(The Music Room, 1958), Devi(The Goddess, 1960),
Charulata (The Lonely Wife, 1964), Shatranj-ke-
Khilari(The Chess Players, 1977), Ghare-Baire(The
Home and the World, 1984), and Agantuk (The
Stranger, 1992).
Ray’s work represented the beginnings of a “new
Indian cinema,” or Parallel Cinema, meaning that it
exists alongside the mainstream commercial indus-
try. Leading this movement were Ritwik Ghatak
and Mrinal Sen, like Ray, Bengalis; unlike Ray,
Marxists. Western audiences are familiar with
their work, primarily because of their political
views, and Ghatak, in particular, influenced several
young Marxist directors. Ghatak’s most distinctive
works are Ajantrik (Pathetic Fallacy, 1958) and Jukti
Takko Aar Gappo (Reason, Debate and Story, 1974).
Sen, the more prolific and experimental of the two,
is best known for Bhuvan Shome(Mr. Shome, 1969),
Parasuram (Man With the Axe, 1978), Kharji(The
Case Is Closed, 1982), Khandaar(The Ruins, 1983),
and Antareen(The Confined, 1993). Shyam Benegal’s
reputation as the most commercially successful
director in the Parallel Cinema is largely due to his
quartet of socially conscious films: Ankur (The
Seedling, 1973), Nishant (Night’s End, 1975), Manthan
(The Churning, 1976), and Bhumika(The Role, 1977).
He created a large body of documentaries, includ-
ing two biographies: Satyajit Ray, Filmmaker(1985)
and Nehru(1985).
The 20 regional cinemas of India—separate
industries in virtually every major state that make
movies in their own language—are marked by a
vibrant diversity of aesthetic styles and political
commitments. In the 1980s, for example, there was
a resurgence of the Malayalam cinema of the state
of Kerala, including films that appealed to an inter-
national audience, particularly Shaji N. Karun’s
Piravi(1989) and Rajiv Anchal’s Guru(1997). Simi-
lar commercial success, both inside and outside
India, has been made by some Tamil and Oriya
films as well as by such commercial Hindi directors
as Mira Nair, Nagsh Kukunoor, Nandita Das, and
Sudhir Mishra. Bollywood has developed a new
genre called Mumbai noir, urban films by such
directors as Anurag Kashyap (Black Friday, 2004)
and Deva Katta (Prasthanam, 2010). Finally, with
such films as Homi Adajama’s Being Cyrus (2005)
and Sooni Taraporevala’s Little Zizou(2009), the
English-language cinema continues to be a part of
India’s multilanguage film industry.1965—1995: The New
American Cinema
Twenty years after the end of the Second World
War, the United States faced political, cultural, and
social challenges that were unprecedented in its
history. It was now the most powerful and influen-
tial country in the world yet locked with the Soviet
Union in a “cold war.” It was also a period of anti-
Communist vehemence, the Korean War, the begin-
nings of the feminist, gay/lesbian/transgender,
and environmental movements; the Vietnam War
and resolute antiwar and civil-rights movements.
There was also an unusually high level of violence,
including the assassinations of President John F.
Kennedy in 1963 and Senator Robert F. Kennedy
and the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968;
the killing of four Kent State University students,
who were protesting the Vietnam War, by the Ohio
National Guard in 1970; assassination attempts on
Presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and Pope
John Paul II; and terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center in 1993 and an Oklahoma City court-
house in 1995. Other major events included the U.S.
landing on the moon, the beginnings of a vibrant pop-
ular music culture, the Watergate crisis and the res-
ignation in disgrace in 1974 of President Richard M.
Nixon, the emergence of the AIDS virus, and the col-
lapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Against such a fast-moving, turbulent back-
ground, it is not surprising that a New American
Cinema emerged. The “new” Hollywood encom-
passes too many transitions from the “old” Holly-
wood to be simply called a movement. In terms of
the changes that affected the American film indus-
try—and the resulting ripples that spread through-
out the international film community—the term
phenomenonis both more accurate and appropriate.
These changes were hastened by the collapse of the
old studio system, which was replaced by scattered
enterprises known as “independent filmmakers.”
This had both negative and positive implications.472 CHAPTER 10FILM HISTORY