What if I don't want to be entertained?

As the late Shashi Kapoor put it, Bollywood is "pure escapism."  The escapism often playing on the base emotions including, yes, sex.  But, Kapoor did not want to live on the margins and was a full-fledged participant in Bollywood.

Of course I have watched a few "Bollywood" movies in my life.  As one who grew up in India, how could I have not? 

But, anybody who is even remotely familiar with India knows that Bollywood is not India.  The songs, the melodies, were their real contribution.  (Like this one that Shashi Kapoor lip-syncs to.)

Anybody who is also vaguely familiar with movies in India knows about the parallel cinema scene.  The art movies that most ignore.

When I was young, I read about a group of youth who were convinced that the art movies would appeal to a lot more people if they actually watched it.  So, they drove around to a few villages, with a portable movie projector and screen and speakers.  This was back when movies were in reels and, therefore, one needed a projectionist who knew what to do.

The group was indeed correct in their assumption--a lot more people liked the art movies compared to what was thought as possible.  But then how would one go about convincing commercial distributors and cinema owners, who view the mainstream commercial movies as a sure bet?

The parallel cinema continued on but only with a select audience.

Thankfully, the state-owned television channel, which was the only one that we had, regularly telecast some of those art movies.  

I finally could watch movies that I had only read about in newspapers and magazines.  The movies that rarely ever played in cinema houses but which, according to newspapers and magazines, had won awards both at home and abroad.

As art, and as stories about the real world and its people, those art movies outnumber the commercial ones that I remember and cherish even after all these years.  Some stories were about the poor; a few were about the struggling middle-class; or were against a historical backdrop; one even made an Anglo-Indian woman the center of the story.  In other words, they were about life that interested me.

They did not cater to any set formula, and the endings often left the viewer exploring the story and the characters because, well, there was no formulaic ending.  No bow tie to wrap up the box.  If only they made more such movies in the old country instead of the messed up Bollywood ones!

The older I got, the more the Bollywood movies became unwatchable, like in the instances that I have blogged about.  (Here and here.)  Every visit to India has been even more disappointing than the previous ones on how far removed society seems to be from art and culture.

Technology has made possible for us to watch movies from all corners of the world.  Especially during the two pandemic years when the virus forced us to stay put, I often looked for art movies that told stories of life in India.  Two (this and this) came close enough, but not near what the old masters created, which people like me remember even after decades.  But, they give me hope that people in India have not given up on art.