Last week's #MTOS proved to be quite a revelation for me. When asked why Indian cinema was not as popular around the world as compared to say Korean, majority of the tweeters suggested that excessive dance and music along with thin plot lines was the primary reason. There apparently seems to be a misconception that all that Indian cinema produces is "musicals". Being a proud Indian and a strong supporter of Indian cinema I decided to make a list of movies that either have no dance/song sequences or if they do, it is rather limited.
Now, before I go ahead with the list there are a few points I would like to state;
For me the term Bollywood is quite derogatory. It's a term that is unfortunately used by the people in the industry itself and by journalists, but what it does is mirror the industries western counterpart rather than stating its own individualistic identity.
Also, for the sake of conversation, when I mention Indian Cinema I'm primarily talking about Hindi Cinema. The Indian Film Industry is huge, producing hundreds of movies in a number of regional languages, but my viewing of Indian cinema has till now been limited to Hindi Films.
Lastly, although everyone has the right to their own opinion, but I feel that having 10-15 minutes of song and dance is a two hour plus movie doesn't necessarily make it a musical. As an Indian I can tell you that music and dance are part of our lives and keeping that in mind movies simply reflect our society to an extent.
The reason for this list is not because I think Indian films should be song and dance free. It is merely to showcase that our cinema is extremely diverse and if you look into it a little harder you are likely to find some amazing cinematic gems. I respect everyone's choices and if you in general don't like movies with songs and dance, that is fair. But, to generalize an entire industry based on a misconception would be a great loss for cinema.So, have a read through the list. I did not describe the movies partly because it's rather hard to explain every film, even briefly, and also the fun part about cinema is discovering new films. So I've done the hard part for you and compiled the list, now all you have to do, if interested, is Google/IMDB the movies and give them a try. I guarantee that you will think differently of Indian cinema after watching a few of these movies.
I would obviously love to hear your thoughts before and after the viewings. In fact, if anyone would love to do a guest post for my blog based on their viewings from this list, I'll be more than delighted.
I would also like to thank Mr. Anish Trivedi (@anish_trivedi) who helped me with the list.
The following downloadable list is in no particular order whatsoever;
Indian Movies without (or with very few) Song and Dance Sequences
