Slovene
philosopher Slavoj Žižek has very
rightly called cinema the ‘ultimate art’ saying ‘it doesn’t give you what you
desire, it tells you how to desire’.
Indian cinema, born in 1913, has been doing just that to its faithful
audience for a century now. Introduced in India by Dadasaheb Phalke, the motion
picture has not just survived the tests of time and Indian cultural differences
but also emerged as a victorious hero admired all over the globe.
Indian cinema has come a long way from the era of
silent films spearheaded by ‘Raja Harishchandra’ to its present day alter-ego. While an upgrade in technology has introduced
better light, sound and visual effects, an upgrade in mindset has introduced
actual, boldly clad (or unclad) women rightly playing female characters.
But not all aspects of film-making can be said to
have changed for the better. As decades passed by, the themes on which movies
were made, changed. Romance started to take the place of religion in movies and
while comedy was present in Indian cinema right from its inception, comedy film
makers started to take themselves less seriously, an act that would probably be
frowned upon by the puritans of Indian cinema.
The age old Indian school of thought not only
condemned professions in performing arts as taboo and meant for impotents, but
also did not allow female participation in the few displays that were put up.
The people, a few years later, more open-minded than now, did walk the path
less treaded by accepting women on stage indulging in regional folk dances, but
the stigma of prostitution was attached to such women. The truth behind this
accusation cannot be easily discovered after three-fourths of a century. The
evolution of women in cinema is interesting under such circumstances.
The whole country was left in a frenzy following
Raja Harishchandra. By 1920 the film scenario in Madras looked promising with
Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu, S. S. Vasan and A. V. Meiyappan setting up
production houses for Tamil and Telugu films to be shot here. The many cultural
differences in India make it difficult for audiences all over the country to
understand, enjoy and relate to cinema of just one particular language. When
the Ardeshir Irani produced ‘Alam Ara’ hit select theatres across the country,
the naïve audience was drawn to the novelty of the talkie. Producers all over
the country took cue to produce movies in their respective regional languages.
This was the birth of the various brackets of cinemas produced within the
political boundaries of India which exist even today and go on to cater audiences
beyond these borders as well.
Music soon became an almost obvious part of Indian
cinema with actors having to sing their own songs in the early half of the
twentieth century. This trend changed over the years with the introduction of playback
singers (and more specifically, Lata Mangeshkar) to Indian cinema.
The trends of films were, more often than not,
affected by the socio-political scenario of the nation. Movies on patriotism
started to be made in the mid-forties to instill a sense of brotherhood and
generate public opinion among the masses, for as American film director Martin
Scorsese has said, ‘cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.’ During
this period Indian cinema did not just speak out against oppression and
exploitation against the Whites, but also reached puberty of sorts with Ashok
Kumar’s ‘Kismet’ in 1945. With Kismet, audiences got a first glance of an
anti-hero and openly accepted the topic of unmarried pregnancy that the film
discussed. The movie went on to be one of the biggest hits in the history of
Indian cinema.
This period could be referred to as the Golden Age
of Indian cinema as it gave birth to film-makers such as V. Shantaram, Bimal Roy,
Raj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan followed by Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Guru Dutt,
K. Asif, K. V. Reddy L. V. Prasad and Ramu Kariat. Meanwhile, French film
critic and theorist Andre Bazin’s saying ‘the cinema substitutes for our gaze a
world more in harmony with our desires’ can be proven right by the well-built Tamil
and Telugu actors playing larger than life characters. These actors include N.
T. Rana Rao, M. G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, Raj Kumar, Prem Nazir and
later, Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Manmooty, Mohanlal, Chiranjeevi and
Balkrishna.
In the following decades, the film market was
completely taken over by the angry young man Amitabh Bachchan and his ‘masala
films’ such as ‘Sholay’, ‘Zanjeer’ and ‘Deewar’. Rightfully called a superhero,
he showcased an array of facets of his personality, sometimes playing an action
hero, sometimes an ill-fated drunkard, sometimes a wronged coolie and
sometimes, even a soft-hearted romantic. What was inevitable about Amitabh
Bacchan movies were the desirable female actors who worked alongside him, right
from the sultry Rekha and Zeenat Aman to the innocent looking Jaya Bahaduri.
Male actors such as Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna,
Jitendra and Dharmender and female actors such as Savitri, Vyjayanti Mala,
Nargis, Waheeda Rehman and Sharmila Tagore found a strong audience in the young
and the restless. The Smita Patil- Shabana Azmi duo was much coveted by
film-makers. The heart-warming comedy of Sridevi and Hema Malini was a
refreshing breath of air too. It would be safe to say that was an era of the
women as it is also when woman film-makers such as Vijaya Mehra, Aparna Sen,
Sai Paranjpye, Kalpana Lajmi, Prema Karanth and Meera Nair came into the
limelight.
The nineties was a Renaissance of sorts of Indian
cinema with movies without an educative moral and purely meant for entertainment,
were made. This was not the set norm. Sanjay Dutt and Govinda co-starred in
many a comedy movies together and so did Salman Khan and Karisma Kapoor. The
fame of Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Madhuri Dixit and Kajol saw an upward trend
too.
With six-packs, bikinis and cleavages being all
over cinemas in the twenty-first century, there is a notable rise in the demand
for gyms and over-all increased health and physique awareness. Whether it is
Vidya Balan spearheading the causes, needs and desires of women in her films or
Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motawane, Imtiaz Ali, Karan Johar or Raj Kumar
Hirani bringing new topics to be discussed through their films, Indian cinema,
like always, continues to give its audiences a thing or two to ponder over.
Indian audiences are witnessing for the first time, animation and 3D in films.
While more has changed in Indian cinema than we
know, much is still retained itself such as its entertainment value, large
audience and the Kapoor family. Now looking as steady as ever, Indian cinema is
nowhere close to fading into oblivion and it marches on, typically, bolder than
the times.
