SEPT 24 — This year marks the centenary of Indian cinema. It was in May 1913 that the first full-length feature film “Raja Harishchandra” was screened in Mumbai. That film brought traditional Indian legends to the silver screen and changed the nature of entertainment in India.

The cinema movement in the country thereafter moved very quickly from Mumbai, to Chennai, to Hyderabad and to Bengal where the cinema industry and theatre developed quickly. The low price of tickets brought a new awareness to the people of India and community viewing of cinema became an integral part of Indian social activity.

While I was growing up in the 1960s, cinema was the most important source of entertainment because there was no television, social media or Internet. Going to the movies was the prime social entertainment activity of the people of most ages.

The strength of cinema was so imposing that when TV slowly emerged in India, its leading programme, “Chitrahar,” a collection of film songs and the weekly movie on Sundays were the main upholders of emerging television.

The impact of Indian cinema in the 1960s was nationwide. India had already been independent for some time and the film industry of the 1940s and 1950s — which were based on the themes of independence, social justice and historical legends — was slowly giving way to a greater emphasis on romance, comedy, music and dance.

The wide-scale emergence of colour on the screen in the early 1960s brought a new era of film entertainment which was then associated with a romantic vision and looking at the new choices made by the youth. It is significant that many of the films of that period and their music are today, treated as classics.

In the 1960s and 1970s in what can be called the heyday of Indian cinema, there were two distinct trends, the commercial and the parallel cinema.

On the commercial side, the senior stars such as Ashok Kumar, Chandra Mohan, K.C. Diwan and others had given way to the sway of the great Trimurti of Indian cinema, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar.

There were several heroines such as Nargis, Waheeda Rahman and Vyjayantimala, who were associated with these heroes and over the years the heroines were changed but the dominance of these three continued well into 1970s.

Star struck

Given the development of the “moviegoer generation” in India and the introduction of color on celluloid, a new star system emerged which focused on commercial successes and style.

Thus Rajender Kumar, Dharmender, Shammi Kapoor, Sunil Dutt, Sanjeev Kumar and Jeetendra besides Joy Mukherjee, Biswajit and Shashi Kapoor led the list of mainstream “heroes.”

They had vivacious “heroines” to match, such as Asha Parekh, Sadhna, Sharmila Tagore, Saira Bano, Hema Malini and Babita. These were the inheritors of the more serious cinema which had been undertaken by Waheeda Rehman, Meena Kumari, Geeta Dutt and Nutan.

The Hindi cinema industry reflected the fast changes in society and became the trendsetter for fashion, music and the like. This led to a greater glorification of cinematic themes and led to the emergence of the first “superstar” Rajesh Khanna, who was called the “Phenomenon.”

After an initial string of flops in the mid-1960s, he released “ Aradhana,” “Itefaq,” “Do Raaste,” “Sacha Jhoota” and many others. His hit pairing with Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore in his earliest films remains unbeatable. The Phenomenon was never matched and his wedding to the young “ Bobby” heroine Dimple Kapadia continued the legend of great film couples established by Dev Anand-Kalpana Kartik, Dilip Kumar-Saira Bano, Sharmila Tagore-Nawab Pataudi and Sunil Dutt-Nargis among others.

Keeping an account of these actors and actresses and their exploits was a regular feature of our lives. Magazines like Filmfare and Star & Style were frequent reading for the young people of that time.

Basic ingredients

Cinema was dominated by other factors in addition to the personal lives of stars. There was a formula which made films work which generally had an unequal social standing — starry-eyed lovers having happy days of courtship leading to troubled times if they wanted to get married.

Songs, accidents and hospital scenes were common ingredients of such a formula which also included Pran as an archetypical villain, and dancing sensation Helen and later well-known villains including Prem Chopra, Madan Puri, Shakti Kapoor and the like.

Helen’s role was then converted to that of a vamp with the emergence of Bindu and others.

This classic formula worked for many years until it was given a twist by the emergence of the longest-standing superstar in the name of Amitabh Bachchan. This angry young man who started his career with little-known film “ Saat Hindustani” also gave a series of hit action movies like “ Zanjeer,” “Deewar,” “Amar Akbar Anthony” and the like.

Starting as a parallel hero to Rajesh Khanna in “ Anand” and “Namak Haraam ,” his changed personality suited the Indian youth of the 1970s when everybody wanted to challenge the injustice of the system and looked at individualistic solutions.

Community gathering

Going to the movies in the towns of India during my youth was a social community event. Most couples and young families went for the evening shows as there used to be three shows — at 3pm, 6pm and 9pm.

Those who went at 9pm were usually young couples on a night out. On Wednesdays, the matinee was a “ladies’ show” where only women were allowed into the theatre — at a reduced rate.

This has fallen by the wayside and has not been recreated due to changing social norms.

There was no popcorn and cola in those days. One could only buy a cold drink and a samosa and sweet-cream rolls during the interval.

The documentaries and the advertisements which were showed at the beginning of the film were watched with as much enthusiasm as the feature. Each showing ended with a playing of the national anthem.

Parallel movements

The parallel cinema movement had its own strong support base mainly emerging from the Bengal film industry with Satyajit Ray and his theme of realism.

Subsequently the movement was joined by several other directors like Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak.

There were parallel movements which then became wider and came to special notice in the Hindi film industry with the financing support from the Film Finance Corporation for low budget films.

“Bhuvan Shome” in 1969 is considered first among that wave of parallel cinema which was followed by “Uski Roti,” “27 Down,” “Sakharam Binder,” “Phir Bhi” and more.

This led to the creation of small budget films which won critical acclaim and its select audiences made them commercial successes despite their low budget.

A new trend emerged in Indian cinema where low budgets created commercially successful films which had unique themes — a change from the established formula which was dependent on the big stars.

This trend was later supported by the development of television and the support of the Directorate of Film Festival. They made sure that these films went to wider audiences abroad.

Soundtracks

One of the earliest memories of Indian cinema’s impact on the country was its music. Film music was a great source of entertainment for us in those days.

Each film contained between six to eight songs and music directors like S.D Burman and, in later years, his son R.D. Burman, Shankar-Jaykishan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Kalyanji-Anandji, O.P. Nayyar, Madan Mohan and Roshan were as well known as the actors. The great music which has stood the test of time in the 60s and 70s was an imperative of any successful movie.

While imitating the stars was always an option, the generation of Indian youth of who sang their hearts from movie songs was unparalleled. The emergence of the transistor radio, the most popular program on Radio Ceylon where our parents tuned at 7:57am to hear the last song of the old film music which was invariably sung by K.L. Sehga.

Wednesday nights was for the “Binaca Geet Mala” compered by the inimitable Amin Sayani whose voice is embedded in the mind of every music-loving Indian of that generation.

All India Radio caught up soon thereafter and its “Vividh Bharti” and its signature early morning music became a manifestation of how to depict that period in later cinema. These radio stations had special request programs which played the requests of Indian soldiers from the forward areas and introduced the geography of India to us.

In those days, the lyrics of the songs used to come in a “foldable plot” which was a poor quality paper with lyrics in English, Hindi and other languages of choice and used to cost a few cents in those days. As with any other collectible item, having these plots was extremely important among one’s peer groups.

What do we remember of the impact of that cinema? It was certainly a clear vision that life was a trial between good and evil and good must always win. That whatever the trials in the way of romantic love, marriage could be consummated only with the blessings of elders. — Jakarta Globe

* The writer is the Indian ambassador to Indonesia.

** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malay Mail Online.