Cinema and social change

The essentials

Cinema can reflect society and influence how people think about social issues. In India, parallel cinema (also called new wave or art cinema) arose as an alternative to mainstream commercial films. It focused on realism, ordinary lives and social problems such as poverty, caste, feudal power and gender inequality, often with low budgets and without song-and-dance formulas.

Key points

• Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955) is a landmark of Indian realist cinema.
• Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome (1969) is often seen as starting the new wave in Hindi cinema.
• Shyam Benegal became a leading parallel cinema director with films such as Ankur (1974), Nishant and Manthan (1976).
• Manthan (The Churning) is based on the dairy cooperative (White Revolution) movement in Gujarat led by Dr Verghese Kurien.
• Manthan was funded by about five lakh dairy farmers of the Gujarat cooperative, each contributing two rupees, making it one of the first crowd-funded films in India.
• The film shows a veterinary doctor helping villagers form a milk cooperative and the resistance from a local middleman and caste divisions.
• Manthan was used to spread awareness of cooperatives in other regions.
• Parallel cinema received support from the government's Film Finance Corporation, later the NFDC.

Exam tips

Remember three facts about Manthan: director Shyam Benegal, theme of the milk cooperative movement, and funding by farmers. Questions may ask why it is a model of cinema for social change.

Common mistakes

Parallel cinema is not the same as documentary. Parallel films are fiction features, though realistic in style and theme.