I have loved movies. I come from India and that's what is ingrained in us - to love movies.
Our parents love them, our grandparents love them, and so we love them. Why even our global friends ( non-Indians ) love them. My first visit to France I was asked by some one if I knew Amitabh Bacchan. The dude was from Morocco, and believe it or not, Indian movies are big there.
As a child growing up, watching movies I just somehow found the same themes all over again and again. The theme of romance. The circumstances would be different but it was always the same formula. In the early 90s it was rich girl, poor guys parents oppose and depending on the movie (and the mood of the screenwriter) the couple get married or they commit suicide together (Romeo / Juliet .. sound familiar). Towards the later 90s love triangles seemed to rule the roost. With more movies entering the market, and when triangles seemed cliches, quadrangles, polygon, multiple love stories on different lines all entered the movie market. And ALL these movies are at least 2.5 hours long.
All these movies play on the sensitivies/ cultures and a different things common to the Indian mindset. Being Indians, being a family oriented culture a lot of things are ingrained into us. Eg : Listen to your elders, they know what is best for you, let them decide the life partner you live with etc. All these would have been possible in the 18th century.. maybe even the 20th century when joint families were the norm. People from outside families had to gel well with the families and that is why families stressed on the same religion, same caste etc. 90% of the romantic movies in Bollywood played on how the hero and heroine had the Herculean task in front of them on how to convince their parents .
While still a child , I wondered then why don't the parents let the guy and girl live together, let them figure out how to live life? Why do people have to complicate such an easy thing? When the hero told the heroine or vice versa that parents won't accept the other into the family why don't they convince their parents for that? Life is short and why waste time on complicating simple things?
Our parents love them, our grandparents love them, and so we love them. Why even our global friends ( non-Indians ) love them. My first visit to France I was asked by some one if I knew Amitabh Bacchan. The dude was from Morocco, and believe it or not, Indian movies are big there.
As a child growing up, watching movies I just somehow found the same themes all over again and again. The theme of romance. The circumstances would be different but it was always the same formula. In the early 90s it was rich girl, poor guys parents oppose and depending on the movie (and the mood of the screenwriter) the couple get married or they commit suicide together (Romeo / Juliet .. sound familiar). Towards the later 90s love triangles seemed to rule the roost. With more movies entering the market, and when triangles seemed cliches, quadrangles, polygon, multiple love stories on different lines all entered the movie market. And ALL these movies are at least 2.5 hours long.
All these movies play on the sensitivies/ cultures and a different things common to the Indian mindset. Being Indians, being a family oriented culture a lot of things are ingrained into us. Eg : Listen to your elders, they know what is best for you, let them decide the life partner you live with etc. All these would have been possible in the 18th century.. maybe even the 20th century when joint families were the norm. People from outside families had to gel well with the families and that is why families stressed on the same religion, same caste etc. 90% of the romantic movies in Bollywood played on how the hero and heroine had the Herculean task in front of them on how to convince their parents .
While still a child , I wondered then why don't the parents let the guy and girl live together, let them figure out how to live life? Why do people have to complicate such an easy thing? When the hero told the heroine or vice versa that parents won't accept the other into the family why don't they convince their parents for that? Life is short and why waste time on complicating simple things?
Deep rooted ideas and biases. hard to get rid of :(.
ReplyDeletei know seriously.. how the hell did u find this ?
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