Assignment
Topic: Comparative study of Old Bollywood Movie and New Bollywood Movie.
Paper
Name: Mass Communication and Media Studies
No:
27
Batch
Year: 2013-15
Paper
No: 15
Enrolment
No: PG13101036
Email
Id: Sejal.vaghela43@gmail.com
Submitted to:
Department of English Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
Introduction:
Bollywood is the name of the Hindi
language film industry, Based in Mumbai, India. The term is often incorrectly
used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema however; it is only a part of the
large Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing
films in multiple languages. Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in
India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world. It is more formally referred to as Hindi Film
cinema.
Raja
Harishchandra (1913), by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature
film made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per
annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a
major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and
musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to
sound filming. The 1930s and 1940s were rowdy times: India was rocked by the
Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the
violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but
there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used
the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots.
In
the early 2010s, established actors like Salman Khan and Akshay Kumar became
known for making big-budget masala entertainers like Dabangg and Rowdy Rathore
opposite younger actresses like Sonakshi Sinha. These films were often not the
subject of critical acclaim, but were however major commercial successes. While
most stars from the 2000s continued their successful careers into the next
decade, the 2010s also saw the rise of a new generation of actors like Ranbir
Kapoor, Imran Khan, Ranveer Singh, and Arjun Kapoor, as well as actresses like
Vidya Balan, Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Anushka Sharma, and Parineeti
Chopra.
The
Hindi film industry has preferred films that appeal to all sections of the audienceand
has resisted making films that target narrower audiences. It was believed that pointing
for a broad range would exploit box office receipts. However, filmmakers may be
moving towards accepting some box-office segmentation, between films that
appeal to rural Indians and films that appeal to urban and international
audiences.
Hollywood,
where musicals were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s, though Indian
filmmakers departed from their Hollywood counterparts in several ways. For
example, the Hollywood musicals had as their plot the world of entertainment
itself. Indian filmmakers, while enhancing the elements of fantasy so universal
in Indian popular films, used song and music as a natural mode of articulation
in a given situation in their films. 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. However, they demonstrated
how this creation intersected with people's day to day lives in complex and
interesting ways.
Bollywood
films are mostly musicals and are expected to contain memorable music in the
form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often
depends on the quality of such musical numbers. Indeed, a film's music is often
released before the movie and helps increase the audience.
Indian
audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally
referred to as paisa vasool, Songs and
dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills are all mixed up in a
three-hour extravaganza with an intermission. They are called masala films,
after the Hindi word for a spice mixture. Like masalas, these movies are a
mixture of many things such as action, comedy, romance and so on. Most films
have heroes who are able to fight off villains all by themselves.
The
dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily exhibited on
Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans,
or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western
dance styles. Though it is usual to see Western pop and pure classical dance
numbers side by side in the same film. The hero or heroine will often perform
with a troupe of supporting dancers. Many song-and-dance routines in Indian
films feature unrealistically instantaneous shifts of location or changes of costume
between verses of a song. If the hero and heroine dance and sing a duet, it is
often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand
settings. This staging is referred to as a "picturisation".
Bollywood
films have always used what are now called "item numbers". A
physically attractive female character, often completely unrelated to the main
cast and plot of the film, performs a catchy song and dance number in the film.
In older films, the "item number" may be performed by a courtesan dancing
for a rich client or as part of a cabaret show. The actress Helen was famous
for her cabaret numbers. In modern films, item numbers may be inserted as
discotheque sequences, dancing at celebrations or as stage shows.
Cinematic
language, whether in dialogues or lyrics, is often melodramatic and invokes
God, family, mother, duty, and self-sacrifice liberally. Song lyrics are often
about love. Bollywood song lyrics, especially in the old movies, frequently use
the poetic vocabulary of court Urdu, with many Persian loanwords.[66] Another
source for love lyrics is the long Hindu tradition of poetry about the amours
of Krishna, Radha, and the gopis, as referenced in films such as Jhanak Jhanak
Payal Baje and Lagaan.
Satellite
TV, television and imported foreign films are making huge inroads into the
domestic Indian entertainment market. In the past, most Bollywood films could
make money; now fewer tend to do so. However, most Bollywood producers make
money, recouping their investments from many sources of revenue, including
selling ancillary rights. There are also increasing returns from theatres in
Western countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, where
Bollywood is slowly getting noticed. As more Indians migrate to these
countries, they form a growing market for upscale Indian films.
Historically,
Hindi films have been distributed to some parts of Africa, largely by Lebanese
businessmen. Mother India (1957), for example, continued to be played in Nigeria
decades after its release. Indian movies have also gained ground so as to alter
the style of Hausa fashions, songs have also been copied by Hausa singers and
stories have influenced the writings of Nigerian novelists. Stickers of Indian
films and stars decorate taxis and buses in Northern Nigeria, while posters of
Indian films adorn the walls of tailor shops and mechanics' garages in the
country. Unlike in Europe and North America where Indian films largely cater to
the expatriate Indian market yearning to keep in touch with their homeland, in
West Africa, as in many other parts of the world, such movies rose in
popularity despite the lack of a significant Indian audience, where movies are
about an alien culture, based on a religion wholly different, and, for the most
part, a language that is unintelligible to the viewers. One such explanation
for this lies in the similarities between the two cultures. Other similarities
include wearing turbans; the presence of animals in markets; porters carrying
large bundles, chewing sugar cane; youths riding Bajaj motor scooters; wedding
celebrations, and so forth. With the strict Muslim culture, Indian movies were
said to show "respect" toward women, where Hollywood movies were seen
to have "no shame". In Indian movies women were modestly dressed, men
and women rarely kiss, and there is no nudity, thus Indian movies are said to
"have culture" that Hollywood films lack.
The
latter choice was a failure because "they don't base themselves on the
problems of the people," where the former is based socialist values and on
the reality of developing countries emerging from years of colonialism. Indian
movies also allowed for a new youth culture to follow without such ideological luggage
as "becoming western."
The
Hindi film industry was not widely known to non-Indian audiences, who would not
even be aware that their material was being copied. Audiences may also not have
been aware of the plagiarism since many audiences in India were unfamiliar with
foreign films and music. While copyright enforcement in India is still somewhat
lenient, Bollywood and other film industries are much more aware of each other
now and Indian audiences are more familiar with foreign movies and music.
Organizations like the India EU Film Initiative seek to stand-in a community
between film makers and industry professional between India and the EU.
One
of the common justifications of plagiarism in Bollywood in the media is that
producers often play a safer option by remaking popular Hollywood films in an
Indian context. Screenwriters generally produce original scripts, but due to
financial uncertainty and insecurity over the success of a film many were
rejected.
Screenwriters
themselves have been criticized for lack of creativity which happened due to
tight schedules and restricted funds in the industry to employ better
screenwriters. Certain filmmakers see plagiarism in Bollywood as an integral
part of globalization where American and western cultures are firmly embedding
themselves into Indian culture, which is manifested, amongst other mediums, in
Bollywood films. Vikram Bhatt, director of films such as Raaz, a remake of What
Lies Beneath, and Kasoor, a remake of Jagged Edge, has spoken about the strong
influence of American culture and desire to produce box office hits based along
the same lines in Bollywood. He said, "Financially, I would be more secure
knowing that a particular piece of work has already done well at the box
office. Copying is endemic everywhere in India. Our TV shows are adaptations of
American programmers. We want their films, their cars, their planes, their Diet
Cokes and also their attitude. The American way of life is creeping into our
culture." Mahesh Bhatt has said, "If you hide the source, you're a
genius. There's no such thing as originality in the creative sphere".
The
awareness of Hindi cinema is substantial in the United Kingdom, where they
frequently enter the UK top ten. Many films, such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
(2001) have been set in London. Bollywood is also appreciated in France,
Germany, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries. Various Bollywood
movies are dubbed in German and shown on the German television channel RTL II
on a regular basis.
Additionally,
classic Bollywood actors like Kishore Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan have
historically enjoyed popularity in Egypt and Somalia.[87] In Ethiopia, Bellwood
movies are shown alongside Hollywood productions in Piazza theatres, such as
the Cinema Ethiopia in Addis Ababa.[88] In the Maghreb, Bollywood films are
also broadcast, though local aesthetics tend much more toward expressive or
auteur cinema than commercial fare.
Conclusion:
The changing style of Bollywood has begun to
question such an acceptance. The new era features more sexually explicit and
violent films. Nigerian viewers, for example, commented that older films of the
1950s and 1960s had culture to the newer, morewesternizedpasteurizations. The
old days of India avidly "advocating decolonization ... and India's policy
was wholly influenced by his missionary zeal to end racial domination and
discrimination in the African territories" were replaced by newer
realities. The emergence of Nollywood, Africa's local movie industry has also
contributed to the declining popularity of Bollywood films. A greater globalized
world worked in tandem with the sexualisation of Indian films so as to become
more like American films, thus disproving the preferred values of an old
Bollywood and falling Indian soft power.
The Mumbai underworld has been known to be
involved in the production of several films, and is notorious for superior
several prominent film personalities. So here we can see many differences
between old Bollywood movies and New Bollywood movies, Like in Dressing, Music,
Stories, Timing, influences etc.
