Contribution of Last Few Decades to Modern Indian Cinema

The are commonly associated with modern Indian cinema is said to have begun in 1970's when commercial cinema came forth as a means of entertainment for the masses and this continues with the new Indian movies today. Though directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihilani and others kept the flame of art cinema alive, the commercial cinema surpassed the artistic cinema by leaps and bounds.

The heavy commercialization of the cinema continued in 1980's and 1990's. With the release of movies like Kayamat se Kayamat Tak, Chandni, Tezaab and Maine Pyaar Kiya in 1980's and Darr, Baazigar and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in 1990's, the trend of romantic cinema held ground. These mushy romantics were mostly love stories of young couples with a happy ending. Some of these movies were huge blockbusters and broke box office records.

The trend of romantic movies continued in late 1990's and early 2000's with the release of super romantics like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. However, late 1990's also witnessed resurgence of parallel cinema with movies like Satya, Chandni Bar and Traffic Signal getting a lot of critical acclaim. These new Indian movies were a welcome break from the romantics that were releasing every Friday and left lasting impressions on minds of India cinema audience.

The dismal performance of recent big budget movies like Veer and Main aur Mrs. Khanna and unexpected success of small budget movies like Dev D has set the new age Bollywood directors and producers thinking.

The latest trend in the Bollywood movies is experimentation with the subject matter of the story. Movies like Three Idiots and My Name is Khan have experimented with new subjects and have been hugely successful. The new Indian movies are bringing in a fresh new experimental wave of cinema, which is being more than welcomed by the India cinema audience.