East Meets West: MOVIES

The infuence of Western and eastern culture (Indian Culture) has been greatly seen through themedium of movies.

Western Media has intense influence in Indian society through the impact of Hollywood on Bollywood, and vice-versa. Bollywood being the equivalent of Hollywood in India is a movie making, idea producing machine. It is not only a entertainment industry, it is seen as a role model and the ultimate change, as cinema is the most powerful media force.

We can see the influence of western culture in the name itself. The name “Bollywood” is a blend of Bombay (the former name of Mumbai) and Hollywood, the centre of the American Film Industry. The naming scheme for “Bollywood” was inspired by “Tollywood” (The cinema of West Bengal) which was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name.

Some of the examples of the Indian films that portray a continuous trend of western aspects are Monsoon Wedding (2001), Slumdog Millionaire, Bend It Like Beckham, Lions of Punjab and many more.

In these movies we can see the use of Hinglish language which is the blend of Hindi and English language together.

Monsoon Wedding

Monsoon Wedding is about a combining of traditional ideas of marriage and family of Modern life. It has touched on themes like poverty and sexual abuse, which are hardly addressed in the fantasy world of Bollywood.

Sex is another thing India is cautious about. India is very conservative on this issue. This is largely due to the way the cinema has shown sex scenes. Traditional Indian films have love stories. Yet increasing influence from the west has resulted in the movies like “Monsoon Wedding” showed increasingly long kissing scenes.

Slumdog Millionaire

The Oscar winning movie Slumdog Millionaire is British director Danny Boyle’s passionate love letter to the city of Mumbai. Danny and his cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle perfectly capture the grime, grotesqueness and frayed glory of Mumbai city. The film is set into the wretched slums of Mumbai, from where the protagonist who appears on the Indian version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire? and exceeds people’s expectations, thereby arousing the suspicions of the game show host and law enforcement officials.

The film has shattered barriers of language, geography, and sensibility and also connected across the globe. Due to the movie’s popularity, the words “Jai Ho” and Slumdog “have entered into the international lexicon.

Sabrina Dhawan, the screenwriter of the film Monsoon Wedding, says, “what’s important about Slumdog Millionaire in particular is that it’s a Hinglish film directed by a Western director. Its not just about the Indian Filmmaker or the Indian actor who wants to come to America to become successful. But that there’s reciprocity, and there are filmmakers from the west who want to make films in India and about Indians”.

Bend It Like Beckham

Another hit film that drew on both Indian film traditions and its western roots was Bend It like Beckham. The film revolves round teen aged Londoner Jesminder Bhamra-Jess for short who is fanatical about football. Playing organized sports goes against Jess’traditional Punjabi parent’s, specially her mother who wants her to learn the traditional Indian food, so that she can find a nice Punjabi boy for marriage.

Gradually Jesse end up falling for her coach, Joe, and commits the biggest sin for an NRI girl:Falling for the white guy.Another excellent aspect of BILB is how the Indian obsession with lady - like daughters is paralleled by Westerners as well.Gurinder Chadha highlights the need for social reforms in both societies

Loins Of Punjab

It provides a glimpse into the quirks, quibbles, eccentricities and other cultural excesses of a bunch of Indians in the US trying hard to keep the Bollywood spirit alive in the land of opportunities and, yes, dreams. It is about the surface to discover the painfully embarrassing dreams and ambitions of a generation that has moved as far away from ‘home’ as India has moved in the world of globalisation.

"Indian cinema has greatly influenced the western culture since Satyajit Ray in the early 1940s. Satyajit Ray is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of the 20^th century. His movies, specially “Apu Trilogy” have had the universal appeal.

And some of the examples of influence of Indian cinema in Western movies can be clearly seen in the movies like

Pink Panther 2 – Starring leading bollywood beauty, Aishwarya Rai
Moulin Rouge – a tragic romance told with song and dance, borrowed heavily from bollywood.
E.T.: - The Extra- Terrestrial- The famous Spielberg movie E.T released back on 26 November 1982, is said to be based on the plot penned by the grat Satyajit Ray. The outline and the rough script of the idea kept roaming into several production houses in Hollywood before it was made as “E.T.”.