The Ideology of the Hindi film

Have been reading a bit on the ideology of Hindi films in the past few weeks. Preparing to write a PhD proposal on construction of Muslim identity in popular Hindi cinema and hence the necessity to read. Not to say that reading has everything to do with studies and academics. Absolutely not. Anyhow, one of the first things I learnt was that while Hollywood follows the organic style of film-making where the story forms the core of all other activities associated with the production of the film, the Bombay film industry has since the early days followed the heterogenous method i.e. the finished product is an amalgamation of various specialized arts such as dance, music, story writing, comedy, etc. This encompasses the ‘formula’ that most Hindi films thrive on. A rather linear differentiation. Don’t know if films like Ankur and Manthan earlier and some of the better films being made in Bombay would fit either way.

The other interesting classification is the typographical differentiation between genres. New wave cinema, middle-class cinema, darsanic socials, musicals, and so on. While the earliest films like Raja Harishchandra and Alam Ara (of the silent era) can be classified under the darsanic social category, others like Raj Kapoor’s Sangam fall primarily in the social mould. Bhuvan Shome by Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray’s master works all fall under the new wave cinema category. Shyam Benegal’s Manthan and Ankur are some other works in the new wave cinema category.

The rise of the subaltern hero is exemplified in the grand and prolonged success that Amitabh Bachchan enjoyed in a period of great churning for the India polity given the socialist leanings of the policies of the Indira Gandhi government. This, as I see it is the single biggest epoch making event in the history of Indian politics in conjunction with popular Hindi cinema. The tide was changing, the common man was the flavour. Zanjeer, Deewar and Sholay, the three Salim-Javed-Amitabh blockbusters made new ground where the new political class was being feted and celebrated.

Some questions that come to my mind straightaway. What genres can we classify films like Black Friday as? Noir perhaps? Is it organic film-making? Perhaps. Will need to do more reading to figure than one out…any help is welcome.