Re: Bollywood and Indian Culture
Nice article. Thanks for sharing. I think Bollywood movies do a fairly good job of portraying Indian culture considering they are neither documentaries nor do they claim to represent perfect realism, Xerox miniature of Indian society so to speak. The sarees and colors and festivities of the weddings, for example, do a good job of portraying the richness of Indian culture and the multi-day elaborate Indian weddings. I also think Bollywood movies, like this song from the movie Aisha, do a good job of providing snippets of Indian multiculturalism and diversity, featuring in the background at least, for example, a Sardar Jee, a sweet aunty like Fareeda Jalal with a dupatta on head, perhaps even a South Indian character or two as well along with young, modern protagonists.
Also the movies do reflect the values and attitudes of the society to a certain extent while trying to be entertaining and non-preachy at the same time. For example, I read that Salam Namaste, which was released in 2005, was the* first *movie that actually depicted a couple cohabiting before marriage, so for nearly 90 years of Bollywood’s history, movies did not show something that for a long time in the past at least was generally looked down upon in Indian culture i.e. a couple living together before marriage. Likewise extramarital affairs are uncommon and considered a bit scandalous in Indian and most other cultures, so while Kabhi Alvida Na Kahna showed infidelity between married couples, I don’t think that was or is a common theme in Indian movies before that or since, which makes sense because that is not very common in Indian society either.
At the same time, Bollywood movies are mostly musicals that provide escapist entertainment and have a lot of ‘masala’ thrown in for good measure. Which seems perfectly alright to me because many people have enough problems of their own and do not look forward to watching something like sob stories in their free time, especially if they are paying for the cinema ticket! What also follows from the nature of Bollywood movies though is that they are not always very accurate anthropological reflection of the actual culture of people or depictions of how people go about their lives. For example, unlike in those movies, it is not likely that one would break into song and dance routine every 20 minutes or so no matter how madly, deeply a couple is in love with one another!
well said. I liked the term ‘escapist entertainment’. A couple going on high-way, all of sudden their car stopped due to some fault and they are surrounded by scores of ladies and gents in same costumes to follow each others dance steps perfectly.
