Era of Bollywood

Era of Bollywood

1^.The Golden Era Is Also the Birth of Modern India

2. The Era Lasted for More Than a Decade

3. Advent of Parallel Hindi Cinema

4. A Balance Between Critical and Commercial Success

5.Fan Following Beyond India

6. The Era with Extraordinary Directors

7. This Era Overlaps with The Golden Era of Bollywood Music

1.The Golden Era Is Also the Birth of Modern India

ž  The ‘Golden Era’ of Indian Cinema happens to coincide with India’s independence from the British rule in 1947. Legends of the Indian Film industry were deeply influenced by India’s anti-colonial struggle and independence movements and this ideology reflected in the movies that were being made during that time.

2. The Era Lasted for More Than a Decade

ž  It is a common notion that Bollywood’s Golden Era was during the 50s, but the fact is that the actual period had a span of almost across two decades. It started during the late 1940s around the same time as India’s Independence and peaked around the late 1950’s eventually coming to an end in the late 1960s.

3. Advent of Parallel Hindi Cinema

ž  Of course, there was a lot of mainstream Hindi cinema that was flourishing but the era also saw the emergence of parallel cinema cultures. Movies that were more realistic, socially relevant, and poetic were surprisingly the era’s biggest blockbusters. Even though parallel cinema found itself at the peak of its glory in the 20th century, movies from this era such as Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar(1946) and Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zamin(1953) were the ones that laid the foundation for this alternate genre.

4. A Balance Between Critical and Commercial Success

ž  Before the Golden Era period, movies that were critically acclaimed films rarely found commercial success and films that were popular were very formulaic to gather critical acclamation. However, in the 1950’s, Indian Cinema saw a different phase where movies like Awaara(1951) and Pyassa (1957), and Mughal-E-Azam (1960), which found immense commercial success and were also appreciated by the critics. Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957) earned the highest revenue for any Hindi film from that time and was also India’s first Academy Award-nominated film.

5.Fan Following Beyond India

ž  It was during the ‘Golden Period’ when Hindi cinema gathered a major fan following outside South Asia. Raj Kapoor’s films found a strong fan base in the Soviet Union while classics such as Mother India (1957) were dubbed in many European languages, and successfully screened in countries across Latin America, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

6. The Era with Extraordinary Directors

ž  This era gave us the greatest directors of all times! From legendary actor-directors such as Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor to pioneers of the film industry such as Mehboob Khan, Vijay Bhatt, and Bimal Roy all belonged to this glorious era of Indian Cinema.

7. This Era Overlaps with The Golden Era of Bollywood Music

ž  Bollywood music witnessed its glorious time eventually during the 70’s but the 1950s were when some of the greatest talents in Bollywood music like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, and Lata Mangeshkar.  The era witnessed legendary composer S.D. Burman’s collaborations with poet and lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi for Pyaasa (1957) to musical duo Shankar-Jaikishan’s incomparably popular soundtrack for Awaara (1951), the era celebrated music and laid the foundations of its integral role in Indian cinema.