A much contended topic as it is, it is very interesting to
analyse how Indian cinema has effected and influenced the current society, and
at times vice versa. For years we have come across various types of movies,
which range from family entertainment to comedy. Most directors aspire to
create something that would question social protocol, make people contemplate
on who's right or who's wrong while questioning the course of conduct with
which people usually interact and socialise. Director's used to show how at
times the youth have to struggle to choose their own way of life, choose the right
person as his/her spouse or choose one's own profession. The struggle would
usually be portrayed as dramatic and seditious. A movie that shows rebellion
tends to always attract attention especially of the youth, who for some reason
always believe that they can enact and bring about change, but rarely manages
to do so.
Movies in Bollywood gradually changed its primary genre from being
focused on family entertainment and youth themed love stories to a mix of
variety of genres where director's focus was on presenting a theme that has
never been portrayed before in Indian cinema. Whether be it Anurag Kashyap's Dev D or Neeraj Pandey's A Wednesday, movies
started to focus on influencing day to day lives of people by trying to present
their eminent problems in the best way possible. This idea managed to work a
lot, and inspire a lot of directors to present their ideas on the main screen.
A lot of amazingly scripted movies, although did not manage to come on to the main
screen as the director's couldn't find the right producers. Nonetheless
mainstream cinema managed to bring about a lot of movies that portrayed
rebellion, change and the need for a revolution.
The
present generation cinema has gone through a lot of metamorphosis throughout the ages, and
by watching just a few movies any sane person can infer that Bollywood cinema
can be classified into two sections, the astute and the nonsensical. The
nonsensical movies cinema comprised of movies that focused on entertaining the
public by whatever means possible, whether it was logical or not. The director
expected the audience to basically 'leave their common sense out' before
entering the hall. So, basically people could easily understand through
trailers and posters whether a movie was sensible or not. This categorization
began when basically Bollywood realized that their audience required either
pure entertainment which comprised of uncanny and hilarious action scenes or
movies that made sense and had a profound theme. It seemed like the Indian
audience was gradually maturing and started accepting movies that made more
sense to them and to their society. This proved to be a good sign, when movies
like A Wednesday, Taare Zameen Par, Peepli Live started receiving positive
criticism not just form critics themselves but audiences alike. With the
current trend one can only hope for more sensible movies in the near future,
and less of nonsensical one's although the latter would always manage to gross
the highest with regard to box office records.
