Cultural Communication in Cinematography: a Bollywood Perspective
Cultural Communication in Cinematography:
a Bollywood Perspective
With marketing
becoming the key player in ensuring the success or failure of its product , it
has become imperative for the general public to understand the nuances that
comprise the process and treatment of film- making.
The technical
aspects of films treatment that this paper focuses on is the use of colour in
Indian cinema particularly – red, white and black. Cultural connotations are
linked to these basic colours . Red in its various shades is the colours of the
vermilion used by an Indian woman to exhibit her marital status. Ensurely red
as used in motion pictures ranges from war scenes to romantics. Similarly
though both Hindus and Muslims form the vibrant variants of the Indian
democracy yet the colour white is considered auspicious and pious in Muslims,
in Christians it is the colour of the bridal wear yet in case of Hindus white
symbolises the colour used by widows- hence taboo for the married with living husband.
This contrasts though a matter of cultural identity of these separate religions
has been used innovatively by film makers to evoke emotions which are similar
across all religions and sects.
This paper is a
study of recent box office hits where colour has been used emotively,
intelligently and at times in a crafty manner to evoke sentiments irrespective
of the diversity that Indian population comprises. An analysis of content and
treatment of colour along with usage of lights will be used to evaluate
phenomenon of box office success. Methodology used is content analysis frames
drawn from films belonging to different generas and directed by different film
makers so that any inherent biases can be eliminated.
The usages of
colours as used in psychological and cinematographic aspect have few studies
about association of colour with mood. Emotions are aroused by specific objects
or events whereas mood has no such specific referent. (And usually lasts for a
relatively large period of time).
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