Bollywood Films and Hollywood Musicals

In the article “Cosmopolitanism, Remediation, and Ghost World of Bollywood” Novak explains how Bollywood’s singing and dancing sequences are an aspect of the narrative that allows people from Indian communities and Indian Diasporas to reimagine their quotidianity (48). The mystery and spontaneity used in Bollywood films during the sequences, for instance characters appearing in different geographical throughout the songs, are characteristics that can also be found in musicals. In both genres this signature “spontaneity” in musical sequences is created through an avid use of bricolage, a cinematographic contraction that creates an illusion of spontaneity.

Although both genres use this technique to create the sense of spontaneity, they differ in the reaction they want to produce in the spectator. In musicals there is continuity in between the acting scenes and the dance/singing numbers; allowing the spectators to always stay sutured in the story world. In the other hand, Bollywood has a deliberate rupture between the story line and their dancing sequences; according to Novak these interruptions in the story line create an specific aesthetic for Indian film that challenges the Hollywood’s aesthetic and help suture the different cultural and geographical audiences these movies cater to.