Rolling….Action!

A shot, scene and sequence don’t just make the grammar of cinema. They reach far beyond and depict social reality. Cinema of a time is the reflection of society’s struggles and aspirations. Consequently, cinema is also an important instrument for social change. For those who refuse to attach such significant meanings to cinema, well, cinema is a great medium of entertainment. Let’s have a quick glance at how cinema in these four countries-United States of America, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh developed.

American cinema

From the first motion picture exhibition in New York in 1894 using Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope to the modern day technology, American cinema has come a long way. D W Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation (1915) was a landmark in the development of the grammar of cinema while Orson Welles’ Citizen Cane (1941) is considered one of the greatest films of all time. The Americans also developed the studio system in that studios were the factories producing films in large quantities as products. The director had very little say in this kind of a system that was centered around the producer and subscribed to the Star system. Early American films were silent. Sound came into cinema with The Jazz Singer in 1927. The studio system started declining by the end of the 1940s due to the advent of television. The present day Hollywood is ruled by the film school trained directors who follow different techniques of storytelling and have made tremendous use of technology. Some of them are Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, William Friedkin and Steven Spielberg. And…Hollywood as it is commonly known, is not synonymous to American cinema. Hollywood is a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California - situated west-northwest of Downtown Los Angeles which in the 1920s became famous worldwide as the center for American cinema.

Sri Lankan Cinema

Sri Lankan cinema when started in 1947 was a mere mirror image of Indian cinema and had to put in a lot of struggle to make its own mark in the cinema industry. Rekava, made in 1956 by Lester James Peries, was the first Sinhala film to be shot completely out of studio and contain a truly Sinhalese storyline, but it failed to work at the box office. 1965-70 was the era when cinema in Srilanka freed itself from borrowed Indian storylines and moved towards realism. But unfortunately, in the late 1980s cinema started declining owing to television and a civil war. A few independent film makers like , Prasanna Vithanage and Vimukthi Jayasundara have kept good cinema alive in Sri Lanka.

Bangladeshi Cinema

The Bangladeshi film industry has been around since 1956 and it produces approximately 100 films per year. Bangladeshi cinema hasn’t seen good times lately though, it is often criticized for its overly melodramatic and sex and violence laden films. It has also faced severe competition from television and foreign films. Zahir Raihan, Khan Ataur Rahman, Salahuddin, Alamgir Kabir, Amjad Hussain, Moshiuddin Shaker, Sheikh Niyamat Ali, Humayun Ahmed, Morshedul Islam, Tanvir Mokammel, Tareque Masud are some of the critically acclaimed directors of Bangladesh.

Indian cinema

India is the largest producer of films in the world and Indian cinema as commonly understood is not confined to Bollywood. India produces cinema is as many languages as Indians speak. The film industries which make films in Tamil, Bengali and Marathi are particularly booming these days. Raja Harishchandra was the first full length feature film to be made by Dadasaheb Phalke. It ushered in days of epics and mythologicals which were particularly liked by the Indian masses. The first Indian talkie Alam Ara came about in 1931. 1940-1960 is considered the Golden Era of Indian cinema. Some of the best known Indian directors are Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal. The ‘masala’ films full of songs, dance and romance which began to characterize Indian cinema came about post World War 2. Fortunately, Indian cinema is geared more towards realism today.