Bollywood: What it tells about Indian character

"So that when once you have learned how to spell these most precious of all legends,pictures and buildings,you may read the characters of men, and of nations, in their art, as in a mirror;nay, as in a microscope, and magnified a hundredfold; for the character becomes passionate in the art, and intensifies itself in all its noblest or meanest delights. " - Ruskin

What the Bollywood, the most popular and pervasive form of contemporary indian art, tell us about indian character? Here I would attempt to draw that connection between popular indian cinema and indian character as revelaed in and through this art form.

Let me clarify one thing at the outset: the focus of the comments here is the popular indian hindi language cinema, not the parallel movies or the regional movies which I have not had the chance to see much to form an opinion. Since it is Bollywood that enjoys immense popularity with an indian audience, home and abroad, it is a more approriate candidate to find that connection than the parallel or regional cinema which has niche following.

India justifiably lays claim to having one of the biggest film industries in the world. In terms of sheer numbers it is second to none, but it seems to be that in case of Bollywod there is an inverse relation between quantity and quality. More trash is churned by the movie houses of Bombay per annum than the movie houses of all the world combined. Though Bollywood apologists and fans would have you belive that there has to be some connection between sheer numbers and quality here - otherwise how a commerical venture could stay afloat, producing substandard stuff regularly - the connection is not what they have in mind. Rather it is a connection between the supplier mass producing low quality goods, miraclously finding ready market for it on a regular basis, and the cosumer constituting that ready market. The phenomena that reflects more on the consumer than the supplier.
Imagine a person being served with same dish year in and year out prepared with the same recipe though with a slight change in ingredients and condiments, and you have your indian movie audience. It has to be some deep unsatiable appetite that never loses its edge though served with the same montonous diet. To properly understand the drug here one has to understand the psychology of the addict.
Take the drug first. I am totally aware that any judgement about any artistic creation is by its nature subjective, and cannot be proved like a theorem of algebra. It is a question of taste, as the saying goes. Therefore, what I offer here is my own very subjective view, which I hope and think, is shared by more than one person on this planet. Back to the drug: impossible plots, repetitive themes, dipping sentimentality, contrived characters and situtions, unrealistic and exaggerated acting, crass vulgarity - becoming more pronounced recently- visaully drab, flat, one dimensional, lack of nuance, almost total absence of good visual affects, open and obvious imitation of Hollywood movies, that is what defines the Bollywood for me. One wonder how that kind of work finds resonance with the audience consistently. There must be some deep seated longing it is appealing to, some catharsis it is providing, some vicarious pleasure it is offering. Movie, the art form of the 20th century, is built round providing escape, it is life writ large in exaggerated colors, that is hardly the point here. It is the kind of escape that it is offering, and is some rare cases, the elevating experience it is providing that seperates the good from the ordinary. The fantastic and incredible worlds created in Wizard of the oz and Lord of the Ring are providing escape from the familiar into the exotic, but is it the same kind, which is provided by , say, watching the hero and heroine, dancing with extras in similar style in similar situations, or seeing a woman gyrating vulgarly in a "club" dance number, both the staple of indian cinema? The clue to understanding the obsessive fixation of indian cinema audience with the same product is to be found in understanding the recurrent patterns, both in terms of theme and treatment, in indian movies and how they cater to the deeply ingrained complexes of the moviegoer. As someone put it pithitly: "India is making the same movie for the last half a century".


As one unravels this pattern, the most prominent strand, that never fails to find the central place in the pattern, is the different variations on the boy meets girl theme. As sure as death, whether you are watching an historical epic like Ashoka, or a war movie like Border, you cant fail to find the romantic courtship, with its inevitable song numbers done in the same style and situation, occupying the prominent part in the lives of the protagonists. Iqbal put a finger on this obsession in the context of poetry, when he said that fair sex dominates the sensibilities of indian poets. That an extremely segregated society, raising walls of taboos between intermingling of the sexes would generate that kind of imbalance is quite obvious. What is not that obvious in the indian context is another deep complex that this motif is exploiting: for lack of a better phrase, enormous percieved beauty divide between the ordinary indian and the idolized movie stars. This goes beyond the natural gap in looks between the movie stars and average person - found in perhaps all societies where movies are made- and is interwoven with the caste hierarchy (racial in origin), and colour complexes of indian society. In the society where standard deviation in appearance is arguably greater than any other, and where notions of superiority and ruling class and caste are historically and even currently bound up with fair, and tall and very "Aryan looking", the movie stars represent, in Ruskin phrase, that "intensified delight" in idolization of the "Aryanized" standard of beauty, and vicarious pleasure and escape in enjoying its proximity through the medium of movies.


Another recurrent theme of indian cinema relates to domestic issues and conflicts: the grist to the mill of indian cinema, the stuff that soap operas are made of. It seems like the imagination of both the creator and the viewer is trapped within the four walls of the home, and the wide world beyond with its infinite varity of experiences and challenges only intrudes upon this cloistered world in a very formulaic ways. Again I find the connection here with history: india for centuries has been inward looking, never foraying into foreign territories, never engaging in overseas conquests, exploration and adventures. Even travelling on seas was a kind of taboo in indian socity. This narrow concern with just one's neighbourhood, and seeking security of familiar enviroments over the uncertainities of foreign climes, finds its echoe in the movies with their narrow focus on the all too familiar.

The theme of good vs evil, the essence of any dramatic conflict, has its place in every indian movie, but its treatment is highly uncreative. The arena is populated with the same stock characters: a mafia don depicted in grotesque manner, a hybrid of Mumbai underworld and italian mafioso, a corrupt police offical, politician, villainous in-laws, and of late a muslim terrorist. Not only characters show no nuance and are merely placeholders for the moral absolutes, but also undergo dramatic transformation of heart at the convenient juncture for the story. All this goes to show a highly naive, unsophisticated, and mythological view of the world. The mythology that is not used as a stepping stone to explore the deeper truths about human condition, as the great scriptures of Hindu religion like Mahbahrata and Ramayan did, but merely used as an alibi for lack of creative imagination.

Another aspect of the indian movies, probably the most undesirable and revealing at the same time, is their practice of the highest form of flattery of the American culture and its most effective vehicle, the Hollywood, through disguised and sometimes not that disguised imitation. The people who have sampled movies of different eras of the Bollywood know what I am talking about. In the sixties you see that swing a la Elvis Presley, in the 70s the disco beat, and now you are seeing the same imitation of western fads and styles reflected in Bollywood. Sometimes it is carried to absurd lengths like when they show a heroe or villain wearing the cowboy attire, enacting wild west fighting sequence in some saloon in india. And that is not done in a spirit of caricature but is a part of a serious movie!! Seem like the movie makers are doing their work with an one eye constantly fixed on american iconography, and despersately trying to consecrate their work through association with it. So if they are trying to show an indian air force pilot, you cant miss the Tom Cruise of Top Gun thrown in somewhere to the point of cloning even the details of specific scene or style: the indian pilot has to drive a motorcyle like Tom cruise through the streets of indian fightertown! Not that this is confined to elements of style and fads, but many a time the whole plot enbloc is cloned, resulting in the pale Bollywoood remake of the Hollywood movie! One does not have to see far to find the linkages between this and wider cultural matrix. India repeatedly through the long periods of her history ruled by foreigners who got obeisance from the natives, and very little national reistance, until the very modern times. From Greeks, to Arabs to Turks to English is a long history of successful invasions and rule. This has given birth to a mindset of inferiority complex vis a vis the foreigners, and edification of the foreign rulers and their ways. Indians are perhaps the only people in the world that take more pride in speaking the language of their former masters than their own native language. I think it was Nehru himself who remarked that if you wanted to destory a nation, take away its language. The people who have such inferiority complex towards the most fundamental aspect of their culture, namely their language, cannot create great art. This pretty much sums it up: the india has to overcome its deeply ingrained inferiority complex, before it could truly dazzle the world by being just herself. This complex is not a matter of government policy or having an independent foreign policy or lack thereof, it is a matter of culture and daily lives and deepest aspirations and self image. All that impinges on the quality of civilization the people creates in all its multifaceted aspects.

The qualification is in order here: the foregoing comments This definitely applies more to north than to south india, but as I have already explained, this is not about south indian cinema.

Yet we watch the same crap religiously day in and day out and our own film industry is nothing but a cheap version of Bollywood itself.

you are absolutely right, and ours is even worse or i think at present non-existent..but that does not make Bollywood any better for it

nor does that explain the obsession many Pakistanis have with Indian movies. do all the same reasons apply? (e.g. "standard deviation in appearance is arguably greater than any other . . . ")

that is one of the points of writing this: to explore why we pakistanis are so enamoured of this trash. I have my theroies about it. But I am here to listen to what others say, and provoke some soul searching

i'm not an avid bollywood fan...but some movies are okay...qusoor, sarkar, and company were good movies...

Exceptions prove the rule Like generalization, it is what it is , a generalization. It would have been nothing short of incredible if out of thousands of movies Bollywood had not produced a handful good movies. It is the general tenor and trend and its realtion to mass pysche that is the centerpiece of the argument here, not some isolated pieces of good work. I for one is a fan of one thing that came out of Bollywood: their film music , but only the old songs. Lata, Saigol, Hemant Kumar, Ksihore, Rafi sang some ethereal songs, so sublime as to be almost divine.

Bollywood 'production' quality is from a different 'janam'...comparedto Pak.

That said, you wont get me watching either...

I have a few theories. 75 PERCENT of our population is not well versed in English. Those who are and are educated enough, do not comprehend English entertainment as well as English speaking people do. So that throws English films out the window. Plus some of them are not suitable enough for families. (even though these days even Indian films are not suitable for an entire family) That leaves Pakistanis with a very narrow spectrum to get their entertainment from. Back in the old days, there was only PTV that showed one drama a day. PTV would start its broadcast after midday. An average Pakistani housewife would obviously have to look elsewhere and Indian films provided the best solution. In those days Indian films could be watched with an entire family. Also on top of that, the fact that we have similar language and share some cultural features also enhanced that attraction. Soon enough our young men, women and children were enamoured by their actors such as Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bachan and actresses such as Madhuri and their singers etc .. Now the trend was in place, the affinity had been established.


So no matter how ordinary and dteriorated the quality of these films is nowadays, plus on top of the fact that Pakistan has round the clock entertainment channels as well, that connection still exists and is thriving even more so now because they have introduced Western style nudity and sex into their films. Every other film is based on these subjects and the younger people are of course going to be attracted to it.


Yet there is no question in my mind that Pakistani films are even worst and Indian films are the second worse option available to Pakistanis.

We used to produce quality dramas and I am glad I was part of the generation that was lucky enough to catch them. These days even that has gone down the drain. I dont remember the last time I saw a Pakistani program in all its entriety in one sitting, same goes for Indian films.

yeah a friend who recently visited pakistan said pak drama's are trash now as well...i've been a strong proponent of banning indian channels in pakistan...

Well i am all for freedom of speech and freedom of choice. So banning that stuff is probably not the best solution. What we should do is raise the quality of our own programs and films to compete with the garbage they throw out in the market all the time.

Indian propensity to assimilate utter rubbish and lame garbage they call movies is simply astounding. They churn out so much pointless trash every year and their population and our population just laps it up like thirsty dogs. Pathetic stuff really.

Last time they tried to ban Indian cable channels in Islamabad, Pakistani took to the streets!

It wont happen yar!

BUT ppl love garbage and the only way to compete with garbage is to make more garbage

I dont think so. Pakistani dramas used to be excellent. If we produced more dramas of such quality or made films half as decent as those dramas (not the current soaps) I think pakistanis would forget indian crap. Remember Dhoop kinarey, Dhuwan, ETC?

freedom is one thing...reverse imperialism is totally another...the younger generation uses hindi words in normal speech...nuff said...

I was brought up in England so im not familiar with pakistani dramas - the only one i ever remember watching with the family on cable was Such Much - Nowadays there is NOT a chance in hell i watch TV with the family (unless it is football or Cricket but thats more me forcing them to watch it )

The problem is that ppl's attitude i feel are changing (i speak for England here, not sure about Pak BUT wudnt be surprised if the same applies) the amount of times i have seen ppl go to the cinemas with their families to watch Bollywood films is unbelievable, Bollywood is practically soft porn nowadays BUT these ppl dont flinch, im bloody embarassed for them and i havnt a clue who they are

I have not lived with my family in ages so I cant say for their tv habits however I agree with you on how people flock to see indian porn on theatre screens. I usually get embarassed if my friends have their wives with them.

indian movies are cheaper to rent!

is this your own article? please always post the source if not.

I m not bollywood fan and don't watch movies either.
but to my understanding why ppl in Pak,Indiaand Bangladesh watch them simply coz they don't have any other entertainment.
Bollywood movies are like "andhon main kaana raja"
Pak don't have top class movie industry, Bangle don't have as well.
I know ppl who buy BW movies just to time pass, they ll buy copied movies and when original ll come, they ll buy again, they ll buy any DVD os songs a swell. ppl who watches indian dramas usually watch them coz there ll b one episode everyday and they don't have much commercials. these kind of ppl doesn't care abt quality of acting , directing etc etc.

if we watch Bw movies, then they are crazy about our music as well and i know many indians who are crazy abt Umar Shareef

Yes, Mr Lahori this is my own article, not copied from anywhere, otherwise i would have posted the source. It is on my blog too, in case you are interested:
http://hammadsaid.blogspot.com

There are lots of reasons why the Indian Entertainment Industry is huge in Pakistan. First of all media is the only source of Entertainment for people. There is nothing else. Secondly the quality of the product in question is bad compaired to Hollywood but the standard is not that bad compiared to their competition (which is other Asian entertainment). Their media is huge not only inregards to movies but other venues. They use other media to promote the living daylights out of their own products plus they have the money which they can generate from their own market and sort of ambush other media outlets which cannot compete. Take PTV for instance. In order to produce a good drama. It takes a good story, good director, good producers and a good cast. All this takes time and money. While the other cable cannels can produce crap in less time. So in the time it takes to produce a good serial they can produce three crapy ones and almost make the same money. Thats the problem money.

Exactly my thoughts ! What does it say about the viewer who watches this drivel ?

In that case , great article very well written.

am for banning Bollywood in india too..me dont watch movies neways..strangely a few of good movies like Black ,kaun n road have floped ...so my theory is if ppl are not ready to watch good ones,they shouldbe watching those stale love triangles either...bloody waste of time!

black flopped?...what do your people smoke down there?...indians will just never get over the ishq, pyar, mohabbat themes for some reason...they dig that shiz...

yeah kinda flopped....only ppl in cities liked it..to me it was one of the best mov's made n indian film industry!

Chinese, Japanese and Korean cinema is all far superior to Bollywood as far as Asian cinema goes. We should look to them for inspiration rather than India.

bollywood movies are famous cos :
1 : mostly teenagers/college likes them
2 : it's for those ppl who dream about being rich and bollywood provides them that kinda look.
3 : as I said b4 bollywood is like " Andhon main kana raja" no othre entertainment for this part of world and no other competition in hindi/urdu films

nope..they are as bad as our..or may be worse..cos the only difference u see in their movies are tech in special affects..they make ppl climbing walls look real though!

have to say tamil movie industry makes the best movs in the region...awesome music,diif storry line..in fact most of hit music n hindi movies are stolen frm tamil...language is a barrier though!

even they are good, no body watch them coz of language nad are shown in one part/state of India only. and bollywood copies them and takes all credit. one of my freind was telling me that recently one released movies, they copied it from Japanese movies and even posters were copied from them .
Most of bollywood work is not original. and now they need to show english girls in every movies (in songs). BW movies without glamour or advertisement hardly do any business

I agree with the tamil movie part,some of them are a class apart, some malayalam movies are pretty good too, but theres no way these movies can go global

unfortunatley any1 who has seen crouching tiger hidden dragon aswell as other good hong kong flicks, plus the grudge,ring and eye to name but a few would agre that they are light years ahead of anything produced by bollywood...bollywood produces movies that appeal to a certain tabka and unfortunatley this tabka wants to se the vulgarity and songs etc etc..until this mindset doesnt change we will be stuck with this garbage for years to come...its banned in my house and i detest the nonsensical storylines and vulgarity!!...escapism is one thing but this stuff is pure rubbish!!...bollywood will never be taken seriously until it starts making films worth taking seroiusly....even iranian movies are better for God's sake!!...as Pakistanis we should concentrate on producing well written small indie films that concentrate on social/religious/politics etc ..this will increase our appeal in the int market and subsequently in the home market too!