I learnt something new today! Learning is fun!
In case you know me in reality, probably you would know my deep interest in films. I also keenly follow film critics and Margaret Redlich from DontCallitBollywood being my favorite.
I learnt that Indian films, generally speaking follow the protagonist throughout his/her entire life, highlighting all the key events of his/her life. A character is often given a childhood flashback sequence. The audience understands the characters present motivation through explicit monologues, often present in that childhood sequence. This is the oral tradition.
American films on the other hand follow a more novelistic tradition. Films often follow the character through a significant episode in his/her life and not through the characterโs entire life. The characterโs motivation and thoughts are unbundled slowly throughout the entire film. Its only when a motivation is revealed much later that a characterโs earlier actions start making sense. Itโs like first reading the sixth novel of Harry Potter series and not completely understanding something and then years later stumbling into the first novel of the series and then you go โah! I see where that was coming from.โ
In order to highlight my points, let me take two examples. First is the 1981 Hindi film Umrao Jaan and the second is the 2015 Hollywood film Age of Adaline.
Umrao Jaan follows the oral tradition and follows the protagonist (played by Rekha) throughout her entire life. At the age of 11 or 12, she is kidnapped by a man who had a grudge against her father and sold to a brothel in Lucknow. She befriends another kidnapped girl while in the kidnapperโs custody. Once in Lucknowโs brothel, she goes through intensive training in performing arts to become a refined tawaif. The audience follows her relationship with her first patron (played by Farooq Sheikh) whom she falls in love with, her relationship with her madameโs son (who is also her pimp), her fleeing away from the brothel with another patron who claimed to be a king but turned out to be a bandit, her return to the brothel, her escape from the brothel again as the 1857 revolt breaks out, her reunion with her family who presumed her to be dead and denounce her once they discover she is a tawaif and then her final return to the brothel that is left looted and deserted post 1857.
Everything is told in a chronological way and when a new twist comes the audience is just as shocked as Rekha because they did not see it coming. For instance, her first patron Farooq Sheikh is married to her friend from the kidnapping days. She is shocked to see them married but her relationship with Farooq was never hidden from the audience.
Now look at the Age of Adaline, Adaline (played by Blake Lively) stops aging at the age of 29 due to an accident. This is the key event (and its aftermath) that the film covers, it actually does not attempt to cover Adalineโs entire life, just this significant event and its consequences that shaped her life. By that time, she is already a widow with a small daughter. Throughout her life, she meets people and keeps losing them because she outlives them all. Then, she meets Ellis and falls in love with him. He introduces her to his family, and she discovers that his father is her former lover! This piece of information is brand new to the audience because we have no details of her courtship with Ellisโ father. But while she is definitely shocked to see him again, she very much is aware of her relationship with him in the past.
So these are my learnings today. Let me know what you think about all of this. Anything you would like to add? Disagree with?