Analyzing Bollywood Films Through Cultural Anthropology

This essay provides a cultural anthropology analysis of the Bollywood film 'Hum Apke Hai Kaun,' exploring its success through the lens of ritual and cultural context. It examines how the film reflects and reinforces South Asian cultural themes, including religion, tradition, and social practices. The analysis delves into the film's visual, auditory, and thematic content, highlighting the presence of religious and Hindu elements, such as darshan, Prasad, and various rituals associated with life cycles and marriage. The essay also discusses how the film's narrative structure and reception contribute to its popularity, drawing on scholarly articles to provide a comprehensive understanding of the film's cultural significance and its impact on popular culture. The study emphasizes the importance of the film's structural elements, rituals and their reception in the success of the film.

Running head: CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
Cultural Anthropology
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Philip Lutgendorf has analyzed the film Hum Apke Hai Kaun when he wanted to approach a
greater way of thinking about ethnicity and diversity. He wanted to indulge in the recurring
themes and patterns that added to the flavor of South Asian culture. This has become easy for
Philip as he is an outsider, a European. Indian popular films have a patent traditional flavor
which can be easily recognized. This can be identified even by those Anglo- Americans who surf
through the TV channels. These films possess a unique characteristic which can be easily seen
and felt in a different way (Holbraad, Pedersen and de Castro 2014). Some scholar had said that
he had seen American, Japanese, French and African films which almost convey the same kind
of messages but the Indian films belong to a different universe. But the experienced people are
acquainted with the fact that the new viewers are not interested in the films of this universe and
they are received with negative responses. They raise a complaint that the films look kind of
similar in that universe. They have said that the Indian films are lengthy, have the same pot,
indecent and loud music, amalgamation of all kind of story in one, do not convey any specific
message and merely a clone of the Hollywood movies. These complaints are also raised by the
English critics. They are aware of the fact that most people outside the continent actually enjoy
the difference between these films. For the south Asian countries, the standard story telling of
religion, history, ethics and literature had expanded in the colonialism period of the elite class
among the British and Indians. Due to the asymmetrical shape of power in the collaboration of
Indian and British, there was an amendment in the narrative and story- telling plot that was
created. In spite of the efforts of to protest and raise question against the contemporary form of
Hinduism, caste system, language, and most distinguished Indian form of social organization.
Euro- American intellectual hegemony has a great role to play in the realm of film and literature.
India has been by far represented by Satyajit Ray and all the musicals related to him (Lutgendorf

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2015). This large and great influential piece of art, music and literature, once ignored, has now
been under the scanner of scholarly articles. Systematic alignment and audacious suggestion is
such that this different universe might be able to make a shift by introducing new methods of
spacious cultural and innovative way of thinking. This is possible only if the universe is totally
different. The practices and conventions are observed in the Indian cultural environment- with
respect to the verbal idioms, body language and ubiquitous iconography. Thus they can be
learned again generation after generation without much effort, though their specific forms are
given at a moment of time subject to the outside influence and historical contingency. The hybrid
form of Indian popular cinema is a proverbial feature which with its pastiche and parody of the
international cultural forms and practices (Joshi and Dudrah 2016).
The essay analyses the highly popular and successful film of the Bollywood, Hum aapke
hai kaun . The unexpected success of the film lies on the structuring of ritual and its situation in
the context of production and reception. It also considers the nature and behavior which implies
the form of participatory practice that the films encouraged. Popular bollywood films have such
visual, audible, aural and thematic content that can be considered religious or more specifically
Hindu. These contents have dominated the narratives of the cinema in its historic base as films of
various genres are named as mythological and devotional from the major production of the first
decade of Indian silent cinema. Although the labels have been changed and the comparison
between mythologies in the second decade of the bollywood cinema, religious content-
sometimes expressed through ritual- has been an identical feature of popular films
(Rajadhyaksha 2014). Taking darshan, receiving Prasad and performing arti in the home temples,
women receiving the men with a thali which consists of a lit lamp and the mark on the fore head;
also the seasonal and life cycle rites and rituals like the Holi, Diwali, Karva Chauth; rituals of

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marriage and death- all refer to the motifs of popular films which represent certain conventions.
The common utilizations include changing of mood, developing a character, suggestion of the
passage of time, for example the constant ringing of the of the temple bell made Deewar a hit in
1975 which symbolizes the 20 years lapse in the life cycle of the main characters. In this film,
the scene of a suffering mother’s darshan at a shiva temple and the related sequences portray the
climax where the son sacrifices his life for the mother. The most popular structured hindi films
moistly revolve around the religious concept (Lutgendorf 2015). They might be classified in
different genres but they have some striking similarities and differences as well. As all the films
have enjoyed that might be considered phenomenal in the opinion of the audience who reacted
positively and negatively. The effect on the popular culture has been long lasting and each of
them has become a subject to critical literature. The focus on the religious aspect of this film has
a narrative as well as prescriptive manner. Within this film the showcasing of ritual scenes is
important for the opening of the plot. These practices have a satisfactory resolution and the
reception of the films have been largely emulated in terms of religious reviewing of the films.
The focus on one of the less appreciated dimension of the film, there can be an argument that
suggests that the popularity is mainly dependent on the structural element. With the close
examination of few scenes from the film, the existing scholarly articles can be reviewed by
putting a comparatively greater emphasis on the cinematic dimension of the film texts that will
deliver a similar compelling message to the audience. The unusual success of the film lies on the
individual scripts and associated imitation both by ritual review and practice (Jaikumar 2017).

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