A Personal Response to Bollywood Cinema; The Face of India?

Ali Husain’s lecture Bollywood Cinema; The Face of India? was about the correlation between Bollywood cinema and the movies’ correlation with the social changes in India. He showed many various clips from Bollywood films ranging from the 1970’s to modern day. Husain stressed the differences shown in traditional attitudes vs. modern advancement. Husain used the films as a representation of the effects that globalization and economy have on the film genre and India as a social whole.

I was awed by the elaborate and intricate scenes of Bollywood films as this was my first introduction to the genre. However, my feelings of awe were contradicted by the material of the lecture. I was intrigued by the obvious connection between cinema and any country’s social period. Movies, to some extent, mirror the cultural events and social ideas of the time period and location in which they were made. I was saddened by the Western world’s influence on such a tradition and honor based society causing such a major loss of values.

Husain exemplified this idea by presenting two clips. The first was a clip from a classic 1970’s Bollywood film where a young woman was singing an Indian love song to a young man. Husain explained that this was very traditional. The characters were typical and traditionally Indian. They were dressed modestly and the film was set in a small village which was common for most Indians. It struck me as very intimate and sweet. The scene portrayed a very personal moment between two people in love. He contrasted it with a second clip from 2006. This was a choreographed pop scene set on the beach. The scene featured extremely fit, tan, glossy actors singing “Shut Up and Bounce.” The actors were very scantily clad in garishly bright, sparkly clothing. The scene was completely dramatized and commercial but still managed to be extremely enthralling. The bright colors, dancing and actors drew me in and I was fascinated. He explained the complete loss of morals, values and modesty represented in the second clip. I was saddened that modern audiences failed to see the historical and intrinsic value of the first clip. I was also mildly disgusted that I was one of the modern masses who is drawn in by bright colors and beautiful people regardless of the film’s lack of substance and meaning.

Husain explained that as the Western world became more influential in India, western Hollywood marketing techniques, e.g. sex, simple and dramatic plots, and pop music, became more prevalent in the social and cultural structure of the Bollywood genre. As the industry gained a foothold economically, the producers sacrificed many traditional views and morals in exchange for monetary gain. The change that India experienced socially was traceable through the change in the films. Overall, the lecture had a good thesis that compelled thought with interesting material. I enjoyed the insight into a different cultural background.