S1xEp5: Cinema of West Bengal

12/09/19 • 52 min

Welcome back to a new episode of Parde Ke Peeche! So far, we have focused on the development & popularization of Hindi cinema in India. However, just as there is no one language in India, there is no ONE cinema in India.
For today’s episode, we explore how Bengali Cinema culture, with its focus on social realism & consciousness, emerged during the same time as popular cinema and how the stalwarts of post-independence Bengali cinema broke conventions of popular Indian cinema.

Opening Clip: Interview of Satyajit Ray with Kevin Thomas, LA Times, 1977.

Opening Clip: Interview of Satyajit Ray with Kevin Thomas, LA Times, 1977.

Previous Episode

S1xEp4: Desi Diaspora Le Jayenge - A Journey Through Hindi Cinema ( Pt 3 of 3)

The final episode of our three-part series exploring Hindi cinema's transition to Bollywood. In the first two episodes we looked at how India transitioned from a post-colonial country in the late fourties & early fifties, to a tumultuous era of political oppression in the seventies.

With today’s episode we are finally examining how the liberalization of Indian economy in the nineties, coincided with the release of films such as Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Pardes, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, and how the Non Resident Indian (NRI) market became a key demographic for those films.

Released: September 6, 2019
Intro & Outro music: Sourced from royalty-free sites.
Films Mentioned & Dialogue Clips from:
- Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Aditya Chopra, 1995)
- Purab aur Paschim (Manoj Kumar, 1970)

Next Episode

S1xEp6: Top 5 Films of 2019 (Hindi Cinema)

WELCOME BACK to a new episode of Parde Ke Peeche! For the first episode of 2020 we decided to look back, and discuss our favourite Bollywood films from 2019. Even though Bollywood did not have the best of years, hosts Raeesa Farooqi & Ankur Desai narrowed their FIVE favourites from 2019, discussing why those films stood out from the rest, their likes & dislikes about each film, and what they would like to see from Bollywood in the coming year!