Friday, September 2, 2011

Masala movies v/s the Intelligent movies

Current Bollywood cinema is not what it used to be a decade ago, it has undergone a volcanic change, and that is to say the perspectives of movie makers and the audiences alike have changed. There are a lot of movies now which portray the practicalities of life. In the 90′s when, there used to be a song sequence after every scene and the actors had superhuman powers, now, the makers have started to realize the need for a rationale that connects with the life of an average Indian. Strangely, no one realises that while saying that Indian cinema is undergoing a change, it is not “Indian” it is mostly just Bollywood. Malayalam and Marathi movies have always been very down-to-earth and simplistic. There was no over-the-top stuff in these movies ever and they often portrayed realistic events.
Bollywood cinema has become classier, or at least on that path already. But many fear it is not just getting classier, it is shifting from the commercial cinema to the art cinema or Parallel cinema. Acclaimed directors such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak are such directors who are part of this Indian New wave. As of today, Anurag Kashyap is one such example of directors who attempt the never-done-before things in the
Indian cinema. Right from his movie Black Friday, which was on the 1993 Bombay bombings to the latest movie That Girl in the Yellow Boots, he always tries to come up with something new, innovative. His movies are not just different when it comes to the story, but also his technique is always innovative. With Dev D he brought in the ‘shaky-camera’ effect to the industry (not that he invented it, he simply made it popular) and he also brought a bunch of new, promising actors.
So is it really that drastic a change? Will “Bollywood” cinema as we know it come to an end? Nah… Don’t worry! So long as commercial mass entertainers like Dabangg and Ready exist and so long as the melodramatic DDLJ type film makers exist, Indian cinema is not going to go under a huge revolutionary change. There will be a few directors who keep coming up with the artistic, intelligent movies, but after all pure entertainment is what we need and if it was not for “Character dhila…” or “Sheila Ki Jawani…” movies watching experience just wouldn’t have been the same…

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