Fillum Forum

From Manhattan to Mumbai there is a buzz about this culturally loaded sphere. Indian Cinema is the term used synonymously for Bombay Cinema or Hindi popular cinema. This cinema mistakenly understood to be the cultural vehicle of literally billions of people presents Indian society as homogeneous, having one dominant form of cultural expression and has been considered a national cinema. Nothing in India is homogeneous…and yet this mass entertainment media has earned a reputation as the premier culture industry dislodging such classical forms as Bharat Natyam, Hindustani or Carnatic music! It has been labeled “Bollywood”, a term that has an obvious reference to its being a stilted version of Hollywood and most practitioners of this Indian industry despise this diminutive term. I like to think of it as the Bollywoodisation of Indian culture, much like the idea of the Macdonalisation of US culture. How does this kind of fast food package deal of American cuisine relate to a consideration of Indian cinema? Well this Bollywood Bombay Cinema is a fast food package deal of Indian culture that erases all difference and complexity of Indian culture, a homogenised, and commodified form of culture. And some love it…yes some even love MacDonalds!!

Hindi Cinema is but one part of Indian cinema, because there are so many linguistic groups and ethnic identities, not all religious, that comprise the Indian nation. There are many cinemas in India and the term Indian cinema is a complex consideration, and just as nothing categorical can be said about India, or Indian culture, Hindi Cinema from Bollywood, an area of Bombay/Mumbai, does and says a number of interesting and contradictory things about Indian culture – popular culture. I like to think of it as a quasi-national cinema, because it draws together Indians, people of Indian origin and many others into a bonanza of fun, cathartic emotion and spectacle. Bollywood cinema, Bombay cinema are part of Hindi cinema, because they are made in the national language, Hindi. I suppose not all Hindi cinema is Bollywood or Bombay cinema, so you can begin to appreciate the conundrum we are dealing with and some things will necessarily remain inexplicable. Bollywood cinema’s language is in itself a composite, comprising a street lingo, parts in Urdu an erudite form, part Bhojpuri from an area near the river Ganga, and even Punjabi. These Films or Fillums, as I have known them called, communicate the range of human thoughts, sentiments and ethos that supersedes language and accounts for its popularity.

These particular ‘Fillums’ from India’s Bollywood are discussed and analysed here, from attempts to identify the Big Macs of the industry, chomp on the French fries and have a guilt free rumination on its side salads — all are welcome to this forum. I invite all lovers of this form to unburden themselves, take part in discussions, sometimes serious, often light-hearted, on this blogg site. This is an audience study; I want to understand what you think, how you feel and how you engage with Hindi ‘fillums’.