Cinema: A reflection of society

Cinema has been one of the greatest influences in our modern life, particularly
in India, home of biggest cinema industry in the world. Right from Dadasaheb
Phalke to Farhan Akhtar, Bollywood has come a long way.

A name that needs no introduction, an individual that has more surnames and
adjectives than noun itself, Amitabh Bachchan was a struggling no-face when
he started his film career during the early 1970s. At the same time, the young
Indian society was in a state of unrest; unhappy with - governance, rising
prices, corruption and food-scarcity, and was going through the motions.
Brimming with energy and positive aggression, the common man, particularly
the youth, wanted to see radical changes in the society. Aptly capturing the
mood of the society of that time, the character of ’angry-young-man’ who
wanted to right all wrongs and backed with films, with scripts, which placed
finger right at the pulse of the nation, catapulted Amitabh Bachchan to dizzying
heights of super-stardom .
Cinema, popular or parallel, a visual art of story–telling with rich inputs of
music, screenplay, cast and script, mirrors the contemporary society in
which it functions. From emotional dramas to candy-floss romances to
action-thrillers, cinema derives its sustenance, ideas and imaginations from
its surroundings. The images cinema creates, surreal or tangled wave of
deceit, need to be in sync with societal aspirations and basic urge of
humanity to recreate and have fun and entertainment. In its long journey
of more than a century, cinema has transformed itself from being a
taboo and absolute no-no to a virtual way of life.

From Dadasaheb Phalke to Farhan Akhtar, every decade of Bollywood

has reflected various hues and aspects of real life on reels of cinema.
When Dadasaheb integrated centuries old mythological narratives with
emerging medium of cinema in forms of films like Raja Harishchandra
and Kaliya-Mardan, it was instantly lapped up by audience and showed
spiritual bent of mind of society of those times. Ashok Kumar starred
Kismet, released during Quit India Movement, was a cinematic rendition
of resistance against imperialistic British by Indians.

Post independence Nehruvian socialist era was time of Guru Dutts,

Satyajit Rays and Bimal Roys, ruthless perfectionists, who vividly
captured the growing pains of infant democracy and universality of
human emotions in their films. During the time of 70s and 80s, with
films like Ankur, Manthan, etc, art cinema finally came of age and
showcased common man’s struggle with the system and striving for
basics of life. Post 90s, when Indian society woke up to globalisation and
liberalisation, new-age cinema makers too broke traditional Bollywood ’s
definitive cinematic boundaries.

With pots of money pouring into India, Indian film industry too learned to
talk in crores and filmmakers went global, aimed for Hollywood kind of
 releases, and tried to earn revenues from satellites, video and other
avenues apart from box-office collections. Movie business in India
underwent a sea-change: Corporate style of functioning came into vogue
and added emphasis on special effects, dubbing with help of chromo
screen, digital audio and video post-production/SFX and film-processing.
As India started its upward spiralling journey across political, economical
and other affairs and its aura and acceptability increased mani-fold,
several old notions and myth about India were broken particularly by
Western media and think-tanks. There was perceptible change in the
notions of Western media and positive deviation from the stance, which
earlier labelled Indian cinema as too escapist and unnatural.

Catering to a highly diverse society, Indian film industry is largest in the

world, churning out an average of 800 films per year. The audience
consists of an estimated 3.6 billion people with 14 territories (Bollywood
specific ) within India and 52 counties across the globe. As such, no film
 producer and director can vouch for homogeneous consumption of his
films. With audience dictating the terms, film contents are demarcated into
outright gender, age and geographical segmentation. There are global-in-
outlook-Indian-in-ethos films of Karan Johar and blue-eyed boy of Yash
Raj banners, Shahrukh Khan, which pander to the tastes of urban rich,
Indian settled abroad and audiences with deep pockets.

Directors like Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, who are not burdened to
cater to the masses, inescapably remind viewers of refined tastes - of
hard facts and realities of life through their straight-in-the-face films.
Then there is entire breed of film merchants who serve to the
entertainment palates of the majority by playing it safe; by making
traditional commercial Bollywood potboilers. Also there are cerebral
directors like Nagesh Kukunoor and Madhur Bhandarkar who delve deep
into stark realities of everyday life to give us edgy cinema like Iqbaal,
Chandni Bar, which prick our sense of film-viewing in an entirely
different way.

Social dynamics have always regulated the content of cinema. The main
protagonist of any film fights villains who are manifestations of
contemporary societal evils - from village money-lender to land-hawks to
advocates of dowry, dons and modern day terrorists. A society, which is
highly tolerant despite ethnic, religious and linguistic cleavages, is visible
in rendition of a religious ’bhajan’ by Mohd Rafi in a role essayed by
Dileep Kumar in the film Ram Aur Shyam. Khans from minority are the
darlings of the masses. The biggest super-star in Tamil film industry
Rajnikanth, is a Marathi by birth.

Indian cinema has always tried to showcase Indian culture in all its
ramifications. Family ties, particularly, joint family system and series of
rituals like wedding, engagements, celebrating of new-born etc are always
present in our films. There are feel-good films like Bobby, Kaho Na Pyar
Hai, which define puppy love; Sholay, a wholesome entertainment;
Golmaal - healthy sprinkling of humour; Border and LOC -stories of
supreme sacrifices of our valiant soldiers, Murder and Jism, which deal
with the theme of adultery; Black Friday - realistic portrayal of 1993 bomb
blasts– all ideas picked up by our social setup.

Western society, where morality is increasingly being blurred and

aesthetic values are on the wane, has a cinema which satiates its delights
and other needs. But one often wonders why Hollywood, which has eaten
up lot of indigenous film industries across the world, fails to make an
impression in India barring few films like Titanic and Superman. Cultural
differences make it difficult to side-step Indian films despite Hollywood
having commanding edge over technicalities, jaw-dropping special effects
and exquisite attention to the detail during film-making. Though current
Indian filmmakers are toying with morally ambiguous subjects also, to give
 us raunchy comedies with salty dialogues, darks plots with loads of sex
- its too brief and very difficult to predict as to whether this genre will
sustain its mass-appeal in a traditional Indian society.

“Great films will be made when we become a great audience,” said

French author, Andre Malraux. Indian filmmakers are often panned for
making unreal cinema. But with audience enlightening up and
graduating to outside cinema, cinema-makers have tough job in their
hands to keep audience glued to their celluloid products. Cinema industry
is realising that they need to be experimental and open up to new set
of ideas and shed their old reservations about audiences. Schlock cinema,
with lot of plot-holes and half-baked stories, are becoming things of
yore. Simple relatable stories about unassuming characters from non–
metro and moffusils towns and villages are flavour of filmmakers. Indian
cinema, if it continues to strike a chord with ever-increasing audiences
and serve healthy and wholesome cinema in its platter, is surely headed
for a bright path.