Movie Mania@Bollywood

Howsoever much do its denizens detest the term Bollywood , there's no denying the fact that people the world over use it to refer to the Mumbai based Hindi language film industry in India. Yes, it is a portmanteau of Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry and it does make the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood. Nonetheless, now that there's even an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary by the same name it seems likely to persist forever. Who cares by the way, with an annual output of 1,000 films it outstrips even the productivity of Hollywood. No body can ignore a $8 billion industry anyway.

Critics of Bollywood argue that it mostly produces melodramatic, flashy films which typically run more than three hours and invariably boast of a lavish wedding scene dance along with of course numerous songs and, most important, romance. They don't fail to point out the fact that the usual story-line is: Boy meets girl, villain steals girl, the girl inexplicably kicks off a dreamy song-and-dance sequence with a chorus of hundreds instantly transported from an Indian village to the Swiss Alps. Is there a plot in there somewhere?

Well, seriously speaking do we really need to worry too much about it. What all of us have to agree upon is the fact that Indian filmmaking is seeking new heights in terms of quality, cinematography, special effects etc. A definite improvement in technical quality can be seen. The fact that corporate India is now a part of the mainstream film industry, it surely has brought in a lot of transparency into the system. This and the maturing of the industry has ensured that returns from films are now more assured with merchandising, TV and overseas rights and the music rights ensuring that a film recoups its investments even before release.

Did you guys have had enough of this Bollywood essay? All I would say is that the future of Bollywood seems bright and it would keep dishing out flicks of good masala kind. After all when you do go to the theatre all you care for is a healthy dose of laughter with a mixture of drama and emotions which keep you glued to the silver screen. Whether you have to leave your brains behind even before you occupy your seat is something not many care about as long as there's a satisfactory smile, when they vacate the seat to step out of the theatre!