To evaluate my Assignment Click Here
Topic: Parallel
Cinema and Commercial Cinema
Prepared by: Komal Shahedapuri
Roll No: 13
Paper: 15 Mass Communication and Media Studies
M.A (English): Sem -4
Enrollment No: 2069108420170027
Batch: 2016-18
Submitted to: Smt .S. B Gardi,
Department of English,
MK Bhavnagar University.
Preface
Cinema
is a medium that does reflect the true mood of the society and also that
changing reality. Films mean the particular movies that we see with all the
elements they contain and cinema means the some of the means made possible only
by film technology which distinguish cinema. The Cinema of India
consists of films produced in the nation of India Cinema is immensely
popular in India, with as many as 1,600 films produced in various languages
every year. Indian cinema produces more films watched by more people than any
other country; in 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe,
900,000 more than Hollywood. (Cinema Of
India)
What is a Cinema?
Cinema is a reflection of society, both present
and past.
Cinema is a form of communication.
Cinema is a powerful vehicle for culture,
education, leisure and propaganda
Cinema is a good medium for entertainment. Cinema is no doubt one of the
wonders of the present age. Cinema is a film/ a story recorded as set of moving
pictures to be shown on screen of a theatre house and television. It is a
channel of expression and communication. The cinemas one of the most
important inventions of modern science. Cinema
exercises a great influence upon the popular mind. A popular movie, when
shown in the T.V., can be as large crowd-puller. (Mishra)
Advantages of Cinema
Earning source for many
Encourages Artists
Refreshment
Entertainment
Exposure to Excellent
Art Work
Educative value of
Cinema
Truly speaking, cinema can even turn an
illiterate person into a man of knowledge and experience. (Mishra)
As a single coin has two sides, there are
also disadvantages of the cinema
In most cases ethical values are thrown to
the wind, and tinsel glamour and immoral ways are made highly attracting and
charming. Taking the glamorous cinema world as real, many lose whatever they
have by trying to copy such a world.
Instead of stressing hard work, honesty, and
perseverance cinema creates an unhealthy attitude by emphasizing on luxury and
comfort.
Dirty and obscene songs, dances, and scenes
put too much pressure on the minds of the adolescents and break their moral
restraints at ease. (Mishra)
Art / Parallel Cinema
The Art Cinema is more realistic and relevant as the needs of people and
society. This form is not very popular. It is also called ‘parallel cinema’. The Parallel Cinema movement began to take
shape from the late 1940s to the 1960s, by pioneers such as Satyajit Ray,
Ritwik Ghatak, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Chetan
Anand, Guru Dutt and V. Shantaram. This period is considered part of the
'Golden Age' of Indian cinema. Satyajit Ray is recognized as one of the greatest
filmmakers of the 20th century. (Cinema Of
India)
Art or parallel cinema that engages with social issues like migration
from village to city because of Industrialization and how people are suffering
because of poverty and problems of land. The Parallel Cinema concentrates on
contemporary socio-political problems of the country. These films are made for
the elite audiences and they are expected to change their thought processes.
Mostly, there are no idols or stars in the art movie. There are only ideas that shake the minds of the viewer.
Examples of Parallel Cinema in India are - Do Bhiga Zamin, Pather Panchali,
Salam Bombay, Sati, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Chandni Baar, Lakshmi, Ishanou, Leibaklei etc laying the foundations
for Indian neo-realism and the Indian New Wave. (Singh)
Mainstream / Commercial Cinema
Mainstream Cinema is also known as Commercial cinema or Popular cinema
and concentrates on the entertainment needs of the masses. Mainstream or
popular Hindi cinema is also better known as "Bollywood" because such cinema is seen to exercise widespread
influence over people and enjoys mass appeal. Popular cinema and culture
derive from each other. Films are believed to be the opium of the Indian masses
as people rely on this medium to help them escape to a world of fantasy.
In a bid to reach the masses, mainstream cinema has become melodramatic and
rhetorical. (Singh)
Satyajit Ray v/s Karan Johar (Representation of India)
Both directors are different from each other, Satyajit
Ray has representing the poor/real India
where he has discussed the social and political problems of the time and how
people are suffering where landlords are take advantages of poor people and harassed them. His movies are
rooted in reality and warranted a discourse over things that matter. They
touched various topics that are gnawing at the social fabric of our country and
still managed to entertain a wide variety of audiences. Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali is widely
considered the best movie ever made in cinema history. It's still shown in film-schools
to help amateur filmmakers learn the ropes of film-making and the art of
story-telling. (Mukherjee)
In Pather Panchali, he has
presented the poverty and its setting is in the village Nischindipur, rural Bengal which
gives the real image that India is like that. After brilliance of Pather Panchali, let's
not forget the other movies of the Apu trilogy. Apur Sansar is one of
the greatest movies of Indian cinema history and can be seen as a pioneer of
parallel cinema in India. Also, who can forget little Apu’s love for his sister
Durga and later for the young 16-year-old Sharmila Tagore in Apur Sansar. (Mukherjee)
On the other hand, the way in which Karan Johar presented India as rich country in most of his films where
people are rich and it’s easy for them go to foreign country and enjoy their
life which is not the life of all people in India. Romance and enjoyment are
main important elements of Karan Johar’s films to entertain people and in most
of his movie setting is foreign country rather than India which gives the wrong
image about India to the outsiders who don’t know anything about our country.
In Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, we find that the setting is of the foreign country as
film starts in London than in Paris and its story revolves around romance and
break ups of hero and heroine, no any serious issues or problems of society as
well as young people are presented in this which decreases the artistic value
of cinema. In Parallel cinema, we find that artistically which better camera
work presented the problems and issues of society in a serious way as identity
of Gay and their problems in Bomgay (Riyad Wadia) presented
artistically and in serious way while in Bombay Talkies the portrayal of
gay identity becomes silly and funny by its representation entertaining
way which make it masala kind of film with songs, romance and entertainment
We can divide cinema into two types
1) Dominant cinema
2) Counter cinema
Dominant cinema has been made for entertainment purpose. Basically
the cinema is medium of entertainment which is based on fiction and gives
aesthetic pleasure to the audience which is prime aim of any work of art. The
things used to represent with the glamorization and more than real. Popular
cinema can be considered as a dominant cinema. Counter cinema is also
entertaining the audience but it has real story. It is based on reality which
may be fails to entertain the audience but the cinema has more than
entertainment. The things used to represent with the nude reality about the
society and real problems of the people as in film ‘Fire’, very openly represented taboo subject of lesbian identity
and give them voice for their rights and choices which is part of society. Art
cinema or parallel cinema can be considered as a counter cinema. (Sojitra)
Parallel film sought to create some kind of
insight into Indian life by capturing the experiences and contradictions of a
society in transition by converging on small sections of Indian reality but
explore their complex layers of meaning. In particular a new type of woman is
ascended which is contrasted strongly (about Fire movie) with the dreamy
traditional heroines of popular film as she was placed in many different
contexts, confronting a multiplicity of social problems in which all areas of
Indian social life were unprotected, inspected and interrogated. (Halder)
Cinema used to describe
every descent things and if it is not that than it will be cover up by glamour.
Most of time the bright part of country has been shown more brighten in the
cinema. But the parallel cinema has
focus upon the dark and the grey part of country. The thing which may
provide entertainment and it gives feeling of relief or the reality will
disturb the mind. Those who have money and power have been never at the side of
victims may they never feel that so it was always voidable part of them and
without feeling of such a pain one may not understand. In parallel cinema,
camera watched the things from both side and then audience can decide or give
the judgment. Parallel cinema has been focused on the small corner of the India
it maybe corner of a small village of Gujarat or the corner of Calcutta.
Parallel cinema in India was produced after the Independence. After the
exploitation of 200 years how the Indian looks is described in the most of the
parallel cinema. Not the people are exploited by British but now their own
people have started to rule and again poor become worst. (Sojitra)
Mainstream cinema based on
the demands of the audience’s entertainment and making money out of it rather
to focus on the artistic value of cinema. It sometimes only glamorizes the
shallow image of the society rather to go deep into roots of those issues and
the problems. On the other side, it has given great contribution in connecting
entire Country. All mainstream films are not same; some of them have deep
insight into portraying the real situations.
Conclusion
Thus, both types of the cinemas have their
different strategies according to the time and demands of the audience. We
can’t say that Parallel cinema is better than mainstream cinema because it
changes with the time and taste of the audience.
Works Cited
"Cinema
Of India." wikipedia.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_India>.
Halder, Dr. Debjani. "Genre of Gaze: Mainstream vs Parallel Indian Film." International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Science Society and Culture(IJIRSSC) (2016).
Mishra, Pooja. "Essay on Uses and Abuses of
Cinema." 23 September 2014. ImportantIndia. 3 April 2018
<https://www.importantindia.com/14375/essay-on-uses-and-abuses-of-cinema/>.
Mukherjee, Supriyo. "Satyajit Ray Is One Of India’s Greatest
Directors But He’s Influenced World Cinema Too." 23 April 2017. ScoopWhoop.
5 April 2018
<https://www.scoopwhoop.com/satyajit-rays-stellar-contribution-to-world-cinema/#.66ur327wf>.
Singh, Naorem Mohen. "Explain the difference between
Mainstream and Parallel Cinema. ." 2013 September 13. Blogger. 3
April 2018
<http://ugcnet-masscom.blogspot.in/2013/09/explain-difference-between-mainstream.html>.
Sojitra, Ami. "Art Cinema and Popular Cinema." 3
April 2017. Blogger. 4 April 2018 <http://amisojitra2015-2017.blogspot.in/2017/04/>.
