Long back I have heard Mr. Bachchan Sr. telling his displeasure about the use of the word'Bollywood'. I think it was during 90s when this term was in it's initial stage of usage and I completely agreed with his view.
Anyways! that's a personal choice I would rather like to call it Hindi Film Industry for Hindi films and on a vast scale it should be called'indian Film industry' which comprises all from Punjabi to Malayalam to Tamil, Telugu, Manipuri, Garhwali, Haryanvi, Konkani, Kannada, etc. and Of course Hindi films too.
Being an ardent admirer of Mani Kaul's films, the Indian New wave of Cinema as it was known, I have always preferred the works by Shyam Benegal, Gulzar, Sai Paranjpe, Mrinal Sen, Saeed Akhtar Mirza because of their realistic approach to the cinema but sometimes we need only story, just a good story, because cinema's first motive is to entertain, it gives as an escape from the mundane. Muzaffar Ali's films are in between art and commercialistic.
Realistic cinema can be boring at times however it's intention is not commercial gain.
That's why the period of 40s to 50s to early 60s is considered as the Golden period of Hindi Cinema because of the presence of master storytellers who kept their approach realistic yet gave a sort of entertaining element(best described out of the films I have watched is'Teesri Qasam' - just for an example, there are a lot more). Satyajit Ray excelled in art films while Bimal Roy, Ritwik Ghatak, Vijay bhatt and even Guru Dutt were masters of their craft and what they have made is a first hand form of cinema out of the concept, this is their greatness.
In modern times Rajkumar Hirani is the lone saviour.
Unfortunately for very long time our films have been inspired by the West, be it the action, the story and in modern times it's the use of technology. Anyways!
What I think that ours is such a vast country with so much variety of languages and performing arts, for example each state has it's own style of dress, pottery, festivals and dance forms. So what is the need to look to the'West' and name it in sync with'Hollywood'. They make films about superheroes which don't exist, about thinking machines which don't exist(Our SRK tried Ra.One and made a fool of himself), they make films about dinosaurs which doesn't exist - This is there popular cinema which has reached all over the world and influenced it, but there art films doesn't reach India on a mass level because there's very little demand until any of them gets an Oscar.
Well!
Standards of critical acclaim have continuously changed and getting critical acclaim doesn't guarantee commercial success even it doesn't guarantee that it'll be liked by other critics too, as is the case of'Tilti'. after watching I liked the view of those critics who had said that it's absolute rubbish and a meaningless show of blood and gore neither art nor commercial.
Indeed very good films are being made in India especially by Indie Filmmakers which very often get national awards and are indeed entertaining as well as impart knowledge and stroke one's head to think.
Still their is a severe dearth of interest making storytellers. So I explored the different forms from Indian Cinema, like Punjabi films by Late Shri Manoj Punj are such a nice piece of cinema that you just feel the story is happening and you are a part of it and when the film ends you are thinking that why the story ended it should have been going on.
There are two kinds of stories(films, novels, poems or else) - one where you are interested in just what will happen in the end(which are more of a kind of narrative) and second are those where you are enjoying the consequences instead of thinking what will happen in the end(these are the one's where you are a part of the whole happening, you identify the scenario, the characters, etc.).
Then I also watched South Indian films by K.Balachander, You can identify if I tell that Hindi'Ek duje ke liye' was a remake of his own'Maro Charitra', another example is Hindi'Sadma' by Balu Mahendra was a remake of his own'Moondram Pirai'. BigB's'Aakhri Raasta' was a remake of'Oru Kaidhiyin Diary'. telling all these is just to clarify that our different cinemas have had their influence on each other for a long time and it's good that the good stories spread like this to different languages.
Now a days I watch award winning Malayalam films occassionally, most of them are of Mohanlal and Mamoothy, And I bet you'll definitely admire their storytelling, they are very original. the best part is their screenplay and the originality of actors. Watch out'Thazhavaram','Kutty Srank','Celluloid - JC Daniel', Mamoothy's'Yathra', Drishyam and many more. Cinema at it's best.
