Parallel cinema

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the Indian film movement. For the Soviet film movement, see Soviet parallel cinema.

Parallel cinema
Years active40
1952–1992 (First Wave), 1998–current (Resurgence)
LocationIndia
Major figures
Indian theatre, Bengali literature, social realism, poetic realism, Italian neorealism

Parallel cinema or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in Indian cinema that originated in the state of West Bengal in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema.

Inspired by

Italian Neorealism, Parallel Cinema began just before the French New Wave and Japanese New Wave, and was a precursor to the Indian New Wave of the 1960s. The movement was initially led by Bengali cinema and produced internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha and others. It later gained prominence in other film industries of India
.

It is known for its serious content,

sociopolitical
climate of the times, and for the general rejection of inserted song-and-dance routines that are typical of mainstream Indian films.

History

Origins

Realism in Indian cinema dates back to the 1920s and 1930s. One of the earliest examples was Baburao Painter's 1925 silent film classic Savkari Pash (Indian Shylock), about a poor peasant (portrayed by V. Shantaram) who "loses his land to a greedy moneylender and is forced to migrate to the city to become a mill worker.[2] Acclaimed as a realistic breakthrough, its shot of a howling dog near a hut, has become a milestone in the march of Indian cinema." The 1937 Shantaram film Duniya Na Mane (The Unaccepted) also critiqued the treatment of women in Indian society.[3]

Early years

The Parallel Cinema movement began to take shape from the late 1940s, by pioneers such as

Chetan Anand, Guru Dutt and V. Shantaram. This period is considered part of the 'Golden Age' of Indian cinema.[4][5][6]
This cinema borrowed heavily from the Indian literature of the times, hence became an important study of the contemporary Indian society, and is now used by scholars and historians alike to map the changing demographics and socio-economic as well as political temperament of the Indian populace. Right from its inception, Indian cinema has had people who wanted to and did use the medium for more than entertainment. They used it to highlight prevalent issues and sometimes to throw open new issues for the public.

Satyajit Ray
Mrinal Sen
Ritwik Ghatak

Early examples of Indian cinema's social realist movement include Dharti Ke Lal (1946), a film about the Bengal famine of 1943 directed and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas,[7] and Neecha Nagar (1946), a film directed by Chetan Anand and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas that won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival.[8] Since then, Indian independent films were frequently in competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, with some of them winning major prizes at the festival.

During the 1950s and the 1960s, intellectual filmmakers and story writers became frustrated with

greatest films of all time.[11][12][13][14]

Certain art films have also garnered commercial success, in an industry known for its surrealism or 'fantastical' movies, and successfully combined features of both art and commercial cinema. An early example of this was

Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list.[20] The most recent example of an impeccable art film becoming commercially successful is Harpreet Sandhu's Canadian Punjabi Film Work Weather Wife; it marks the beginning of Cinema in Punjabi Film Industry.[21]

In the 1960s, the Indian government began financing independent art films based on Indian themes. Many of the directors were graduates of the

automobile, as a character in the story, many years before the Herbie films.[24] The protagonist of Ajantrik, Bimal, can also be seen as an influence on the cynical cab driver Narasingh (played by Soumitra Chatterjee) in Satyajit Ray's Abhijan (1962).[25]

The

Cinema of Karnataka saw its first ray of hope of surrealism in N. Lakshminarayan's directorial debut Naandi (1964). Featuring mainstream actors like Rajkumar, Kalpana and Harini, the film was both a critical and commercial success. Produced by Vadiraj, it set a landmark by being the first ever Kannada
film to screen at an International film festival. The movement gained significant momentum in the 1970s and 1980s resulting in numerous national awards and international recognition to Kannada cinema.

Growth

During the 1970s and the 1980s, parallel cinema entered into the limelight of

Raakhee, Rekha
ventured into art cinema.

Camera d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, while his second film Swaham (1994) was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[30] His third film Vanaprastham (1999) was also selected to Cannes Film Festival
, making him the only Indian film maker who could take consecutively three films to Cannes.

Pattabhirami Reddy, K. N. T. Sastry, B. Narsing Rao, and Akkineni Kutumba Rao pioneered Telugu Parallel cinema to international recognition.[31]

Arundhati Nag
and others rose to fame.

Bhabendra Nath Saikia and Jahnu Barua did it for Assamese cinema, while Aribam Syam Sharma pioneered Parallel Movies in Manipuri cinema.

Decline

By the early 1990s, the rising costs involved in film production and the commercialisation of the films had a negative impact on the art films. The fact that investment returns cannot be guaranteed made art films less popular amongst filmmakers.

Other major reasons for decline

One of the major reasons for the decline of the parallel cinema in India is that the F.F.C. or the National Film Development Corporation of India did not seriously look into the distribution or exhibition of these films. The mainstream exhibition system did not pick up these films because these films did not have the so-called 'entertainment value' that they were looking for. There was a talk of building small theatres for such film, but there was no serious attempt made to realise this alternative mode of exhibition. Thus, it left to a few Film Societies to screen these film; that too on a single screening basis. The advent of television and its popularity saw the film society movement decline. Gradually, the government reduced the patronage of such films, for they had only unseen films to be shown on their balance sheets.

The Parallel Cinema in its true sense was always on the fringes of the mainstream cinema. Since most of the parallel cinema rejected the regressive worldview that was largely embodied the mainstream cinema they never found acceptance in the mainstream production, distribution and exhibition system. With an absence of an alternative exhibition system or an art house circuit as it is called in the west, many of the off beat films made by present generation film makers like Sushant Mishra, Himanshu Khatua,

Ramchandra PN, Ashwini Mallik, Anand Subramanian, Sanjivan Lal, Amit Dutta, Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, Gurvinder Singh
, Bela Negi have never had a large audience.

Resurgence

The term "parallel cinema" has started being applied to off-beat films produced in

Mumbai underworld
; these are generally commercial films.

Other modern examples of art films produced in India which are classified as part of the parallel cinema genre include

Sonchidi (2011), and Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus
(2013).

Independent films spoken in Indian English include Revathi's Mitr, My Friend (2002), Aparna Sen's Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) and 15 Park Avenue (2006), Homi Adajania's Being Cyrus (2006), Rituparno Ghosh's The Last Lear (2007), and Sooni Taraporevala's Little Zizou (2009).

Some of the Indian art film directors active today include

Rajnesh Domalpalli and Narasimha Nandi in Telugu cinema, Jahnu Barua in Hindi cinema and Assamese Cinema, Amol Palekar, Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni in Marathi Cinema and Amartya Bhattacharyya
who makes independent films in Odia and Bengali.

Aamir Khan, with his production studio, introduced his own brand of social cinema in the early 21st century, blurring the distinction between commercial masala films and realistic parallel cinema, combining the entertainment and production values of the former with the believable narratives and strong messages of the latter. He has helped introduce parallel cinema to mainstream audiences, with his films earning both commercial success and critical acclaim in India and overseas.[34]

Global discourse

Satyajit Ray, pioneer of parallel cinema

During the formative period of Indian parallel cinema in the 1940s and 1950s, the movement was influenced by

Pather Panchali (1955), alongside influences from Bengali literature and classical Indian theatre.[35] Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin (1953) was also influenced by De Sica's Bicycle Thieves. The Indian New Wave also began around the same time as the French New Wave and the Japanese New Wave
.

Ever since

Sacred Evil (2006),[50] the Elements trilogy of Deepa Mehta, and in films of Jean-Luc Godard.[51]

Another prominent filmmaker is Mrinal Sen, whose films have been well known for their Marxist views. During his career, Mrinal Sen's film have received awards from almost all major film festivals, including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Moscow, Karlovy Vary, Montreal, Chicago, and Cairo. Retrospectives of his films have been shown in almost all major cities of the world.[52]

Another Bengali independent filmmaker,

Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list in 2005.[20] In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll ranked Ray at No. 7 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time,[58] while Dutt was ranked No. 73 in the 2002 Sight & Sound greatest directors poll.[59]

The cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who made his debut with Ray's The Apu Trilogy, also had an importance influence on cinematography across the world. One of his most important techniques was bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets. He pioneered the technique while filming Aparajito (1956), the second part of The Apu Trilogy.[60] Some of the experimental techniques which Satyajit Ray pioneered include photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions while filming Pratidwandi (1972).[61]

Directors

See also

References

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External links

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