Indian Parallel Cinema: its emergence

‘English August’, ‘Split wide open’, ‘Drohkal’ to the newly released much talked’ Peepli Live’. All these are a new breed of movies, which are popularly categorized or bunched as ‘parallel cinema’. So what exactly is this parallel cinema concept and how did it come into existence, or how has it progressed and advanced in path with the Indian film industry? Let’s talk about it.

Cinema was and has been the most popular form and medium of entertainment in our country, and thanks to the global market, it has now become a huge lucrative industry. Through the film industry’s travel over a span of 65 years, it has experienced lots of innovations, turn arounds, applauds and criticism. Cinema has in fact been one of the very few forms in our country which has brought out and nurtured a wide range of creative people from an array of fields- composers, singers, actors, scriptwriters, dramatists, painters, more and more.

Now coming to parallel cinema. Before we start our main discussion, let us limit ourselves to the main film industry that is Bollywood. Yes, we do have regional film industries where parallel and alternative form of film making exists, but that is too complex a subject I guess for a single blog post. So as I was telling, if we look into the past history of Bollywood, we will easily see that the roots of parallel cinema were already planted long ago. Thanks to the changing scenario, that tree is now getting adequate care to spread its branches.

According to Rahul Bose, “parallel cinema has always been a tool for portraying the realities of life, but in a way that is understandable to the audience’. It fact it was this absence of realism in popular mainstream cinema, which led to the rise of an alternative genre of film making. It was in the 1950s, that somewhat marked the beginning of parallel cinema. India, that time, was a fresh nation, free from the shackles of British rule and was trying to set its feet on the global industrial and political scale. The changing socio-economic-political scenario created ferment in the film genre and raised post colonial issues like poverty, feudal social system and so on. With P.C. Barua’s ‘Devdas’, with the matchless, K.L Sehgal as the tragic, a new form of cinema came into existence.

Likewise in Bombay, directors like Sohrab Modi, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and Santa Ram started experimenting with films, along with the ones produced by Phabhat and Bombay Talkies studios. The folk tradition too was richly portrayed, with a blend of the contemporary social context in Raj Kapoor’s ‘Awara’ and ‘Shree 420’.  All these films brought out the class divide that was still in vogue in the then Indian society, in a simple yet sophisticated manner. Another milestone in parallel Indian cinema was ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ by Bimal Roy. The great film which dealt with the proletarisation of Indian peasantry had Balraj Sahni, who gave an absolutely memorable performance.

The social questioning and curiosity turned into disillusionment and tragic romanticism during the end of the decade.  This haunting tragic poetic romanticism was evident in Guru Dutt’s ‘Kagaz ke Phool’ and ‘Pyaasa’. Dutt provided a new dimension to Hindi parallel cinema, along with soulful melody, excellent camera work (including use of shades) and his own exceptional acting.   

The next two decades saw the establishment of a number of film institutions like Film Archives of India and Film and Television Institute, which made Indian parallel cinema more meaningful. A new breed of talented directors, actors, and film personalities passed out from these places and contributed to the growth of this genre of movie making. Directors like Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, Gulzar, Adoor Gopalkrishnan, Sekhar Kapoor, Basu Chatterjee, Saeed Mirza, Ketan Mehta and others tried out new cinematic ideas, and were complemented by talented actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, and Kulbhusan Kharbanda and so on. Some notable films made in this period were Bhumika, Ankur, and Maasoom, to name a few. 

To conclude, it can be said that Indian parallel cinema has today made itself a well known cinematic form of expression in the country. Although not so popular like its mainstream counterpart, it is widely accepted among a certain section of educated audience. Parallel cinema, has in fact proved its point and is all set to flourish in the future.