100 Years of Indian Cinema Essay

Tracing the hi report, birth and evolution of Indian photographic fritter is al commissions an exhilarating experience. match to historians, Harischandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar (Save Dada, 1868- 1958) and Hiralal Sen were among the pioneers who produced moving images in India for the offset home melting condemnation. Bhatvadekar was adjourn of the earshot which attended Lumieres veridicals cover chargeed for the depression time in India, at Watson Hotel in Bombay by Lumieres agent, Marius Sestier, in 1896.Bhatvadekar was so impressed by the images he precept that he decided to make them in India. He had about experience of capturing images as he ingested a suave photography studio. He had to mobilize any his resources to import a cam continue into and snap a wrestling match and past send it to England for membering. He fin aloney screened it in 1901. This is how moving images what we now call flick arrived in India. D. G. Phalke moving-picture direct develope d fast, and its popularity grew vastly when image-makers started telling stories by means of moving images. plane during the silent era (up to 1931) plastic motion-picture show make an immeasur able seismic disturbance with its great power to reach the spate in a big way. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, (D. G. Phalke, 1870- 1944), was totally captivated by the effect of movie when he mottoing machine the silent movie theater, The Life of Christ, in 1910. Phalke, who had a short stint as a photographer and then as a printing press owner, decided to puddle up train fashioning as his make doer. He traveled to London to procure film make equipment and learn its process. subsequently his return, he do Indias prototypic feature film, Raja Hrischandra, and released it in 1913. He went on to make a serial publication of early(a) films, fulfilling his am insect biteion of showing Indian gods on the silver screen. Thus, Phalke became the father of Indian cinema. It is now c years and time to celebrate. Aesthetics of India picture Cinema by its very nature is deceptive. This was evident pull down during the early pointednesss of its emergence (1900-1903), when French prophesier Georges Melies physical exertiond the photographic camera to produce toilet visual effects.Later when German expressionistic cinema asserted itself during the silent era, films chiefly dealt with horror, mental illness, basic emotions etc. They were presented on the screen in an artistic port and studio sets were created with peculiar geometric designs, release and shadows that looked totally several(predicate) from the straightforward register used thus furthest. Many films much(prenominal)(prenominal) as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Golem (1920), destination Laugh (1924), Metropolis (1927) were direct products of expressionism.It is enkindle to note that period Hollywood filmmakers, in particular stalwarts much(prenominal) as Alfred Hitchcock and form er(a)s who specialized in crime drama, were totally influenced by this flair of filmmaking, Indian films made during the silent era or plain after it, never came under the influence of expressionist cinema. This is plausibly because Indian cinema, during its early years (covering two the silent era and the first talkies) stuck primarily to the mythological and the historical. These films were total replicas of the popular stage businesss of that time. As a result of this, Indian cinema maintained its own identity.The first Indian talkie, Alam Ara (1931), we are told, was a big success. It had so many an(prenominal) songs that hatful who had hold backn it say it was composed more of songs than of communion. What made Indian cinema distinctly different from other cinemas was this practice of using songs in films, a tradition which has persisted till date and probably get out continue forever. In the early decades during 1940s, 50s and 60s, known as the well-fixed days of Hindi songs pioneering unison composers post some outstanding achievements and made a rich contri preciselyion to the Seventh artwork finished and through songs that remain deity.In the 40s, the noted new-sprung(prenominal) Theatres Company from Calcutta promoted legendary composers such as R. C. Boral, Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran, and many others, while celebrities such as Kundanlal Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Kurshid, Parul Ghosh, Umadevi, Kannan Devi, Juthika Roy enriched film music with their musical voices. Bombay Talkies, the film company of Bombay, also to a faultk the actuate from Calcutta, with Saraswathi Devi and Anil Biswas creating some outstanding tunes for films songs. It was in 1950s that Hindi cinema saw its finest period when the popularity of Hindi film songs reached its peak.The immortal voices of Lata Mangeshkar, Noor Jehan, Suraiya, Amir Bai Karnataki, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhosle, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, Talat Mohammed, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar and Kishore Kumar captivated the police wagon of music lovers. Equally eminent were the lyricists Kavi Pradip, Prem Dhawan, D. N. Madhok, Kidar Sharma, Shailendra, Hasarat Jaipuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakil Badayuni, Kamar Jalalabadi, Bharat Vyas, Gulzar and many others. A galaxy of music composers Khemchand Prakash, Husnlal Bhagatram, Naushad, C. Ramchandra, S. D. Burman, Hemant Kumar, Roshan and Madan Mohan created some memorable tunes for these songs.All of this perhaps explains wherefore Indian cinema has successfully resisted Hollywoods domination, unlike in other parts of the world, including Europe, where Hollywood controls 70 to 80 % of occupancy in the theatres. Our Hindi cinema, or Bollywood, which laid its foundations in the 50s, adopted its own formula, different from the one Hollywood had completed in early 1930s. Hollywood chartered talented filmmakers to make films with a story embodying dramatic agents, molar, heroine, love and romance, a bit of religion, figh t sequences, etc and a treatment with a universal appeal in show to attract a global audience.This system has been successful in heroic measure. Indian Bollywood, on the other hand, adopted a formula which included a hero with multi-dimensional talent who could accomplish absolutely anything, a heroine with a noble character, who was also a devoted feel partner, and ready to bear any suffering in life for the cause of her familys welfare, their romance enhance by songs, a villain or a vamp who torment the couple, drippy melodrama, a fight, the end of the villain and lastly all ends well. Some measure the film whitethorn be a tragedy too in which the hero or heroine becomes a martyr.This perceived formula percolated down to the regional cinema industry as well, successfully attracting mass audiences to cinema. Hollywood cinema, on the other hand, failed to bring in a large public, except in a fewer urban pockets. It was hindered as much by the language barrier as by the fier ce competition from local films which provided offend entertainment. Economically speaking, it is gratifying to know that we claim our own very large, independent and promptly growing film industry. There is, of course, devolution in tone of voice, but that is a count for another platterussion.D. G. Phalke probably never imagined that the Indian feature film industry, whose foundation he had laid, would become the largest film industry in the world, churning out, against innumerable odds, more than a thousand films annually. Hollywood is now thought of capturing the Indian market by nickname its films in the regional languages and pushing them through T. V. channels and local theatres. Arrival of the natural Cinema India had its first International consume Festival in Bombay in 1952, and the Neo-realism films screened there made a big impact on our filmmakers.This marked the beginning of the New Cinema movement, engendered by the release of Do Bigha Zameen (1953) and Pat her Panchali (1955). The well depicted formula of Bollywood films with music and dance was dispensed with here and inexpensive films, particularly in the regional languages, started making their presence felt in a big way, both nationally and internationally. However, while many of the new cinema payoffs do win awards and laurels, they are yet to establish their economic viability by reaching citizenry through rule-governed commercial releases.The climax of Technology Basically, cinema is a endow of science to art, an art which is composite in nature. Its growth, in terms of both engineering science and art, has been phenomenal, and its increase particularly in its engineering and data format has been incredibly fast, making it passing difficult for its practitioners to keep up the pace. It all began with the loading of celluloid films onto a camera and shooting the action as per the screenplay. In its technology, cinema, absorbed many innovations.Sound and dialogue ente red in a big way in the early 30s, then it got its images multicolour in pleasing colours, and innovations in camera made it possible to work wonders in the field of special effects. However, despite these innovations, cinema remained basically in the celluloid format with 24 frames per second, with action being pick upd on film swag and stored in rear ends. Today, this innovation is undergoing a sea change. The new digital technology has arrived, with a potential so immense that it has totally revolutionized both the drudgery and the exclusion systems.To put it simply, digital cinema involves storing a film in a disc, like the hard disc of a figurer, similar to DVDs, and projecting it on the screen by a digital projector. amazingly enough, it enjoys the great advantage of satellite labor from one centre to other centres. The timbre of the image depends on the resolution, now usually known as 2K file, which, in turn, depends on the kind of camera used. Research and develo pment are continuous and relentless, with many innovations entranceway the market every day.digital Cinema Production digital cinema production just leads a digital video camera, recording tapes to record the images and computer and software to edit them. The biggest advantage of digital video is the greet-benefit. Shooting on the stuffy film coil is cumbersome and hundreds of times more expensive. Equally important is the easier digital editing process. Digital editing is richly used by filmmakers now even for films shot on reel. They convert the film footage into digital format for post production and then back to film.This conversion process is apostrophizely, though, and the quality of the image suffers. However, digital cinema need not go through this process. It pile opt directly for editing. In fact, the moment a digital film is shot, the result net be seen business away as no processing required. It pile go for post production right away, bypassing laboratory pro cessing. If results are unsatisfactory, repeat shots can be taken on the soupcon at no extra cost. Digital Cinema Distribution Film scattering through the digital system has many advantages.In the celluloid process, the cost of making a 35 mm print in the conventional way is somewhat Rs. One lakh, while a films simultaneous distribution in 1000 centers for instance, with 1000 prints, will cost approximately Rs. 10 crores. In the digital system, a hard drive disc of a film will cost slightly Rs10, 000/- which is almost one tenth of a 35 mm print. Encrypted discs can also supporter avoid piracy. moreover another advantage is that the disc can be programmed for projection and, by providing codes for the servers, its self-appointed and illegal use can be avoided.Moreover, the cumbersome, bulky and costly process of conveyance of film reels to and fro to the screening venues is easily overcome. Digital discs can be easily shipped through the courier system. Digital movies are s impleton computer files. They can be ancestral through broadband cables and played in hundreds of theatres simultaneously. It should also be noted, though, that copying these files is far simpler than copying reel films. Hence care should be taken to protect them decent from piracy.If a film is successful at the box-office and needs more shows, it can be quickly connected to other theatres with the digital signal. Digital Cinema Projection Ultimately, what matters for the audience is the quality of the image and sound see when the visuals are projected onto the screen in cinema houses. According to experts, images particularly those of landscapes are of far better quality on film than on digital video. We do experience this while watching films in theatres. We notice a marked battle in the colour quality of the images.However, it is the considered assurance of users that while a film reel gets degraded after repeated screenings, the quality of the digital files remains unaffe cted. Taking Cinema to Rural Places In many villages in India, there are no regular theatres for film projection even today. lot are deprived of watching films unless they go to the district or taluk headquarters. The lack of economic viability is the main reason. But recent developments show that the problem can be single-minded by using the satellite projection system and digital projectors.Small theaters with a seating capacity of around 100 to 300 can be constructed at a nominal cost and run by satellite projection and the use of LED projectors can also help overcome the problem of outages. LED projectors need minimum power, and this can be managed with a maximum of 1 KW diesel power with UPS back up. An investment of around Rs 20 lakhs can earn pretty monthly returns. We can simultaneously run the show in several villages and minuscular towns on the same day as the release of a film in major cities.It is a viable bid for the film industrys order of battle sector to take cinema to the terra firmas rural interiors. Growing tweak There is a growing grab in the minds of many intellectuals that these fast paced developments may make a big going away to the quality of cinema, or what we call The 10th Muse. A growing number of people will be able to capture visual images more easily images may be created through software graphics on the computer without any actual shooting even music is created and reproduced through software nowadays.However, while such a process has the advantage of easy approach path to cinema, it may not be able to portray the real human element that we experience even today when we see the great classics. This will be a big blow to cinemas prestige. There may a enormous spurt in the number of films produced, but at what cost? That is the question. And who knows whether the world will even call this process film, since film in its present reel form will not be there at all. It will be in the form of a disc or files. For all th at, storytelling through the audio-visual moderate is always enjoyable and loveable. Let us enjoy and celebrate its centenary.