Culture through cinema

             Cinema is mirror of society through which society can reflects/exhibits its own pictures to external world. Culture is a blanket which covers the society and weaved by the threads of materialistic attributes like clothing, food habits, house city architecture and abstract attributes like social,norms, values, customs and beliefs. Cinema is capable in reflecting reality of society through systematization and polarized themes (moral/economic or political) which is not easily perceived by masses or ignored at large. Cinema not only characterized the reality of society but also helps to evaluate the existing social norms, values, customs and believes to build   a capacity in the society for self analysis and thus support it for self modification,correction (new shape).

  We heard a number of Hollywood inspire suffixes like Tollywood, Kolleywood, Mollywood, Gollywood and Pollywood which are examples of various regional cinemas in India. Though Indian cinema covers all these forms of regional cinema but Bollywood that many people synonymous with Indian cinema because of its large territorial extent and inter regional character.

Indian cinema has credit of release maximum number of movies in the world. Indian cinema reflects popular culture of india in a melodramatic effect. By melodramatic we means portrayal of extreme situations and actions, overt valiancy, persecution of good and final reward of virtues. Its extravagant expression that the world governed by a moral order which is also central theme of Indian cultural philosophy i.e. “Dharma ki hamesha jeet hoti hai (truth always wins)”.   Our debate is to find out the intensity of cinemas impact for shaping role which is already established.

              First we divide cinema in two parts regional and inter regional cinema (national broadly). Regional cinemas mostly target the audience having regional and parochial outlook. So its display will also exhibit the values of particular region. This type of cinema merely depicts the deep entrenched social values of a particular region and hardly tries to introduce any theme contradicting to existing values. But whenever there is a sense of change is probable and a passive acceptance ready to convert in overt admission, cinema take the lead particularly regional because of its deep understanding of culture of concerned society. Bollywood is watched throughout India at large so it can better play the role of shaper of popular culture. Due to Bollywood cultural intermingle role Bhagra and Dandia is danced throughout India . Bollywood is also inspired from Hollywood and other international cinema. It depicts the ultra modern values as central theme like mega cities culture of lavish life, cosmopolitan culture  of individualism, live-in partnership, homosexuality etc. These types of characterization have accountable impact on Indian youth. Prime minister Nehru once stated, “…the influence in India of films is greater than books and newspaper combined.” Cinema has become powerful vehicle for culture, education, leisure and propaganda. Cinema is wholly unique form of art where visual simulations make you emotionally stable with leisure and entertainment. Highly accessible social art form cinema generally cuts across economic lines. At the same time, attending the cinema allows for the excuse of personal preference and the human need for distinction. That is why its impact is much broader, deep and durable than other art forms.

                    For the last 100 years cinema has been shaping and reflecting Indian culture. Both culture and cinema influence each other. Cinema has been changing in its ethical motif with the changing conditions (socio-political and economic) and values of culture. Culture and cinema communicate bidirectional that is why cinema is always relevant and depicts the social reality through which it has been so popular among masses. Let us have a look our changing portrayal of values by cinema

Before independence: mythology and strong women are dominant themes because of crisis of masculinity in political dominance.

        After independence: Three themes parallel occupied the cinema

1.    The state emblem (courtroom portrayals)

2.     Rural urban debate under confusion of what is modernization

3.    East west cultural debate Rajkumar movies show the darkness of cities life by Barsat ki rat, Awara, Fauji as central character to depicts loyalty towards nation. Mother India prioritized the community life above any relation which was also the message of patriotism. Afterwards Devdas, Agnipath  were inspired from shattered dreams of socialism and equality and showed how dominant class exploiting the masses and immune to social culpability.

1980s theme Ek duje ke liye, Love story and Quamat se qyamat tak to challenge establish values (regional, religious or class differences) in starting of liberal era.

After liberalization: 
    1.    Disenchantment with politics of urban middle particularly because of their raised awareness and aspirations (Shool, Satya, and Rang se basanti) formerly personal value politician targeted not of their being politician. 
   2.    Celebration of business class (formerly despised by masses) – Guru, Baazigar, Hum aapke hai kaun 
   3.    Individual aspiration after state withdrawal and opening of economy (Bunty  aur babali, Guru, 3 Idiots) 
   4.    Illegality considered as enterprise (Bunty aur Babi, Doom1- 2-3, Kaminey, Jnnat) 
   5.    Show off India’s spending power (Jindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Yejawani hai deewani) but portrayals loosened interpersonal bonds not as Sangam and Lalkar.

     At last cinema is itself a part of culture like no marriage is complete without dancing on Bollywood songs. Electoral campaign is done by patriot theme based songs. Disco culture though borrowed from west heavily dependent on latest Bollywood songs.           

 

Dhruva Poem  dedicated to dreamy beloved

“Pen is me”
Holding a pen in a little finger
As lover holds back
His beloved
And let him allow
To kiss her passionately,
As point’s blue ink touches
Lips of paper,
Both do the same but minutely differ
The lover who kisses is my illusion.
While the pen is me
Ink is my love
And paper is my beloved...!

Scorsese’s wolf rule...............

Scorsese’s wolf rule  (from my article in aakhirkyon magazine)

“I would wish for any one of my colleagues to have the experience of working with Martin Scorsese once in their lifetime.” These lines are from world famous by legendary actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Martin Scorsese who is famous for his noir films like Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Departed and The Wolf of Wall Street. He handled many plots, time and social upheaval. Handling a character is his forte.

Many directors from US work according to story and then create the character. Scorsese never give importance to story. This revolutionary director who make his film around the character, for him character is the most important factor. Film is about the character and his psychological landscape. His films offer us an exclusive glimpse of society, social scenario and its impact on character’s mind. We surrender ourselves to the screen and scream with a character because we never realize when his character becomes our alter ego. The Wolf of Wall Street is a film about Jordan Belfort's memoir. Jordan Belfort who worked as stockbroker and who is convicted for stock market manipulation. He has spent 22 months in prison. Now he works as a motivational speaker. Jordan who was greedy for money and who committed many frauds to experience all his whims and fancies of as a mortal. In this film we find anxiety, emptiness and despair amid the rampage of group hysteria throughout the film. As Scorsese say, “As you grow older, you change.” These lines come true when we watch films. This film showcases the characters of William Shakespeare’s characters from tragedies and comedies. Representative stories of great men and their downfall, facing trial, drugs, daughter get kidnapped, car crash ultimately he become vulnerable. He realizes his self destructive urges. This showing us how the world works, everything comes up with a price. Belfort gets scared once he goes to jail. Thus the Machiavellian Belfort, an anti-hero of late-capitalist finance selling the lure of wealth as an alchemical panacea , may be our equivalent of Richard III or Iago - who also charm us and immobilize our moral instincts by taking us into the confidence of their villainous schemes.

Rothstein has much in common with Shylock, hated by his Italian associates as a Jew, and finally incited to self-destruction by a contradictory human passion for family. conceivably the damaged and driven, yet heroic Hughes that Scorsese and DiCaprio showed us resembles Coriolanus - a mother- figure of immense power whose uncontrollable personal demons shape our destiny. We can call it a psychological capitalist epic. It could be compared with Citizen Cain. It is a film with a serious subject when we are living in the time of fast change. 2008 financial collapse of financial world made him make this film

Bicycle Thief and Pather Panchali

Over the weekend, I watched 
Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1948) and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) back to back.  Both the films are landmark films. In fact, Ray's Pather Panchali is said to have started the so-called art cinema movement in India. It was the first of the Apu Trilogy. The other two films of the trilogy are Aparajito (1956; The Unvanquished ) and Apur Sansar (1959; The World of Apu ). This trilogy tells the story of Apu, the poor son of a Brahman priest, as he grows from childhood to manhood in a setting that shifts from a small village to the city of Calcutta. The conflict between tradition and modernity is the interconnecting theme spanning all three films, which can be construed as portraying the awakening of India in the first half of the 20th century.

Ray has written in his "My Years with Apu" that he was deeply impacted by The Bicycle Thief. When he was in London, he saw this film many times over. This neorealistic film, with its downbeat story and its economy of means -- location shooting with nonprofessional actors --, convinced Ray that he should attempt to film his favorite novel, Pather Panchali . Ray had illustrated this novel by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee, and had been contemplating its cinematic possibilities after seeing De Sica's work.

Though I am not going to analyze these two masterpieces (they anyway have been done to death), what I was trying to discover through this experience was the possible influence of De Sica's work on Ray's vision. The two films do share their spirit of humanism in an atmosphere of poignancy and depict the tortures that poor people have to undergo in order to survive (the aspects of social commentary). De Sica's work is matter of fact; Ray's is poetic. I cannot forget the scene where the trembling lotus leaves herald the arrival of monsoon as well the scene where Apu and Durga discover the train. Both the films have struggling parents and innocent but astute and understanding children. Both the films end on the road, without a resolution. While Apu and his parents escape (from crushing poverty, and sadness due to Durga's death) to Benaras, Antonio and his son Bruno keep walking on the road towards an uncertain future.
The story of The Bicycle Thief develops like a chase and the audience is kept in suspense throughout. Will Antonio find his stolen bicycle? Will he get his job back? In Pather Panchali, the story develops like life itself, Harihar's family and its relationship with the neighbourhood being revealed slowly. Ray uses a lot of close ups and extreme close ups and the camera often lingers on faces to depict the moods. The music is brilliant and rooted in the culture of Bengal.
        I found the last part of Pather Panchali especially relevant as it deals with the issue of migration. When the poor Brahmin family is all set to migrate to Benaras, a neighbour visits them and says: "Staying in a place for a long time makes people mean. We will also see if we can migrate."
                Apu's father Harihar is a priest and writer but he finds no takers for his art. Apu's migration from poor Bengal to the literary Benaras reminds me of Naipaul's (also a Brahmin's son) escape from Trinidad to London.De Sica's film also reminded me of Bimal Roy's classic Hindi Film Do Bigha Zameen. In its vision and philosophy, it is much more closer to The Bicycle Thief.