HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, is a film movement in
Indian cinema The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on p ...
that originated in the state of
West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
in the 1950s as an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema. Inspired by Italian Neorealism, Parallel Cinema began just before the
French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
and Japanese New Wave, and was a precursor to the Indian New Wave of the 1960s. The movement was initially led by Bengali cinema and produced internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
, Mrinal Sen,
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...
, Tapan Sinha and others. It later gained prominence in other film industries of
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. It is known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, symbolic elements with a keen eye on the
sociopolitical Political sociology is an interdisciplinary field of study concerned with exploring how governance and society interact and influence one another at the micro to macro levels of analysis. Interested in the social causes and consequences of how p ...
climate of the times, and the general rejection of inserted song-and-dance routines that are typical of mainstream Indian films.


History


Origins

Realism in Indian cinema dates back to the 1920s and 1930s. One of the earliest examples was Baburao Painter's 1925
silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
classic '' Savkari Pash'' (''Indian Shylock''), about a poor peasant (portrayed by V. Shantaram) who "loses his land to a greedy moneylender and is forced to migrate to the city to become a mill worker. Acclaimed as a realistic breakthrough, its shot of a howling dog near a hut, has become a milestone in the march of Indian cinema." The 1937 Shantaram film ''Duniya Na Mane'' (''The Unaccepted'') also critiqued the treatment of women in Indian society.


Early years

The Parallel Cinema movement began to take shape from the late 1940s, by pioneers such as
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
,
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...
, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Chetan Anand, Guru Dutt and V. Shantaram. This period is considered part of the 'Golden Age' of Indian cinema. This cinema borrowed heavily from the Indian literature of the times, hence became an important study of the contemporary Indian society, and is now used by scholars and historians alike to map the changing demographics and socio-economic as well as political temperament of the Indian populace. Right from its inception, Indian cinema has had people who wanted to and did use the medium for more than entertainment. They used it to highlight prevalent issues and sometimes to throw open new issues for the public. Early examples of Indian cinema's social realist movement include '' Dharti Ke Lal'' (1946), a film about the Bengal famine of 1943 directed and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and '' Neecha Nagar'' (1946), a film directed by Chetan Anand and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas that won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival. Since then, Indian independent films were frequently in competition for the Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, with some of them winning major prizes at the festival. During the 1950s and the 1960s, intellectual filmmakers and story writers became frustrated with
musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...
s. To counter this, they created a genre of films which depicted reality from an artful perspective. Most films made during this period were funded by state governments to promote an authentic art genre from the Indian film fraternity. The most famous Indian " neo-realist" was the Bengali film director
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
, followed by Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan and
Girish Kasaravalli Girish Kasaravalli (born 3 December 1950) is an Indian film director, in the Kannada cinema, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including f ...
. Ray's most famous films were ''
Pather Panchali (, ) is a 1955 Indian Bengali language, Bengali-language Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali Pather Panchali ...
'' (1955), '' Aparajito'' (1956) and '' The World of Apu'' (1959), which formed '' The Apu Trilogy''. Produced on a shoestring budget of Rs. 150,000 ($3000), the three films won major prizes at the
Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...
,
Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...
and
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
s, and are today frequently listed among the greatest films of all time. Certain art films have also garnered commercial success, in an industry known for its surrealism or 'fantastical' movies, and successfully combined features of both art and commercial cinema. An early example of this was Bimal Roy's '' Do Bigha Zamin'' (1953), which was both a commercial and critical success. The film won the International Prize at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival and paved the way for the Indian New Wave. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, one of Hindi cinema's most successful filmmakers, was named the pioneer of 'middle cinema', and was renowned for making films that reflected the changing middle-class ethos. According to
Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
, Mukherjee "carved a middle path between the extravagance of mainstream cinema and the stark realism of art cinema". Renowned Filmmaker Basu Chatterjee also built his plots on middle-class lives and directed films like '' Piya Ka Ghar'', '' Rajnigandha'' and '' Ek Ruka Hua Faisla''. Another filmmaker to integrate art and commercial cinema was Guru Dutt, whose film '' Pyaasa'' (1957) featured in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list. The most recent example of an art film becoming commercially successful is Harpreet Sandhu's Canadian Punjabi film '' Work Weather Wife''; it marks the beginning of cinema in the Punjabi film industry. In the 1960s, the Indian government began financing independent art films based on Indian themes. Many of the directors were graduates of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), in
Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...
. The Bengali film director
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...
was a professor at the institute and a well-known director. Unlike Ray, however, Ghatak did not gain international fame during his lifetime. For example, Ghatak's '' Nagarik'' (1952) was perhaps the earliest example of a Bengali art film, preceding Ray's ''Pather Panchali'' by three years, but was not released until after his death in 1977. His first commercial release '' Ajantrik'' (1958) was also one of the earliest films to portray an inanimate object, in this case an
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
, as a character in the story, many years before the Herbie films. The protagonist of ''Ajantrik'', Bimal, can also be seen as an influence on the cynical cab driver Narasingh (played by Soumitra Chatterjee) in Satyajit Ray's '' Abhijan'' (1962). The
Cinema of Karnataka Kannada cinema, also known as Sandalwood, or Chandanavana, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Kannada language widely spoken in the state of Karnataka. Kannada cinema is based ...
saw its first ray of hope of surrealism in N. Lakshminarayan's directorial debut '' Naandi'' (1964). Featuring mainstream actors like Rajkumar, Kalpana and Harini, the film was both a critical and commercial success. Produced by Vadiraj, it set a landmark by being the first ever
Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...
film to screen at an International film festival. The movement gained significant momentum in the 1970s and 1980s resulting in numerous national awards and international recognition to Kannada cinema. The Cinema of Maharashtra saw its first significant movement towards realism and artistic expression with the emergence of parallel cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the pioneering films of this era was '' Shyamchi Aai'' (1953), directed by Pralhad Keshav Atre. Based on the novel by Sane Guruji, the film explored a boy named Shyam shares a deep bond with his mother, who has had a significant influence on his life and upbringing. She instilled in him the importance of sticking to his ideals and principles, even when faced with poverty and hardships. It was both a critical and commercial success, making a lasting impact on Marathi cinema. The Marathi parallel cinema movement truly gained momentum in the 1970s and 1980s, due to filmmakers like Vijay Tendulkar, Jabbar Patel and Rajdutt. This era produced films that focused on social realism, shedding light on the struggles of the marginalized, rural life, and complex human relationships. The movement brought national awards and international recognition to Marathi cinema, with films like '' Ghashiram Kotwal'' (1976), '' Samna'', '' Jait Re Jait'' (1977), '' Sinhasan'' (1979), '' Umbartha'' (1982) which were praised for their bold narratives and artistic direction. This era of Marathi cinema also laid the foundation for later filmmakers to experiment with different forms and explore the nuances of human emotion, regional culture, and societal issues. The legacy of parallel cinema continues to influence Marathi cinema, with films like ''
Shwaas ''Shwaas'' (''The Breath'') is a Marathi film, released in 2004. It was India's official entry to the 2004 Oscars and was ranked 6th in the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film category. Its storyline is based on a real-life incident ...
'' (2004) directed by Sandeep Sawant, '' Fandry'' (2014) directed by Nagraj Manjule and ''
Court A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and Administration of justice, administer justice in Civil law (common law), civil, Criminal law, criminal, an ...
'' (2015) directed by Chaitanya Tamhane receiving international acclaim.


Growth

During the 1970s and the 1980s, parallel cinema entered into the limelight of
Hindi cinema Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
to a much wider extent. This was led by such directors as Gulzar, Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Kantilal Rathod and Saeed Akhtar Mirza, and later on directors like Govind Nihalani, becoming the main directors of this period's Indian art cinema. Mani Kaul's first several films '' Uski Roti'' (1971), '' Ashadh Ka Ek Din'' (1972), '' Duvidha'' (1974), and were critically appreciated and held to high esteem in the international spotlight. Benegal's directorial debut, '' Ankur'' (Seeding, 1974) was a major critical success, and was followed by numerous works that created another field in the movement. Kumar Shahani, a student of
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...
, released his first feature '' Maya Darpan'' (1972) which became a landmark film of Indian art cinema. These filmmakers tried to promote realism in their own different styles, though many of them often accepted certain conventions of popular cinema. Parallel cinema of this time gave careers to a whole new breed of young actors, including
Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi (born 18 September 1950) is an Indian actress of film, television and theatre. Her career in the Hindi cinema, Hindi film industry has spanned Shabana Azmi filmography, over 160 films, mostly within independent and neorealist paral ...
, Smita Patil,
Amol Palekar Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor, director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema. Early life and education Palekar was born to Kamlakara and Suhasini Palekar in a Marathi language, Marathi speaking middle-class family ...
, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Pankaj Kapoor, Deepti Naval, Farooq Shaikh, and even actors from commercial cinema like Hema Malini, Raakhee, Rekha ventured into art cinema. Adoor Gopalakrishnan extended the Indian New Wave to
Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam, Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both th ...
with his maiden feature film '' Swayamvaram'' in 1972. Long after the Golden Age of Indian cinema, Malayalam cinema experienced its own 'Golden Age' in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some of the most acclaimed Indian filmmakers at the time were from the Malayalam industry, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, K. P. Kumaran, G. Aravindan,
John Abraham John Abraham (born 17 December 1972) is an Indian actor and film producer who works in Hindi films. Known for his stoic action hero persona, he is a recipient of a National Film Award along with nominations for four Filmfare Awards. Abraham ha ...
, Padmarajan, Bharathan, T. V. Chandran and Shaji N. Karun. Gopalakrishnan, who is often considered to be
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
's spiritual heir, directed some of his most acclaimed films during this period, including '' Elippathayam'' (1981) which won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival, as well as '' Mathilukal'' (1989) which won major prizes at the
Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
. Shaji N. Karun's debut film '' Piravi'' (1989) won the Camera d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, while his second film '' Swaham'' (1994) was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. His third film '' Vanaprastham'' (1999) was also selected to
Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...
, making him the only Indian film maker who could take consecutively three films to Cannes. K. Balachander, C.V. Sridhar, Mahendran, Balu Mahendra, Bharathiraja, Mani Ratnam,
Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...
, Bala, Selvaraghavan, Mysskin, Vetrimaaran and Ram have done the same for
Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...
, During the domination of commercial cinema in Telugu, Pattabhirami Reddy, K. N. T. Sastry, B. Narsing Rao, and Akkineni Kutumba Rao pioneered Telugu parallel cinema to international recognition.
Girish Kasaravalli Girish Kasaravalli (born 3 December 1950) is an Indian film director, in the Kannada cinema, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including f ...
, Girish Karnad and B. V. Karanth led the way for parallel cinema in the Kannada film industry. Many literary stalwarts entered or collaborated with cinema in this period. Some of the other notable filmmakers of this period were P. Lankesh, G. V. Iyer, M. S. Sathyu who were later followed by T. S. Nagabharana, Baraguru Ramachandrappa, Shankar Nag, Chandrashekhara Kambara in the 1980s. Actors like Lokesh, Anant Nag, L. V. Sharada, Vasudeva Rao, Suresh Heblikar, Vaishali Kasaravalli, Arundhati Nag and others rose to fame. Bhabendra Nath Saikia and
Jahnu Barua Jahnu Barua (born 1952) is an Indian film director. He has written and directed a number of Assamese language, Assamese and Hindi films. Some of his notable films are ''Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai'' (1987), ''Firingoti'' (1992), ''Xagoroloi B ...
did it for Assamese cinema, while Aribam Syam Sharma pioneered parallel movies in Manipuri cinema.


Decline

By the early 1990s, the rising costs involved in film production and the commercialisation of the films had a negative impact on the art films. The fact that investment returns cannot be guaranteed made art films less popular amongst filmmakers.


Other major reasons for decline

One of the major reasons for the decline of the parallel cinema in India is that the F.F.C. or the
National Film Development Corporation of India The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) based in Mumbai is the central agency established in 1975, to encourage high quality Indian cinema. It functions in areas of film financing, production and distribution and under the Min ...
did not seriously look into the distribution or exhibition of these films. The mainstream exhibition system did not pick up these films because these films did not have the so-called 'entertainment value' that they were looking for. There was a talk of building small theatres for such film, but there was no serious attempt made to realise this alternative mode of exhibition. Thus, it left to a few Film Societies to screen these film; that too on a single screening basis. The advent of television and its popularity saw the film society movement decline. Gradually, the government reduced the patronage of such films, for they had only unseen films to be shown on their balance sheets. The ''Parallel Cinema'' in its true sense was always on the fringes of the mainstream cinema. Since most of the parallel cinema rejected the regressive worldview that was largely embodied the mainstream cinema they never found acceptance in the mainstream production, distribution and exhibition system. With an absence of an alternative exhibition system or an art house circuit as it is called in the west, many of the off beat films made by present generation film makers like Sushant Mishra, Himanshu Khatua, Ashish Avikunthak, Murali Nair, Amitabh Chakraborty, Paresh Kamdar, Priya Krishnaswamy, Vipin Vijay, Ramchandra PN, Ashwini Mallik, Anand Subramanian, Sanjivan Lal, Amit Dutta, Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, Gurvinder Singh, and Bela Negi have never had a large audience.


Resurgence

The term "parallel cinema" has started being applied to off-beat films produced in
Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
, where art films have begun experiencing a resurgence. This led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as '' Mumbai noir'', urban films reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai. The introduction of Mumbai noir was marked by
Ram Gopal Varma Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.** * * Varma has dir ...
's ''
Satya (Sanskrit: ; IAST: ) is a Sanskrit word that can be translated as "truth" or "essence.“ In Indian religions, it refers to a kind of virtue found across them. This virtue most commonly refers to being truthful in one's thoughts, speech and act ...
'' (1998). However the Mumbai noir is a genre that is not considered artistic in ambition even though it concentrates on realistic portrayal of the Mumbai underworld; these are generally commercial films. Other modern examples of art films produced in India which are classified as part of the parallel cinema genre include
Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (; 31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for h ...
's '' Utsab'' (2000) and '' Dahan'' (1997), Tarun Majumdar's Alo (2003), Mani Ratnam's '' Yuva'' (2004), Nagesh Kukunoor's '' 3 Deewarein'' (2003) and '' Dor'' (2006), Manish Jha's '' Matrubhoomi'' (2004), Sudhir Mishra's '' Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi'' (2005),
Jahnu Barua Jahnu Barua (born 1952) is an Indian film director. He has written and directed a number of Assamese language, Assamese and Hindi films. Some of his notable films are ''Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai'' (1987), ''Firingoti'' (1992), ''Xagoroloi B ...
's '' Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara'' (2005), Pan Nalin's '' Valley of Flowers'' (2006), Onir's '' My Brother… Nikhil'' (2005) and '' Bas Ek Pal'' (2006),
Anurag Kashyap Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to films, the Government of France made him a Knight of the Ordre ...
's '' Black Friday ''(2007), Vikramaditya Motwane's ''Udaan'' (2009), Kiran Rao's '' Dhobi Ghat'' (2010), Amit Dutta's '' Sonchidi ''(2011), and Anand Gandhi's ''
Ship of Theseus The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other. In Gre ...
''(2013). Independent films spoken in
Indian English Indian English (IndE, IE) or English (India) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora and native to India. English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined ...
include Revathi's '' Mitr, My Friend'' (2002), Aparna Sen's '' Mr. and Mrs. Iyer'' (2002) and '' 15 Park Avenue'' (2006), Homi Adajania's '' Being Cyrus'' (2006),
Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (; 31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for h ...
's '' The Last Lear'' (2007), and Sooni Taraporevala's '' Little Zizou'' (2009). Some of the Indian art film directors active today include Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen, Gautam Ghose, Sandip Ray (
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
's son), Kaushik Ganguly, Suman Mukhopadhyay, Kamaleshwar Mukherjee and Soukarya Ghosal in Bengali cinema; Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N. Karun, T. V. Chandran, M.P. Sukumaran Nair, Shyamaprasad, Dr. Biju and Sanal Kumar Sasidharan in
Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam, Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both th ...
; Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, Amit Dutta, Manish Jha, Ashim Ahluwalia, Mudasir Dar,
Anurag Kashyap Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to films, the Government of France made him a Knight of the Ordre ...
, Anand Gandhi, and Deepa Mehta in Hindi Cinema; Mani Ratnam and Bala in Tamil, Rajnesh Domalpalli and Narasimha Nandi in
Telugu cinema Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to the production of Film, motion pictures in the Telugu language, widely spoken in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Based in Film N ...
,
Jahnu Barua Jahnu Barua (born 1952) is an Indian film director. He has written and directed a number of Assamese language, Assamese and Hindi films. Some of his notable films are ''Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai'' (1987), ''Firingoti'' (1992), ''Xagoroloi B ...
in Hindi cinema and Assamese Cinema,
Amol Palekar Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor, director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema. Early life and education Palekar was born to Kamlakara and Suhasini Palekar in a Marathi language, Marathi speaking middle-class family ...
, Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni in Marathi Cinema and Amartya Bhattacharyya who makes independent films in Odia and Bengali. Aamir Khan, with his production studio, introduced his own brand of social cinema in the early 21st century, blurring the distinction between commercial masala films and realistic parallel cinema, combining the entertainment and production values of the former with the believable narratives and strong messages of the latter. He has helped introduce parallel cinema to mainstream audiences, with his films earning both commercial success and critical acclaim in India and overseas.


Global discourse

During the formative period of Indian parallel cinema in the 1940s and 1950s, the movement was influenced by Italian cinema and French cinema, particularly by Italian neorealism as well as French poetic realism.
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
particularly cited Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica's '' Bicycle Thieves'' (1948) and French filmmaker
Jean Renoir Jean Renoir (; 15 September 1894 – 12 February 1979) was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. His '' La Grande Illusion'' (1937) and '' The Rules of the Game'' (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greate ...
's '' The River'' (1951), which he assisted, as influences on his debut film ''
Pather Panchali (, ) is a 1955 Indian Bengali language, Bengali-language Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray in his directorial debut. It is an adaptation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's 1929 Bengali Pather Panchali ...
'' (1955), alongside influences from
Bengali literature Bengali literature () denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time and dynastic patronization or non-patronization. Bengali h ...
and classical Indian theatre. Bimal Roy's '' Do Bigha Zamin'' (1953) was also influenced by De Sica's ''Bicycle Thieves''. The Indian New Wave also began around the same time as the
French New Wave The New Wave (, ), also called the French New Wave, is a French European art cinema, art film movement that emerged in the late 1950s. The movement was characterized by its rejection of traditional filmmaking conventions in favor of experimentat ...
and the Japanese New Wave. Ever since Chetan Anand's '' Neecha Nagar'' won the Grand Prize at the inaugural Cannes Film Festival in 1946, Indian parallel cinema films frequently appeared in international fora and film festivals for the next several decades.Desai, Jigna (2004), ''Beyond Bollywood: The Cultural Politics of South Asian Diasporic Film'', p. 38,
Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...
,
This allowed Indian independent filmmakers to reach a global audience. The most influential among them was
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
, whose films became successful among European, American and Asian audiences. His work subsequently had a worldwide impact, with filmmakers such as
Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
, James Ivory,
Abbas Kiarostami Abbas Kiarostami ( ; 22 June 1940 – 4 July 2016) was an Iranian film director, screenwriter, poet, photographer, and film producer. An active filmmaker from 1970, Kiarostami had been involved in the production of over forty films, including s ...
,
Elia Kazan Elias Kazantzoglou (, ; September 7, 1909 – September 28, 2003), known as Elia Kazan ( ), was a Greek-American film and theatre director, producer, screenwriter and actor, described by ''The New York Times'' as "one of the most honored and inf ...
,
François Truffaut François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
, Carlos Saura and
Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. Wes Anderson filmography, His films are known for themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Due to his films' eccentricity, distinctive visual and narrative ...
being influenced by his cinematic style, and many others such as
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker who List of works by Akira Kurosawa, directed 30 feature films in a career spanning six decades. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers in the History of film, history of cinema ...
praising his work. The "youthful
coming-of-age Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can b ...
dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy" (1955–1959). Ray's film '' Kanchenjungha'' (1962) introduced a narrative structure that resembles later hyperlink cinema. Ray's 1967 script for a film to be called '' The Alien'', which was eventually cancelled, is widely believed to have been the inspiration for
Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...
's '' ET'' (1982). Ira Sachs' '' Forty Shades of Blue'' (2005) was a loose remake of '' Charulata'', and in Gregory Nava's '' My Family'' (1995), the final scene is duplicated from the final scene of '' The World of Apu'' (1959). Similar references to Ray films are found in recent works such as '' Sacred Evil'' (2006), the '' Elements trilogy'' of Deepa Mehta, and in the films of
Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
. Another prominent filmmaker is Mrinal Sen, whose films have been well known for their
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
views. During his career, Mrinal Sen's film have received awards from almost all major film festivals, including
Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...
, Berlin,
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, Moscow,
Karlovy Vary Karlovy Vary (; , formerly also spelled ''Carlsbad'' in English) is a spa town, spa city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 49,000 inhabitants. It is located at the confluence of the Ohře and Teplá (river), Teplá ri ...
, Montreal, Chicago, and
Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
. Retrospectives of his films have been shown in almost all major cities of the world. Another Bengali independent filmmaker,
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...
, began reaching a global audience long after his death; beginning in the 1990s, a project to restore Ghatak's films was undertaken, and international exhibitions (and subsequent DVD releases) have belatedly generated an increasingly global audience. Alongside Ray's films, Ghatak's films have also appeared in several all-time greatest film polls. A number of Satyajit Ray films appeared in the '' Sight & Sound'' Critics' Poll, including '' The Apu Trilogy'' (ranked No. 4 in 1992 if votes are combined), '' The Music Room'' (ranked No. 27 in 1992), '' Charulata'' (ranked No. 41 in 1992) and '' Days and Nights in the Forest'' (ranked No. 81 in 1982). The 2002 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' and directors' poll also included the Guru Dutt films '' Pyaasa'' and '' Kaagaz Ke Phool'' (both tied at #160), and the Ritwik Ghatak films '' Meghe Dhaka Tara'' (ranked #231) and ''Komal Gandhar'' (ranked #346). In 1998, the critics' poll conducted by the Asian film magazine '' Cinemaya'' included ''The Apu Trilogy'' (ranked No. 1 if votes are combined), Ray's '' Charulata'' and '' The Music Room'' (both tied at #11), and Ghatak's '' Subarnarekha'' (also tied at #11). In 1999, ''
The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...
'' top 250 "Best Film of the Century" critics' poll also included ''The Apu Trilogy'' (ranked No. 5 if votes are combined). ''The Apu Trilogy'', ''Pyaasa'' and Mani Ratnam's '' Nayakan'' were also included in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list in 2005. In 1992, the ''Sight & Sound'' Critics' Poll ranked Ray at No. 7 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time, while Dutt was ranked No. 73 in the 2002 ''Sight & Sound'' greatest directors poll. The cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who made his debut with Ray's ''The Apu Trilogy'', also had an importance influence on
cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...
across the world. One of his most important techniques was bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets. He pioneered the technique while filming '' Aparajito'' (1956), the second part of ''The Apu Trilogy''. Some of the experimental techniques which Satyajit Ray pioneered include photo-negative flashbacks and
X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
digression Digression (''parékbasis'' in Greek, ''egressio'', ''digressio'' and ''excursion'' in Latin) is a section of a composition or speech that marks a temporary shift of subject; the digression ends when the writer or speaker returns to the main topic. ...
s while filming '' Pratidwandi'' (1972).


Directors

;A * Adoor Gopalakrishnan * Aditya Vikram Sengupta * Ashim Ahluwalia * Abhishek Chaubey * Atiul islam *
Anurag Kashyap Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian filmmaker and actor known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is the recipient of four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to films, the Government of France made him a Knight of the Ordre ...
* Aparna Sen * Apurba Kishore Bir * Atanu Ghosh * G. Aravindan * Amit Dutta *
Amol Palekar Amol Palekar (born 24 November 1944) is an Indian actor, director and producer of Hindi and Marathi cinema. Early life and education Palekar was born to Kamlakara and Suhasini Palekar in a Marathi language, Marathi speaking middle-class family ...
* Anand Gandhi * Anant Balani * Anjan Das * Ashish Avikunthak * Amartya Bhattacharyya * Ajitpal Singh * Arvind Deshpande ;B * Balu Mahendra * Bala * Bharathan * Basu Bhattacharya * Bhabendra Nath Saikia * Dr. Biju * Biju Viswanath * Bimal Roy * Buddhadeb Dasgupta * Bharathiraja * Bhalji Pendharkar ;C * T. V. Chandran * Chetan Anand * Chandrakant Kulkarni * Chaitanya Tamhane ;D *
Dadasaheb Phalke Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (Pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, ̪ʱuɳɖiɾaːd͡ʒ pʰaːɭke, popularly known as Dadasaheb Phalke (30 April 1870 – 16 February 1944), was an Indian producer-director-screenwriter, known as "the Father of Indian ...
* Deepa Mehta * Dibakar Banerjee * Dileesh Pothan * Don Palathara ;F * Fazil ;G * Gautam Ghose * Gajendra Ahire * K. G. George * Girish Karnad *
Girish Kasaravalli Girish Kasaravalli (born 3 December 1950) is an Indian film director, in the Kannada cinema, and one of the pioneers of the Parallel Cinema. Known internationally for his works, Kasaravalli has garnered fourteen National Film Awards, including f ...
* Gitanjali Rao * Govind Nihalani * Guru Dutt * Gurvinder Singh ;H * K. Hariharan ;J * Jabbar Patel * Jahar Kanungo *
Jahnu Barua Jahnu Barua (born 1952) is an Indian film director. He has written and directed a number of Assamese language, Assamese and Hindi films. Some of his notable films are ''Halodhia Choraye Baodhan Khai'' (1987), ''Firingoti'' (1992), ''Xagoroloi B ...
;K * Kalpana Lajmi * Kamal Swaroop *
Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...
* Kanu Behl * B V Karanth * K. Viswanath * Kaushik Ganguly * Ketan Mehta * Khwaja Ahmad Abbas *
Kishore Sahu Kishore Sahu (22 November 1915 – 22 August 1980) was an Indian actor, film director, screenwriter, and film producer, producer. He appeared in 22 films between 1937 and 1980, and he directed 20 films between 1942 and 1974. His directorial ven ...
* Kiran Rao * Kumar Shahani * K. Balachander ;L * Lijo Jose Pellissery ;M * Mahendran * Mani Kaul * Mani Ratnam * Mysskin * Manish Jha * Madhur Bhandarkar * Makarand Mane * Mira Nair * Moni Bhattacharjee * Mrinal Sen * Murali Nair * Manmohan Mahapatra * Mohan ;N * Nabendu Chatterjee * Nagesh Kukunoor * Nagraj Manjule * Nandita Das * Narendra Suri * B. Narsing Rao * Nirad Mohapatra * Nishikant Kamat ;P * Padmarajan * Pan Nalin * Partho Sen-Gupta * Paresh Mokashi * Pattabhirami Reddy *
Piyush Jha Piyush Jha is a film director, screenwriter, author and series creator from India. Early life Piyush Jha was born in Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh. He did all his schooling in Mumbai, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Psychology at the University ...
*
Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as ''Hip Hip Hurray (film), Hip Hip Hurray'' (1984), ''Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand ...
* Priyanandanan * Puttanna Kanagal * Payal Kapadia ;R * Rajat Kapoor * Rajiv Ravi * Rajiv Patil * Rajdutt * Rajesh Mapuskar * Ram *
Ram Gopal Varma Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.** * * Varma has dir ...
* Ranjan Ghosh * Revathi *
Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (; 31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for h ...
*
Ritwik Ghatak Ritwik Kumar Ghatak (; 4 November 19256 February 1976) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and playwright. Widely considered as one of the greatest film makers of all time, his works remained largely underrated and ignored during hi ...
;S * Saeed Akhtar Mirza * Saleem Ahmed * Sanjoy Nag * Sandeep Reddy Vanga * Sandeep Sawant * Sandip Ray *
Santosh Sivan Santosh Sivan ISC (born 8 February 1964) is an Indian cinematographer, film director, producer and actor known for his works in Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi cinema. Santosh graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India and has, to ...
* Sanjay Surkar * K. N. T. Sastry * M. S. Sathyu * Sathish Kalathil *
Satyajit Ray Satyajit Ray (; 2 May 1921 – 23 April 1992) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, author, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligraphy, calligrapher, and composer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influ ...
*
Sameer Vidwans Sameer Vidwans is an Indian film director, actor and writer known for his work in Marathi cinema. He won the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Marathi, Filmfare Awards Marathi for Best Director for ''Anandi Gopal'', at the 57th Maharashtra St ...
* Selvaraghavan * Shyamaprasad * Shaji N. Karun * V. Shantaram * Shantaram Athavale * Shekhar Kapur * Shonali Bose * Shoojit Sircar * Shivaji Lotan Patil * Shyam Benegal *
Singeetam Srinivasa Rao Singeetam Srinivasa Rao (born 21 September 1931) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, producer, composer, and actor. He is widely regarded as one of India's most versatile and innovative filmmakers. He has directed around sixty films across ...
* Sombhu Mitra * Sonali Gulati * Sooni Taraporevala * Soukarya Ghosal * Sridhar Rangayan * Srinivas Sunderrajan * Sriram Raghavan * Sumitra Bhave–Sunil Sukthankar ;T * Thiagarajan Kumararaja ;U *
Upendra Upendra (Devanagari: उपेन्द्र) is an Indian masculine given name. The meaning of the Sanskrit word ' is "younger brother of Indra" and refers to either Krishna or Vishnu, who as a son of Aditi (or in the Vamana avatar) was born subs ...
* Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni * Utpalendu Chakraborty ;V * Vetrimaaran * Kumar G. Venkatesh * Vishal Bhardwaj * Vierendrra Lalit * Vipin Vijay


See also

* Soviet Parallel Cinema * Italian neorealism * Cinema Novo * Cinema of the world *
Cinema of India The cinema of India, consisting of Film, motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various #Cinema by language, film indus ...
*
Cinema of West Bengal Cinema of West Bengal, also known as Tollywood or Bengali cinema, is the segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema, dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Bengali language widely spoken in the state of West Bengal. It is base ...
* Masala (film genre) * National Film Award for Best Feature Film * New Generation (Malayalam film movement)


References


External links


Cinema of malayalam


{{Film genres Film genres Indian Movements in cinema 1950s in Indian cinema 1960s in Indian cinema 1970s in Indian cinema 1980s in Indian cinema 1990s in Indian cinema 2000s in Indian cinema 2010s in Indian cinema