Bollywood's elder statesman, actor Amitabh Bachchan, and his daughter-in-law, actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, that has had some crossover good results in the West, are the two Indian movie stars most frequently interviewed by foreign media, and condescending Western reporters usually ask them why Bollywood doesn't make "serious" or "realistic" films, to which they tiredly reply that Bollywood is "escapist cinema." I can't blame them for giving reporters the reply they need to hear. The Bachchans are probably trying to be polite and diplomatic simply because they'd love to acquire new followers in the West. Or perhaps they are just sick of explaining what seems to be a baffling idea to Western critics: enjoyment is supposed to be entertaining.
But Bollywood films aren't all fun and frivolity. What could possibly be much more serious and grounded in the reality of most people's lives than locating love and producing relationships work? Or how about struggling to resolve domestic problems and religious differences that tear families and communities apart? The clash in between tradition and modernity is another preferred Bollywood theme, as is the expertise of Indian emigrants. Indians are fiercely proud of their culture plus they need to shield their values-just as American values are important to us-and films are vehicles for asserting the that means of those values and exploring their relevance.
So the claim that Hollywood is realistic simply because it focuses within the marginalized and degenerate and that Bollywood isn't simply because it focuses on different social realities doesn't make any sense. And realistic or not, on the simple degree, all enjoyment is escapist-otherwise, what could be the point?
In the event the movie, The Wrestler, for example, is realistic, then I'll need to get Hollywood's word for it simply because I never know any washed-up skilled wrestlers, and I've no idea if Anne Hathaway's portrayal of a narcissistic drug addict in Rachel Obtaining Married is spot-on simply because I never hang out with any person like that. And yet, I view these films and take pleasure in them-but not due to their realism. Rather, they are a departure from my normal, ordinary existence. And likewise, the reason I love Indian films is simply because they are so different from my American life.
In August 2003, Time magazine reporter (and Bollywood fan) Richard Corliss wrote: "Movies give audiences what they do not have. Within the U.S., an economically cozy nation, films usually cope with life within the edge: danger and deprivation are glamorous to people who have every little thing. The identical, upside down, applies in India: it's a bad nation, so the movie image is of the middle, upper-middle and fabulously-rich classes." I comprehend the latter-why would bad people need to view movies about social injustices they expertise daily? But the former, while plainly true, is unsettling to me. Locating deprivation glamorous-and fancying ourselves hip and enlightened for it-says what for the deprived?
Indians weren't wild about the film Slumdog Millionaire, partly simply because they have been offended from the portrayal of poverty (protesters outdoors Mumbai theaters carried indications that read: "Poverty Porn" and "I am not a slumdog"), but also simply because they found the story so unrealistic-preposterous even. Perhaps Indians are much more acquainted using the reality that this kind of stories simply don't take place in actual life. Certainly, Americans felt otherwise (myself included-I loved it) simply because it was a fairy tale of determination and destiny triumphing above impossible odds (America's cultural myth), set inside a nightmarish globe of poverty (we love cinematic grittiness)-and it made our hearts soar. Hmm, an emotional fantasy according to cherished cultural values and advised through accepted film conventions-kind of sounds like the identical criticism leveled at Bollywood movies.
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