Bollywood - An Insider's Viewpoint
Everyone who loves movies has heard about Bollywood, the Indian movie industry located in Mumbai. Bollywood went wild with the advent of “singies” - their answer to Hollywood's “talkies.” Bollywood films are also known as Hindi movies, the two references are interchangeable.
1933 brought to the world the first Bollywood movie with sound, Alam Ara, a musical. Alam Ara secured Bollywood as the home to the essential Hindi movie with it's huge focus on singing and dancing at its very core.
Hindi movies in the 1940's and 50's came of age and greatly widened their appeal with the creation of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). At this point, national awards for film could be bestowed upon the most noteworthy of them, driving the debut of the first film festival in India in 1952.
Action and art movies began gaining acceptance in the 1960's and 70's, followed by every Indian's love of music with the popularity of the musical romance in the 1980's.
The early 21st century saw multiplexes spring up in India and experimental films were beginning to be produced, proving that Indian cinema wasn't stuck in the last century and had some taste for the daring and innovative territories they were just beginning to explore.
Today, Hindi movies are more focused on scripts and the use of new technologies. This could set the scene for more global acceptance of films made in India. Slum Dog Millionaire certainly didn't hurt that endeavor.
Some would criticize Hindi movies as being overblown with scene chewing actors, brilliant colors and overblown direction and general production values. The actor's facial expressions and body movements do seem extreme to the non-Indian sensibility. This kind of vibrancy of color and spirit fits right in with the Indian soul, however, and should never depart from their cinema, even if it does become somewhat subdued for the global audience.
Much of the story lines and musicality of Bollywood films throughout its history are based on the endless number of myths that exist in the lengthy and rich history of India.
Let's get into the plot and look at of one of the best known of the more modern (or most controversial) Hindi movies, The Cloud Door, that was screened for the FTII in 1995 amidst much ballyhoo. It is typically based on storytelling and myth.
The plot deals with an Indian king who eavesdrops on a parrot telling erotic stories to his daughter. The king is not liking this at all. He demands the parrot be executed. The princess, the king's daughter, is horrified and serves as a go-between trying to save the life of the bird by explaining to daddy that the parrot hasn't a clue what it is he is relating.
To show his gratitude, the parrot flies to the princess's boyfriend and leads him through an elaborate maze to reach the princess's quarters. The princess and her lover while away the hours in amorous abandon.
The Cloud Door keeps its folktale roots and has many humorous moments. The tales from which the screenwriter drew his plot are from the Sanskrit play Avimaraka of the 5th to 7th century, the Sufi epic poem Padmavat from the 13th century and the always popular eroticism of the Suksapiti.
It is amazing that The Cloud Door was surrounded by such controversy given the prolific erotic history of India's art and literature. Nonetheless it created a storm when it was screened at the Film Festival in 1995. The todo surrounding the film did not stop the critics from giving it a rave review.
Those moviegoers who are somewhat put off by the provincial and vibrant nature of the classics as well as the newer more experimental variety of films should stay tuned. As with all global artistic endeavors, times will change with new technologies and the growing spread of information brought about by the internet.