A Beginner’s Guide to Indian Cinema Sneha Bagchi Dec 20, 2009

General Inspirations Indian Epics: Mahabharata, Ramayana Sanskrit Drama Folk Theatre of India Parsi Theatre Hollywood Western Music TV shows (MTV) Indian Diaspora

Bollywood - Love your First Impressions Bollywood is predominantly escapist and full of entertainment, no matter how artistic it is. Full of music, dancing, colors- part of Indian culture Romance will always be a key factor-whether focus or a subplot Family is a key role in lives, friendship is filled with crazy times, and marriage always occurs in ultimate romance Bonus points for always having a rain scene (mostly past films)

A Typical Bollywood Impression…

The Beginning: Tollywood Believe it or not, Bengalis were the first ones to be exposed to cinema Tollywood: Blending of “Tollygunge” and “Hollywood” First began in 1890’s, with the introduction of “bioscopes” by the British. First Bengali movie, “Billwamangal” produced in 1919 First talkie, Jamai Shashthi, produced in 1931, the same year as “Alam Ara”, first Hindi talkie.

The Eras Of Tollywood The Silent Era: – India still under British rule at this point – Hiralal Sen: Bengali director – Heroes: Pramathesh Barua & Debaki Bose Rising of the Talkies – 1932 film “Chandidas” breakthrough for recording sound for Bengali film – More artistically inclined than rising Hindi movies

Tollywood Eras: Cont. The Golden Age: – Rise of Directors: Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Bimal Roy, and Ritwik Ghatak – Rise of Actors: Uttam Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Soumitra Chatterjee – Rise of Playback Singers :Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, and Kishore Kumar – Rise of ‘Parallel Cinema’ movement

Notable Films The Apu Trilogy ( ) – Pather Panchali – Aparajito – Apur Sansar The Calcutta Trilogies: – Pratidwandi (1971) – Seemabaddha (1971) – Jana Aranya (1976) Nayak (1966) Mrigaya (1976) Sonar Kella (1974) Paroma (1984) Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002)

Some Bengali Films You Might Know

Bollywood Largest producer of movies in the world Large part of mass Indian culture, whether for escapism or social commentary Masala movies-mix of all different genres in one movie In their history, has swung between family- friendly romance and social commentary

Going to Bollywood Developed around the same time as Tollywood Made up of “Bombay” and “Hollywood”, which was based off of Tollywood Raja Harishchandra (1913) was first silent feature film Alam Ara (1931) is first Hindi talkie film made Color became popular in Bollywood in late 1950’s

Before Independence Lots of silent movies about Indian epics Based on Parsi plays and Indian stories By 1930’s, India was producing 200 films per year

Key Movies/Actors Raja Harishchandra (1913) Alam Ara (1931) Kisan Kanya (1937) Notable Actors: – Prithviraj Kapoor – Ashok Kumar

The BW to Color Age – some say the Golden Age From the 1950’s until about 1970 Story-centric, focusing on realism Social commentary and global recognition Epic films become a genre Social themes with urban working-class and/or rural India

Notable Films Awaara (1951) Devdas (1955) Shree420 (1955) Mother India (1957) Pyaasa (1957) Mughal-e-Azam (1960) Madhumati (1958) Guide (1965) Aradhana (1969) Sangam (1964) Jis Desh Me Ganga Behti Hai (1960)

Clips

Notable Actors Raj Kapoor Rajesh Khanna Sharmila Tagore Guru Dutt Nutan Dilip Kumar Vaijayantimala Dev Anand Nargis Sunil Dutt Shammi Kapoor Mumtaz Madhubala Rajendra Kumar

Notable Singers/ Songs Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi reigned supreme Rise of : – Kishore Kumar – Asha Bhosle “Mere Sapna Ki Rani” “Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe” “Mere Saamne Wale Khirki Main” “Tere Mere Sapne” “Chori Chori” “Mera Joota Hai Japani” “Yeh Duniya Yeh Mehephil”

From Romance to Masala (1970s-early 1980s) - “dishum dishum” Represented the struggles of lower class Represented corruption in society Hoped for the “knight in shining armor” to solve the miseries Male actor dominated movies – very few meaningful roles for women actors Rajesh Khanna started the 1970s as the romantic hero and Amitabh Bachchan - the angry young man - reigns supreme Some art movies break-through

Actors Amitabh Bachchan Rekha Sanjeev Kumar Amjad Khan Zeenat Aman Rishi Kapoor Shashi Kapoor Jeetendra Mithun Chakraborty Sridevi Naseerudin Shah Hema Malini Shabana Azmi

Clips

The Low Years Late eighties to early nineties Affected by the rise of VCRs and piracy Return to family-friendly films, but little effort made towards quality Some good films rise out introduce actors of tomorrow Searching for the right mix between action, romance, social, violence

Movies Baazigar Daar Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak Maine Pyaar Kiya Tezaab Parinda Mr. India Khal Nayak

Clip

Key Actors Shahrukh Khan Kajol Madhuri Dixit Karishma Kapoor Tabu Anil Kapoor Amir Khan Salman Khan Sanjay Dutt

The Phoenix Rises Again From 1995 to current era Triggered by the release of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) Rise of independent films and artistically inclined Rise of genre Mumbai noir More focus on youth, with college students becoming increased subjects Newer generation of actors and actresses coming into prominence Even commercial cinema becoming more artistically inclined

Key Movies Dilwale Duhania Le Jayenge (1995) Satya (1998) Lagaan (2001) Devdas (2002) Munnabhai M.B.B.S.(2003) Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006) Rang De Basanti (2006)

Key Actors-Gen. Next Hithrik Roshan Shahid Kapoor Abhishek Bachchan Ranbir Kapoor Aishwarya Rai Rani Mukherji Kareena Kapoor Konkona Sen Sharma

Key Songs “Chaiyya Chaiyya” “Dhoom Machale” “Chand Sifarish” “Tadap Tadap Ke” “Ek Pal Ka Jeena” “Ghanan Ghanan” “Dola Re” “Kajra Re” “Rang De Basanti”

Clips

Key Composers and Singers Composers – A.R. Rahman – Jatin-Lalit – Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy Playback Singers – Udit Narayan – Kavita Krishnamurthy – Alka Yagnik – Shreya Ghoshal – Sunidhi Chauhan – Sonu Niigam – Shaan

What about the rest of India? All regions make movies – and they make a lot of them Telegu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam films have created many award winning and masala movies Other regions also make many movies, every year My focus today was on Tollywood and Bollywood – which I am most familiar with

Thank You