Cinema of India - Modern Indian Cinema

Modern Indian Cinema

Some filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s, alongside Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghose in Bengali cinema; Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N. Karun, John Abraham and G. Aravindan in Malayalam cinema; Nirad Mohapatra in Oriya cinema; and Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta in Hindi cinema. However, the 'art film' bent of the Film Finance Corporation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema.

The 1970s did, nevertheless, see the rise of commercial cinema in form of enduring films such as Sholay (1975), which solidified Amitabh Bachchan's position as a lead actor. The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also released in 1975. Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, it was described as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema” by Danny Boyle. 1979 Telugu film, Sankarabharanam, which dealt with the revival of Indian classical music, has won the Prize of the Public at the Besancon Film Festival of France in the year 1981. 1987 Kannada film, Tabarana Kathe, which dealt with the inadequate governance, was screened at various film festivals including Tashkent, Nantes, Tokyo, and the Film Festival of Russia.

Long after the Golden Age of Indian cinema, South India's Malayalam cinema of Kerala regarded as one of the best Indian film genres experienced its own 'Golden Age' in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some of the most acclaimed Indian filmmakers at the time were from the Malayalam industry, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, T. V. Chandran and Shaji N. Karun. Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who is often considered to be Satyajit Ray's spiritual heir, directed some of his most acclaimed films during this period, including Elippathayam (1981) which won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival, as well as Mathilukal (1989) which won major prizes at the Venice Film Festival.

Shaji N. Karun's debut film Piravi (1989) won the Camera d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, while his second film Swaham (1994) was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Commercial Malayalam cinema also began gaining popularity with the action films of Jayan, a popular stunt actor whose success was short-lived when he died while filming a dangerous stunt, followed by Mohanlal, whose film Yodha was acclaimed for its action sequences and technical aspects.

Commercial Hindi cinema further grew throughout the 1980s and the 1990s with the release of films such as Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) Mr India (1987), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Tezaab (1988), Chandni (1989), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Baazigar (1993), Darr (1993), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), many of which starred Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan.

In the late 1990s, 'Parallel Cinema' began experiencing a resurgence in Hindi cinema, largely due to the critical and commercial success of Satya (1998), a low-budget film based on the Mumbai underworld, directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag Kashyap. The film's success led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir, urban films reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai. Later films belonging to the Mumbai noir genre include Madhur Bhandarkar's Chandni Bar (2001) and Traffic Signal (2007), Ram Gopal Varma's Company (2002) and its prequel D (2005), Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2004), Irfan Kamal's Thanks Maa (2009), and Deva Katta's Prasthanam (2010).

Other art film directors active today include Mrinal Sen, Mir Shaani, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Gautam Ghose, Sandip Ray, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh in Bengali cinema; Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N. Karun, Santosh Sivan and T. V. Chandran in Malayalam cinema; Nirad Mohapatra in Oriya cinema; Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Mira Nair, Nagesh Kukunoor, Sudhir Mishra and Nandita Das in Hindi cinema; Mani Ratnam in Tamil cinema; B. Narsing Rao and K. N. T. Sastry in Telugu cinema; Deepa Mehta, Anant Balani, Homi Adajania, Vijay Singh and Sooni Taraporevala garnered recognition in Indian English cinema.

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