Articles

Spice Up Your Life: Teaching Bollywood Texts in the Media Classroom

I recently had the pleasure of teaching a term-long Contemporary Cinema unit to a Year 10 class undertaking a cinema studies elective. My aim was to expose students to as many ideas, styles and techniques as I could, and one of these was Bollywood film. Depending on the cultural make-up of your class, your students (or yourself!) may not be particularly familiar with Bollywood cinema, so this provides a great spring-board for new learning. But, where do you start?

I began with an introduction to what Bollywood cinema is all about. In short, Bollywood is the informal term used for the Hindi language, Mumbai-based film industry. The word Bollywood itself is a blend of the words Bombay (former name of Mumbai) and Hollywood (the centre of the US film industry). The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema, but it is actually only one part a much bigger Indian film industry. Bollywood cinema began in the 1930s and some of the glamour of Hollywood’s golden era (and musical genre) can still be seen in the films today. Common conventions of Bollywood films include formulaic story lines, choreographed fight scenes, song-and-dance routines, melodrama and larger-than-life heroes. They are sometimes known as ‘masala’ films for their excellent blend of genres – soap opera, romance, musical, action – and make a good genre study themselves.

In teaching Bollywood, you can always begin with what the students will know and connect with – why not show them some of the song and dance sequences in the popular film “Moulin Rouge”, as Luhrmann himself admits to being inspired by Bollywood cinema. Then there are always the more Westernised versions of Bollywood cinema, such as the 2004 Gurinder Chadha film, “Bride and Prejudice”, which make the style and conventions of Bollywood initially more accessible. But the real examples of Bollywood come from India itself and two great films to use in the classroom (that are both engaging and accessible) are “Lagaan” and “Salaam Namaste”.

“Lagaan” (2001), by director Ashutosh Gowariker, is a history lesson in itself. Set in the Victorian period (1893), when India was still under British rule, the film looks at the ways in which the British Raj oppress and dominate the Indian people from the local village of Champaner. When a young village boy decides to stand up for his people, a superb battle takes place…in the form of a cricket match! “Lagaan” has it all – romance, gentle comedy, high drama and the typical musical sequences. It provides an excellent insight into the values held by different cultures and generations. As a film, it is well crafted, with a solid story, engaging characters and high production values. It could be described as a more traditional Bollywood film but was much-loved by my students, who felt great empathy for the Indian people and their way of life.

“Salaam Namaste” (2005), directed by Siddharth Anand, is quite different to “Lagaan”. It is a much more modern form of Bollywood cinema, and much of its appeal lies in the fact that it was shot here in Melbourne. (There’s definitely ‘insiders’ humor in seeing the characters dance in front of football stadiums, city shops and the local haunts we all frequent!) The film revolves around two young Indians who are living away from their families in Melbourne. Although they begin hating each other, they quickly fall in love, yet it is not all smooth-sailing. There is the typical high drama, romance and melodrama, making it a good comparison to other Bollywood texts. The film is shot and edited in a much more upbeat fashion than “Lagaan” and the song and dance sequences almost resemble music video clips, which possibly helps to make the film more appealing to a young audience.

Accessing Bollywood films can prove a little more tricky than Hollywood movies; however, Melbourne now has many Indian supermarkets, many of which also have a small film section. I found “Bollywood Blitz”, an Indian DVD store in Dandenong, to be particularly well stocked and extremely helpful in offering suggestions of what may be appropriate. If you do decide to teach Bollywood film, just remember – most run for at least 3 hours (and are traditionally screened with an intermission!), so make sure you have plenty of classroom time. Teaching Bollywood is a great way to expose students to films that they would normally never watch. It can provide a study in genre and conventions, narrative, values or simply film appreciation. Teaching Bollywood is also a wonderful way to extend your own practice beyond just Western mainstream texts, or spice up a tired curriculum.