Movies, Camera, Lights, Dance, Glamour, Actors, Characters, Film, Colours, Locations, Industry, Box office and one can go on and on with words that start moving around ones head when the word ‘Bollywood’ is taken. But above all is Mumbai. It houses Bollywood and its characters.
Just recently I was reading an interesting book ‘Film as Art’ by Rudolf Arnheim and it kept me glued to it until its last word. Soon after that I watched Inception and Once Upon a Time in Mumbai. My whole idea towards watching films changed and I started treating it as Real Cinema. It became Bollywood for a reason.
I was then eager to know the history of Bollywood. So for starters I googled and realized that India leads the world in the output of films, with more than 800 Indian films produced annually. Our first hindi movie was "Raja Harishchandra" by Dadasaheb Phalke and our first film with dialogues remains "Alam Ara" by Ardeshir Irani in 1931.
My dad always spoke about Raj Kapoor and his films like all hindi movie lovers. So I thought I should watch a couple of them too. I got dvds for “Mera Naam Joker” and “Bobby” not only because these were easily available but also because I have been a Rishi Kapoor fan myself as a child. Raj Kapoor, I saw has brilliantly directed the two movies and taken Bollywood at another level. His contribution to cinema is prestigious.
Needless to say as to why was he honoured with “Best Director of the Millennium” by Stradust Awards and was named “Showman of the Millennium” by Star Screen Awards in 2002.
Then came the Amitabh & Dharmendra phase. I was in awe of Gabbar though. The duo created history and their all time famous Sholay ran in theatres like forever.
Since I have grown up enough to acknowledge movies, Shahrukh Khan was the king of Bollywood. I was also a part of the audience that watched his happy ending clichéd movies. But then it was all about the beautiful destinations Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions shot at.
Some renowned directors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rakesysh Omprakash Mehera, Madhur Bhandarkar, Mani Ratman came with a bang and gave us some brilliant movies. Some dealt with love differently, some had mythological concepts while some displayed reality. All have come up with never ending series of hits at our box office.
Film story, characters, costumes, production are not the only components of a Bollywood film. They require soothing music and melodies voices. Sincere gratitude towards, R.D. Burman for his amazing contribution to music composition and our nightingale, Lata Mangeshkar who lent her voice to our Industry. Then Lataji and R.D. Burman pair was loved by one and all. The rest then followed the lead gave us some beautiful songs that we can go hummmmming all day.
Bollywood, is the home for talent and money. Many individuals each day come all the way to out city of dreams, Mumbai from various locations just to make it big in Bollywood. It gives genuine talent a chance to prove and that’s what makes it attractive. To top it all, each year we have several award functions, that motive the existing talent and urge new talent to take a step towards it. Bollywood gives artists opportunities, unemployed the work and economy the money.
Just yesterday I was wondering why did I take this long to decide and take a stroll down a place which is located just 10 minutes away from my place, Bollywood a.k.a. Indian Film Industry. Its called the Film City. Amazing movie sets, costumes and characters were all over the place. Directors yelling on top of their voices, stars taking like forever to get ready for their shoots, camera man adjusting the lens and praying that the rain god takes the rest of the day off, troops of dancers rehearsing. It was indeed a colorful sight. This was the real world that made Real Cinema. I thought to myself, that it was a very good idea to study Bollywood closely and let my delusions of Hollywood taking over our Bollywood eyeballs away someday came to a rest.
References:
www. google.co.in/images
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