Added: 10/09/2005 |
Indian movie themes will make you cryMelodramatic and tragic Indian movie themes make us crying. Even men who always try to hide their emotions may be seen with tears in their eyes when they watch Indian films. Thanks to Indian movie themes Indian film industry has gained so wide audience all over the world. For example, in 70's, 80's, and early 90's Indian films were very popular in Russia. People were attracted by Indian movie themes, Indian movie stars, and Indian songs. Indian movie themes made people cry and feel relaxed. The audience was pleased with colorful Indian outfit, accessories and luxury. At the beginning of 90's the situation changed. American films started to appear on Russian TV and videocassettes with American films became very popular. Due to this fact the interest to Indian films was falling. Recently channel "Rossia" has started to show Indian films every weekend.
Many Indian big-budget films are shot in Bollywood. It is a Film City, a 500-acre (200-hectare) wonderland of fake mansions, poverty-stricken villages, schoolhouses, and police stations on the outskirts of Mumbai. Production costs for Indian films are a fraction of Hollywood budgets, though the use of megastars and elaborate sets is starting to narrow the gap.
The secret to Bollywood's worldwide appeal is that its films are wholesome. Taking about Indian films it is worth mentioning the name of Yash Chopra, a veteran film director.The Indian government has given him four national awards in the category of "Best Film for Providing Popular and Wholesome Entertainment.
He has made his contribution on Indian movie themes. During the 1960s and '70s, Yash introduced many elements now considered staples of the Bollywood film: romantic plots, lavish costumes and sets, catchy songs sung in exotic locales. "In Hollywood they call these films musicals," he says. "Here, every film is a musical." He has shot multiple scenes in the Alps, transporting generations of celluloid lovers to frolic in the Interlaken-a substitute for predominantly Muslim Kashmir, which is the Indian idea of a honeymoon paradise but where filming would be too risky because of the continuing conflict that has riven the region since partition.
Anyone who has watched at least three Indian films will point out some specific features of Indian films. It is definitely music, dances, and songs. In most films they are essential parts of the plots. A more observant audience will say that Indian movie stars behavior differs from what we are used to see in Western and American films. For example, you will hardly see kissing actors in Indian films. Yash Chopra does not allow kissing in his movies. "If a boy loves a girl in India," he says, "they feel shy of kissing in public." In most Bollywood films, if two lovers want to thwart an arranged marriage, they can't just elope; they have to win over the disapproving parents. In Veer-Zaara, the hero and heroine never even touch each other, except in a fantasy song sequence.
Gestures seen in Indian movies have their own meanings. For example, one tugs his/her ears in a variety of social situations, but mainly when apologizing, as a physical admission of wrong-doing and as a demonstration of repentance.
It is often may be seen in Indian films that upon a first meeting a character will press his palms together and say "Namaste." You can equate this to a handshake if you'd like, but pressing your palms together connotes a respect the handshake no longer does (unless you consider the significance of refusing to shake hands, the gravest of all insults, which accordingly implies that a handshake does, indeed, show respect -- but enough, back to Bollywood!).
Making a fist and extending your thumb, as in the Western "thumbs-up!", then wagging it back and forth, is used as a "shame on you" gesture; also, occasionally, as a "nah nah" -- equivalent to the old "thumbing your nose" at someone, though that particular gesture fell out of fashion in the West a few centuries back.
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