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| Image from Google |
I was listening to some Bollywood music when I saw this comment.
Dear Bollywood,
A word of advice. Please stop all the cheesiness in Bollywood movies. All this glitter, glam, and ghettoness does not make the movies any more interesting, "cooler", americanized.....whatever you are going for. In fact it is embarrassing! .Instead I Go back to your roots, or take a look back at the hindi movies from the 90s. Those were real true good hindi movies. This goes for India too. Us NRI's want to come to a India that is still India not something like the U.S.
Obviously my fellow youtuber here was feeling a little nostalgic and listening to new Bollywood song did not make him/her happy. So, what better way to express your feelings then to rant in the comment section?
Now I am not going to lie, sometimes I refrain from listening to Bollywood songs just because it’s too loud and you just don’t know what’s happening. There is an actor dancing with 10 other white girls, rapping like a black man in Punjabi, basically it’s a chaos in the name of music.
I am officially a NRI (non-resident Indian) but I don’t think like the nostalgic youtuber. One reason is I feel this person has been outside India for a very long time and a lot has changed since then. You will always remember of home the way you left it. Even when I leave my room and come back to find it clean I go berserk, so imagine if you leave your country and you come back to find it different.
But then it’s not just NRI’s is it? A lot of people don’t like this multi-cultural Bollywood. They wish it was all pure Indian , more songs running across the field, fake punching noises , the flowing saris yada yada yada. Bollywood is still making actors run across the field, only that the field is in Egypt and they are running around a pyramid. For some Indians this may be the only way to see pyramids (not like I have seen one in reality).
I don’t feel being ‘modern’ is wearing a tank top instead of a duppatta. But I do feel that tank tops are more comfortable. Lot of Bollywood movies are completely based in London, New York or Sydney, and why not? A lot of Indians have moved there as well.
They say movies reflect the society we live in. Bollywood movies only show the society Indian people have created. It was not created by the industry. So I feel people should stop whining about everything being ‘westernised’ when they are the ones who are westernised (hello NRIs).
As for me, I am a child of globalisation, I love the old Bollywood classics and I also love the shining new ‘westernised’ Bollywood.
a child of globalization, huh? that's pretty funny:) i would never want to run around the pyramids. not even close to being that well in shape:)
ReplyDeletelol...they make them do all kind of weird things Ed.
ReplyDeleteIt bothers some people, i'm not very patriotic..i always say i am a global citizen (if that could be a thing)
Commercial movies are always looked as a mean of entertainment. Common man enjoys action s of his hero and heroine which are beyond his imagination. So a commercial cinema never truly reflect what is prevailing in the society, they just reflect the type of fictions preferred by the society.
ReplyDeleteTrue, Bollywood songs are chaos in the name of music. But they help us to ‘enjoy’ music (?) even when we mute the T.V.
It does reflect the society, but it is exaggerated, depends on what movie we look into. Sure there are some that is 'beyond imagination' but if you look into each character, they are exaggerated form of a 'common man'.
ReplyDeleteThe society itself is kind of a fiction.
This post has got me thinking because I think Bollywood sucks.
ReplyDeleteDon’t get me wrong, I’m a follower of world cinema and I guess Indian films fall in to that, but modern Hindi movies are soullessly derivative confections. The new trend in film songs is to ape the generic auto-tune styles perpetrated by the likes of will.i.am and David Guetta, but Bollywood has always done that. Old songs like ‘Disco 82’ and ‘I am A Disco Dancer’ shamelessly copied the disco scene that had gripped America in the late-70s.
Indian cinema never pushes boundaries, nor does it require its audience to think. It’s in no way original and it merely magpies cultural elements from the West. There is no social message in Indian films and, for a country with some of the highest levels of poverty and corruption out there, Indian cinema should never provokes meaningful discussion. It shouldn’t be up to Britain to make a film like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, Indian filmmakers themselves should be compelled to make movies about issues affecting their country and not just engaging in mindless song and dance numbers.
It wasn’t always like this. I’m not Indian but I’ve read about Hindi cinema and seen many of your films. ‘Mother India’ and ‘Shree 420’ were entertaining movies but they were fantastically meaningful and actually about something.
I think modern India has lost its way. 200 year of colonial control didn’t affect the culture as much as what 10 years of MTV has. The Indians seem to get very upset when a westerner highlights something as obvious as this.
Woh! I love a big comment. Lol
ReplyDeleteI won't deny the fact that Indian cinema is a copy cat for everything western. It's kind of a fetish we have.
No seriously, i see what you mean. Although i would disagree on 'no meaningful movies'. There are some good ones, but that is the problem, that there are only 'some' and not 'many'.
As far as copying David Guetta goes, Oh well, our desi dudes could use some of that. Why not it's just music. After all imitation is the best way to compliment.
The truth is, there is nothing you and me can do about it. The crowd demands it.
Either you can say modern India has lost it's way, or just that we found a new way. I can see it's not very much liked, but as long as people come out of the cinema happy, what more do we need? Lets not get anal about things.
Also it's true that Indians are sensitive lot. We take everything to heart...we are very proud of our 'culture' or what is left of it.
I don't mind losing the 'culture', how long can you drag it, people get bored of it, at least I do.
I feel bad about having a back and forth debate with you via your blog but I just feel that I should clarify something.
ReplyDeleteI'm not on a mission to engage in cultural assassination but I do feel Indian popular culture adapts the most superficial elements from Western culture. For example, India is crazy about infusing their music with the generic influences of say disco back in the day, or with the current dance-pop trends populating the American charts. However, when sincere music movements like grunge or Britpop were dominant, India never felt the desire to be influenced by those genres. I always felt that was because those songs were actually about something and Indians would rather bury their heads in the sand and not actually have to think about things. They just wanna be entertained, and while there’s nothing particularly wrong with that, I do feel there is a need for plurality in popular forms of entertainment.
I don't know Indian culture on an intimate level but I am an observer. I am proud of where I come from but I am also critical of aspects regarding life here. That's the beauty of our mindset. Indians, on the other hand, are a tad too jingoistic, and that's not pretty.
There, another long comment.
Yay for another long comment..lol..
ReplyDeleteI enjoy debates, and a blog is a good place to share your views...so please don't feel bad.
I don't know what kind of Indian people you have observed but they seem crappy.
But it is true, Indians enjoy a good entertainment. And yes, they would rather be entertained than think about deeper aspects of life. I have noticed that as well. Whenever i start a topic they (not all Indians) will always have a look of 'why bother?'.
There are very few people who enjoy alternative music in India. I love Fever ray, Cocorosie but when i play them back in India no one likes it.