Cinema, the visual culture of India.

It is accepted fact all over the world that the Indian cinema is the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of productions. Bollywood is the name that is given to the popular Mumbai based film industry in India. The central board of film certification of India cites on its website that every three months an audience as large as India’s billion strong population visits cinema halls. Indian cinemas are popular in various parts of the world, especially in countries with significant Indian communities.
Since India is a large country where many languages are spoken, the cinema too are produced in many languages. Even though mainly there are 415 language in India, the Indian film producers have made films in thirty of the largest languages. However the largest language groups support major regional industries in India are Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada and Odiya.
The cinema was introduced to India with the Lumiere Brothers’ Cinematography on July 7, 1896. but the first full length Indian feature film was Raja Harishchandra made by Dadasaheb Phalke on May 1913.
There have been many influences that have shaped the conventions of Indian popular cinema. The first among them is the ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of Indian cinema. It influenced a lot in its narration, side story, back story and story within the story etc. The other influence was the impact of ancient Sanskrit drama with its highly stylized nature and emphasise on spectacle, where music, dance and gesture combined to create a vibrant artistic unit with dance and mime being central to the dramatic experience.
Through the cinemas the film makers always try to exhibit a different aesthetic and political sensibility and were inclined to explore the case and class contradictions of Indian society the nature of oppression suffered by women, the dislocations created by industrialism and migration from rural to urban areas, the problem of landless, the impotency of ordinary democratic and constitutional procedures of redress, and so on.
It is important that anyone who wishes to explore the world of Indian cinema should also reflect on its presence in Indian spaces, its relation to vernacular art forms and mass art, and highly stratified and gendered space of the Indian cinema hall.

Fire to the heart of India.

India is not yet get out from the great shock because of the horrible terrorist attack to her heart. More than 125 people have already dead during the attack that took place in 13 different places simultaneously in Mumbai, the economical capital of India, and more than 300 people are injured. Still the chaos is continuing.
The terrorist entered the city by a ship. They fired toward the people in foul mail public places with A K 47 guns. All the attacks took place within the 3 kilometre. The first attack was in the Leopold Caffe, the famous tourist spot in Mumbai. Then neat the hotel Taj Mahal and Obroy Hotel respectively. They bombed in the hotels and kept many people in hostage.

In its method and scale, the shooting down of innocent people and courageous police officers in different places across the city represents an affront to the Indian state of a type not seen in recent past. The sophisticate arms that the terrorist used and the manner of the attacks point to a well-funded, well-trained group that bears the signature of the Lashkar-e-Taiba and its several variants.

The targeting of well-known landmarks and high profile places, including the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus (the main railway station in the city), the Taj Mahal hotel and Trident hotel etc shows that some foreknowledge of the place obtained by prior reconnaissance or through local collaborators.

The terrorist started the arrack on Wednesday late evening around 10.30 and still the government forces cant not cease them from their attack. The situation is so pathetic and terrible. The dignity and pride of India is still burning. She was on her way to reach the level of top powerful countries, but the attacks and the situation like this pull her back from reaching her goal.

Music, the Rythm of Culture

The music of India is said to be one of the oldest unbroken musical traditions in the world. The music has always occupied a central place in the imagination of Indians. It is said that the origins of this system go back to the ‘Vedas’, the ancient scripts of the Hindus. Many different legends have grown up in different parts of India concerning about the origin and development of Indian music. Such legends go a long way in showing the importance that music has in defining Indian culture.

The Indian music includes varieties of folk, popular, pop and classical music. India’s classical music tradition can be divided into Carnatic Music and Hindustan Music. It is generally say that the Carnatic Music is more famous in the south India and the Hindustani Music in the North India. The Hindustani Music tradition that goes back to Vedic times, and further developed the 13th and 14th centuries from the religious, folk and theatrical performance practices the practice of singing based notes was popular even from the early Vedic times. The Carnatic Music is based on historical developments that can be traced on the 15th and 16th centuries.

This tradition has a history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, it remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as source of religious inspiration, culture expression and pure entertainment.

The basic for Indian music is “sangeet”. It is a combination of three art forms: vocal music, instrumental music and dance. Although these three art forms were originally derived from the single field of stagecraft, today these three forms have differentiated into complex and highly refined individual art forms. Many musical instruments are peculiar to India. The most famous among them are the sitar and tabala. However there are many more that the average person may not be familiar with.

The advent of modern historical and cultural research has also given us a good perspective on the field. This has shown that Indian music has developed within a very complex interaction between different races and cultures. It appears that the ethnic diversity of present day India has been there from the earliest times. All of these makes up the complex and exiting field of Indian music. Its understanding easily consumes an entire lifetime.