Hollywood Truly Global? Hollywood Represents Essay

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Bollywood has many recognizable elements of style; "The distinctive features of popular Hindi cinema -- song and dance, melodrama, lavish production values, emphasis upon stars and spectacle -- are common to films made in Southern industries as well," (Ganti 2004 p 3). There are many differences that create a discrepancy between the traditional Hollywood style and that seen in Hindi films. Bollywood films tend to add more emotion to the acting and plot lines. According to research, "Hindi filmmakers frequently describe Hollywood films as 'dry' or 'lacking in emotion,' and claim that in order to Indianize a film, one has to 'add emotions,'" (Ganti 2004 p 77). Stories with exaggerated emotions tend to be more popular in Indian culture, and then prove a good addition to a borrowed American plot line. Another traditional addition is an expansion in a narration. In this, Hollywood plotlines are lengthened to create a context for more content and other additions to the context of the former American story. Script "writers characterize a Hindi film as comprising four acts while a Hollywood film comprises three, and therefore, sub-plots or the inclusion of parallel 'tracks' -- romantic, comedy, dramatic -- are seen as necessary additions," (Ganti 2004 p 78). Moreover, musical scenes are also a common addition within Bollyood adaptations. These include musical performances commonly seen in American musical film. Music had already been embedded into the Hindu culture for hundreds, if not thousands, of years before the arrival of cinema; "Classical Sanskrit drama, folk theater, and Parsi theater all tightly integrated music, song, and dance, with each element being essential to the entire performance," (Ganti 2004 p 78). Thus, adding music to traditional Hollywood films allows Hindi cinema to portray a familiar image of Indian culture which is tied to cultural traditions and patterns.

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This is only furthered with the visual style which represents a traditional Bollywood film. If Hindi films imitate and then add to Hollywood style narrative, they tend to differentiate from technical styles. Scholars posit that "The visual style of popular Hindi films departs from continuity editing, naturalistic lighting, and realist mise-en-scene conventions typical of Hollywood," (Ganti 2004 p 141).

Much unlike traditional realism of Hollywood films, "a Hindi film dos not pretend that it is presenting an unmediated view of reality," (Ganti 2004 p 141). Thus, an unrealistic picture of the world is highlighted as background for the story, in contrast to the Hollywood style which favors a truer picture of the world. This unrealistic picture of the world presents the viewer with rich, bright colors. Part of the reason for this is the fact that in many rural parts of India where the films are shot uses poor projection equipment. Therefore "one aspect of the visual style of popular Hindi conditions within India," (Ganti 2004 p 143).

Indian cinema is thus a unique blend of Hollywood cinema and traditional Indian culture. Using ideas established through Hollywood cinema, Bollywood elaborates plotlines and cinematic techniques to then fit the visual and narrative structure of traditional Hindi….....

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