Our popular culture is shaped by Indian Cinema by reflecting our culture from fashion to lifestyle as the temporal and physical distances reduce.
The common values and themes determine the popularity of the culture any society which has tendency to grow and develop. We can see our culture in Indian Cinema as cinema features the social values, norms, beliefs and customs of a society. Culture itself is dynamic and constant changing in a gradual manner as a society goes on with time. But the implication of culture assumes different meaning too. Since the first movie Raja Harishchandra released in 1913, our culture has undergone lots of changes.
The Indian cinema has always displayed largely the belief of the people and the future course of the society. The movies such as Pyaasa and Do Bigha Zamin reflect the incidents of our society like exploitation of labourers by zamindars, after the British regime, the vibrant culture that throve on kinship and family, and the dire poverty. Gandhian and Nehruvian ethics predominantly influence these movies of the preindependence era. The major and heart piercing happenings of our society were viewed on the silver screen clearly. Superstition grew in parallel as it was in the past and movies were produced based on mythologies like Jai Santoshi Maa which emphasises honesty and idol worship
As the political conditions of India changed, society underwent some changes, especially during the emergence of Mrs. Indira Gandhi in power, contemporary problem of unemployment and emergency imposed on the people. Movies like Zanzeer and Deewaar reflected the way of integrity in such disorder; showed the anger of honest working class; the suppressed ambitions of the young people and frustration and rage against the corrupt system. With an angry young man the anger of crowd was reflected in the cinema. At this critical juncture of the social as well as cinema of India, there emerged superstar like Amitabh Bachchan, who voiced for the mass and the mass resounded his voice.
The death of Rajiv Gandhi influenced the political as well as Indian cinema. After his death, the uncertainty of the country was viewed on the screen. The cinema declined with the deterioration of the social situations of India. The movies of the new millennium produced newer narratives into public domain. Rang De Basanti, released in 2005, reflected the power of youth and newer patterns of protest. Many national protests across the nation were inspired by the protest with candles in hand at India Gate. Recently released movies like Namastey London, reflected rare change in backdrop since 1970s when Purab and Pashchim, starred by Manoj Kumar, showed the differences between western and native Indian culture sarcastically. The movie like, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag shows the life of the hero who made India proud in their field of struggle on the screen. The popularity of the films gave us the demographic record of our country because maximum people in the 19–45 years of working age could reproduce with these stories especially on the path of dedication and hard work.
The movies like, Taare Zameen Par, Stanley ka dabba, etc. reflected new types of understanding on child psychology as well as problems of children. This highlights the evolution of our culture through cinema. The economic growth of India was more than 8 per cent for few years and nation could afford more, there is more scope for executing research on the unexplored areas and producing grand budget movies like Jodha Akbar indicates us the economy development and bearing power of people because of growth. Once there was a time when the north and south were considered different domains. But as the actors from Bollywood started working with Tollywood as well as Kollywood this distance reduced. This indicated the growth of the people’s wisdom transcending the frontiers of the regions. It has proved to be an instance to represent the relevant values and lifestyle of society.
Cinema as the popular mode of media has also played a critical role to shape our culture as we learn many things from this popular resource. The facts of reflection and influence were not important as the popularity of our culture by means of cinema. Indian cinema is mirrors happenings of society while it lefts minimal modification or influence on the popular culture.