Tradition and the New... Can They Ever Mix Together?

In every society, there is a struggle between the ideals of modern and traditional aspects of the culture. However, in the Indian society, it seems prevalent especially with the arts and entertainment industry. This is evident in many cases , for example , the difference in movies. Traditionally, movies portrayed an innocent love story, emphasizing the morals of Indian society, with things such as arranged marriages and respect of elders.  An example of this, would be in the movie “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham” where the story of a man not being able to marry the woman he loved due to her standing in society, and therefore was not approved by his parents. He was forced to go to an extreme, and leave his parents, where the respect and importance of the Hindu religion was the only thing that held them together. However, in modern day Bollywood Cinema, these ideals do not hold the standing that they once did. Though the film industry does portray this well, other liberal arts such as singing and dancing have also taken a turn. The religiously significant dance of Bharatnatyam has become a fading art for new styles of dancing, adapted to fit modern culture. Once completely modest clothing has now become a lack of it, and has changed the Hindu culture’s image. The conflict between modern and traditional continues to this very day, and perhaps there is truly no solution.

http://www.allindiansite.com/home/pre/img/the_king_of_bollywood.jpg

In this image you can clearly see that both tradition and new ideas were mixed into this film. The main actress in this film is wearing the traditional Indian clothes, showing the traditional aspect. Furthermore, the main actor is wearing modern clothes that we see people wearing today, showing the modern aspect of this film. In fact, this movie is about an old Bollywood actor, the man, and the woman acts as a film director of Indian origin. The movie script is also about the mix of ancient and new ideas. 

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/dhoom2.jpg                                        vs.                       http://www.mun.ca/film/image/2002f/monsoon-wedding.jpg

 http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/4008/image51aj6qw3.jpg                                          http://www.cinema.com/image_lib/6970_heading.jpg

These two movies showing the difference between the modern side and the traditional side of the film industry. Monsoon Wedding is the movie that shows the traditional side of the industry. It shows the traditional aspects by the traditional clothing and the tradition of having a traditional, arranged marriage. Monsoon Wedding is compared with Dhoom:2, the movie that shows the modern aspects of this industry. This is shown with their modern clothing, that can be seen anywhere in America today and the dancing that is modern because of its more outgoing and less traditional moves. These two different movies shows the difference between the modern and traditional movies that Bollywood produces.

Works Cited:

http://www.emba.uvm.edu/~jbzurn/bollywood/bollywoodmovies.html

Dialogue (between mother and daughter)

Mother would like to watch 'Silsila' which is an old movie that shows conservative morals and ideas. However, the daughter would like to watch 'Dhoom 2' which is a more modern and liberal movie that goes against conservative belieifs.

Daughter: I set up Dhoom 2... We can start watching whenever you are ready!

Mother: What?!!! I thought that we were going to watch Silsila, a wonderful and thrilling movie!

Daughter: I refuse to watch such a conservative movie! That is not how the world acts today!

Mother: Silsila is an amazing movie! And why would you want to watch that inappropriate movie, with all that kissing, modern dancing, and loud music?

Daugther: Because Dhoom 2 depicts how the world is today! People do kiss in the real world, and they dance and they listen to loud music.

Mother: I cannot believe that you like those type of movies! What would your grandparents say? I forbid you to watch Dhoom 2, and any other movie that contains the same liberal and inappropriate ideas!

Daughter: What? You can't force me to watch some old movie, where they were very ancient clothes and promote very conservative and old beliefs! If you won't let me watch Dhoom 2, then I won't even watch a movie with you!

Mother: Fine! Go to your room, and you can only come back down here when you rethink your beliefs and ideas.

Daughter: Yeah right, like cheating on your wife is part of someone with good ideals.

Mother: Shame on you, dont talk to back to me, if you continue like this you wont ever see a TV screen at all.

Daughter: The ideals of Dhoom 2 are more modern, and suit the young mind much more appropriately than in Silsila, where the morals could be argueably, just as poor, yet a much less entertaining movie is formed.

Mother: That's it, to your room now!

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