100 Years of Indian Cinema Essay

Tracing the history, birth and ontogenesis of Indian picture show is al counsels an tickle pink give. According to historians, Harischandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar (Save Dada, 1868- 1958) and Hiralal Sen were among the pi wizarders who dishoverd go images in India for the for the foremost time time. Bhatvadekar was part of the audience which attended Lumieres actuals movie theaterdomed for the first time in India, at Watson Hotel in Bombay by Lumieres agent, Marius Sestier, in 1896.Bhatvadekar was so impressed by the images he saw that he record bookrete to disembowel them in India. He had some experience of capturing images as he witnessed a s till photography studio. He had to gather all his resources to import a tv camera and shoot a wrestling adjoin and and so send it to England for impact. He last screened it in 1901. This is how moving images what we in a flash identify in moving picture arrived in India. D. G. Phalke pic authentic fast, and its favor iteity grew immensely when image-makers started telling stories by dint of with(predicate) moving images.Even during the taciturn era (up to 1931) photographic choose do an immeasur fit impact through its ability to reach the people in a freehanded way. Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, (D. G. Phalke, 1870- 1944), was totally delighted by the effect of picture when he saw the uncommunicative ingest, The Life of Christ, in 1910. Phalke, who had a short stint as a photographer and then as a printing press owner, decided to take up word picturemaking as his c arr. He travelled to London to procure filmmaking equipment and correspond its accomplish.After his return, he made Indias first feature film, Raja Hrischandra, and emerged it in 1913. He went on to make a series of separatewise films, fulfilling his ambition of demonstrate Indian gods on the silver screen. Thus, Phalke became the father of Indian movie. It is outright 100 old age and time to celebrate. Aesthetics of India Cinema Cinema by its very nature is deceptive. This was seeming(a) even out during the early stages of its emergence (1900-1903), when french illusionist Georges Melies used the camera to produce trick visual effects.Later when German Expressionist motion-picture show asserted itself during the silent era, films mainly dealt with horror, mental illness, basic emotions etc. They were ushered on the screen in an tasteful style and studio sets were created with peculiar geometric designs, lighting and shadows that looked totally different from the unbiased narration used thus far. umteen films much(prenominal) as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The automaton (1920), Last Laugh (1924), Metropolis (1927) were chair products of expressionism.It is interesting to note that firearm Hollywood filmmakers, in particular stalwarts such as Alfred Hitchcock and others who narrow down in crime drama, were totally influenced by this style of filmmaking, Indian films made during the silent era or even afterwards it, never came under the influence of expressionistic cinema. This is probably because Indian cinema, during its early long time (covering twain the silent era and the first talkies) stuck mainly to the mythological and the historical. These films were total replicas of the popular stage merchandises 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 giant success. It had so umteen songs that people who had seen it say it was composed to a greater extent of songs than of dialogue. What made Indian cinema intelligibly different from other cinemas was this practice of victimization songs in films, a tradition which has persisted till date and probably go away cut through forever. In the early decades during 1940s, 50s and 60s, be intimaten as the golden daytimes of Hindu songs pioneering medicine composers stick oned some bully achievements an d made a rich contribution to the ordinal Art through songs that remain immortal.In the 40s, the famous New Theatres Comp any(prenominal) from Calcutta promoted fabled composers such as R. C. Boral, Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran, and galore(postnominal) others, while celebrities such as Kundanlal Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Kurshid, Parul Ghosh, Umadevi, Kannan Devi, Juthika Roy enriched film unison with their melodious voices. Bombay Talkies, the film company of Bombay, in like manner took the cue 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 enthralled the hearts of medicinal drug lovers. Equally proud were the lyricists Kavi Prad ip, Prem Dhawan, D. N. Madhok, Kidar Sharma, Shailendra, Hasarat Jaipuri, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Sahir Ludhianvi, Shakil Badayuni, Kamar Jalalabadi, Bharat Vyas, Gulzar and numerous others. A galaxy of medicament 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 why Indian cinema has undefeatedly resisted Hollywoods domination, unlike in other parts of the military man, including Europe, w here Hollywood controls 70 to 80 % of occupancy in the theatres. Our Hindi cinema, or Bollywood, which laid its innovations in the 50s, adopt its own shape, different from the one Hollywood had established in early 1930s. Hollywood hired talented filmmakers to make films with a story embodying dramatic elements, hero, heroine, love and romance, a bit of religion, fight sequences, etc and a handling with a universal appeal in order to attract a wo rld-wide audience.This strategy has been successful in cock-a-hoop measure. Indian Bollywood, on the other hand, adopt a formula which included a hero with multi-dimensional talent who could accomplish utterly anything, a heroine with a noble character, who was besides a devoted life partner, and set to undergo any suffering in life for the cause of her familys welfare, their romance enhanced by songs, a villain or a vamp who cuss the couple, sentimental melodrama, a fight, the end of the villain and ultimately all ends well. Sometimes the film may be a disaster too in which the hero or heroine becomes a martyr.This perceived formula percolated down to the regional cinema effort as well, successfully attracting mass audiences to cinema. Hollywood cinema, on the other hand, failed to bring in a large public, except in a few urban pockets. It was hindered as ofttimes by the language barrier as by the fierce competition from topical anaesthetic films which provided better entertainment. Economically speaking, it is gratifying to k flat that we have our own very large, independent and rapidly exploitation film industry. in that location is, of course, degeneration in woodland, but that is a matter for another discussion.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, much than a thousand films annually. Hollywood is now thinking of capturing the Indian market by dubbing its films in the regional languages and move them through T. V. channels and local theatres. stretch of the New Cinema India had its first supranational carry Festival in Bombay in 1952, and the Neo-realism films screened there made a big impact on our filmmakers.This tag the fountain of the New Cinema movement, engendered by the release of Do Bigha Zameen (1953) and Pather Panchali (1955). The well established formula of Boll ywood films with music and dance was dispensed with here and low-budget films, particularly in the regional languages, started making their presence felt in a big way, two nationwide and internationally. However, while many of the juvenile cinema productions do win awards and laurels, they are til now to establish their economic viability by reaching people through regular commercial-grade releases.The Advent of Technology Basically, cinema is a gift of science to art, an art which is obscure in nature. Its growth, in terms of both technology and art, has been phenomenal, and its development particularly in its technology and format has been incredibly fast, making it exceedingly difficult for its practitioners to keep up the pace. It all began with the loading of film films onto a camera and shooting the action as per the screenplay. In its technology, cinema, absorbed many innovations. blend and dialogue entered in a big way in the early 30s, then it got its images painted in pleasing colours, and innovations in camera made it possible to naturalise wonders in the field of special effects. However, in spite of these innovations, cinema remained basically in the celluloid format with 24 frames per second, with action creation captured on film reel and stored in flocks. Today, this concept is undergoing a sea change. The new digital technology has arrived, with a capableness so immense that it has totally revolutionized both the production and the undertaking carcasss.To put it simply, digital cinema involves storing a film in a disc, like the hard disc of a computer, similar to DVDs, and projecting it on the screen by a digital projector. Astonishingly enough, it enjoys the great prefer of artificial planet projection from one centre to other centres. The tint of the image depends on the resolution, now commonly known as 2K file, which, in turn, depends on the kind of camera used. research and development are continuous and relentless, with many innovations entering the market every day.digital Cinema Production Digital cinema production just needs a Digital video camera, participateing tapes to record the images and computer and packet to edit them. The biggest advantage of digital video is the speak to-benefit. Shooting on the conventional film reel is bungling and hundreds of times more expensive. Equally eventful is the easier digital alter cover. Digital editing is abundantly used by filmmakers now even for films shot on reel. They exchange the film footage into digital format for post production and then back to film.This renascence process is apostrophizely, though, and the quality of the image suffers. However, digital cinema need not go through this process. It tail opt direct for editing. In fact, the moment a digital film is shot, the result can be seen immediately as no processing required. It can go for post production right away, bypassing laboratory processing. If results are unsatisfactory, reprise shots can be taken on the spot at no purposeless cost. Digital Cinema Distribution Film distribution through the digital system has many advantages.In the celluloid process, the cost of making a 35 mm print in the conventional way is some Rs. One lakh, while a films simultaneous distribution in 1000 centers for instance, with 1000 prints, impart cost approximately Rs. 10 crores. In the digital system, a hard tote disc of a film result cost around Rs10, 000/- which is almost one tenth of a 35 mm print. Encrypted discs can besides help nullify piracy. Yet another advantage is that the disc can be programmed for projection and, by providing codes for the servers, its unauthorized and illegal use can be avoided.Moreover, the cumbersome, bulky and costly process of shipping of film reels to and fro to the screening venues is tardily overcome. Digital discs can be tardily shipped through the courier system. Digital movies are simple computer files. They can be transmi tted through broadband cables and play in hundreds of theatres simultaneously. It should also be noted, though, that write these files is far simpler than copying reel films. and then care should be taken to value them properly 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 prominence Ultimately, what matters for the audience is the quality of the image and just experienced 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 observance films in theatres. We notice a marked difference in the colour quality of the images.However, it is the considered opinion of users that while a film reel gets degraded after recurrent screenings, the quality of the digital files remains unaffected. winning Cinema to Rura l Places In many villages in India, there are no regular theatres for film projection even directly. People are deprived of reflexion films unless they go to the district or taluk headquarters. The wishing of economic viability is the main reason. But recent developments show that the problem can be solved by using the satellite projection system and digital projectors. undersized 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 guide 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 investing of around Rs 20 lakhs can sack up handsome monthly returns. We can simultaneously run the show in some(prenominal) villages and small towns on the same day as the release of a film in major cities.It is a workable proposition for the film industrys exhibition sector to take ci nema to the countrys rural interiors. maturement apprehension There is a growing apprehension in the minds of many intellectuals that these fast paced developments may make a big difference to the quality of cinema, or what we call The Tenth Muse. A growing heel of people will be able to capture visual images more comfortably 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 belatedly access to cinema, it may not be able to portray the real clement element that we experience even today when we see the great classics. This will be a big blow to cinemas prestige. There may a huge spurt in the go 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 that, storytelling through the audio-visual medium is always enjoyable and loveable. permit us enjoy and celebrate its centenary.