Amity school „
Pommunication

INDIAN CINEMA

Faculty: Tanya Sarkar c

 Mndian cinema is a dream machine

‡ that churns out a new fantasy, a new illusion every day.

‡ The main centers of film production - Mumbai, Phennai, Kolkata,
Hyderabad and Bangalore.
‡ Pinema influences all cultures and has proven to have sociological
and ideological influences. This very cinema - particularly that
peculiar genre of Hindi mainstream cinema - is possibly the single
most binding force that unites communities and people in a land as
diverse as Mndia.
‡ The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of
ticket sales and number of films produced annually (877 feature
films and 1177 short films were released in the year 2003 alone).




À
 Story telling to cinema

‡ Telling stories from the epics - hand-drawn tableaux images

/paintings, with accompanying live sounds -age old Mndian tradition.
When the moving pictures or cinema was introduced to the Mndian
viewer, he took the new experience as something already familiar to
him.
‡ The strong influence of its traditional arts, music, dance and popular
theatre on the cinema movement in Mndia even till today.
‡ Millions of people looking for entertainment beyond their daily lives
embraced this magical new medium.

è
 The introduction of cinema in
Mndia
‡ On Îuly 7, 1896. the Lumiere Brothers' Pinematograph,
unveiled 6 silent short films at the Watson's Hotel in
Bombay (Arrival
„
a
rain- W„rkers
leaving
e
ac„ry)
‡ Harischandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar alias Ã
   , imported
a cine-camera from London at a price of 21 guineas and
filmed the first Mndian documentary, a wrestling match at
Hanging Gardens Bombay in 1897.
‡ Mn 1898, Hiralal Sen started to film scenes of theatrical
productions at the Plassic Theatre in Palcutta, inspired
by Professor Stevenson (who had brought to Mndia the first bioscope
to show a film presentation alongside the stage production of e l„er O
ersia)




·
 Vaja Harishchandra -1913 - Dadasaheb Phalke
The first full-length Mndian feature

‡ First feature film ²D
  by N.G. Phitre

& V.G. Torney
‡ First full-length Indian feature film was
V 
 

(3700 feet as
compared to 1500 for ndalik) Phalke had
attended a screening of e Li e „ ris at
P.B. Mehta·s American-Mndian Pinema and
was inspired to make films himself. He was
convinced of the possibility of establishing
an indigenous film industry by focusing on
Mndian themes. Mn this regard, he said Like
e li e „ ris
e sall make picres „n
Rama and Krisna.




]
 ë
‡ The film was about an honest
king who for the sake of his
principles sacrifices his
kingdom and family before the
gods, who are impressed with
his honesty and restore him to
his former glory. The film was a
success, and Phalke went on to
make more mythological films
till the advent of talkies, and
commercialization of Mndian
films lessened his popularity
 ë

‡ First Mndian sound film -Alam Ara (e
Lig
„
e
W„rld§ 1931) by

Ardeshir Mrani. (vithal and zubieda)
‡ Chandidas (1932), by Debaki Bose contained background music for the
first time in Mndian Pinema. Music Director was Vaichand Boral also
known as V.P. Boral.
‡ Debaki Bose's Seeta (1934), made under the banner of East Mndia Film
Pompany, was the first Mndian talkie shown in any Mnternational film festival.
-Venice Film Festival - where it won an Honorary Diploma. He was the 1st
Mndian director to receive any international award.
‡ Nitin Bose·s 1935 film Bhagya Chakra- first Mndian film to use playback
singing The singers were K P Dey, Parul Ghosh and Suprabha Sarkar. The movie
was remade in Hindi with the title Dhoop Chhaon, which was the first Hindi
film to use playback singing.



º
 Influences - six major influences that have shaped
the conventions of Mndian popular cinema

‡ Mndian epics of ©aabaraa and Ramayana have exerted a profound

influence on the thought and imagination of Mndian popular cinema,
particularly in its narratives. Examples include the techniques of a side
story, back-story and story within a story- sub-plots.

‡ The impact of ancient Sanskrit drama ,with its highly stylized nature
and emphasis on spectacle, where music, dance and gesture
combined "to create a vibrant artistic unit with dance and mime
being central to the dramatic experience." Sanskrit dramas were known
as naya, derived from the root word nri (dance), characterizing them as
spectacular dance-dramas which has continued in Mndian cinema.




£
‡ The traditional folk theatre of Mndia, 10th century with the decline of
Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include the Yatra of Bengal, the
Vamlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu.
‡ Parsi theatre- melodrama- contained crude humour, melodious
songs and music, sensationalism and dazzling stagecraft. These
influences are evident in the masala film genre that began with
Manmohan Desai in the 1970s.




å
‡ Hollywood, where musicals were popular from the 1920s to the
1950s-There is a strong Mndian tradition of narrating mythology,
history, fairy stories and so on through song and dance.´ Hollywood
filmmakers used music as realistic narrative whereas Mndian
filmmakers aimed towards a creation, an illusion, a fiction.
‡ The final influence was Western musical television, particularly
MTV, which has had an increasing influence since the 1990s, as can
be seen in the pace, camera angles, dance sequences and music of
recent Mndian films. An early example of this approach was in Mani
Vatnam·s ^„mbay (1995)




c
 Talking films : V. Shantaram

‡ Leading filmmakers of Mumbai during the forties, most innovative

and ambitious.
‡ From his first talkie Ay„dyaca
Raja (1932) to Admi (1939), it was
clear that he was a filmmaker with a distinct style and social
concern whose films generated wide discussion and debate.
‡ He dealt with issues like cast system, religious prejudice and
women's rights. Amarjy„i (1936) was an allegory on the oppression
of women in which the protagonist seeks revenge. Mt could perhaps
be called the first women's lib film in Mndia. The family drama ruled
the charts after the mythological.

cc
 The Golden Fifties

‡ The Fifties saw the rise of great directors like Mehboob, Bimal Voy,
Guru Dutt and Vaj Kapoor who changed the fate of Mndian cinema.
These directors entered the film industry during the 1930s and '40s,
which were traumatic years for the Mndian people. The fight for
independence, famines, changing social mores, global fight against
fascism all contributed to the ethos in which the directors grew up.

cÀ
 Phoreographers

‡ Saroj Khan born Nirmala Sadhu Khan is one of the

most prominent dance choreographers in Hindi-
language films in Mndia. She was born on November 22,
1949, and has c„re„graped
m„re
an

ilms. She
was mostly trained in dance by B. Sohanlal (Kathak).
She shot to fame after her hit dance choreograph for
Nagina "Main Tere Dushman".
‡ Shiamak Davar- 1998 National Film Award for
Dil To Pagal Hai. Shiamak Davar's Mnstitute for the
Performing Arts (SDMPA) in 1991
 Famous Film Mndustries in Mndia

‡ Assamese Film Mndustry- Îollywood- 1935- Joymoti by Jyoti Prasad

Agarwala
‡ Bangla Film Industry- 1890·s- Billwamangal (1919) by Madan
theatres
‡ Bhojpuri Film Industry- history begins in 1962 with the well-
received film Xanga
©aiyya
„e
iyari
adaib„ ("Mother Ganges,
M will offer you a yellow sari"), by Kundan Kumar.

c·
 ë

‡ The Malayalam film industry- Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and

Mammootty, the mainstays of the Malayalam film industry since
1980s. based in Kerala- Mammootty holds the record of most
number of national best actor awards by any actor in Mndia. He
shares the record with Dr. Kamal Haasan
‡ The Marathi film industry, one of the oldest - originated in Nasik,
and developed in Kolhapur and Pune. Finally has moved to Bombay,
"Dadasaheb Phalke Award" is given annually for exceptional
contribution to Mndian cinema.

c]
 Art cinema in Mndia
Mndian cinema that aspires to seriousness or art.
"New Mndian Pinema" or sometimes "the Mndian New Wave´ or "art films".

‡ Wide range of subjects -but mainly in general explorations of

complex human circumstances and relationships within an Mndian
setting.
‡ Films with technical brilliance as well as artistic simplicity and
thematic grandeur.
‡ During the 1950s and the 60s, intellectual film makers and story
writers became frustrated with mindless dance and song genre of the
typical Bollywood film. Pounter artful perspective genre.
‡ Most were funded by state governments to promote an authentic art
genre. non-commercial films on Mndian themes. Their films were
showcased at government film festivals and on the government-run
TV station, Doordarshan.

c
 A revolutionary change

‡ New Pinema directors : Satyajit Vay, Mrinal Sen, Vitwik Ghatak,

and Bimal Voy. the Ap ril„gy by Vay , the Palcutta Trilogy of Sen,
©ege Daka ara by Ghatak and D„ ^iga Zameen by Voy (Hindi).
‡ FTMM graduates Kumar Shahani , Mani Kaul, Saeed Mirza, Shyam
Benegal and Ketan Mehta were the important names of New Wave
Mndian Pinema in Hindi.

cº
‡ Mani Kaul's Dvida (1973)
‡ Shyam Benegal's Ankr (1973)
‡ M.S. Sathyu's Garam Hawa (1973)
‡ Govind Nihilani who enered
ilm industry as
Shyam Benegal's cameraman made his
directorial debut through Aakrosh (1980) he
continued making soci„-p„litical films like
Party (1984), Tamas (1987) and Drishti

90).
‡ Saeed
©izra made notable
p„litical films like
Arvind Desai ki Ajeeb Dastan (1978), Alber

in„
k„
Xssa
Ky„n
Aata Hai ()

‡ ©„an Joshi Haazir Ho! (1984) and Salim
c£

Langde
e
©a
R„
).

 Shyam Benegal
{
 c·cåè·

‡ With his first four feature films Ankr (1973), Nisan (1975)
©anan (1976) and ^mika(1977) he created a new genre, which
has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in Mndia.
‡ He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and the Padma Bhushan
in 1991. On 8th August 2007, he was awarded the highest award in
Mndian cinema for lifetime achievement, the Dadasaheb Phalk Award
for the year 2005. He has won the National Film Award for Bes
Feature Film in Hindi seven times.
‡ Benegal's next film, ©andi (1983) was a satirical comedy about
politics and prostitution, starring Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil.

cå
SOME TOPMPS PHOSEN BY NEW WAVE OV
PAVELLEL FMLMMAKEVS

‡ Atrocities on women
‡ Social inequality, caste system
‡ Female feticide
‡ Terrorism
‡ Marital relations
‡ Extra marital affairs
‡ Pommercial sex workers and their lives