12 Days of christmas

So this is my last blog, and before we all leave for christmas here is an Indian Goodbye. Enjoy!

Music Video

After watching the OK Go video in class I was really amazed at all their work they had put into the making of the video. Its really amazing watching their final product. I looked through more music videos by other band until I came to this one. It's called 'Good Life' by one republic. I really like their music video for this song. It was a really nice concept that they managed to pull of very well. And it's just a really nice song.

3 idiots

As I have said before, many bollywood movies contain a lot of cultural meaning. The following movie is probably the best example that I can think of. It was made to address the issue of the educational system in india. In India the value of education is respected. And the best possible thing that a son or a daughter could do is become a doctor or an engineer. So a kid his whole life would be give those two options to chose from. Other jobs have no value as they are not as high paying. So parents force their kids to get into universities and pursue a career from between the two. However due to the number of people in india, the number of admissions are very limited. Thus there is high competition, Very high competition. Kids would study their entire youth for these entrance exams. And if they don't pass, A lot tend to commit suicide. This movie focuses on this exact issue. How parents in india need to allow their kid to chose their career path. It was a brilliant film and well executed.

Bollywood Meets Hollywood

We're not only seeing the beginning of international celebrities in bollywood, but also bollywood celebrities in international films. And a good example is Slum Dog Millionaire. It is hollywood production, not bollywood. And the dancing is just plain horrible...But getting to my point, We saw many Bollywood actors in the movie, But since it was based india it should have, right. So lets move on to another example. Pink Panther 2. A very famous indian actress, Ashwaria Rai plays Sonia Solandres! Another example of this is the Tv series 24. the same actor who play the host of slum dog, plays a middle eastern authority figure in this show

Hollywood meets Bollywood Cont'd

Yet another example of the merging of the two cultures.

Bollywood meets hollywood continued

Here is another example of the merging of the two film industries. its really Akon singing a bollywood song! And he sings it in hindi which is really impressive.

Bollywood Meets Hollywood.

Over the last few years, Bollywood has seen an increase in the amount of international celebrity that appear and act and sing in their movies. In movie that came out a few years ago, released by Bollywood, I was surprised to see the following actors Sylvester Stallone, Denise Richards, Brandon Routh and Holly Valance. It was really interesting to see new, international faces in Bollywood productions. Its exciting to see what the future hold for the indian film industry.

Darjeeling Limited

his is an independent movie that i've been wanting to watch for a very long time. I have only seen a little bit of the actual movie but could not actually sit and watch the whole thing. From what I had seen it portrayed india really well, at least the rural and more cultural part of it, which happens to be the majority of india.



T I would recommend to you guys to watch this movie as you'll have a better perspective of what india and the culture there is like( Yes, slum dog millionare did not show all of india). And as far as I know there is no dancing in it! And its got hollywood actors that most of you'll be able to relate to!

Bollywood Dancing Continued.

The Following video is till now the most well known music video in india. There are multiple reasons behind that, One being that the main dancer is the most famous indian actress know in india, Katrina Kaif. This music video came out a month before the movie to promote it. Even though the movie turned out to be a flop, they earned back all they had spent in the making of the movie. And the sole reason being because this actress was dancing in it. Even though the movie was a flop, the music video turned out to be very popular. No matter where you go in india, If they know bollywood, they know this song and video.
Funnily this video might offend some of you due to the various moves and implications, but it was accepted by most people in india as an appropriate video!

Bollywood Dancing

Above is a clip from a bollywood movie. Interestingly enough the song/dance has nothing to do with the plot of the movie. It is somehow incorporated into the movie though. These type of musical dance videos are referred to 'Item Songs' in india. The reason they are put in there are so that they can promote the movie, thus generating a higher revenue. They usually have a very famous actress, wearing revealing clothing( not for american standard though), dancing.

G.O.S.P.E.L Propaganda

A friend of mine sent me this link



What I really found interesting about this video is that it manages to keep you attention really well. It is a really simple concept that was well thought and edited.

Hurt

A few weeks back we watched a rendition of Jonny Cash’s song ‘Hurt’. Since then I have watched it many times and every time I just cannot believe the power in his words. This song just goes to prove his ability to make powerful songs. His voice was not the best I’ve heard, but it definitely complimented the song as he seems to be singing with sincerity and with great sadness. I loved how the video was edited, in the way that there was really good shot of him singing the song and all of a sudden you see personal footage on screen, Even though it was amateur footage it multiplied the effect the video had on the watcher. Another really great scene I though was when he was pouring the wine on all his records. It was hard to know at first what he meant, but after some thought you begin to figure out how everything he did/ he lost was not worth it.

Like Crazy

A month ago I went all the way to Indiana to watch an indie movie. I had heard about it once before a long while back. the movie was about a British college student who falls for an American student, only to be separated from him when she's banned from the U.S. after overstaying her visa. The movie had a really simple storyline, But it was pulled of really well. Many of the scenes were really well and It had a brilliant ending ,Sorta like the one at the end of inception( it gives the audience the decision on how it ends) . However there are a few problem with the movie, But I would just ruin the movie by stating them here.
I am not a die hard fan of romantic movies, But I don't mind watching them. And this was definitely a movie worth watching.
As far as sexual content went, There was hardly any due to the PG-13 rating.
Despite some issues with its structure and choice of focus, Like Crazy is yet and still one of the best modern day love stories to come along in the last few years.

Where The Hell Is Matt?

The following is a really amazing video I found on youtube a few years ago. It's just a really pleasant video to watch. The video is the product of 14 months of traveling in 42 countries!! The background music/song of this video is known as "Praan" composed by Garry Schyman. Interestingly enough the background music was taken from an Indian poem "Stream of Life," a part of the Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore, a very famous indian poet.



And the first shot has been taken at mumbai(the worst looking place in the whole video)- must remind you guys of slum dog millionaire.

Our Group Project

The following is our group project. The effects were done in Adobe After Effects

Indian Animation

The film industry in india has had a very long history. However we are still our infancy stage when it comes to animation. Many of the animated movies that I have seen are not impressive as they try to copy what walt disney or pixar do, in the way it is rendered, but have a very useless storyline. There is though a very bright future for animation as tv shows for children. When I was growing up I was being exposed to the classic cartoon, e.g tom and jerry, whacky racers etc. I saw the progress from the western cartoon to the japanese style cartoons. Nowadays I can see the progression from Japanese style cartoons to indian cartoons. Like many live action movies made in india, these cartoon shows preserve the history of india. They revolve around myths and stories of hindu gods. And many times it is really scary to see the impact they have on children. My 5 year old sister knows more about hinduism than she does about christianity. Which goes to how the strength of children's media. I hope to see someday some christian children's media being played on indian television, but that day will not be anytime soon.

(The image is a still from a cartoon called Young Krishna, a hindu god)

Tollywood!

As I previously mentioned, The video in the previous post is not work of Bollywood. It is the work of the south indian movie industry called tollywood! (I know, it keeps getting worse) The only reason I know about this guy is because of his infamous cheezy fighting scenes as well as the constant news about him being the highest paid actor in india, and the second highest in asia after jakie chan! For a long time I had wondered why he was paid so much. I mean he’s a 60 year old man who portrays 25 year olds in his movies! And I don’t think he’s that charming of an actor! So why?

The more I though about it the more I realized that he is famous because in many of his movies( never seen any, but have heard) he is always a ‘hero figure’ defeating all the enemies and the south Indians absolutely love it! What ever he does is really fake but he does whatever he is doing for a moral and just cause! And if that is the case than anything goes. Below is a preview of a movie which last year was indias most expensive movie.

This movie was so famous that an opening night ticket was priced at around $25. Also if you didn’t notice but there is a Bollywood actress called ashwaria rai in it who happened to act in the movie pink panther 2! She was Sonia!

Tunak Tunak Tun (cont'd)

Many times I refer to North India when I talk about Bollywood. The reason being Bollywood is only one of the many indian cinemas there are. Due to the various numbers of dialects in india, almost each group has its own industry. Since hindi is a language spoken by many, Bollywood happens to be the most popular compared to the rest. Due to its popularity it also happens to be the most advanced movie industry in india, In terms of film techniques and its realism. However as I have mentioned before, many indian viewers are the middle class, they tend to look for meaning and culture more than anything else.(This is rapidly changing as the youth culture in india becomes more westernized. ) So most viewers at this point don’t look to realism and film techniques as much as they do for meaning and culture.

And this is taken to the extreme for the south indian movie industry. The effect on the west on south india is not nearly as much as it is in north india( Bollywood). Thus their movies heavily concentrate on meaning and culture. And since meaning and culture come from religion(at least in india-Hinduism) many old Bollywood movies, and recent south indian movies concentrate heavily on a powerful ‘hero’ figure in many movies. An example is shown below.

You might find this hilarious. However south Indians don’t. They want to believe it! No matter how unrealistic it is, they love it!

Tunak Tunak Tun

It's funny how many times I've seen this video here in the US. Never before had I ever seen this video, Even in India! Anywhere I go someone somehow brings it up and we'll both have a good laugh. I do find this video extremely lame and cheesy and really hilarious! However this video has no connection to Bollywood! As many people like to believe.

Music Videos made here in america usually have no connection to hollywood. So why is this video assumed to have connections with Bollywood?

I figured maybe because of the dancing!, Horrible editing etc.

So over the next few blogs I shall reveal to you more about the Indian Movie industry starting with the video, Tunak Tunak Tun.

The Dancer in the video is also the artist of the song played in the background. His name is Daler Mendhi, A very popular artist in North India, particularly in the state of Punjab(Where I live!)

His music was really famous during the 90's and early 21st century. His music was being played almost everywhere!

The music video 'Tunak Tunak Tun' was made as a response to critics who complained that Mehndi's music was only popular due to his videos that featured beautiful women dancing.

So Daler Mendhi decided to make a music video with only himself in it.

The video was an instant hit all over North India. The video had a lot odd concepts and horrible effects, but 'special effects' like that were actually a 'new thing' in india when this music video was made back in 1998. Unlike here people actually took the video seriously!

Music Videos made in North India nowadays are much different, and an example is the video below. It just came out last year in Punjab. Like Daler Mendhi's song 'Tunak Tunak Tun' the song in the video below was an instant hit in North India.

It might not be anything great, but it goes to show that we have moved on from the 'Tunak Tunak Tun' era.

I was browsing through vimeo for some random work that might just inspire me. I then came across this one video. Its called the Memory Tapes 'Yes I Know' . It was really interesting how it was done. I didn't really catch onto anything thought provoking apart from the effects used. I didn't bother finding the making of this video, but it did make me think of ways the particular effect might be achieved.