The Originality Of Indian Cinema

Filmmakers in Indian cinema these days usually take a backseat when it comes to displaying reality on the big screen. I’ve grown up watching Bollywood movies and even though it seemed like the perfect world to live in when I was a child, now when I watch these movies, it seems like an utter waste of money. Every time I see the dramatic entry of the hero in a movie with slow motion shots and wind blowing in his perfect hair, I feel myself cringing at the fact of how distant it is from actual reality. Stories are usually muddled with romance, big grand gestures of love and acceptance, extreme humor, none of which happens in real life. It is all just a way to sell something to the public that they will never have because these are just unreasonable expectations from an ordinary life. Unless and until you are loaded with money, it is unrealistic to expect to bump into a millionaire who is kind and good at heart, and who will fall madly in love with you. But we have all watched Ghajini, haven’t we? Even if the filmmakers try to focus on some serious issue, it has to be 80 parts of unrealistic scenarios and 20 parts of the actual issue, because otherwise the audience would prefer to stay at home and watch their own lives.

Indian cinema began in 1913 when Dadasaheb Phalke released the first ever full-length feature film called “Raja Harishchandra”. Things have certainly changed since then. Cut to 2019 we see films that are what we like call “commercial movies”. Movies like Golmal or Chennai Express don’t just act as a fun binge but they also try to focus on some real-life issues in a very subtle sense. Indian films are full of song and dance numbers which are just a way to sell the movie before it is actually released and that works for the Indian audience. Truth be told, the only thing that the Indian audience wants when they enter a theatre is to enjoy, relax and maybe forget about their own lives for a moment, and the filmmakers know this fact. Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world. And out of the many movies that are released every year, only a few come with an actual story that may be tragic or sad.

Story writers and cinematographers have lost their imagination and creativity. We've come a long way since 1913. But we seem to have passed the stage of new ideas and imaginative stories and scripts because what is evident in Bollywood, as we know it now, is that there is one love story being written in different ways. What is also very evident is the lack of imagination. Indian cinema is flooded with rip offs of either famous Hollywood movies or old Hindi songs. Yes, there are a few movies that can be used an example to contradict this point of view. But the fact of the matter is, there are only a FEW out of the innumerable movies that are produced in India every year. Have we reached that time where all of Indian Cinema will have to rely on the shoulders of a few creative filmmakers to be able to call itself an original field? The fixed formula that has been used for generations of a handsome boy falling in love with a gorgeous girl, and they sing and dance, and voila! It's a hit! Is it really though? Aren't we stuck with the same storyline that was used in the 2000s? Is it really a step in the right direction, or in fact, any direction?