{"id":15360,"date":"2013-04-28T03:04:14","date_gmt":"2013-04-28T03:04:14","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-04-28T04:04:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-28T04:04:27","slug":"Bollywood-celebrates-100th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=15360","title":{"rendered":"Bollywood celebrates 100th birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>One hundred years after the screening of a black-and-white silent film, India&#8217;s brash, song-and-dance-laden Bollywood film industry celebrates its centenary later this week.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The milestone will be marked with the release of &#8220;Bombay Talkies&#8221;, made up of short commemorative films by four leading directors, <strong>while India will be honored as &#8220;guest country&#8221; at next month&#8217;s Cannes festival.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Exhibitions in the capital New Delhi are showcasing a century of cinema, including onscreen kissing scenes that originally fell foul of the censors.<\/p>\n<p>It is also a time for reflection on how the industry has evolved, from its early screen adaptations of Hindu mythology to the garish romantic escapism of modern blockbusters.<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/njzTBH8mZLU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Commercially, cinema is thriving: India produced almost 1,500 movies last year and the industry is expected to grow from $2 billion to $3.6 billion in the next five years, according to consultancy KPMG.<\/p>\n<p>Leading the way is Hindi-language Bollywood, which took the &#8220;B&#8221; from its home in Bombay and won the hearts of movie-mad Indians.<\/p>\n<p>But old-timers complain that it has become superficial, neglecting to deal with pressing social concerns of the age.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a dumbing down that has taken place in the content. I think we are suffering from what is called the narrative crisis,&#8221; said veteran director and producer Mahesh Bhatt.<\/p>\n<p>He contrasts modern filmmakers with Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, known as the &#8220;father of Indian cinema&#8221;, who brought the first all-Indian feature film to the silver screen in Bombay (now Mumbai) on May 3, 1913.<\/p>\n<p>A tale from the Hindu epic Mahabharata, &#8220;Raja Harishchandra&#8221; quickly became a hit despite its female characters being played by men &#8212; women acting was still widely frowned upon.<\/p>\n<p>Phalke made more than 100 films until his silent style fell victim to &#8220;talkies&#8221; in the 1930s, but the advent of sound technology allowed India cinema to flourish.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bollywood plotlines today can involve stars breaking into song, often in picturesque far-flung locations, apropos of nothing<\/strong> &#8212; a style that may bemuse a Western audience, but one that helps to set Indian cinema apart.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If it was exactly the same thing as Hollywood, Hollywood would have run us over. We don&#8217;t have that money,&#8221; said film critic Anupama Chopra.<\/p>\n<p>For her and many others the &#8220;golden age&#8221; of cinema was the 1950s, when movie greats emerged such as Satyajit Ray, India&#8217;s most renowned filmmaker, who hailed from the alternative film hub of West Bengal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It was the era of newly independent India<\/strong>, searching for an identity and producing films such as Mehboob Khan&#8217;s 1957 hit &#8220;Mother India&#8221;, which combined social concerns with popular appeal.<\/p>\n<p>The 1970s and 80s saw a growing commercialism with the rise of the &#8220;masala&#8221; movie &#8212; a family entertainer that typically mixed up romance and action, songs and melodrama, a comedy touch and a happy ending.<\/p>\n<p>Parallel Cinema continued to focus on realism, with films such as Mahesh Bhatt&#8217;s &#8220;Arth&#8221; (Meaning) in 1982, a gritty tale of an extramarital affair that presented strong female characters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It was a path-breaker in a decade described as the &#8220;dark ages&#8221; of Hindi cinema<\/strong>, which struggled with the advent of color television, rampant piracy and dependence on the Mumbai underworld for funding.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Things improved after India&#8217;s economy opened up in the early 1990s<\/strong>, and again a decade later when filmmaking won formal &#8220;industry&#8221; status. Both steps encouraged foreign firms, such as Fox and Disney, to invest in Bollywood.<\/p>\n<p>But subsequent leaps in technology have not been matched by advances in storytelling, say critics, who lament the formulaic plots, passive roles for women and the copying of Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Bollywood&#8217;s escapist fantasies have long held mass appeal<\/strong> because &#8220;there&#8217;s enough realism in the common man&#8217;s life&#8221;, said Bhatt.<\/p>\n<p>But with ever more TV shows, the Internet and easily available global films, such movies may no longer meet the demands of the educated middle-class.<\/p>\n<p>This expanding group &#8220;wants to see something better than trash which caters to the common man who drives auto-rickshaws. They want to see a different kind of cinema,&#8221; said veteran actor Rishi Kapoor.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A new crop of experimental filmmakers has started to appear, such as &#8220;Hindi indie&#8221; darling Anurag Kashyap<\/strong> who is a fixture on the global film festival circuit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trade analysts say the growth in multiplex cinemas has also encouraged mainstream films to diversify:<\/strong> a surprise hit last year was &#8220;Vicky Donor&#8221;, a romcom about sperm donation.<\/p>\n<p>Raj Nidimoru is co-director of upcoming &#8220;Go Goa Gone&#8221;, one of India&#8217;s first zombie films, and he believes the move away from staple Bollywood is only just beginning.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is just a ripple right now, it&#8217;s going to become a wave.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><em>Source AP<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One hundred years after the screening of a black-and-white silent film, India&#8217;s brash, song-and-dance-laden Bollywood film 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