historical
experiences
The Parsi plays contained crude humour, earthy dialogue which was adopted in
South Asian Cinema.

Hollywood Music
The Hollywood musicals of the 1940s had large impact on the growth of Indian
popular cinema but South Asian film makers departed from Hollywood in many
ways.
There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history, fairy stories and
so on through song and dance.
In addition, whereas Hollywood filmmakers strove to conceal the constructed
nature of their work so that the realistic narrative was wholly dominant, Indian
filmmakers made no attempt to conceal the fact that what was shown on the
screen was a creation, an illusion, a fiction.

Linguistic Structure
Hindi Cinema
Hindi films are replete with songs containing romantic imagery and
philosophical thought.
In Hindi films, lyrics are written in a language which has its own set repertoire
of images for themes like romantic love, separation, rejection, maternal love,
marriage etc.
The songs adopt a literary style which has a predilection for certain recurrent
metaphors : mehfil, shama/parwana, chaman, bahar, nazaare and so on.

These images and lyrics are largely inspired by Urdu poetry.

Sinhalese Cinema
Like popular Indian films, Sinhalese films are replete with
melodious songs that contribute significantly to their popularity.
These songs contain very sophisticated lyrics, very often
composed by highly talented lyricists of the caliber of
Chandraratne Manavasinghe and Sunil Ariyaratne.

These highly literary and ornate lyrics do not relate directly to

the social background and the linguistic styles that are normally
associated with the different characters.

Narrative Structure
Generally Indian films are characterized as romantic musical
melodramas that set in motion the interplay of the good and the evil
and demonstrate the ultimate triumph of the good over the evil.
Their narrative structure is loose, episodic, and circular, and each of the
loosely connected segments, like music and dance, action, humour and
dialogue are relatively autonomous

 Dialogue writing in Indian films is an art form by itself with its own
recognizable conventions, linguistic registers, tropes, and idioms.

Dialogue, rather that being an ancillary adjunct, which serves to carry

forward the plot of the film, as in most Hollywood films, takes on a life of
its own as an independent entity.
Aaj mere paas gaadi hai, bungla hai, paisa hai... tumhare paas kya
hai?" AMITABH BACHCHAN.
"Mere paas, mere paas... Maa hai...,"SHASHI KAPOOR.

Language Stereotypes in Indian Cinema

Most South Indian characters in Bollywood cinema are just Madrasis who keep
saying ayyayyo ayyayyoSome examples are:
Mehmood in Padosan
Satish Kaushik in Saajan Chale Sasural or
Celina Jaitley in Golmaal Returns
In Indian cinema sometimes when a character needs to be shown poor and
illiterate it is very convenient to show that he is from U.P. or Bihar and his
language is Bhojpuri.

Mixing Language
Code switching and Code mixing are frequently found in south Asian
cinema
A person who speaks two or more languages is often confronted with
the choice of using one or the other in different situations and this
choice involves code switching
Code mixing is more subtle in the sense that a word or phrase that is
associated with one language is injected into a discussion conducted in
another

 For example in Satyajit Rays films, which deal with middle-class experiences,
there is frequent code mixing between Bengali and English. Similarly in the
movies of a Sri Lankan filmmaker such as Lester James Peries we find
frequent code-mixing of Sinhalese and English.
In any recent Bollywood movies there is frequent code mixing between Hindi
and English. Many times Urdu is also mixed to add beauty to dialogue or
make it more romantic.
In absence of famous dialogue from the film Mr. India where Amrish Puri
says Mogambo Khush hua in pure hindi would be Mogambo Prasann
hua.
dil toh bacha hai ji--

Hriday toh baalak hai ji

 Humor is generated through language-linguistic misunderstanding in south Asian

cinema.
For example, in popular Sinhalese films until very recent times the way Tamil
speakers of Sinhalese mispronounced and misunderstood the language formed a
vital part of humor.
Characters who sought to speak in English or use English phrases with less than
satisfactory results became the butt of humor.
Amitabh Bachchan in Namak Halal says, "I can talk English, I can walk English, I
can run English... because English is a very phunny language."

 The use of English expressions in Indian and Sri Lankan cinema is extremely
significant in understanding of language.
for example, consider the English expression, I love you, that has become widely
popular in Indian films in recent times.
In Hindi commercial films as well as in south Indian films, songs and dialogues are
animated by this English expression.
To sound smarter, more refined, more educated, more cool, English is used.
To make the scene more intense or more romantic , English is used.

 Consider the following dialogue from movie Roja by Maniratnam:

Hey, village girl, if I say something to you in English, will you be able to
understand it?
Say it, lets see
I love you
Although the husband is from Madras (Chennai) and the wife is from the
hinterland in Tamil Nadu, they choose to use the English expression as a way
of creating an intimate space.

A case study on Code switching in Bollywood

Here we would compare the overall level of English usage in Bollywood movies from
three consecutive decades: the 1980s, 1990s and post-2000s.
A total of seven movies, spanning the last three decades of the Indian film industry,
were selected, to determine changes in the prevailing linguistic situation over this
period
The similarity in the themes addressed in these movies is reflected in some of their
titles: Dil (1990), Dil Ka Kya Kasoor (1992) and Dil Chahta Hai (2001) all deal with affairs
of the heart (dil), and portray the ever popular boy-meets-girl scenario.
These seven movies can be grouped into two broad categories, namely art-house and
commercial .

 The seven movies along with the years of their release are:
1. Masoom (1982)
2. Saath Saath (1982)
3. Dil (1990)
4. Dil ka kya Kasoor (1992)
5. Monsoon Wedding (2001)
6. Dil Chahta Hai (2001)
7. Main Hoon Na (2004)

 First, however, I would like to describe the different kinds of Code Switching
phenomena frequently occurring in Bollywood movies.
Code-switching phenomena are classed into two broad categories: insertions and
alternations.
1. Insertions: It happens when a word of different code is used in between the
sentence of a different code. In movies there are two types:
English word in Hindi sentence
Hindi word in English sentence this with much reduced frequency
2. Alternations: It takes place when a different code is used altogether while using
another code.

 Insertion:
1. English in Hindi (H with E English insertions into Hindi)
Sri: yar t bat karna cah raha tha?. Discuss kar lge problem. Kya hai?
You wanted to talk, buddy. Well discuss the problem. What is it?
2. Hindi in English (E with H Hindi insertions into English)
And take off that stupid top!
. . . hat
And we got married fatafat
.. . . . straight away
Alternation:
(Hindi to English)
1. ham kya kar rahe ha is none of your business.
What we are doing . . .

Quantitative results: code-switching in Bollywood

There were clear trends in the relative amount of code-switching from one
decade to another; in general, the use of English (in the form of isolated words,
phrases, clauses, sentences or entire turns) was far more prevalent post-2000
than it had been in the 1980s or 1990s.
This is clearly illustrated by a comparison of the speech between middle-aged
speakers (the adults) in a domestic situation from the art-house movies
Masoom and Monsoon Wedding, which are separated by almost two decades.

Evolution of English Language in Indian Cinema

Overall English content in the dialogues of adults from the art-house movies Masoom and Monsoon Wedding

Proportions of code-switching to English

H or P with E English insertions into Hindi or Punjabi;

(H or P)/E English alternation with Hindi or Punjabi;
E with H or P Hindi or Punjabi insertions into English.

Comparison of the relative proportions of dialogue of young speakers

within pairs of movies from each decade (in percentages)

Conclusions on the case study

This study has demonstrated that the manner and frequency of English use in
Bollywood movies has increased in significant ways over the last three decades.
These changes are a reasonable indicator of English usage in upper-middle-class
urban India.
The data indicate a strong turnover in the language of choice among young
people, but what might be driving this phenomenon (if indeed it exists in
contemporary Indian society)? Two possible explanations are that either (a) the
overall volume of English usage has increased dramatically, or (b) that new types
of code switching have emerged.

Politics of language
Another area that merits attention is the politics of language in South Asia.
More than most other national cinemas, Indian cinema presents a complex
relationship between the politics of language and the desires of cinema.

Let us consider the question of Hindi or better still Hindustani

Indian popular cinema has played a pivotal role in the dissemination of
Hindustani as a lingua franca not only in India but in some of the neighboring
countries as well where Indian films enjoy a wide popularity.
Nearly 45 percent of the population speaks Hindustani in India and the Bombaybased commercial cinema has contributed immeasurably to this dissemination.
Talking of Sri Lanka where Hindi movies were extremely popular, avid filmgoers
picked up not only words and phrases of Hindi but rudiments of the language as
well.
This is also true for countries such as Burma (Myanmar), Malaysia, and Indonesia.

 When discussing the politics of language reflected in and fashioned by

Indian cinema one cannot ignore the indissoluble link between language
and cinema in Tamil Nadu.
Powerful politicians like C. N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi cannot be
separated from their popularity in cinema and the power of DMK.
The DMK films with their desire to challenge the power of the Congress
party and the Brahmanical religious authority, and with their desire to
propagate Tamil as a language with a unused past are vitally connected to
the question of politics of language in cinema.

 A film like Parashakti, which gained wide popularity not only in India but also in
countries like Sri Lanka, illustrates this admirably.
It valorized Dravidian heritage in defiantly prideful terms.

M. S. Pandian (1992) who has done considerable work on this topic discusses the
manner in which the dialogues contained in Parashakti had a galvanizing impact
on Tamil audiences stirring their deepest passions and enabling the spread of
Dravidian culture.

Conclusions:
Language and cinema in South Asia can be most productively explored in terms of
the concept of nationhood that serves to focus our attention on conjunctures of
regionalism, state formation, and globalization.
In more modern times, cinema has come to occupy a central role in the
construction of the imagined community.
During the last decade or so, the diasporic audience has come to occupy a central
place in the calculations of film producers as the global market has generated
more dependable returns than the local market. It is the Hindi language films,
followed by Tamil-language films that have attracted the greatest diasporic
audiences.
Some films like Hum aapke hai kaun, DDLJ, Pardes have enjoyed wide popularity
among diasporic audiences.

References:
1. Language in South Asia-Language in cinema
Braj Kachru, Yamuna Kachru, S. N. Sridhar
2.A diachronic investigation of Hindi English code-switching, using Bollywood film
scripts : http://symbiosiscollege.edu.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/codeswitching.pdf
3.Indian Cinema : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_India
4.South Asian Cinema: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asian_cinema
5.Language Stereotypes in Indian Cinema:
https://madaboutmoviez.com/2012/04/17/stereotyping-in-indian-cinema-howlong-will-it-continue-2/

THANK YOU!!!