Indian Panorama: Beyond Bollywood
"Bollywood"....a self-derogatory and insulting term coined by the Bombay Film Industry to describe themselves, in a tasteless effort to compare themselves with "Hollywood". Needless to say therefore, that majority of the films which they churn out, year after year, are just product of shameless plagiarism. Films which are not lifted from other sources are almost always worthless. After being fed on this on-going rubbish for years after years, people now do not know how to distinguish a good film from a bad film; they were never given a chance to develop a good taste. No one really cares, be it the industry people or the audience. Film as a business is doing really great in India, but film as an artistic expression is almost non-existent. Plagiarized films like “Black” and “Bheja Fry” are considered to be achievements. The audience has no idea that they are being scammed and cheated by the film-makers and are happy to shell out their hard-earned money to watch these films made on stolen plots. Once in a blue moon there comes a refreshingly original film, e.g. Udaan, but they are so rare that they can be considered as negligible exceptions. Majority of the Indian audience are unaware of films by Ray, Ghatak, Sathyu, G. Aravindan, Gopalakrishnan, Kasaravalli, Shaji Karun, Jhanu Barua among others (forget Bergman, Tarkovsky, Mizoguchi, lol). After going through numerous lists of Indian films (mostly Bollywood, hence nothing to talk about) on IMDb, I came across maybe a couple of lists which had the genuine intent to portray quality Indian films (and I appreciate their effort), but I was not completely satisfied. And that’s when I decided to publish my own list of Indian cinema. This is my humble effort to present the truly artistic, original, uncompromising and exceptional (and in some case almost unknown gems) films from India, which represent the whole of India(not just Mumbai) irrespective of language and style, and undoubtedly beyond the offensive and limiting term of “Bollywood”. I hope this list comes in handy for film students like me doing research on Indian cinematic art, and other film connoisseurs in India and abroad. Fans of Bollywood, nothing against you personally, Cinema just means different things to us.
P.S. Few of the films are not of purely Indian origin as they are produced by other countries, but the films are Indian in content and subject matter. Also featured on this list are 6 TV series, which were incredibly well made IMO, therefore deserve their place in Indian Panorama.
P.S. Few of the films are not of purely Indian origin as they are produced by other countries, but the films are Indian in content and subject matter. Also featured on this list are 6 TV series, which were incredibly well made IMO, therefore deserve their place in Indian Panorama.
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