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Amity school of Communication

Tanya SarkarFaculty:

INDIAN CINEMA

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Indian cinema is a dream machine

• that churns out a new fantasy, a new illusion every day. • The main centers of film production - Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,

Hyderabad and Bangalore. • Cinema 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 India.

• 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).

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Story telling to cinema

• Telling stories from the epics - hand-drawn tableaux images /paintings, with accompanying live sounds -age old Indian tradition. When the moving pictures or cinema was introduced to the Indian 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 India even till today.

• Millions of people looking for entertainment beyond their daily lives embraced this magical new medium.

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The introduction of cinema in India

• On July 7, 1896. the Lumiere Brothers' Cinematograph, unveiled 6 silent short films at the Watson's Hotel in Bombay (Arrival of a Train- Workers leaving the Factory)

• Harischandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar alias Save Dada, imported a cine-camera from London at a price of 21 guineas and filmed the first Indian documentary, a wrestling match at Hanging Gardens Bombay in 1897.

• In 1898, Hiralal Sen started to film scenes of theatrical productions at the Classic Theatre in Calcutta, inspired by Professor Stevenson (who had brought to India the first bioscope to show a film presentation alongside the stage production of The Flower Of Persia)

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Raja Harishchandra -1913 - Dadasaheb Phalke

The first full-length Indian feature

• First feature film –Pundalik by N.G. Chitre & R.G. Torney

• First full-length Indian feature film was Raja Harishchandra (3700 feet as compared to 1500 for Pundalik) Phalke had attended a screening of The Life of Christ at P.B. Mehta’s American-Indian Cinema and was inspired to make films himself. He was convinced of the possibility of establishing an indigenous film industry by focusing on Indian themes. In this regard, he said Like the life of Christ, we shall make pictures on Rama and Krishna.

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• 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 Indian films lessened his popularity

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• First Indian sound film -Alam Ara (The Light of the World; 1931) by Ardeshir Irani. (vithal and zubieda)

• Chandidas (1932), by Debaki Bose contained background music for the first time in Indian Cinema. Music Director was Raichand Boral also known as R.C. Boral.

• Debaki Bose's Seeta (1934), made under the banner of East India Film Company, was the first Indian talkie shown in any International film festival. -Venice Film Festival - where it won an Honorary Diploma. He was the 1st Indian director to receive any international award.

• Nitin Bose’s 1935 film Bhagya Chakra- first Indian film to use playback singing The singers were K C 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.

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

• Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of Indian 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 natya, derived from the root word nrit (dance), characterizing them as spectacular dance-dramas which has continued in Indian cinema.

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• The traditional folk theatre of India, 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include the Yatra of Bengal, the Ramlila 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.

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• Hollywood, where musicals were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s-There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history, fairy stories and so on through song and dance.“ Hollywood filmmakers used music as realistic narrative whereas Indian 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 Indian films. An early example of this approach was in Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995)

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Talking films : V. Shantaram

• Leading filmmakers of Mumbai during the forties, most innovative and ambitious.

• From his first talkie Ayodhyacha 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. Amarjyoti (1936) was an allegory on the oppression of women in which the protagonist seeks revenge. It could perhaps be called the first women's lib film in India. The family drama ruled the charts after the mythological.

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The Golden Fifties

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

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Choreographers

• Saroj Khan born Nirmala Sadhu Khan is one of the most prominent dance choreographers in Hindi-language films in India. She was born on November 22, 1949, and has choreographed more than 200 films. 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 Institute for the Performing Arts (SDIPA) in 1991

Famous Film Industries in India

• Assamese Film Industry- Jollywood- 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 Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo ("Mother Ganges, I will offer you a yellow sari"), by Kundan Kumar.

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• 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 India. 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 Indian cinema.

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Art cinema in India Indian cinema that aspires to seriousness or art.

"New Indian Cinema" or sometimes "the Indian New Wave“ or "art films".

• Wide range of subjects -but mainly in general explorations of complex human circumstances and relationships within an Indian 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. Counter artful perspective genre.

• Most were funded by state governments to promote an authentic art genre. non-commercial films on Indian themes. Their films were showcased at government film festivals and on the government-run TV station, Doordarshan.

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A revolutionary change

• New Cinema directors : Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, and Bimal Roy. the Apu Trilogy by Ray , the Calcutta Trilogy of Sen, Meghe Dhaka Tara by Ghatak and Do Bigha Zameen by Roy (Hindi).

• FTII graduates Kumar Shahani , Mani Kaul, Saeed Mirza, Shyam Benegal and Ketan Mehta were the important names of New Wave Indian Cinema in Hindi.

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• Mani Kaul's Duvidha (1973)• Shyam Benegal's Ankur (1973)• M.S. Sathyu's Garam Hawa (1973) • Govind Nihilani who entered film industry as

Shyam Benegal's cameraman made his directorial debut through Aakrosh (1980) he continued making socio-political films like Party (1984), Tamas (1987) and Drishti (1990).

• Saeed Mizra made notable political films like Arvind Desai ki Ajeeb Dastan (1978), Albert Pinto ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai (1980),

• Mohan Joshi Haazir Ho! (1984) and Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro (1989).

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Shyam Benegal December 14, 1934

• With his first four feature films Ankur (1973), Nishant (1975) Manthan (1976) and Bhumika(1977) he created a new genre, which has now come to be called the "middle cinema" in India.

• 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 Indian 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, Mandi (1983) was a satirical comedy about politics and prostitution, starring Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil.

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SOME TOPICS CHOSEN BY NEW WAVE OR PARELLEL FILMMAKERS

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

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