>   Indigenous films do get made in large numbers in India, they have
> audiences to see them and do make enough money. Many of them, even some
> of the song-and-dances romantic ones that somebody mentioned in this
> thread, are often slickly and competently produced. Still, how many are
> ever shown in the US?
>
>    Satyajit Ray is far more popular in Europe than in the US, and so are a
> host of
> other Indian filmmakers who choose to make films about their own country
> rather than cater to the American's vision of an exotic land called
> 'India'.
 
Therefore, there are [at least] 3 Indias in cinema: the India of
American fantasy (e.g. Indiana Jones), the India of Indian fantasy (the
song-and-dance films), and Ray's view of the "real" India.
 
I'm surprised Ray isn't popular in India; I had thought he was cultural
hero there. The popularity of the song-and-dance movies, however,
certainly does reveal something about the Real India, since it's Real
Indians who support these extravaganzas.  My intuition is that this
version of India holds the same place in the Indian psyche as the 6-day
Edo Dynasty flicks hold in Japanese culture and the 3-day Westerns hold
in the U.S.A.
 
Please comment on this. After all, it's impossible to know if such
analogies are worth anything without the comments of someone who's
there.
 
Paul E. Clinco
 
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