JOIN USRecently, the students of the communicative english department at Jyoti Nivas College celebrated a century years of Indian cinema. Students covered the essence of cinema from different eras and focussed on the time period from 1913 to 2012.
This event was a tribute to the renowned musician R D Burman. The programme started with the song Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko, emphasising the different sounds R D Burman incorporated into his music.
From black and white to technicolour and the present digital age, students had a blast researching and representing the different eras of Bollywood with presentations and charts. The students created timelines of actors, directors and singers. They also touched on the audience’s perspective, production and distribution aspects of cinema over the years.
It was not just about Hindi cinema; they went down memory lane of cinema in other languages such as Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu.
Be it on movies that were based on the freedom struggle or individuals fighting for their own justice; alternative cinema in the 80s or those touching on the empowerment of women, students thoroughly enjoyed the presentations.
Students unveiled some interesting facts about South Indian cinema during the period between 1970 and 1980. Most films during this time were based on classics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata.
“In the 1970s, many films were inspired by classical and mythological characters and then themes like the caste system came into the picture. Die-hard South Indian movie fans enjoyed watching the late actor Rajkumar,” explains Chetana Lobo. “Also, during this era, South Indian cinema concentrated on family-centric drama and a lot of poems were converted into songs.”
The period from 1980 to 90s was considered to be the golden age of South Indian cinema. Students focussed on Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Ratnam and Bharathan Padmarajan and their works.
“It was very interesting to find out that My Dear Kuttichathan was the first 3D Malayalam film which was made in 1984. We also touched on remakes of South Indian films in Bollywood. We had a lot of fun during the research” says Indu R.
Students enthusiastically presented the scope of cinema post the year 2000. They spoke about how cinema has changed over the years and how the audience’s perspective has widened.
“We enveloped a lot of information with regards to music, dance, technicalities like editing and dubbing, actors, production houses, distribution, audience and how Hindi movies started to receive global recognition during this time,” explains Aalankreetaa Roy.
“We prepared a powerpoint presentation and distributed handmade pamphlets for people who like it brief.”
The event ended with a flash mob dancing to the song Piya Tu Ab Toh Aaja.