India produces around 2000 films per year in 30 different languages. Over the years, this country has churned the finest art in this medium contributed by outstanding filmmakers, artists and technicians. But the fact is, Indian Cinema is underrated on a global scale. When you say Indian cinema, the rest of the world thinks about Bollywood, and Bollywood only– Dance, song, glitz, glamour and comedy, that is all that India has to offer– just one language, one kind of cinema.
There are two problems, one is the commercialization of cinema and two is the brand image for Indian cinema globally.
‘Unsophisticated and backward audience, exposed to the commercial Hindi cinema’, that’s how Satyajit Ray, who is arguably one of the finest filmmakers in India, brands the larger sector of the Indian audience. In 1948, when the young Satyajit Ray was a reporter (before he became a filmmaker), he wrote for The Statesman, where he accused the Indian filmmakers of the commercialism in cinema, while the European countries were focussed on neo-realism. He said “What is wrong with Indian films? The raw material of cinema is life itself….. It is incredible that a country that has inspired so much painting and music and poetry should fail to move the film-maker. He has only to keep his eyes open, and his ears. Let him do so.”
The popularity of commercialism in the Hindi films overshadowed realism in Hindi and regional language films. The glorification of actors, illogical-unintelligent plots, going overboard with song and fight sequences that did not add any value to the plot, are nothing but junk food that was fed to the audience. Of course, everyone loved junk food– the distributors, theatre owners, and audience which resulted in good business, so we kept feeding them more junk but art was compromised. Though this trend started with Hindi, it soon escalated to other languages in the country.
One may ask what is wrong with commercial cinema that creates a healthy economy and pulls crowds to the theatre– Commercial cinema is okay, as long as we don’t push it with nonsensical content that is beyond logic massacring the art. I mean, you could agree or disagree with Satyajit Ray but at least there is still a smaller sector of the audience that appreciates good cinema and has the sensibilities to devour art, although it’s rare.
There is another problem- The brand image of Indian Cinema. Let me begin with the nomenclature– First of all, why call it Bollywood? Our originality has gone for a toss there itself. Hollywood got its name from a plant called holly, which was abundant in that area and hence it was called Holly Canyon and later renamed as Hollywood in 1886 by H.J Whitey, a real estate developer, who was also known as ‘Father of Hollywood’. However, this dude had nothing to do with cinema. In 1911, American filmmakers moved from the west to east coast to avoid few legal enforcements in the west, which were invalid in California and also because of the versatile weather which favoured their stories and production. Of course, H.J Whitey welcomed the industry with his arms wide open and helped the industry grow. That was a little history about Hollywood, now why did we name the Hindi film industry as Bollywood? Because Hindi films were made out of studios in Bombay, that’s why! B for Bombay, hence Bollywood. We were so inspired by American films and culture, that we wanted to impersonate their methodologies in our cinema. Of course, American films from that era were trendsetters globally but we eventually stopped valuing our origins. It didn’t stop there, Telugu films were called as ‘Tollywood’, Tamil film industry as ‘Kollywood’ (because of one, there was Kodambakkam area where most of the film personalities resided and two, the first Tamil silent-film was ‘Keechaka Vadham’ and three, the first Tamil talkie film was ‘Kalidas’, and all three of them started with the letter ‘K’, so why the heck not? Let’s call it Kollywood!.) Bengali film industry was called Tollywood too, Punjabi film industry was called Pollywood, Odisha film industry was called Ollywood, Malayalam films industry was named Mollywood, and Kannada film industry was called Sandalwood. Kannada and sandalwood, what is the connect? No prizes for guessing… Remember I just told you that Hollywood was named after the plant ‘Holly’. There’s a film industry called Lollywood because folks there love lollipops! Just kidding, it was because of films made from Lahore.
I prefer to call Hindi or Tamil or Bengali films instead bolly, jolly, molly, lolly etc… I mean wtf!
India is known for the finest form of art- paintings, music, sculpting etc. also iconic filmmakers have evolved from this country. Our films have songs, a lot of music–are songs a problem for our films? No way! Indians love music, every state has rich cultural roots in music. Songs are supposed to be an incentive that helps move the story forward. In case you didn’t know, there was this film called ‘Chandralekha’, a masterpiece in all aspects– The story, the cast, cinematography, production design, music, direction were outstanding! This film was released in 1948, which means the film was shot during pre-independent India, we had set the bar high for the world to look towards our craftsmanship but we derailed off the track due to commercialization and brand image.
Hollywood was popularized by academy award ceremonies which became a huge marketing tool for America. We too have prestigious award ceremonies such as national awards that come under the Ministry of Information and broadcasting, enough said. We also have Filmfare dictated by the sponsors, enough said again.
I would like to start with two iconic classic films– both are very different films, one is a commercial film that had songs, star cast etc without compromising the art and another one is Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali which is India’s first independent film.
This list is incomplete, and I have included more contemporary films than classics. As in when I remember some more films, I’ll keep adding to this list.
Classics
- Chandralekha (1948)
- Pather Panchali (1955)
Tamil Language
- Alaipayuthe
- Kannathil Muthamittal
- Iruvar
- Uyire
- Naayagan
- Mullum Malarum
- Aaranya Kaandam
- Super Deluxe
- Visaranai
- Vada Chennai
- Pudupettai
- Pariyerum Perumal
- Kaaka Muttai
- Subramanipuram
- Pithamagan
- Paruthiveeran
- Soodhu Kavvum
- Attakathi
- Jigarthanda
- Anjathe
- Merkku thodarchi malai
- Joker (tamil)
- Vikram Vedha
- Aruvi
- Asuran
- Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru
- Oththa Seruppu Size 7
- Onaayum Aattukkuttiyum
- Ratsasan
- Iraivi
Hindi Cinema:
- Black Friday
- Dev.D
- Udaan
- Satya
- Masaan
- Lunch Box
- Ship of Theseus
- Gangs of Wasseypur
- Ugly
- Raman Raghav 2.0
- Andhadun
- Badlapur
- Kahaani
- Titli
- Talvar
- October
- Piku
- Madras Cafe
- Newton
- Lootera
- Lucia
- Love, Sex or Dhokla
- Gangs of Wasseypur I & II
- Masaan
- Kahaani
- Barfi
- Tamasha
- Delhi Belly
- Paan Singh Tomar
- A Wednesday
Malayalam Cinema
- Annayum Rasoolum
- Kumbalangi Nights
- Jallikattu
- Virus
- Charlie
- Angamaly Diaries
- Premam
- Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum
- Kammatipaadam
- Drishyum
- Anjaam Pathiraa
Kannada, Marathi, and Telugu
- Sairat
- Fandry
- Thithi
- Lucia
- Arjun Reddy
