Latha Thesis: Introduction & Review

INTRODUCTION

Indian Cinema:

     

      Cinemas, one Indian film critic have summarized it as “the temple of modern India” (Das Gupta 1988: 130). They are designed to seduce monumental spaces gleam with light and color, vestibules and plastered with posters of gods and goddesses,  red carpets exude desire and wantonness. Devotees come in huge numbers to worship, “to take darshan”, at the shrine of the new image, the image that will create their new gods, even their new beliefs. The massive size of the Indian cinema is obvious from statistics: eight  hundred films a year shown in more than thirteen thousand predominately urban cinemas, viewed by an average of 11 million people each day, and exported to about a hundred countries.

      Between 1913 (when Dadasaheb produced Raja Harishchand, the first Indian film) and 1981 more than fifteen thousand feature films have  been produced in India. Almost as many film have been produced since 1981. By 1983, it was India’s sixth-largest industry, grossing around $600 and employing some three hundred thousand workers. Its value as cultural capital has to be seen in the way in which this “Epic- Mythico- Tragico- Comicosuper- sexy-High-Masala-Art” (Rushdie 1995: 148-49) has invaded all aspects of popular culture from traditional folk performances to video clips, CD’s and cassettes.  Its formulaic structure as well as its technical practice is used to produce tele-visual films including soap operas and mythologies. The industry has spawned countless fan magazines consumed by an ever-widening community of national and

diasporic readers. Even in the flourishing area of television, both local and cable, the impact of cinema is present everywhere. The phenomenal success of cable and satellite TV in India and in the Diaspora has also meant that the former hegemony of film as the primary medium of entertainment has been somewhat eroded. Nevertheless, the evidence shows that in real terms the number of viewers has not declined but the film industry has very successfully intervened into television programs.

      Cinema remains the cultural domination of India, its “sole model of national unity” (Chakravarty 1992:310). In the context of Indian commercial  cinema generally Hindi cinema or Bollywood cinema is the largest player. It is also the model for popular regional cinema and is in this respect closer to being an all- India cinema.

Bombay Cinema seems to have beyond the range of class and even linguistic difference by emphatically stressing “the myth on which the Indian social order survives in spite of change” (Raina 1986: 131). The structure of the film is therefore designed to accommodate deep fantasies belonging to an extraordinarily varied group of people, from illiterate workers to sophisticated urbanities. Key paradigm features of the genre of Bombay Cinema, such as the opening conflict between tradition and modernity within a nationalist project, get established in the films of the

1930’s and the early 1940’s. in  the 1930’s and 40’s the big studios-Bombay Talkies, Ranjit Movie tone, and the Imperial Film Company – adopted specific cinematic practices to mediate cinema and Indian realities. The noted critic Bikram Singh observed:

Everything out there is the real world-be it a house, a piece of  furniture, a stretch of street, a court-room, a prison, must be shaped, sandpapered, painted and varnished before it becomes a part of a film” (1983: 30) (Quoted in Follywood flashback, a collection  of movies memories, Bunny Reuben) With the international recognition of Sathyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali in Venice (1956), Indian cinema nursed a feeling of not being up to standards of European or Hollywood cinema, not being really ‘world - class’. The accolades that greeted Pather Panchali in the international film forums brought a sense of liberation from this feeling of inferiority. Moreover since Pather Panchali was hailed not only as a great film but a great Indian film, Indian cinema

became aware of itself-its ‘Indianess’. This awareness evolved into greater and wider awareness about cinema as an art form, about its power  and potential as a communicator of ideas, as experience, and as a medium to provide debate on issues concerning us as people and society.

     

      Awareness also grew that films could be made outside of the traditional commercial structure of film-making prevalent in the country.  The period from the late fifties to about the mid-eighties witnessed the golden age of Indian cinema, for it was during this period that some of the most outstanding films were made both in

the Popular and Parallel cinema. Other significant development that contributed immensely to the evolution of a new cinematic sensibility in the country was the organizing of the International Film Festival of Film & TV Institute of India and the Film Finance Corporation (now NFDC). (Taken from: Talking films, Rafique Baghdadi, Rajiv Rao) Till date the journey of our Indian Cinema has attired many shooting stars and is the most watched cinema in the world. It has evolved widely and has earned a lot of fame. It is ever-changing and versatile in its story. And, yet to fetch more… the journey is still on.

WHAT IS BOLLYHOOD?

      Indian moviemaking industry that began in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1930s and has developed into an enormous film empire. Bombay Talkies, launched in 1934 by Himansu Rai, spearheaded the growth of Indian cinema. Throughout the years, several  classic genres emerged from Bollywood: the historical epic, notably Mughal-e-azam; the curry western, such as Sholay; the courtesan film, such as Pakeezah, which  highlights stunning cinematography; and the mythological movie, represented by Jai Santoshi Maa. Star actors, rather than the films themselves, have accounted for most box-office success.

      Standard features of Bollywood films include formulaic story lines, expertly choreographed fight scenes, spectacular song-and-dance routines, emotion-charged melodrama,  and larger-than-life heroes. At the beginning of the 21st century, Bollywood produced as many as 1,000 feature films annually, and international audiences began to develop among Asians.

(http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Bollywood)

            Motion pictures are generally known to represent and strengthen the typical principles of contemporary western culture: patriarchy. While television representations of women have changed greatly in last many years, in order to give place to the changing role of women in society, one is led to ask how much the beliefs have changed behind the more modern depiction of women. If this is the case, then it is important to question how real the representations of women are on motion pictures and how this affects the attitudes of those who watch. (Bollywood- Sociology Goes to the Movies, Rajinder Kumar Dudrah, 2006)

            As Rosie Thomas Comments “… Indian cinema has, throughout its long history, evolved as a form which has resisted the cultural imperialism of Hollywood: the form has

undergone continual changes and there has been both inspiration and assimilation from

Hollywood and elsewhere, but thematically and structurally, Indian cinema has remained

remarkable and distinctive. (The cinematic imagination- Indian Popular Films as Social

History, 2003)

            The term Bollywood is given to the Mumbai based Hindi language film industry in India. When compared to the other film industries like Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Bengali it is considered to be the largest in the world in terms of produced film and also the number of tickets sold. Bollywood, the name of popular Hindi cinema came from Mumbai. It has become the catch word in the vocabulary of global south Asian popular culture. Bollywood has not only the signification that the people watch a lot of movies, estimated at around 800 films annually but also in terms of distributions, dubbing

Subtitling and watching of these motion movies worldwide. Bollywood movies are viewed all over in various parts of the world especially south Asia, Russia, and Europe. These films are also imported to various metropolitan cities with sizable diasporic south Asian population through cinema halls and into homes via satellite channels. Bollywood is the only one of the several regional film centers with Indian cinema. Never the less with subtitles and the dubbing done, there are possibilities that several Asian and European nations will view the movies. Popular Indian cinema’s characteristic of melodramatic oral performance, for instance the Hindu mythological and religious tales of the Mahabharta as recounted in the genre of post 1947 independent Bollywood social dramas, have been offered as an explanation of why Hindi films would engage global audience of similar orally transmitted narratives. In this way Bollywood is more than popular Hindi cinema for many Indians. Millions of people besides Indians and other south Asian, partake in, derive pleasure, and construct social messages through cinema. (The cinematic imagination- Indian Popular Films as Social History, 2003)

           

            With the international recognition of Sathyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali in Venice (1956). Indian cinema nursed a feeling of not being up to standards of European or Hollywood cinema, not being really ‘world - class’. The honor in which Pather Panchali was regarded in the international film forums brought a sense of liberation from this feeling of inferiority. Moreover since Pather Panchali was hailed not only as a great film but a great Indian film, Indian cinema became aware of itself-its ‘Indianess’. This awareness evolved into greater and wider awareness about cinema as an art form, about its power and potential as a communicator of ideas, as experience, and as a medium to provide debate on issues concerning us as people and society. Awareness also grew that films could be made thinking out of the traditional and commercial structure of film-making common in the country. The period from the late fifties to about the mid-eighties witnessed the golden age of Indian cinema, for it was during this period that some of the most outstanding films were made both in the Popular and Parallel cinema. Other significant development that contributed immensely to the evolution of a new cinematic sensibility in the country was the organizing of the International Film Festival of Film & TV Institute of India and the Film Finance Corporation (Taken from: Talking films, Rafique Baghdadi, Rajiv Rao) Bollywood films are usually musicals. Few movies are made without at least one song and-dance number. Indian audiences expect full value for their money; they want songs and dances, love interest, comedy and dare-devil thrills, all mixed up in a three hour long extravaganza with intermission. Such movies, which contain spicy mixture of all these are called masala movies.

            The plots in Bollywood movies are often exaggerated. They frequently utilize mechanical ingredients such as unlucky lovers, corrupt politicians, twins separated at birth, manipulative villains, angry parents, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient

coincidences. The viewing of Bollywood films also entails the consumption of other related cultural products that are mass produced in demand to popularity of the Bollywood occurrence. These include the ensuing film music albums sold in hundreds of thousands across the world readership of many international film magazines such as Cineblitz, Stardust with film reviews gossips and star profiles, film posters and post cards. (Bollywood- Sociology Goes to the Movies, 2006)

MOVIES AND ENTERTAINMENT:

            Theatre and dramas are one of the best sources of entertainment in India. These are part and parcel of Indian entertainment industry. It involves an entire world behind the scenes that creates the costumes, sets and lighting to make the overall effect interesting. There is an enormous variety of philosophies, artistic processes, and theoretical approaches to creating plays and drama. Drama is a form of theatre combining music, songs, dance routines, and spoken dialogues which entertain people to a great extent.

            Indian entertainment industries have a rich and ancient history. Indian movies enriched Indian culture. The Indian movie industry has preferred films that appeal to all segments of the audience there have always been Indian movies with more “artistic” aims and more sophisticated stories, both inside and outside the Bollywood tradition. The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced annually. Indian movies section here is related to the Indian movies both Bollywood and regional, film music and film people.

           

           

HISTORY OF INDIAN POLITICS IN INDIA:

            India acquired independence on 15 August 1947 though sections of the country were carved out and stitched together to create another new country, Pakistan. The “institutional” road to independence was perhaps laid down by the Government of India Act of 1935, where the gradual emergence of India as a self-governing entity had first been partly envisioned. Following India's independence in 1947, the Constituent Assembly deliberated over the precise constitutional future of India. On 26 January 1950, India became a Republic, and the Constitution of India was promulgated. Jawaharlal Nehru had become the country’s first Prime Minister in 1947, and in 1952, in the country’s first general election with a universal franchise, Nehru led the Indian National Congress to a clear victory. The Congress had long been the principal political party in India, providing the leadership to the struggle for independence, and under Nehru’s stewardship it remained the largest and most influential party over the next three decades. In 1957, Nehru was elected to yet another five-year term as a member of the Lok Sabha and chosen to head the government. His ‘regime’ was marked by the advent of five-year plans, designed to bring big science and industry to India; in Nehru's own language, steel mills and dams were to be the temples of modern India. Relations with Pakistan remained chilling, and the purported friendship of India and China proved to be something of a hoax. China’s invasion of India's borders in 1962 is said to have dealt a mortal blow to Nehru.
Nehru was succeeded at his death on 27 May 1964 for a period of two weeks by Gulzarilal Nanda (1898-1998), a veteran Congress politician who became active in the non-cooperation movement in 1922 and served several prison terms, principally in 1932 and from 1942-44 during the Quit India movement. Nanda served as acting Prime Minister until the Congress had elected a new leader, Lal Bahadur Shastri, also a veteran politician who came of age during the Gandhi-led non-cooperation movement. Shastri was the compromise candidate who, perhaps unexpectedly, led the country to something of a victory over Pakistan in 1965. Shastri and the vanquished Pakistani President, Muhammad Ayub Khan, signed a peace treaty at Tashkent in the former Soviet Union on 10 January 1966, but Shastri barely lived to witness the accolades that were now being showered upon him since he died of an heart attack the day after the treaty was signed. Shastri’s empathy for the subaltern classes is conveyed through the slogan, “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”, “Hail the Soldier, Hail the Farmer”, which is attributed to him and through which he is remembered at Vijay Ghat, the national memorial to him in New Delhi in the proximity of Rajghat, the national memorial to Mohandas Gandhi.
On Shastri’s death, the Congress was once again engulfed by an internal struggle. Gulzarilal Nanda once again served as the acting Prime Minister, again for a period of less than a month, before being succeeded by Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter. By the late 1960s, Indira Gandhi had engineered a split in the Congress, as the only means to ensure her political survival, and the Congress party, which with every passing year was losing something of its shine, now went into a precipitous decline. In 1971, India crushed Pakistan in a short war that also saw the birth of Bangladesh, and Indira was now at the helm of her powers. But the Congress was now a mere shadow of its former self, and as domestic problems mounted and popular movements directed at Indira Gandhi began to show their effect, she resorted to more repressive measures. An internal emergency, which placed almost the entire opposition behind bars, was proclaimed in May 1975, and only removed in 1977; and the same opposition, which hastily convened to chart its strategy, achieved in delivering the Congress party its first loss in national elections. This government, serving various political interests and led by the victorious Janata Party, which had been formed out of various opposition parties, lasted a mere three years. It was led by the controversial Gandhian and Congress stalwart, Morarji Desai, for two years, and for another year by Chaudhary Charan Singh (1902-1987), who came from a Jat farming community with roots in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The Lok Sabha or Lower Assembly never met during Charan Singh’s Prime Ministership and the political alliance crumbled. Indira Gandhi rode a spectacular wave of victory in 1980. But she did not live to complete her term: shot by her own Sikh bodyguards, who sought to avenge the destruction unleashed upon the Golden Temple, the venerable shrine of the Sikh faith, by Indian government troops given the task of flushing out the terrorists holed in the shrine, she was succeeded by her son, Rajiv Gandhi, in late 1984.
In the December 1994 Lok Sabha elections, Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party won a landslide election. But Rajiv’s premiership was to be marked by numerous political disasters, and Rajiv’s own name was tainted by the allegation that he had received huge bribes from a Swedish firm of Bofors, manufacturers of a machine-gun for which the Indian army placed a large order. His own finance minister, V. P. Singh (1931-), once a Indira Gandhi loyalist who had been picked by her in 1980 to serve as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, was to turn against Rajiv; and in 1989, V. P. Singh led the Janata Party to an electoral rout over the Congress. However, the revived Janata party mustered only 145 votes, and it had to take the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by L. K. Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee, in order to form a government. It is at this juncture that India truly entered the era of coalition governments. V. P. Singh would soon be brought down by two disputes: one over the status of the Babri Masjid, a sixteenth-century mosque that Hindu militants claimed had been built over the Ram Janmasthan [birthplace], and the second over the recommendations of the Mandal commission pertaining to quotas for various elements of India’s underprivileged masses. On 7 November 1990, by a vote of 356-151, V. P. Singh lost the confidence of the Lok Sabha, and some days later Chandra Sekhar (1927-), with the support of Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress, was sworn in as the next prime minister. However, Congress withdrew its support in March 1991, and elections were called in May.
On 21 May 1991, as intense electioneering was taking place, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by a Sri Lankan suicide bomber. The mantle of Congress leadership fell on the veteran P. V. Narasimha Rao (1921-2004), who led the party to triumph, even as the BJP raised the number of its seats in Parliament from a little over 80 to 120. On 6 December 1992, acting in defiance of Supreme Court orders, Hindu militants destroyed the Babri Masjid, and so initiated one of the most intense crises in India’s post-independent history. Rao weathered many a storm, and presided over the liberalization of the economy -- the architect of which was Manmohan Singh, then Finance Minister and, since 2004, the Prime Minister of India. But Rao could not keep the BJP and its friends in check. In the general elections of 1996, the BJP emerged as the largest party, but its 194 seats were not enough to give it a working majority in the 545-seat Lok Sabha, and Atal Behari Vajpayee’s first government lasted a mere twelve days. A 13-party coalition of the United National Front and the Indian left was brought into power, and Deve Gowda, the Chief Minister of Karnataka, was raised to the office of the Prime Minister; but after less than a year in office, he resigned and was succeeded by Inder Kumar Gujral, whose main contribution in office was to bequeath “the Gujral doctrine” – a reference to his genuine attempts to mend India’s relations with its South Asian neighbors, based on the principle that as the largest country, India could afford to be generous, and did not have to require reciprocity for all its munificent actions.
But Gujral’s government similarly lasted less than a year; and in the general elections of February 1998, the BJP emerged again as the single largest party, this time with 200 seats. Vajpayee was invited to form a government, and did so with a coalition of several parties, including the AIADMK, led by Jayalalitha. Nothing that the BJP did was so ripe with consequences as the decision to turn India into a nuclear state with a series of nuclear tests in May 1998. The coalition, not unpredictably, broke down; but the general elections of September 1999, in which the BJP again emerged as the single largest party, and the Congress had a poor showing at the polls, despite being led by Sonia Gandhi, a scion of the ‘Nehru dynasty’, were to reinforce the impression that regional parties and politics have fundamentally altered the state of Indian politics. Under Vajpayee, the BJP presided over the country’s destiny until 2004, even though it was becoming inescapably clear that the dominance of any one party is no longer a foregone conclusion and that coalition politics appears to be the way of the future. Many commentators were rightfully alarmed by various ominous developments that transpired during the BJP’s years in office, such as the coercive Hinduization of the country, the inability of the state to guarantee the rights of religious minorities, and other obvious manifestations of an utter disregard for human rights, such as state-sponsored killings in Kashmir, the north-east, and elsewhere, or the oppressions unleashed upon Christians and women. On the other hand, Vajpayee and the BJP are not only credited with having administered a crushing blow to Pakistan’s adventurism on the Himalayan mountain tops at Kargil, but with having spearheaded a rapid expansion of the Indian economy.
In provincial elections held in several states in late 2003, the BJP registered impressive triumphs and the party leadership was led into thinking that, in calling for early elections, it could consolidate its gains with a magisterial showing in national elections. The BJP waged a campaign on the slogan of “India Shining”, trumpeting the emergence of India as a major power. However, the Indian electorate once again showed that it was not to be taken for granted, and the BJP and its allies lost to a coalition headed by the Congress party. [See India’s Moment: Elections 2004.] The Fourteenth Lok Sabha convened on 17 May 2004 and Manmohan Singh (1932-) assumed the office of the Prime Minister at the head of what is known as the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government. The UPA is supported by the Left Front, a coalition of parties headed by the CPM, or the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

PARLIAMENT OF INDIA: 

          The Constitution of India which came into force on 26 January 1950 provides for a bicameral Parliament consisting of the President and the two Houses known as the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and the House of the People (Lok Sabha).

The President

          The President of the Republic is elected by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies (popular Houses) of the States.  Though the President of India is a constituent part of Parliament, he does not sit or participate in the discussions in either of the two  Houses.  There are certain constitutional functions which he has to perform with respect to Parliament.  The President summons and prorogues the two Houses of Parliament from time to time.  While the Rajya Sabha is a continuing body, the power to dissolve the Lok Sabha vests in the President.  His assent is essential for a Bill passed by both Houses of Parliament.  When the Parliament is not in Session and he is satisfied that circumstances exist which render it necessary for him to take immediate action, the President can promulgate Ordinances having the same force and effect as laws passed by Parliament.

The Two Houses of Parliament

Council of States (Rajya Sabha)

          The Rajya Sabha is to consist of not more than 250 members.  Of these, 12 are nominated by the President for their special knowledge or practical experience in such matters as literature, science, art and social service.  The remaining seats are allocated to the various States and Union territories, roughly in proportion to their population; each State is, however, represented by at least one member. The total number of seats in the Rajya Sabha at present is 245, including 12 members nominated by the President.

            The representatives of each State in Rajya Sabha are elected by the elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the State in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. The representatives of the Union territories are chosen in such manner as Parliament may by law prescribe.  The minimum age for membership of the House is 30 years.

POLITICAL PARTIES IN INDIA:

            India is democratic country and the constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework which defines fundamental political principles, procedures, powers and duties, government and spells out the fundamental rights and duties of the citizens. It is the longest written constitution of any sovereign country in the world, containing 395 Articles in 22 parts, 12 schedules and 94 amendments.

            India has multi political party system. Indian National Congress (INC),  Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP), Communist Party of India (Marxist), Samata Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Communist Party of India, Shivsena, Telegu Desam, DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam), and Trinamool. The major two parties are Indian National Congress party and Bharathiya Janatha party.

Indian National Congress (INC):

            It is the oldest Indian political party and may perhaps also be the largest and oldest democratic organization in the world. It was formed in 1885 and was the most powerful force behind the country's struggle for independence. A.O. Hume was its first president. It has been in power for the longest period starting from when India gained freedom. Even when out of power the party has been a strong opposition and has brought many a government down. Over its long span of existence, the party has undergone many splits and even now has parties like the Trinamool and the NCP (Nationalist Congress Party), which are breakaway groups. The party has had an almost dynastic characteristic. Starting with Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister, to his daughter, Indira Gandhi, on to Rajiv Gandhi, the congress has had a dynastic form of success.

Bharathiya Janatha Party (BJP):

            The Bharathiya Janatha Party is one of the two major political parties in India, which was established in the year 1980 with Vajpayee as its first President, and has become India’s second largest political party. The BJP, in alliance with several other parties and was in power from 1998 to 2004, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the prime minister and Lal Krishna Advani as in deputy ministry. It is the biggest constituent of the National Democratic Alliance which is currently in the opposition party.

Communist Party of India:

            On December 26, 1925, a few ardent young patriots moved by the urge to free the motherland from colonial bondage, inspired by the Great October Socialist Revolution and fired with revolutionary zeal, braved imperialist persecution and came together in the city of Kanpur, to form the Communist Party of India with a view to fight for national independence and a future of socialism.
The birth of the CPI was the result of tremendous historical developments at home and abroad. The CPI was born in the period when the anti-imperialist struggle in India had acquired new mass militant dimensions taking the shape of the historic first non-cooperation movement of 1920-22, led by the Congress and headed by Gandhiji. The workers, peasants, middle classes and students had been roused to new levels of consciousness and action. The CPI was born in the new era for mankind opened up by the October Revolution. The victory of the Russian working class, peasants and other toilers led by the Bolsheviks and guided by Lenin attracted the militant youth of India as of all lands. It inspired them to study, accept and apply the science of Marxism so that they too could lead their people forward along the road of revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation.

Sociology into Bollywood:
            The sociology of film can be clearly seen within the spanning genres of film since the creation of film. The genres span from Gangster films to Musicals that all have sociological aspects in bedded in the course of the films. Every screenwriter has always tried to figure out what sociological aspects should be incorporated in a film so that they can reach out to a wide audience within the two hours in which their film is presented. One problem, though, is that if the audience is the measure all things, then art becomes a reflection of sociology and dissecting audience tastes becomes the art. The sociology of a film is created off of people and their situations that come to a screen writer who then decides to make the film into a motion picture with the use of those actors and actresses that become the famous socialites of the film. With different aspects of society the movies are produced which carry different social messages. Every movie conveys a special message and will have an impact on its viewers.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Bollywood culture is a fundamental part of the Indian Diasporas experience: American, African, Middle Eastern, and British Indians have kept in touch with the homeland by keeping up with the latest films and songs coming from Bombay. But in West Africa, as in many other parts of the world, Indian movies have become popular without the presence of an Indian audience. There, the following for Indian films has always been African. These fans are watching movies about a culture that is not their own, based on a religion wholly different from theirs and, for the most part, in a language they cannot understand. What then, do African fans get from Indian movies? It is true that most Hausa fans cannot understand Hindi, but then the average cinema-goer cannot speak English well either. As few African films are shown in Nigerian cinemas, to see any film is often a choice between watching it in different languages.

            Ever since Lebanese distributors began importing Indian movies in the 1950s, though, Hausa viewers have recognized the strong visual, social and even political similarities between the two cultures. By the early 1960s, when television was first introduced, Hausa fans were already demanding (over British objections) that Indian movies be shown on TV. Hausa fans of Indian movies argue that Indian culture is "just like" Hausa culture. Instead of focussing on the differences between the two societies, when they watch Indian movies what they see are similarities, especially when compared with American or English movies. Men in Indian films, for instance, are often dressed in long kaftans, similar to the Hausa dogon riga, over which they wear long waistcoats, much like the Hausa palmaran. The wearing of turbans; the presence of animals in markets; porters carrying large bundles on their heads, chewing sugar cane; youths riding Bajaj motor scooters; wedding celebrations and so on: in these and a thousand other ways the visual subjects of Indian movies reflect back to Hausa viewers aspects of everyday life.
            In a strict Muslim culture that still practices a form of purdah, Indian movies are praised because (until recently) they showed "respect" toward women. The problem with Hollywood movies, many of my friends complained, is that they have "no shame." In Indian movies, they said, women are modestly dressed, men and women rarely kiss, and you never see women naked. Because of this, Indian movies are said to "have culture" in a way that Hollywood films seem to lack. The fact is that Indian films fit in with Hausa society. This is realized by Lebanese film distributors, and Indian video importers as well as Hausa fans. Major themes of Hindi films, such as the tension between arranged and love marriages, do not appear in Hollywood movies but are agonizing problems for Nigerian and Indian youth.
            The themes of Indian movies are often based on the reality of a developing country emerging from years of colonialism. The style of the movies and plots deal with the problem of how to modernize while preserving traditional values - not usually a narrative theme in a Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Speilberg movie. Characters choose between wearing Indian or Western-style clothes; following religious or secular values; living with the masses or in rich, western style bungalows. Women often decide whether they should speak shyly to their lover or stand up, look him in the face and declare their love forcefully. Male stars are often presented with the choice between a "traditional" lover, who respects family and dresses modestly, and a modern woman who lives a rich, fast, life hanging around discos and hotels. The use of English by arrogant upper-class characters or by imperious bureaucrats; and even the endemic corruption of police and state officials, all present familiar situations for postcolonial Indian and African viewers.
            For years, Indian movies have been an accepted, admired part of Hausa popular culture compared favourably with the negative effects of Western media. Indian movies offered an alternative style of fashion and romance that Hausa youth could follow without the ideological baggage of "becoming western". But as the style of Bollywood has begun to change over the last few years this acceptance is becoming more questioned. Contemporary films are more sexually explicit and violent. Nigerian viewers comment on this when they compare older Indian films of the 1950s and 1960s that "had" culture to newer ones which are more westernized.

MARKET RESEARCH

          In any movie there has to be a market research done, as they say trends in Bollywood keeps changing and moving in cycles. An idea that is relevant today may not be applicable tomorrow, but the idea never dies only that it should await its time. Hindi movies or Bollywood regularly romantic and family dramas, using melodrama as the conventional mode of telling stories. Some Hindi films, however, tend to move away from the formula and narrate the various stories that India has to tell.

            Hindi cinema has been a major point of reference for Indian culture in this century. It has shaped and expressed the changing scenarios of modern India to an extent that no preceding art form could ever achieve. Hindi cinema has influenced the way in which people perceive various aspects of their own lives.

            Hazaron Khawhishen Aisi (2005), directed by Sudhir Mishra, is one of the few Indian movies to overtly engage with Indian politics. It begins with three students writing to each other during the vacation, three students of Delhi University. Delhi University is one of the best universities in India, a university that prides itself on its diversity and plurality. Various kinds of political ideologies and ideologues proliferate in Delhi University, as do students from various backgrounds. It is three such students that the film follows.

           

           

Siddharth Tyabji - played by Kay Kay Menon

Siddharth Tyabji is the idealist, the visionary, the rebel, the miscreant - all depending on your point of view. He is born to a rich and influential father, a judge in an Indian court, and has used the leisure available to him to care about the impoverished, the dispossessed, the lower-castes who face the injustices of the world. Siddharth reads Lenin and Mao, he believes that violence can be the answer to the problems of the world, and that the revolution can and will be brought to the dispossessed.

Vikram Malhotra - played by Shiny Ahuja

Vikram Malhotra is, in many ways, everything that Siddharth is not. He does not believe in any political dream, in any abstract idea or ideal. He has only one goal - self benefit. He wants a life of moneyed ease, the life that Siddharth takes for granted. Vikram's father is a Gandhian ie he follows the principles of Mahatma Gandhi, the architect of India's Independence and considered 'The Father of the Nation'. Vikram's father strove to adopt the Gandhian principles of truth and non-violence in his life, and eschewed material advancement and comfort. Vikram respects his father but cannot bring himself to respect his choices in life, since he feels that the Gandhian ideal of simplicity has ensured that they live a deprived life.

Geeta Rao - played by Chitrangada Singh

Geeta is the woman that both the men love, though that is not the only identity that the film gives her. At the beginning of the film, Geeta who does not know the socio-political scenario of India as well as Siddharth does, nor does she have a strong opinion about it. She loves Siddharth and he returns that love, but he puts his activism above their being together.

The first phase of the film ends when these three graduate. Siddharth plans to go to Bihar and implement in practice all that he has read in theory. He is willing to leave behind the comfort of his life in Delhi and Geeta, who feels unable to accompany him. She is going to go to Oxford and get a degree. Catching Siddharth and Geeta in an intimate moment together means that Vikram finished college with his heart broken.
            As time goes by, Vikram moves ahead in life. He comes across Geeta one day, now married to a civil servant, a 'good catch' by conventional standards. Geeta is having an affair with Siddharth, and soon leaves her husband to join Siddharth in the jungles of Naxalbari and help him in his cause. Vikram continues to love Geeta, while she treats him as a friend. She has a child with Sidhharth, whom she sends to her parents in London, so that he is brought up safely and away from the turbulent world that she has chosen to live in, in order to be with Siddharth.

Radical Activism v/s 'Bourgeois' Activism

It is a small interchange between Siddharth and Geeta while they are together that sums up the spirit of the movie. The two of them are in a small village, where Siddharth lives in the forests and tries to inspire/instigate the local people into a revolution. Geeta, on the other hand, opens a small school in the village where she teaches the local children, hoping that the education will be their passport into a better life. Siddharth thinks that this is 'bourgeois activism', that she is not challenging any of the institutions that make their lives miserable. Geeta does not have an immediate answer or a theoretical framework for what she is doing, the way Siddharth does. But the way in which the film concludes could be seen as an indication that it is bourgeois activism which survives, and which in a small way may change the world, where dreams of revolution cannot.

violence can dreams of change and revolution survive
            The film moves towards its shocking end, when the local authorities pick up Siddharth and Geeta for questioning. Geeta is repeatedly raped in the police station, while Siddharth is made to watch. She is ultimately allowed to go, because her influential ex-husband pulls the right strings. Siddharth survives too, and when he eventually returns to his old life he denounces the belief system that he had upheld so far. He cannot return to that world and work for change anymore; instead he decides to go abroad to study medicine

Performances and Music

The performances of all the three actors were commendable. Kay Kay Menon did an excellent job portraying Siddharth, bringing to the character a searing honesty as well as a certain self-belief that bordered on arrogance. Shiny did a good job in the role of the 'eager-to-be-rich' Vikram. Chitrangada shone in the film, showing poise and maturity as she grew into Geeta. The music of the film suited the tone of the film, with Bavra Man gaining immense popularity, especially through word of mouth. The use of folk tunes added to the appeal of the film.

Each Desire worth Dying For

The title of the film refers to a famous couplet by Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib 'Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi, Ki Har Khwaish Pe Dum Nikale', which can be loosely translated as 'A Thousand Desires, And Each Desire Worth Dying For'. It can also be considered a lament for all those desires that remain unfulfilled. In a sense, all three characters do not get what they had wanted - life changes who they are and how they identify themselves. In a running time of 120 minutes, the film encompasses almost two decades in the lives of three people and in the life of one nation - the nation of varied pluralities, the nation where injustice co-exists with development, the nation which needs the debates of both a Siddharth and a Geeta.