The White Bollywood - 2340 Words

From Raja Harishchandra (1913) to The Good Road (2013), the cinema of India, an extremely important part of our cultural identity celebrating its centenary this year. Has been working as an ambassador of India to a global audience since the day of its inception. In India, it is often seen that films made in Hindi targeted at a larger audience, commonly known as mainstream movies or Bollywood films, employ a different grammar of filmmaking than that is used in so-called sensible or parallel cinema while representing or portraying different aspects and sections of society, race, culture, gender and class. In this paper, I try to focus on the representations of Caucasian characters, or the white, in popular Hindi cinema, or Bollywood films,†¦show more content†¦If Hollywood has techniques that permit its fictional world to appear internally coherent and invisibly put together, Indian films are orchestrated by another sensibility of coherence and reality (Jaikumar 25). This â€Å"another† sense of coherence and reality often plays a vital role in the portrayal of characters belonging to different ethnic backgrounds in the mainstream Bollywood flicks. The reason why non-Indian characters from the subcontinent, i.e. the Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Nepalese, Bhutanese, Afghans or Sri Lankans are not being considered in this discussion is that the socio-cultural gap between India and her neighbouring countries are relatively less and how they are portrayed in Bollywood films demands a new discussion altogether due to extremely convoluted bilateral or multilateral political, social and historical relationships between India and any of these countries. Unlike the Hollywood, where in the 1930s, white actors had to play Asian roles by putting on extra make-up, Hindi films had white actors playing white characters. Among the Hollywood films, we see Douglass Dumbrille playing Mohammed Khan and Noble Johnson playing Ram Singh in the famous Gary Cooper film The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (dir. Henry Hathaway/ 1935), C. Henry Gordon as Surat Khan, J. Carroll Naish as Subedar Major Puran Singh and Scotty Beckett as Prema Singh in the Errol Flynn starrer, an historically inaccurate The Charge of the Light BrigadeShow MoreRelatedThe Indian Film Industry Of India1380 Words   |  6 Pages1. History of Bollywood Bollywood is the Hindi Film Industry of the country and a part of the Indian Film Industry. Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world. However, the first films India watched were not made in Bollywood. The various stages of evolution of bollywood can be categorized as follows: Silent Era to Talkies (1930-1940): Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian Cinema was a man with vision and courage. In theRead MoreThe Similarity of Bollywood Films to High Concept American Films1097 Words   |  5 PagesThe Similarity of Bollywood Films to High Concept American Films The term â€Å"high concept† is used to describe a script or film that a person can easily understand after hearing just a few words, it also means a film which is high budget and attracts a mass audience. To be high concept the film needs to appeal to young and old audiences to do this it needs to include aspects such as â€Å"fear†, â€Å"loneliness†, †family† and â€Å"lost love.† Bollywood films appeal to most of theRead MoreBollywood Is The Biggest Film Industry In India, But Is1123 Words   |  5 PagesBollywood is the biggest film industry in India, but is not the only film industry in India. Bollywood was born at the same time as Indian cinema itself. By the 1930s, Bollywood had already built several studios which, 10 years later, had produced approximately two-thirds of Bollywood’s 150–200 annual films. The name Bollywood comes from the American from Hollywood, the B is there for Bombay (now know as Mumbai). A typical Bollywood movie lasts for two-and-a-half hours, it has slowly unrolling storylinesRead MoreMonsoon Wedding Analysis1337 Words   |  6 Pagesand its posh corporate world. tent act as a strong symbol/motif: o When Dubey mistakenly puts up the â€Å"fashionable† white tent now used by many young couples in modern Delhi, Lalit echoes the older generation who associate white tents with death and funeral celebrations. Granted, at the stage of the narrative, the betrothal between Aditi and Hermant seems more like the white cloth of death than one of celebration The cross: o Shows the assimilation of other religions (ie.Christianity) inRead More Nairs Techniques in film Monsoon Wedding Essay examples2120 Words   |  9 PagesWedding Mira Nair directed the 2000 film Monsoon Wedding with the intention of making it a Bollywood film on her own terms. Through watching the film, it becomes evident that this was mixing traditional ideals of Indian Bollywood together with the modern elements of the West, such as those depicted in particular in Hollywood films, the Western equivalent of the Bollywood film industry although on not so large a scale. Nair spent the latter part of her further educationRead MoreExtempore Topics1028 Words   |  5 Pagesmotion) Why would I like to get married to a house-husband? (had to speak in favor of the topic) Women are not found at the top positions in defence forces. WHITE IS THE COLOR OF PEACE BLACK GOLD There should always be a silver lining (dropped from hell) there should be no traffic police in India (SOP) CDMA (relaince guy) Bollywood(SOP) dressed to kill commonwealth games and impact on india Unity in Diversity small efforts giga results package is everything today(consumerism) ArjunaRead MoreBollywood : The Primary Component Of Indian Cinema1943 Words   |  8 PagesBollywood, the primary component of Indian cinema, is a force to be reckoned with. By producing about 800 movies a year and selling about 100 million movie tickets each week, Hindi cinema has established itself as India’s principal movie manufacturer and typically follows a specific framework that audiences have come to love (Kolanad). Bollywood films are patently over-the-top, featuring countless song-and-dance routines and a story line that usually revolves around forbidden love. Like any strongRead MoreGlobal Film Industry: The Influence of Bollywood on Hollywood1958 Words   |  8 Pages Over the years, Bollywood has emerged as its own distinct identity in the global Film industry. Bollywood is the global leader in production of movies with a staggering 27,000 featured films and thousands of short films. ( Pillania 1) However, Hollywood is still the leader in revenues generated. Due to the growth of the Indian market and globalization, Bollywood has made its way to the international markets. Globalization is often misrepresented as the growing influence of the western culture inRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book The Trouble We re By Allan Johnson945 Words   |  4 Pagesit because of our culture. In the Chapter 9: Getting off the hook, Johnson talks about the idea of one race being better than the other and that is instilled into us through our culture. He explains this by talking about two guys, one black and one white and how they were both treated in social environments. This also shows the power we give others when we allow these cultural norms to influence us. These influences help shape who we become and play a huge part on our social interactions with one anotherRead MoreModern Bollywood, A Decade Old: Bollywood and the Colonial Censorship3158 Words   |  13 PagesIntroduction This essay explains the journey of Bollywood (Indian Film Industry) and how it has changed itself and its audience’s perspective on Hindi Cinema. Applying the key features from Dennis McQuail’s â€Å"Normative Theory†, the relationship between Bollywood and the audience, controlled by the censorship board will be explained; and how both, the Bollywood industry and Censor Board are responsible for bringing changes to each other in the terms of rules, regulations, audience’s attitudes and their