Indian filmmaking is more than just song and dance
When people think of Indian cinema, what generally rushes to mind is the glitz and glamour of Bollywood: fantastic sets, exotic locales, melodrama and the compulsory song and dance routines. Yet there is a vast repertoire of Indian films that do not fit this mould.
Estimates show that the number of regional films -made in any one of the 22 official languages of the country -easily outnumber the number of films made in Hindi. Much of this regional cinema is still very commercial with big production houses and a large following, but is often more rooted in its context than the escapist fare churned out by Bollywood.
Bollywood mainstream represents only a tiny slice of social reality in India, says Chinmoy Banerjee, president of the Vancouver based South Asian Film Education Society and a retired Simon Fraser University film professor. It speaks primarily to the upper middle class that has benefited from the economic liberalization of the country and promotes certain social norms and values, he says.
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Beyond Bollywood | Vancouver Sun
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