Transcript A Beginner’s Guide to Bollywood

A Beginner’s Guide to Indian
Cinema
Sneha Bagchi
Dec 20, 2009
General Inspirations
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Indian Epics: Mahabharata, Ramayana
Sanskrit Drama
Folk Theatre of India
Parsi Theatre
• Hollywood
• Western Music TV shows (MTV)
• Indian Diaspora
Bollywood - Love your First Impressions
• Bollywood is predominantly
escapist and full of
entertainment, no matter
how artistic it is.
• Full of music, dancing, colorspart of Indian culture
• Romance will always be a key
factor-whether focus or a
subplot
• Family is a key role in lives,
friendship is filled with crazy
times, and marriage always
occurs in ultimate romance
• Bonus points for always
having a rain scene (mostly
past films)
A Typical Bollywood Impression…
The Beginning: Tollywood
• Believe it or not, Bengalis were the
first ones to be exposed to cinema
• Tollywood: Blending of “Tollygunge”
and “Hollywood”
• First began in 1890’s, with the
introduction of “bioscopes” by the
British.
• First Bengali movie, “Billwamangal”
produced in 1919
• First talkie, Jamai Shashthi, produced
in 1931, the same year as “Alam
Ara”, first Hindi talkie.
The Eras Of Tollywood
• The Silent Era: 1919-1930
– India still under British rule
at this point
– Hiralal Sen: Bengali director
– Heroes: Pramathesh Barua
& Debaki Bose
• Rising of the Talkies
– 1932 film “Chandidas”
breakthrough for recording
sound for Bengali film
– More artistically inclined
than rising Hindi movies
Tollywood Eras: Cont.
• The Golden Age: 1952-1972
– Rise of Directors: Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Bimal
Roy, and Ritwik Ghatak
– Rise of Actors: Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen,
Soumitra Chatterjee
– Rise of Playback Singers :Hemanta Mukherjee,
Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, and Kishore
Kumar
– Rise of ‘Parallel Cinema’ movement
Notable Films
• The Apu Trilogy (1955-1959)
– Pather Panchali
– Aparajito
– Apur Sansar
• The Calcutta Trilogies:
– Pratidwandi (1971)
– Seemabaddha (1971)
– Jana Aranya (1976)
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Nayak (1966)
Mrigaya (1976)
Sonar Kella (1974)
Paroma (1984)
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002)
Some Bengali Films You Might Know
Bollywood
• Largest producer of movies in the world
• Large part of mass Indian culture, whether for
escapism or social commentary
• Masala movies-mix of all different genres in
one movie
• In their history, has swung between familyfriendly romance and social commentary
Going to Bollywood
• Developed around the same time as
Tollywood
• Made up of “Bombay” and “Hollywood”,
which was based off of Tollywood
• Raja Harishchandra (1913) was first silent
feature film
• Alam Ara (1931) is first Hindi talkie film made
• Color became popular in Bollywood in late
1950’s
Before Independence
• Lots of silent movies about Indian epics
• Based on Parsi plays and Indian stories
• By 1930’s, India was producing 200 films per
year
Key Movies/Actors
• Raja Harishchandra
(1913)
• Alam Ara (1931)
• Kisan Kanya (1937)
• Notable Actors:
– Prithviraj Kapoor
– Ashok Kumar
The BW to Color Age – some say the
Golden Age
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From the 1950’s until about 1970
Story-centric, focusing on realism
Social commentary and global recognition
Epic films become a genre
Social themes with urban working-class
and/or rural India
Notable Films
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Awaara (1951)
Devdas (1955)
Shree420 (1955)
Mother India (1957)
Pyaasa (1957)
Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Madhumati (1958)
Guide (1965)
Aradhana (1969)
Sangam (1964)
Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai (1960)
Clips
Notable Actors
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Raj Kapoor
Rajesh Khanna
Sharmila Tagore
Guru Dutt
Nutan
Dilip Kumar
Vaijayantimala
Dev Anand
Nargis
Sunil Dutt
Shammi Kapoor
Mumtaz
Madhubala
Rajendra Kumar
Notable Singers/ Songs
• Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi
reigned supreme
• Rise of :
– Kishore Kumar
– Asha Bhosle
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“Mere Sapna Ki Rani”
“Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe”
“Mere Saamne Wale Khirki Main”
“Tere Mere Sapne”
“Chori Chori”
“Mera Joota Hai Japani”
“Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehephil”
From Romance to Masala (1970s-early 1980s) “dishum dishum”
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Represented the struggles of lower class
Represented corruption in society
Hoped for the “knight in shining armor” to solve the miseries
Male actor dominated movies – very few meaningful roles for
women actors
• Rajesh Khanna started the 1970s as the romantic hero and
• Amitabh Bachchan - the angry young man - reigns supreme
• Some art movies break-through
Actors
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Amitabh Bachchan
Rekha
Sanjeev Kumar
Amjad Khan
Zeenat Aman
Rishi Kapoor
Shashi Kapoor
Jeetendra
Mithun Chakraborty
Sridevi
Naseerudin Shah
Hema Malini
Shabana Azmi
Clips
The Low Years
• Late eighties to early nineties
• Affected by the rise of VCRs and piracy
• Return to family-friendly films, but little effort
made towards quality
• Some good films rise out introduce actors of
tomorrow
• Searching for the right mix between action,
romance, social, violence
Movies
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Baazigar
Daar
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
Maine Pyaar Kiya
Tezaab
Parinda
Mr. India
Khal Nayak
Clip
Key Actors
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Shahrukh Khan
Kajol
Madhuri Dixit
Karishma Kapoor
Tabu
Anil Kapoor
Amir Khan
Salman Khan
Sanjay Dutt
The Phoenix Rises Again
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From 1995 to current era
Triggered by the release of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)
Rise of independent films and artistically inclined
Rise of genre Mumbai noir
More focus on youth, with college students becoming
increased subjects
• Newer generation of actors and actresses coming into
prominence
• Even commercial cinema becoming more artistically inclined
Key Movies
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Dilwale Duhania Le Jayenge (1995)
Satya (1998)
Lagaan (2001)
Devdas (2002)
Munnabhai M.B.B.S.(2003)
Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006)
Rang De Basanti (2006)
Key Actors-Gen. Next
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Hithrik Roshan
Shahid Kapoor
Abhishek Bachchan
Ranbir Kapoor
Aishwarya Rai
Rani Mukherji
Kareena Kapoor
Konkona Sen Sharma
Key Songs
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“Chaiyya Chaiyya”
“Dhoom Machale”
“Chand Sifarish”
“Tadap Tadap Ke”
“Ek Pal Ka Jeena”
“Ghanan Ghanan”
“Dola Re”
“Kajra Re”
“Rang De Basanti”
Clips
Key Composers and Singers
• Composers
– A.R. Rahman
– Jatin-Lalit
– Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
• Playback Singers
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Udit Narayan
Kavita Krishnamurthy
Alka Yagnik
Shreya Ghoshal
Sunidhi Chauhan
Sonu Niigam
Shaan
What about the rest of India?
• All regions make movies – and
they make a lot of them
• Telegu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam
films have created many award
winning and masala movies
• Other regions also make many
movies, every year
• My focus today was on Tollywood
and Bollywood – which I am most
familiar with
Thank You