UCLA Archive brings Bollywood to American viewers
By Laurie Lo
April 14, 2004 9:00 p.m.
It’s extravagant, colorful and melodramatic.
To many Americans, Bollywood provokes no greater depth than
these three adjectives. But in a movie industry that churns out
more movies per year than Hollywood, Bollywood’s proponents
hope to prove to Western eyes that Indian films are more than just
dance-filled spectaculars.
Bollywood films, a nickname given to Indian pop-cinema, have
already subtly managed to slip into American film markets. Just
think of the art-house hit “Monsoon Wedding” or the
dance sequences in the ill-fated “The Guru.”
The UCLA Film and Television Archive will provide the
opportunity to see bona fide Bollywood fare with a series titled
“Bombay Melodies.” Because Bollywood films primarily
circulate exclusively within Indian communities and have not yet
garnered widespread public attention, Archive programmers want to
keep the series simple.
“Our goals for the series are not too far-reaching because
we see this series as a preliminary step in a series of moves to
get the pleasures and treasures of what makes Bollywood out into
the public,” said Cheng-Sim Lim, one of the Archive’s
head programmers.
Yet facing these attempts to increase the presence of Bollywood
are stigmas attached to Indian popular cinema within Western
culture. Bollywood has found much success with audiences throughout
Asia, Africa, the Middle East and large communities of Indians
living outside India. Bollywood films have even managed to unite
the opposing nations of India and Pakistan through its Muslim stars
and writers. But the American market has been left largely
untested.
The first contention rests on American popular culture
mistakenly using the term “Bollywood,” which is meant
to refer to the films that come out of Bombay, as an
all-encompassing term for all movie production inside India.
“There is a false implication that the country’s
entire movie industry originates from Bombay,” said David
Chute, the curator of “Bombay Melody.”
Furthermore, reluctance to embrace Bollywood films stems from
American cultural prejudices. Most Bollywood films strictly adhere
to a formulaic story in which family traditions get in the way of
love. And while Americans may be familar with love stories, no
Bollywood film ends unhappily. The long length of the films
(commonly over two hours), the emotional overacting and the high
level of melodrama are all elements that American films may touch
on but that every Bollywood film includes.
“There’s not much violence, no nudity and no
kissing,” Lim said. “Indian films do not cater to the
full-blooded actions and dramas that Americans love to
produce.”
In addition to “Bombay Melody,” an upcoming lecture
at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, “An Introduction to the
Visions, Sounds and Theme of Popular Indian Cinema,” led by
English Professor and Bollywood scholar Joseph Nagy, hopes to
dispel the misconception that Indian films are nothing more than
silly melodramas. Nagy hopes that if audiences are armed with a
deeper understanding of why certain characteristics exist in
Bollywood films, they will have a greater appreciation for the art
form.
“These films hold their own symbols and tradition, and
those that are familiar with them understand them beyond the
physical level,” Nagy said.
