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Indian Popular Culture

Indian Popular Culture. AST1ICI-lecture 06. 3 Idiots: 2009. Naya Daur: 1957. Street musician Dharamsala 1995. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67dkDTLTr0&feature=related. What is Popular Culture: Ramlila?. NDTV program. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQsldnWDOc.

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Indian Popular Culture

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  1. Indian Popular Culture AST1ICI-lecture 06 3 Idiots: 2009 Naya Daur: 1957

  2. Street musician Dharamsala 1995 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y67dkDTLTr0&feature=related

  3. What is Popular Culture: Ramlila? NDTV program http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDQsldnWDOc

  4. Nautanki Theatre and Parsi Theatre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_pZO5GLOKk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwDYtbVYDS4

  5. Earliest talkie was Alam Ara 1931 Earliest Indian Films • Earliest Indian silent film was Raja Harishchandra 1913 http://www.nfaipune.gov.in/raja_harishchandra.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJxqlw5E5lc

  6. Media: communication/commerce • Main phases in modernisation • Colonial era (1857-1947) • Planned era (Nehruvian 1947-1970s) • Eclectic ([Indira] Gandhian 1970s-1990) • Free Market (1990-to present day)

  7. Naya Daur 1957: Saathi Haath Badhana Saathi Re Dilip Kumar and Vijayantimala http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdOLc8tBZsE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/movie?v=yLgbF1N9cH8&ob=av1n&feature=mv_sr

  8. Awara 1951: Awara Hoon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-BIdvqYIio&feature=related

  9. Honour culture-consumer culture • Status in pre-modern Indian society often perceived in terms of honour, status in the community due to propriety. • Status in Free market society becoming perceived in terms of consumer goods • Influence on customs, such as wedding customs, celebrations of tradition transformed into celebrations of consumption. • Devdas, Dilip Kumar, Vijayanthimala, Bimal Roy (1955)

  10. Jagriti 1954: Aao Bachchon Tumhen Dikhayen Jhanki Hindustan Ki Jagriti (1954) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E09twioyfs

  11. Teesri Kasam 1966: Duniya banane waale http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW2u-l11JNk&feature=fvwrel

  12. Sholay: New Images of India • 1970s films saw the birth from the flames Sholay (1975) of modernity • ‘Hard edge’ imagery depicting struggle in a world in which ideals are now seen as now lost in pragmatic struggle to survive • Amitabh Bacchan as the archetypal ‘angry young man’

  13. Sholay 1975: Yah Dosti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iPTGvlmtoQ&feature=related

  14. Family Cinema • Film survives arrival of TV in the 1990s and stronger than ever, estimated 3.6 billion tickets sales annually • Individualising families, creating images of ideal families • Films like Ham apke hain kaun (1994) depicting ‘traditional’ life, whilst displacing it • Blurring of TV/Cinema distinction • Families breaking up around individual TV sets

  15. Cinema: Kollywood • Kollywood cinema: rival and co-partner in Indian cinema • Interaction with Bollywood, musicians, stories, such as Dil se, Shahrukh Khan (1998) • Interaction with politics: movie stars as ministers

  16. Cinema: Regional • Other distinctive regional flavours of cinema: Bengali, Malyalam, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, etc. Realism and Melodrama • Bengali cinema: ‘art’ films, Satyajit Ray (1921-1992) • Malayalam cinema: ‘hot’ films in the 1980s, realism today • Punjabi cinema: folk drama • Bhojpuri cinema: struggling for identity

  17. The Diaspora in India • Diaspora India in India, India in the diaspora • Films like Kal ho na ho (2003) depicting Indian life in the US for Indian markets • Films like Salam Namaste (2005) and the notion of how Indian’s abroad can remain Indian while changing their family relationship patterns

  18. New Viewers, new ideas • Films like Rang De Basanti (2006) show change in viewership to new upper middle class at cineplexes • New images of Western culture as a western heroine helps young Indians to see their past. • New notions of what it is to be Indian, not India and ‘other’ West, but negotiating self http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Te9mIbC3roA&feature=related

  19. Redefining Public Spheres • Benedict Anderson’s ‘Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism’(1983) established concept of print media and the creation of the public sphere • Arvind Rajagopal’s ‘Politics after Television: Hindu Nationalism and the Reshaping of the Public in India ’ (2001) argued for a Hindi and an English speaking public spheres in India, and for the creation of a split public by media and politics

  20. Epic romances • Devaki Nandan Khatri (1861-1913) From Bihar, settled in Varanasi wrote: • Chandrakanta, Chandrakanta Santiti and Bhootnath (finished by his son) http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k4/feb/feb205.htm

  21. Munshi Premchand (1880-1936) • Greatest Hindi author, also wrote in Urdu • Supporter of Gandhi and the freedom struggle • Supporter of Progressive writers movement

  22. Large scale sales of pulp fiction in India Jasusi Duniya a monthly series of detective stories. Originally by Ibn Safi, famous Urdu detective story writer Translated/transcreated into Hindi Popular fiction in India

  23. Television: Durdarshan to Cable • TV began in India in 1959, regular in 1965, seven cities by 1975 • 1982 service goes national • Limited number of sets • Limited range of programming • Heavy hand of government control

  24. Regional TV • Durdarshan towers reaching out in early 1980s to regional centres • Arrival of TV heralds change in urban life • Change from public sphere to home focus • Parallel to changes in the west, decline in cinema etc expected • Death knell for traditional social culture of poetry readings, library visits etc. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=507207

  25. Satellite-Cable: Cablewalas • Late 1980s arrival of satellite/cable TV • unique model for distribution of satellite through community level resellers now reaches 40% of households • Government content control mediated through local market forces • Growth of variety in commercial content • Advent of Z TV and pop culture http://flickr.com/photos/12951450@N00/80818552/

  26. Serials and Mythologicals • TV content reflecting divergent trends in modernity • Serials: life in idealised upper middle class urban India • Comedies: Indianized version of shows like Ugly Betty Jassi jaise koi nahi (2003-2007) • Mythological serials and the recreation of the Indian past for a new age http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKeV_pZ2k9k&feature=related

  27. Newspapers: English to Vernacular • Newspaper readership pre 1980s low in terms of numbers, English press outsold the ‘language’ press • Origins in 19th century reporting • Adoption by nationalist movement • Elite market, no popular press in any language

  28. Newspaper revolution: • Technology allowed language press to grow • free market drove press into creating new markets in regional areas • Shift from press as ‘educator’ to press as ‘advertiser’, part of world movement in the role that press plays

  29. Readership growth • Readership now mostly language press, 50% Hindi, 40% other, only 10% English • Figures reflect not only growth in literacy but also growth in regional areas importance • Readership also reflects interaction between press and TV, people reading about what is on TV drives readership

  30. Systematic study of India as a market. Middle class India as a market for commercial aspirations. ‘tweens have million dollar dreams’ Disney unveils Kidsense ‘codes’ survey

  31. Hindi High School Musical? • Disney moves into India 2006. • Attempts to localise High School Musical. • Locally made Indian versions of songs from movie. http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_disney-presents-high-school-musical-bollywood-style_1054690 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCWkiEJhteo

  32. Cheetah girls One world 2008 • Disney tries to blend India and America. • A success in neither country it seems in commercial terms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrjVL6o_z6E

  33. 2010 Disney Indian movie. Fully Indian cast, story, setting. Disney story style. Moderate success. Rates as ‘below average’ in terms of earnings. Do Dooni Char 2010 http://www.rediff.com/movies/slide-show/slide-show-1-bollywood-films-set-in-delhi/20110428.htm

  34. Conclusion: India and the world • India is an ancient civilisation that has constantly changed to adapt to the times. • Is the end the real question is how will the world change as India emerges again onto the world stage? http://khamerlogue.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/srivijaya-empire-map1.jpg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7IvS-35rbI&feature=related

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