CULTURE AND CINEMA
Any form of Art be it painting, dance, music or Cinema is rooted to a culture; though it may be an attempt to escape from it. However it does not necessary imply that since it is linked to a culture it lacks universal appeal. Culture remains a backdrop against which it operates. Though ‘Fine Arts’ is a field which has a universal appeal as these are appreciated more through our senses than our mind. Expressions of Art which are conveyed through people as medium are more popular and yet more rooted to a ‘ geographical location’. My reference is to Cinema and Theatre which are more people oriented than the other expressions . These are also collective expressions unlike painting and music which are largely individual . Cultural exchanges among Nations also takes place between popular Art as it involves people.
Understanding and appreciation of Art requires a mind which is free of prejudice as well as suppression. Our generation watched English Cinema and Theatre not only for entertainment but also under the compulsion of the ‘cultural imperialism’ which was the result of colonialism. It is true that we hardly understood the ‘dialogues’ and the setting too was alien to us . Be it the Westerns depicting gunfights in the bars with liquor bottles and furniture breaking whilst the actors muttered something incomprehensible to us , but we posed to have understood and enjoyed it under the colonial burden. The romantic interludes between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton too was away from our reality though subconsciously we were enamoured of the explicit love making scenes and revealing attire as the same was unavailable amidst our environment . However despite the complexity of our response , we were fascinated by the drama and spectacle and did feel the universal emotion and themes of Roman Holiday, Benhur, The ten Commandments and the many silent movies of Charlie Chaplin era. The conflicts presented in these Cinema were universal and transcended cultural barriers. Over the years owing to the impact of television the urban masses too have been drawn to the
However the purpose of my writing this article was not to explore for justification for invasion of western culture in cinema but to highlight the importance and relevance of ‘culture’ in cinema and how it affects our very appreciation of the medium in general and understanding of performance of characters in particular. Often we rave about performance of great actors such as Marlon Brando, Al Pachino, Robert de Nero, Richard Burton and very many. We participate in animated discussions about their roles and in our zest to emphasise or to make a point we rate them on higher pedestal than our Indian actors. But, is it really true? Or we are according superiority of performance to superiority of technology ? How competent we are to be so assertively declare the western performance paramount ? As said earlier, each performance is rooted to a ‘culture’ which has a geographical and historical context. Therefore those who are familiar with that culture are better equipped to understand and be critical of that performance. However in most cases we are affected by the ‘dominance’ of the alien culture and cover our ignorance or lack of comprehension by according appreciation and offering exaggerated praise. There is undisputed opinion about the greatness of Marlon Brando for his performance in ‘A Street car named desire’, ‘ on the waterfront’, ‘Julies Caesar’ and finally culminating ‘The Godfather’. He underplayed his role ,spoke little, even when oratory was expected such as in his role as Mark Anthony in Julies Caesar but he delivered his speech in a casual manner without much formal trappings of the Roman period. But it appears quite strange for us to be in the forefront of the critical appreciation when our understanding of the mannerism, language, dressing style is limited. We are so blinded by the standards of ‘western acting expressions’ that we tend to overlook our ‘local’ talent as much of it remains unnoticed. We should accord the same seriousness in understanding the acting of our legends such as Moti Lal, Balraj Sahni , Ashok Kumar and others as we do to foreign actors and judge them by our ‘cultural’ standards rather than looking for ‘western’ style in them and feeling unsatisfied.
Ironically in a heterogeneous society of ours the ‘dominant’ or the ‘ruling’ class sets the cultural standards and despite remarkable performances of Artistes depicting rural culture/small town milieu the urban elite sets the parameters of critical appreciation.
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