Monday, August 19, 2013

Bollywood versus Hollywood

I grew up on bollywood films. Right from 1960s when a decent seat in cinema was Re 1.60, while you could get close to the heroine in the front stalls for just 80 paise. Always believed that Bollywood was the ultimate on offer in movies.
But since about last four months, I have been seeing about half a Bollywood movie on TV every night.
Never seen a Bollywood movie after that.
A Bollywood movie is about a star with strong personal mannerisms. They crane their head at an impossible angle, raise and lower eyelids with close alignment with the neck movement, flail arms like windmills and walk in style, talk in style. The story is totally subservient to the star. Not so in Bollywood. Most of their actors look like normal humans that they really are and they simply support the story, rather than the other way round.
Since so few Indians can do the above mentioned antics, there are just a handful of them - maybe about 15 heros and 12 heroines in all. But Hollywood movies are doable with normal humans and therefore there are literally hundreds of heroes and heroines. In the last few months, I have hardly seen a Hollywood hero twice except Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky series - and I see one movie per night!
Bollywood movies have a more than predictable storyline. In all, there are probably 10 plots our guys can think of. In Hollywood movies, each movie has a story like nothing you've ever heard before.
The movie focus, too, is very revealing of the societies they represent. Bollywood movies are about our national pastime - love between a man and a woman. The main job of a woman is to get a man to look at her. Her primary sentiment is 'Tujhe dekhoon to mere tan se khushboo phuten' ( When I see you, my body start sending out sweet fragrances ). Even in a movie with theme of 'Satyagraha', the boy-girl angle is a must. Our movies represent dreams that you can escape into, something our harried society so badly needs. Bollywood movies are more about achievement and challenges - quite representative of their society.
I don't really blame our movie producers for all this. They are business, out to multiply their money. If a movie like Chennai Express gets to make so much of money, why should anyone make movies like Aarth and Massom?

No comments:

Post a Comment