In this 21st century, entertainment is the one and only means of providing relaxation to the mind from worries. The most modern version of mass medium for entertainment is cinema. The motion picture has grown with the innovation of technology. With the advent of motion picture entertainment has taken the form of an industry.



The history of filmmaking goes back to the year 1895 when Lumiere brothers of Paris started Projection of films for the Persian public. Earlier filmmakers in Europe and America concentrated more on producing commercial pictures. Up to 1910 to 1920, films in U.K and Hollywood were meant only for entertainment. But films like City light (1931), The Great Dictator and many more made by the great Charlie Chaplin, give a new definition to the world cinema.

We remember Chaplin a little man with a tight jacket and loose pants held up with a string; over size boots and undersized bowler hat. He was the only man who tried to portray the true picture of the underprivileged world. He tries to depict through comedy, a hard core of truth and painful experience of his life.

Changes were also seen in the European films. In the Soviet-Union films were made on First World War. Russian films on Lenin and Russian Revolution tried to bring out in front of his audience the political scenario as well as the social scenario of Russia. Efforts of few famous film makers of the first world country to make film with the hard core realities society and life, given birth to a new category of films, which latter popularized into realistic films for the audience.

In post war Europe, realism was in the air in its film cities, particularly in Italy and France. Writers, who were professed Leftists and made new kinds of films, departing from Hollywood tradition. To match the stories with reality, directors like De Sica, Lattuada and Castellani of Europe took their camera out in the streets and engaged non-actors to play leading roles. These films were shown in Indian cities also after their releases in Europe. These realistic films influenced many young aspirants. The realistic films began its journey in India from Bengal. The internationally acclaimed filmmaker Satyajit Roy was the pioneer of realistic filmmaking. In his first film: Pather Panchali (1955) he worked on the conflict and issues of post independent India in the background of his state of Bengal. There were also few other filmmakers like Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatok who were impressed by Italian, French and Japanese neo-realist films.

This trend of making off beat movies is also seen in other regional movies. The genre of realistic film has given birth to many ace filmmakers in the Indian film industry. Realistic films were made in almost all languages. Realistic film made mostly in Hindi and South Indian languages from time to time but it was Shyam Bengal's debut hindi film Ankur (1973), which started an offbeat wave. This genre of offbeat film was nourished by many big names of Indian film industry like Govind Nihalani, Basu Chatterjee, Ketan Mehta, Mahesh Bhatt, Kalpana Lajmi and Nabendu Ghosh. They pioneered a new path in filmmaking.

In the 21st century this trend of making realistic movies has been kept alive by filmmakers who believe that cinema was the art of the directors, not that of the artistes or technical experts. These offbeat films not only make us aware of the social economic condition prevailing in our society, but also show different aspects of life. The new Indian cinema having great social significance, presenting a modern, humanist point of view in contrast to the fantasy world of popular cinema. We hope that in future the Indian creative minds will keep alive this genre of realistic movies.