History Of Indian Cinema

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A brief history of Cinema:
No one person invented cinema. However, in 1891 the Edison Company in the USA successfully demonstrated a prototype of the Kinetoscope, which enabled one person at a time to view moving pictures. The first to present projected moving pictures to a paying audience (i.e. cinema) were the Lumière brothers in December 1895 in Paris. At first, films were very short, sometimes only a few minutes or less. They were shown at fairgrounds and music halls or anywhere a screen could be set up and a room darkened. Subjects included local scenes and activities, views of foreign lands, short comedies and events considered newsworthy. The films were accompanied by lecturers, music and a lot of …show more content…

But the pioneers of the industry were actually foreigners. In 1896, the Lumiere brothers demonstrated the art of cinema when they screened Cinematography consisting of six short films to an enthusiastic audience in Bombay. The success of these films led to the screening of films by James B. Stewart and Ted Hughes.
In 1897, Save Dada made two short films, but the fathers of Indian cinema were Dada Saheb Phalke who in 1913 made the first feature length silent film and Ardeshir Irani who in 1931 made India's first talking film.
With the demise of the silent era and the advent of the talkies, the main source for inspiration for films came from mythological texts. Films were produced in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. Mythology flourished more in South India where its social conservative morals equated film acting to prostitution. But by the 1930’s, word had spread around the world about the vibrant film industry in India and foreigners with stars in their eyes landed upon Bombay …show more content…

Basically the birth of modern Indian Film industry took place around 1947. The period witnessed a remarkable and outstanding transformation of the film industry. Notable filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, and Bimal Roy made movies which focused on the survival and daily miseries of the lower class. The historical and mythological subjects took a back seat and the films with social messages began to dominate the industry. These films were based on themes such as prostitution, dowry, polygamy and other malpractices which were prevalent in our

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