Korrigeringar

India is known all around the world as a country which saves traditions and culture since ancient times till nowadays.

Walking down the streets of India, you can still meet women wearing sarees; brahmins and kshatriyas still avoid communicating with sudras.

Innovations are taking roots in an extremely problematic way in this culture because of conservatism and stopping in development of many areas, especially among the paupers.

The question is why is Indian cinematography so successful and how did it manage to become an integral part of such inflexible society as Indian one is?

Let’s refer to the holy book of Hinduism - " Mahabharata " : Like a lordly tusker rising from a beauteous lotus lake, Rose Duryodhan from his brothers, proudly thus to Bhima spake: "With such insults seek not, Bhima, thus to cause a warrior grief, Bitter taunts but ill befit thee, warlike tiger-waisted chief, Proudest chief may fight the humblest, for like river's noble course, Noble deeds proclaim the warrior, and we question not their source!

Style and structure of the story remind us rather an Indian film than the Holy scripture.

For example, the Bible, the Torah , the Koran, the Tao Te Ching , the Dhammapada , Avesta are written stylistically in a completely different way.

Mahapharata’s spirit is a huge base of the Indian mentality .

That’s why Indian cinematography, which successfully picked up the national traditions of thinking and transformed them in a new way , harmoniously blended into the Indian culture , and became the integral part of it .

This also explains why there is such a large number of Mahabharata’s adaptations , although in the whole world adaptation of religious literature is quite a rare phenomenon.

But every sword has two edges , and entertaining function is not the only one of culture of masses , which is often a very subtle but powerful lever of influence .

Which else mechanisms of influence do exist and how do they work exactly in Indian society ?

The caste system in India is still preserved and is convenient for the government due to its separating function.

A big amount of reasons for differentiation (class , gender , geographical , etc.) is a very powerful tool in the hands of the Indian authorities , that’s why the chances of uniting of such a separated nation against the government are extremely small.

That’s why the supporting of this phenomenon is a strategically necessary thing to do.

Cinematography is one of the most effective tools .

Target audience of certain part of the Bollywood ‘s products includes mostly the lower classes of the population - poor, uneducated and emotional people.

According to this , a large percentage of Indian cinema products has the following criteries: - availability ; - primitive plot ; stereotypes ; - chanting the lives of ordinary people ; - rich people as characters-antagonists ; - the predominance of national songs and dances, which have the archetypal influence on the emotional sphere of the Indian audience.

A native resident of Delhi whose professional activities include producing films gave me a very clear example that confirms the thesis about the power of stereotypes imposed by the population : "While walking , you can see few guys who are trying to impress girls they are walking with , and I assure you , each of them does it in a similar way with some of the Indian movie characters .

And if you walk with me , I can name you the movie , the hero of which does the one or the other young man mimic .

And it's really awful .

" How to impress the girls, what to laugh at , what to get upset about , what to aspire to, how to think - many generations of behavior patterns of the lower castes are not only adopted by people , but reproduced with the smallest details .

The representatives of the lower castes who have much higher emotional factor than intellectual one are much easier to get manipulated .

Meanwhile the government continue to impose the politically convenient patterns of behavior by absolutely invisible for people ways.

In a nutshell, the Indian cinematography today is quite a significant layer of culture which is based on the ancient traditions; it occupies an important place in modern daily life of Indian society and is also a powerful lever of influence on the mentality of the lower castes of India's population.