Bollywood Movies Knowledge in Qatar

Movies have been dramatically evolving, starting from the silent movies ending up with the astonishing special effects. Many genres were established by creative writers who had the courage to write these movies, and then hand them to directors and producers to make them. Yet, Bollywood movies still have the same routine in every movie no matter what was its genre. What one find not shocking is that Bollywood movies use the song-dance routine in all their movies. Also the actors are mostly white with colored eyes, and they use this song-dance routine to break down the way they feel towards the other person or the society. The song-dance routine is a way for actors to express their feelings. Bollywood movies usually last for a long period of time and that is because of the climate. Because of the low wages and the hot weather, people tend to go to a 3 hour movie just to prevent being outside in the hot weather, and enjoy a nice movie from their culture. Are Bollywood movies the same as Indian movies? The answer would be no. India a country that has many different cultures and Bollywood is one of them.

In sociology, Bollywood movies are a way to convey a message to others using the song-dance routine, and as mentioned above it is a way to express the actor’s feelings without having a dialog. We can say it is a musical movie. Last Thursday, I grabbed my camera and went to the Student Center at Education City to interview some people and see what they know about Bollywood movies.

I was shocked that only few people thought that Indian movies are different than Indian movies, but one of them mentioned that Bollywood movies are what define India as a unique country with a unique culture. I think the people of Qatar are not really interested in Bollywood movies because the songs take a long time. People here tend to admire dialog and action scenes. Based on my previous experience, there was a cinema theater in Qatar – Gulf Cinema - that shows Bollywood and Indian movies or if I may call them Desi movies. One would go and see the theater jammed with workers who are fighting over to have an admission ticket. It might seem weird, but unfortunately the cinema theater was shut down for no specific reason. Every single one of us has a different taste of what movie they want to watch, and that what creates diversity among us.

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Can't Escape Advertisements!

We, the consumers, are the victims of corporate conglomeration. Corporate conglomeration means when one company owns a number of smaller companies that are being controlled and operated independently, but are all managed by the main company. Therefore, corporate conglomeration has taken over every aspect of the world economy, from soda to food to hotels to gas. Our money is wasted on fuelling the businesses of corporate conglomeration. Media and film production companies ensure their success by using a variety of risk reduction strategies to make the most money from the biggest hits. David Grazian, the author of the book Mix it Up, argues "that decision making in the media industries is primary driven by the minimization of risk," (Grazian, 113). He highlights in his chapter six the strategies of risk reduction which include using as secondary market in way to generate profit from a cultural product beyond its domestic sale in its original format and using product placement as it happens to be a type of advertising but placed in a place we don't expect to see it. There are also other interesting risk reduction strategies, but this time I'm focusing on other risk reduction strategies that I found in Villaggio's cinema. Since thousands of people go to watch movies weekly in Doha, the cinema has become a perfect location for some businesses to advertise about their products and services. For example, Dr. Hassan Al-Abdulla, a well-known dermatologist doctor in Qatar, has placed a poster of his clinic in Villaggio’s cinema right in the center of the main entrance. So, that as customers walk into the cinema before even getting they’re snacks, they could stop and read about the services that he offers at Dr. Hassan Al-Abdulla Dermatology & Venereology Anti Aging Laser Center. There are also advertisements placed around the top of the wall. Cadillac, an American luxury type of car, has also placed an ad to advertise about their cars in Doha. You can’t escape looking at all sorts of advertisements when you’re in a movie theater. I recently went to watch a movie in Villaggio’s cinema, and as I was watching the commercials before the movie started, a Pepsi ad played. It was my first time to see Nicki Minaj’s Pepsi commercial. Nicki Minaj is an American rapper/singer. I must confess that I once heard her song Moment for Life, but when I heard her song again in the Pepsi ad, I liked her song more. Nicki Minaj’s song was played in a Pepsi ad; therefore it must be a form of using product placement. According to Professor Harkness, product placement is “a form of advertising where branded goods or services are placed in a context usually devoid of ads,” (class notes 02/18/2013). I found out from my online reading that Pepsi is doing a campaign called Live For Now “to amplify the company's longstanding ties with pop culture, said Brad Jakeman, who oversees the creative strategy for Pepsi's carbonated drinks around the world,”(Huffington Post). Pepsi decided to use a popular singer like Nicki Minaj to help flourish the brand’s name and gain it’s popularity back. Pepsi hopes to be number one on the beverages list, but Coca-Cola still is the top soda. The advertisement in this case is promoting both the singer and the Pepsi company. Maybe the song Moment For Life will gain more popularity because of the Pepsi ad, and maybe a lot of people will feel like having Pepsi after watching this advertisement.

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Mama's Boy or Hybrid Masculinity?

Once again, Sociology has given me another chance to look things differently. What I learn in class can almost always be applied to everything around me on daily basis.

In today’s class, we learnt how masculinity is portrayed in cinema. During the early cinematic ages, men were portrayed as masculine, rough, tough, aggressive, powerful and competent. However, in the 1970’s, the embrace of feminism directly influenced the media industry. The “New Man” was more soft and sensitive. Following the feminist era, the reclaiming of traditional masculinity backlashed the feminist and the political state America was in during the 1980’s. This decade could be best described as “remasculinization”. Nevertheless, things changed. The end of 1980’s introduced hybrid masculinity. By hybrid masculinity, I mean the combination of sensitivity, compassion, and vulnerability with toughness, aggressiveness, and decisiveness.



Masculinity was not only portrayed in the cinema, but within stars and artists. The artist who stood out the most to me was Tupac Shakur, as his masculinity was constantly being questioned because of his songs such as Dear Mama. This may be because he expressed his sensitive side by dedicating some of his songs to his mother. On a social scale, rappers and men in general are expected to be tough, heartless and tough, but Tupac wasn’t. Tupac had more of a hybrid masculinity expressed within his music. He had sensitive songs such as Dear Mama and rough-aggressive lyrics such as Only God Can Judge Me.



In the song Dear Mama, he says, “Dear mama, Place no one above ya, sweet lady, your are appreciated, Don’t cha know we love ya?” Again, we get to see his sensitive side mentioning his mom in the lyrics of his song, Keep Ya Head Up. This is evident when he says, “And I realize momma really paid the price, she nearly gave her life, to raise me right.” On the other hand, he expresses his rough side in his song Only God Can Judge Me by saying “I’d rather die like a man, than live like a coward.



All in all, Tupac Shakur exemplifies the hybrid masculinity throughout his music by mentioning the difficulties he endured and the social problems his community had. He tends to be sensitive and compassion while being tough and aggressive.




“… They say I’m wrong and I’m heartless, but all along I was lookin' for a father he was gone… Dear Mama, you are appreciated...”

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How Bollywood is defined by the improbable

Lagaan



This Hindi word for “land tax” became a household name in 2001 with the release of a namesake Bollywood movie. Lagaan, Once Upon a Time in India takes the viewer on a very believable time-travel to the Indian subcontinent of the Victorian Era. The movie revolves around poor villagers coerced to pay backbreaking taxes to the British and their struggles to rise above the oppression.



Lagaan instantly turned into a box office hit, grossing a considerable $9009043. It was hailed by Britain’s Empire magazine as one of the “100 Best Films of World Cinema” (Top Earners 2000-2009, retrieved from BoxOffice India.com).

This 3 hour 40 minute historical fantasy was described by the New York Times as “a carnivalesque genre packed with romance, swordplay and improbable song-and-dance routines” (Somni Sengupta, New York Times, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagaan)

Using Lagaan as an archetype for all Bollywood movies, this blog is about the “improbable” and how it has become an integral part and parcel of Hindi cinema.

The “musical drama” Lagaan owes much of its length to a varied assortment of songs and dances, as do most Bollywood movies-- a concept that a western audience is not very comfortable with.

Consider, for example, the following love song between the leads Bhuvan (Amir Khan) and Gauri (Gracy Singh), with particular focus on Elizabeth (Rachel Shelly), the easily discernible British actress.



When Amir Khan was asked about the reaction of Londoners to this particular song, he flashed an amused smile at the camera and said, “I heard that audiences in the theatres began to laugh. They just didn’t expect to hear Elizabeth sing.”

One important characteristic that sets Bollywood movies apart are certainly the tedious and elaborate song and dance sequences. It is particularly peculiar seeing a bunch of well-choreographed dancers twirling around the leads. “I don’t get it,” says American student and avid-movie watcher Kathy Rivera, “The songs merely attach an unrealistic quality to the movies. What’s the point?”

The answer is rooted in a number of influencing factors, from varied levels of production and musical style to commercial life and audience reception.

That previous sentence was not intended merely to to add to my word count. Though it may sound complicated, the whole idea boils down to the way society is reflected in these movies. Indian culture is profuse with color and movement, hype and activity, as is evident in most festivals, like Diwali (festival of lights) and Holi (festival of colors), to name a few.

Holi:


Diwali:


These aspects of society are mirrored in Bollywood movies through the highly ”improbable” dance and music. Such vibes and moves are best illustrated in the following song clip that shows Bhuvan and Gauri in a traditional Dandiya Ras dance.



The colorful songs are “firmly embedded in an Indian popular culture and are an integral feature of the genre, akin to plot, dialogue and other parameters” (retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Bollywood). Hindi cimema, in other words, not only shows you singing and dancing, it is about singing and dancing (Sociology Goes to Movies, Rajendra Kumar Dudrah, p48).

The many “disparate modes of story telling are bound in a coherent whole by songs” (Sociology Goes to Movies, Rajendra Kumar Dudrah, p48). Thus, they serve the dual purpose of stringing various movie elements together. It would not be wrong to say that songs are to Bollywood what a soliloquy is to a Shakespearean play-- they confer a certain metaphorical voice to the character’s actual emotions and sentiments.

Consider for example, the song Mitwa (Friend), from Lagaan:



When translated it means:
Mitwa, O Mitwa
Friend, O friend

Tujhko kya dar hai re
Why do you fear?

Yeh dharti apni hai
This earth is ours

Apna ambar hai re
Ours is the sky.

Tu aa jaa re
You come on…

The lip-synced song brings Bhuvan's sentiments to limelight as he calls upon fellow farmers to stand up against the subjugations of the British. Through the song as a medium, he reminds them that the country is theirs and they needn’t be intimidated by any outside forces. It coherently pieces the movie together, as the next scene shows the villagers responding to his call and following his lead.

Furthering the storyline, the next song “Chale Chalo” (Keep Going) shows Bhuvan and his friends perspiring away as they ready themselves to face the British in an upcoming match of cricket, a challenge that will decide their fate.



But these filmi songs continue to be "derided" in Western movie circles, often being blamed for “unrealisticity.”

I chanced upon an interesting comeback on a Sociology blog site (http://thesocietypages.org):

"I still hear Western film buffs argue that lip-synced songs somehow make a film unrealistic. Let’s get one thing straight — the use of music in Western films is no more realistic than in Bollywood films. We don't walk around hearing music matched to our mood in real life, but Westerners accept the fantasy because it is familiar."

Although Bollywood takes it one step further, often heavily peppering movies with songs, the dance and music are “essential aesthetic elements of the film… that draw on a stock of Indian cultural and social references and elaborate them through aural and visual spectacles” (Sociology Goes to Movies, Rajendra Kumar Dudrah, p63).

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