2. What is Parallel Indian Cinema?
The term Parallel Indian
Cinema refers to the New
Indian Wave, commonly known
as the Art Cinema, or Parallel
Cinema i.e. a genre of Cinema
which re-emerged after 90s, as
an alternative to commercial
movement, the former is known
for its serious content
(blended with naturalism and
realism), modern man
dilemmas, and a constant
search for ‘Self’ with a keen
eye on the socio-political
conditions.
3. Nature of Study:
The area of research will be primarily to study the
contemporary Parallel Indian Cinema and its growthThis area primarily studies the contemporary
Parallel Indian Cinema and its growth.
Movies
adapted
from
English
literary
texts .
Themes
and issues
dealt
with.
Independ
ent films
spoken in
English.
4. Scope of the study
Through this cult of cinema people could see the best
of Indian cinema .
It exposes us to the best of foreign cinema too.
Certain literary-cum-cinema critics like Satyajeet
Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen created waves
among the young film makers who were frustrated
with the mindless songs-dance dramas made in India.
The Main Objective is to promote the flow of standard
art, culture, literature through media.
5.
6. •From print to the life.
•From the world of words
to the world of audio &
video.
•The sensibility of themes
remain same.
•But the treatment is perhaps
more appealing & relevant.
Themes
•Modern Man Dilemmas
•Socio Political Scenario
•Search for ‘SELF’
Treatment
•High Seriousness of content
•Naturalism
•Realism portrayed in characters
It Transports Literature & its vast
Canvas of characters
7. 1.Adaptations from literary texts:
• There also is a cult of Parallel cinema
where directors like Vishal Bhradwaj
have made films like Maqbool and
Omkara are adaptations from
Shakespeare’s drama such as
Macbeth and Othello respectively.
• Merchant Ivory Productions Muhafiz
was based on Anita Desai’s novel In
Custody deals with the failure of
protagonist Deven in an attempt to
interview the famous Urdu poet Nur.
• Again a self disillusionary film Maya
Memsaab is an adaptation from
Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame
Bovary.
• Gurinder Chadda’s Bride and
Prejudice based on Jane Austen’s
Pride and Prejudice .
8. Black by Sanjay Leela Bansali is
autobiographical adaptations from Hellen
Keller’s life.
Also Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth is an
adaptation from Girish Karnad’s play
Nagmandala where Preeti Zinta manages
to play a role of wife bearing male duplicity.
Meera Nair’s famous film Namesake is an
adaptation from Jumpha Lahiri’s novel
“Namesake” is an attempt to study a breed
of generation belonging from the Indian
culture brought up in the west.
Deepa Mehta’s upcoming project
Midnights Children is again based upon
Salman Rushdie’s novel Midnights’
Children seems to be promising, deals
with India's transition from British
colonialism to independence and
the partition of India. It is considered an
example of postcolonial
literature and magical realism. The story
is told by its chief protagonist, Saleem
Sinai, and is set in the context of actual
historical events as with historical fiction.
9. 2.Themes Dealt in Cinema as in Literature.
A. Modern & Common Man’s Dilemmas:
• Literary themes such as modern
man’s suffering alienation,
narcissism, quest for power and
identity as well as search for self
is well shown in Anurag Kshayap’s
Dev D and Gulaal --- is a modern
day take on narcissist shades present
in the protagonist’s as against the
contemporary Indian familial ties
which negotiates by the traditions of
patriarchy and marriages are
reduced to the game of “power”,
quest of legitimacy, perceived
injustice and hypocrisy of the
powerful.
10. Movies such as Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai?, Mohan Joshi
Hazir ho! and Manorama Six Feet Under deal with the inner fury that
the modern man generally faces when he is trapped by emptiness,
hollowness and isolation in general. It also satirizes the man-nature
relationship .
Satyaveer in Manorama Six Feet Under remarks:
“the only thing that is certain in an unknown world is a known God.”
Films such as Do Dooni Chaar & Khosla Ka Ghosla light heartedly
reflects the situation and confusions in which a common man is placed and
how he gets out of it.
11. Deepa Mehta’s elemental trilogy: Fire(1996), 1947
Earth(1998) and Water(2005) all deal with a variety of
themes such as modern day presentation on homosexuality
in India, India before and after 1947 and role of a widow
women expected by the Indain society respectively.
We also have cinema like Taree Zameen Par and Udaan d
portraying the current day strife of an artist as against the
modern commercial background.
Certain movies like Life in a Metro, Delhi-6 and Delhi in
a Day deal with urbanization as a backdrop, serving to the
countless cultures and individual emotions mingling into
one.
The recent one Gangs of Wasseypur deals with the first
underworld gang emerged in Bihar and its growth.
12. B. Socio Political Scenario:
• Movies Such as Movies such as
Hazaroon Khwashien Aisi--is set
against the backdrop of Indian
emergency, narrating the story of
three youths of 70s undergoing a
massive social and political changes
• Movies Gandhi My Father & Maine
Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara consist of
the legendry autobiographical
character Gandhiji and the
dilemmas faced by him, for he was
termed as ‘The Father of Nation’ but
he could barely be ‘A Father’ to his
own child—Harilal Gandhi and
the latter autobiographically
highlights the demented character of
Hindi professor Uttam Chaudary.
13. Certain movies also take into account the violence &
terrorism spread & its effect on the common man’s life. For
Eg: Nandita Das’s Firaq —is a Hindi political thriller film
set one month after 2002 violence in Gujarat, India and in
particular Gujarat, in terms of the effects on the levels of the
everyday people. It claims to be based on “The thousand true
stories.”
Movies like Black Friday and Mumbai meri jaan also throw
light upon the hallaboo that terrorism results into.
14. 3.Independent Films Spoken in English.
Independent films spoken in
English are also occasionally
produced, Revathi’s Mitr My
Friend.
Aparna Sen’s 15th Park
Avenue-displaying the
modernern existentialist
theme.
Anant Balani’s Joggers Park,
Piyush jha’s King of
Bollywood do express the
theme of independent love
being bred in a simple way.
Homi Alajania’s Being
Cyrus—based on Eugeno O’
Neil’s ‘Under the Elms, Lust for
the Land and its possesion.
15. Rituporano Gosh’s The Last Lear
are critically acclaimed based on
Shakespeare's closing of his theatre
company.
Movies presenting the post-modern
condition of an individual placed in
the backdrop of a day to day
dilemmas, mundane realities, but a
pattern is being seen as to not live in
those harsh realities but to cope
them up with grace, dignity and
courage as seen Kukunoor’s Dor --As
the protagonist frees herself from
her rigid orthodox widow life and
goes along with Gul Panag, in
Udaan --the protagonist accepts the
realities and gets rid off his highly
abused father with his six year old
younger brother, takes up
responsibility and in search of ‘Self’,
so is the case in Zoya Aktar’s Luck
By Chance --Where Konkana Sen
Sharma finds her ‘New Real Self’ in
search of ‘obtaining success’.
16. In a Nutshell
Thus all these films declare the new cult of Parallel
Indian Cinema under exposing raw realism, well
mattered story line, contemporary day situation with
protagonist & its dilemma at its center and finally the
effect of socio-cultural changes being made upon the
ones mentioned above. Thus it furthers the study of
Parallel Indian Cinema, Movies adapted from English
Literary Texts in coherence with the themes and issues
presented and also Independent Indian Cinema
spoken in English.
