Saturday, December 11, 2010

Is Hindi Film Moving Away From Common Audience?

Indian film industry is the largest film industry in the world. Hindi film industry which is popularly known as Bollywood, has a lion’s share in it. Hindi films have not only pan-Indian audience; they are doing good business in overseas market too. But I feel either intentionally or unintentionally Hindi films are moving away from mass.
Credits in Hindi are done away with from Hindi films long time ago. Perhaps Hindi films are the only films in which credits are shown in English and not in the language in which the film is made. Of course all the viewers are not able to read Hindi; but it should not be a excuse for the mass, who does not know English and want to know the people associated with a film.
Now-a-days many films are found with English title which confuses the common audience. Though we can find English titles for Hindi films in the past, they were generally common words even used by illiterate people. Today foreign films are also released in India adding more confusion in the movie title. English dialogues are also frequently used by characters of a film. The reason may be film makers are targeting multiplex and overseas markets more. I am not advocating for pure Hindi dialogues as used by Dharmendra in old ‘Chupke Chupke’. But it will be better if the use of English dialogues will be minimized.
Another aspect is characterization in films. Now films are being made more on western style. There is nothing wrong in it; problem lies in with adaptation. In some films, film makers are presenting actors as stand-alone characters. They are forgetting that we have strong family system in India and it plays a vital role in every aspect of our life. It does not mean that a director has to show a whole family on the screen. Script should be written to make a feel about the family of lead characters. This particular aspect is more alienating the Indian audience. Besides, western culture has replaced Indian culture in the films too. If film makers can present a veteran actor singing with young people on the occasion of Valentine’s Day, is it wrong on the part of a common audience to expect a sister sending e-rakhi to her brother in films?

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