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| Home > Indian Cinema > Indian Commercial Cinema
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| | Indian Commercial Cinema
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A distinction needs to be drawn between the `commercial` and the `artistic` traditions of filmmaking in India. Commercial films are the films seen and appreciated by the vast mass of Indian moviegoers.  They are largely melo-dramatic, often musicals, conveying simple clear moral messages; they represent a distinctly Indian approach to cinema as a form of mass entertain-ment. The artistic films, which constitute only about ten per cent of the total output, are realistic, often inspired by neo-realism, and seek to capture a segment of Indian reality. These are the kinds of films that are shown at international film festivals in London, Paris, Berlin, Venice, Tokyo and Toronto. Internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Adoor Gopalakrishnan work in the artistic tradition. There are thus very clear differences in terms of theme, style and technique between the two streams of filmmaking in India.
It is in commercial cinema that we see most vividly the `Indianness` of Indian cinema. In terms of the exploration of complex and multifaceted human experiences, depth of psychological motivation and social vision, popular films may be found wanting. However, in terms of popular response and how popular imagination is shaped, they are highly significant. With their unique combination of fantasy, action, song, dance and spectacle, Indian commercial films constitute a distinctively Indian form of mass entertainment. Indian commercial films are basically morality plays, where good triumphs over evil, and the social order, disrupted by the actions of immoral and villainous people, is restored by the power of goodness. Entertainment and moral edification are combined in a way that has direct appeal to the vast masses of moviegoers and the idea of evil is central in Indian commercial filmy discourse.
Indian commercial films are, as already noted, basically melodramas, and the idea of evil plays a central role in melodramas. As many commentators on melodrama have pointed out, the polarization between good and bad, the clash between moral and immoral, the antagonism between what is whole-some and what evil is an inescapably dominant ingredient of melodrama. Melodramas by definition deal with characters who are easily recognizable, often stereotypical, and who incarnate the forces of good and evil. Evil is a vital ingredient because melodramas seek to establish the authority of a moral universe. By vanquishing the villain, and the evil he or she embodies, melodramas seek to reassert the moral authority of a world that for a while threatened to fall prey to the dark forces of evil. When we examine Indian popular films this becomes very clear.
This concept of evil, so central to Indian commercial cinema, has been evolving over the years in response to diverse social, cultural and political forces. This is readily illustrated in three of the most well known commercial films: Kismet (1943), Awaara (1951) and Sholay (1975). Awaara, was directed by Raj Kapoor and a smash hit not only in India but in such countries as the former Soviet Union, whereas Sholay, is one of the most popular films ever made in India. Sholay call best be described as an Indianised Western, with the visual vocabulary and the attitudes portrayed in Hollywood films.
There are a number of genres associated with Indian commercial cinema. Most significant are: mythological films with the fantastic narrations of ancient stories and devotional films that foreground the diverse forms of union with divinity. There are also the romantic films dealing with erotic passion as they confront social conventions; historical films with fanciful stage settings and costumes, social films that explore important social problems and issues; and family melodramas that seek to explore tensions and upheavals within the matrix of the family. There is nothing specifically Indian about these genres. What is distinctive are the ways in which they have been handled by Indian filmmakers, investing them with a characteristically Indian cultural imprint.
 Commercial films play a central role in the construction of popular Indian consciousness; they are the most dominant and pervasive force responsible for creating in the public mind the notions of heroism, duty, courage, modernity, consumption and glamour. The relationship between Indian commrcial cinema and modernity is extremely close. Whatever the genre may be, all Indian commercial films display a culturally grounded engagement with modernity.
Just as there are a number of significant genres associated with Indian commercial cinema, there are a number of significant themes and subjects that find repeated expression. Romantic love, male friendship, motherhood, renunciation, fate, respect for tradition, social injustice are some of the most compelling among them. As with the genres so with the themes - a distinctively culture-specific approach is adopted, giving these Indian commercial films a characteristically Indian outlook. So when examining what is unique about Indian commercial cinema we need to pay particular attention to questions of theme and genre.
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