Opinion Carried away by Bollywood
Hate: Bollywood storylines can flow to establish extreme jealousy,greed and passion.
Hindi movie plotscovering star-crossed lovers,sacrifice,siblings separated by fate,rapists,rebirths,mistaken identitiesignite diverse emotions in us. Continuing the saga of Suresh! Tumne mujhe dhoka diya! summarising Bollywood fantasy for me,lets get into themes beyond the melodrama kick-off scene,dance song,crime,political drama and fights youve read about last week.
Hate: Bollywood storylines can flow to establish extreme jealousy,greed and passion. This hate factor is Western imitation. Bad and good are not culturally prominent in India. Even our mythological stories convey that something bad for one could be good for another. In contrast,Catholicism that the West largely follows clearly demarcates good and bad. Hindi films have adopted hate,so the hero or heroine,villain or some side actor has to choke over hate.
Love: Triangular love is a much loved theme. Different men can show overbearing love or secret attraction for the heroine but a woman cant openly have many boyfriends. The girl should love the good man,never the villain.
Foreign tour: Sitting in India,spectators enjoy a visit to exotic countries. In this globalisation era,an overseas setting has become obligatory. Shooting abroad makes the film relevant for the extended audience of foreign-born Indian-origin children. Experience shows that a scene shot in a developed country upgrades the film both in terms of its acceptance status and production quality.
Betrayal: Betrayal anchors more or less every movie. It can happen between the hero and heroine,with two friends,in the family,in business,in politics. When the betrayer is caught and punished,theres applause in the cinema hall.
A lecturers dialogue: This is an all-too-frequent Bollywood attempt at education. One character talks directly into the camera as though preaching. The camera zooms into the actors face without stops so the gyan (lecture) giving session can become one long shot. This translates as the film directors social conscience.
Happy end: Most Bollywood movies have the happy end format to not dissatisfy spectators. As Bollywood cannot afford to disturb its paying public composed of under-privileged population and NRIs,the formula of every puzzle getting solved in the end is the success factor.
Value-for-money technical effects: Technical effects established exuberantly are the icing on the Bollywood cake. New camera techniques, use of advanced digital effects, morphing,crazy animations are enmeshed into films. Trend influence: The influence of Western trends used to come a little late to Bollywood before,but the gaps narrowed now. For example,bell bottoms took forever to be seen in Hindi films,but torso-revealing,hip-hugging jeans made it in instant digital time.
Mother and children affection: After listing my observations on Hindi films,I was verifying with Aravinda,who Professor Raghunath says is the most careful driver hes met,whether Ive missed anything. Aravinda often gives me social imagery that I may not so easily see. He promptly answered that Ive totally overlooked the mother-children affection chapter. Mother is the moral foundation of Hindi films,the mother-hero relationship is intimate. Bollywood makes it obvious that Indian society values sons over daughters. The hero is invariably the best son a mother can have,and vice versa.
Telling statistics: Bollywood is top-of-mind but actually the South Indian film industry currently holds 75 per cent of all film revenues in India. Of 1,274 feature films that went to the Central Board of Film Certification in 2010,Hindi films were only 215. Southern productions totalled 631 with Tamil 202,Telugu 181,Kannada 143,and Malayalam 105. Among other regional players were 116 Marathi and 110 Bengali films.
India ranks first,followed by Hollywood and China,in number of films produced. As per statistics from Motion Pictures Association of America,India produced 1,014 films in 2002,sold 3.6 billion tickets and collected revenues of US $1.3 billion from theatre tickets,DVDs,television and so on. In contrast Hollywood made 739 films,sold 2.6 billion tickets but generated revenues of US $51 billion.
These statistics make evident silver screen quality vs quantity. Perhaps Indian movies need a disruption of universal appeal,away from Suresh! Tumne mujhe dhoka diya! fantasy,while still being relevant to India and Indians. Indian films go to 90 countries,but its the Indian diaspora that lap them up. They dont become box office hits for natives of these nations.
Indias diverse culture is unique in the world. Portraying a storyline outside of cliché fantasy can create another dimension. For example,theres tremendous historyjust 255 years ago when Siraj-ud-daulah,Bengals last Nawab,lost the Battle of Plassey against the British,1757. Imagine,if this untold story could be presented Hollywood-style like The Gladiators of ancient Rome by Ridley Scott,what an incredible film that would be for the global market and Indias reputation.
Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
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