Hollywood and Bollywood Offer Equivalent Doses of Realism in addition to EscapismPosted by Stokes Field on March 12th, 2021 Bollywood's elder statesman, actor Amitabh Bachchan, and his daughter-in-law, actress Aishwarya Rayonnement Bachchan, who has had a number of crossover success in the West, are classified as the two Indian movie stars normally interviewed by foreign growing media, and condescending Western reporters often ask them why Bollywood doesn't make "serious" or maybe "realistic" films, to which that they tiredly reply that Bollywood is "escapist cinema. inch I can't blame them to get giving reporters the answer they want to hear. The Bachchans are most likely trying to be polite in addition to diplomatic because they'd love to gain new fans in the West. Or maybe they're just sick and tired of explaining what appears to be a baffling concept to Western critics: entertainment is supposed to end up being entertaining. But Bollywood videos aren't all fun and frivolity. What could be more serious as well as grounded in the reality compared to most people's lives than finding love and making human relationships work? Or how about battling to resolve domestic problems along with religious differences that dissect families and communities separated? The clash between custom and modernity is another preferred Bollywood theme, as is the expertise of Indian emigrants. Indians are generally fiercely proud of their tradition and they want to protect their own values-just as American prices are important to us-and movies are vehicles for asserting the meaning of those values as well as exploring their relevance. To ensure the claim that Hollywood is natural because it focuses on the marginalized and degenerate and that Bollywood is not because it focuses on distinct social realities doesn't help make any sense. And practical or not, on a basic level, all entertainment is escapist-otherwise, what would be the point? If the movie, The Wrestler, for example , is realistic, then I'll use Hollywood's word for it mainly because I don't know any washed-up professional wrestlers, and I have no idea if Anne Hathaway's picture of a narcissistic drug tripper in Rachel Getting Married will be spot-on because I may hang out with anyone like that. And yet, I watch these types of films and enjoy them-but not really because of their realism. Rather, these kinds of are a departure from this normal, ordinary existence. Basically, the reason I love Indian videos is because they're so completely different from my American life. That kicks off in august 2003, Time magazine media reporter (and Bollywood fan) Rich Corliss wrote: "Movies provide audiences what they don't have. In the U. check here , an fiscally comfortable nation, films frequently deal with life on the border: danger and deprivation tend to be glamorous to those who have anything. The same, upside down, applies with India: it's a poor state, so the movie image is definitely of the middle, upper-middle along with fabulously-rich classes. " I am aware of the latter-why would the indegent want to watch movies about interpersonal injustices they experience each day? But the former, while certainly true, is unsettling to me. Finding deprivation glamorous-and fancying ourselves hip and ignited for it-says what to often the deprived?Like it? Share it! More by this author |