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A Brief History of Cinema from Bombay to ‘Bollywood’
Author(s) -
Bhaumik Kaushik
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2004.00087.x
Subject(s) - movie theater , exhibition , romance , popularity , entertainment , adventure , art , dance , realism , visual arts , history , art history , literature , psychology , social psychology
The Bombay film industry began in 1896 with the exhibition of imported films and soon diversified into production of feature‐length films. Adventure romance films dominated the silent period. With the onset of the talkies, romantic melodrama mixed with social realism dominated by music became the principal film genre of Bombay cinema. This cinema is thought to have reflected the social reformist agenda of the Nehruvian state. The 1970s saw the advent of the multi‐generic entertainment extravaganza replete with dramatic dialogue and spectacular song and dance sequences (popularly referred to as masala films). The masala film continues to dominate Bombay film production and has, since the 1990s, assumed global popularity.