Kabuki Film Studies

Kabuki is a traditional Japanese popular drama which includes singing and dancing with good Mixture of music, dances, it has been a major theatrical form in Japan from centuries. The word is written with three characters: ka, which signify “song”; bu, which signify “dance”; and ki, which signify “skill.” These actors have carried the traditions of Kabuki from one generation to the other.  Kabuki came in 17 century. When female dancer named OKUNI which means they perform at majestic place of worship. They dance in a group. it was the first dramatic entertainment common folks in Japan.

Kabuki was present in order to show featuring courtesans, ghosts, and other forms of stories related to the historical books and believes. One of the most influential Kabuki story is of the way of the warrior”
As an art form its one of the best form to express all the feelings without making any kind of physical touches. The entire artist in the play has their own place in every story line. This art form includes all the expression through the jesters and the hand expression. In all the art form Kabuki is one the hardest and the difficult form of art. The strongest element of this art form is the makeup part the makeup speaks a lot than that of the action in the play.

If we look closer there are so many Indian art for which reflects the same style of Kabuki. The best example is the art form called kathakali which a traditional art form of Kerala. Stylized gestures, symbolic and expressive exaggerated movements of body parts, colourful and dazzling costumes, elegantly designed wigs and make-ups and refined body movements are some of the common heritage of these classical art forms of Kerala and Japan. Both the art forms deal with the Rasa elements all through their act and both the art culture are scripted in the ancient stories of the culture.

Spectatorship

Spectatorship mainly deals with a very strong emotional response. Why do we laugh, cry, and scream. Spectator’s involvement is important in a film. Spectatorship is not only an art but it is also very important element takes pleasure in the experience while watching movies. Spectatorship refers on how a film-going and the consumption of movies and their myths are symbolic activities, culturally significant of a particular part in the scene.

When it comes to Spectatorship music plays a very significant role to reach the minds of the people. The entire element in the film language works so effectively to make the viewer feel every movement in the film. The main element is how are we linked to screen, narrative, and character? Who exactly is the subject seated before the screen, involved in an activity which has been described as everything from passive absorption to active production of the text?

If we look close to the basic elements of the Spectatorship theory deals with creating a particular scenario and the way of expressing the story. In simple way they use the way to express the rasa theory with the mode of generating the types of any situation.
 
The best examples of implementation of Spectatorship theory in films are:
The Birds (1963)
Rear Window (1954)
Vertigo (1958)
In this movie the directors were successful in explaining every situation to the audience with the fantastic direction, background sound and the well wised expressions.

Russian Formalism

Russian formalism was a Powerful school of criticism in Russia. It mainly includes the number of work highly influential Russian and Soviet scholars who revolutionized criticism between 1914 and the 1930s by establishing the autonomy of poetic language and literature. Russian formalism exerted a major influence on thinkers and on structuralism as a whole.

Russian formalism was a diverse movement; In fact, "Russian Formalism" describes two distinct movements: the OPOJAZ (Obshchestvo Izucheniia Poeticheskogo Yazyka, Society for the Study of Poetic Language) in St. Petersburg and the Circle. Therefore, it is more precise to refer to the "Russian Formalists", rather than to use the more encompassing and abstract term of "Formalism".

Formalism was the particular word first used by the adversaries of that particular era, the meaning states the Formalists themselves. One of the main reasons which this theory focuses on is the study related to the Society in relation to the poems.

Russian formalism is distinctive for its emphasis on the functional role of literary devices and its original conception of literary history. It mainly deals with "scientific" method for studying poetic language, to the exclusion of traditional psychological and cultural-historical approaches. The formalists agreed on the autonomous nature of poetic language and its specificity as an object of study for literary criticism. Their main endeavor consisted in defining a set of properties specific to poetic language, be it poetry or prose, recognizable by their "artfulness" and consequently analyzing them as such.

Phi Phenomenon by Max Wertheimer

The phi phenomenon is an illusion of perceiving continuous motion between separate objects which viewed rapidly in success. The term was defined by Max Wertheimer in the Gestalt psychology in 1912 and formed a part of the base of the theory of cinema, applied by Hugo Münsterberg in 1916.

The phi phenomenon is the visible motion caused by a changing fixed image, as in a motion picture. In phi, there are different images or lights in a one place, to produce the effect. The images or lights are turned on and off rapidly. in Cinema and animation, it is been mostly used. The classic phi phenomenon experiment involves audience watching a screen, upon which the experimenter projects two images in succession i.e. the first image portray a line on the left side of the frame.

The second images portray a line on the right side of the frame. The images are shown quickly that each frame may be given several seconds of viewing time. Once both images have been projected together, then they ask the audience to describe what they saw.

At certain combinations of spacing and timing of the two pictures, a viewer will report a direction in the space between and around the two lines. In these case, the line that seems to move is actually an image that first appeared in the right of the screen and then in the left of the screen.

Dhvani

The actual meaning of dhvani is suggestion. This is a graceful concept which occupies an important place in poetic theory i.e. in Sanskrit Theaters. Anandvardhana was the first supporter of the dhvani further it was elaborated by Abhinavagupta .

According to this theory the content of a good poem is mainly divided into two parts. One is direct express through the powerful meaning of words and the other is to be the soul of poetry. Sometimes Dhvani is linked with the denotative i.e. denoting and connotative i.e. suggesting meaning of the words.

 According to the traditions there are three types of Dhvani. When the expressive words offer their direct meaning vastu (Idea) it is called Vastudhvani. The sun has set may mean to be a peasant that it is a right time to stop tilling the field whereas for the housewife it is the time to cook the food. When in addition to express the meaning some striking and power meaning is placed in the poetry which is called as Alamkara which means ornamental dhvani which understand the different form to express the figure of speech. And when a poet should have an idea that where to place these powerful words and should carefully choose his words by particular situation and make them convey far more than their bare meaning and so includes the whole series of emotions it creates Rasadhvani.

Foregrounding Theory

 Foregrounding theory was developed to understand responses to both literature and to film, empirical i.e. first hand research focuses on reader response. It examines whether `literariness' in film causes the same effects as those established for literature. In two experiments participants were shown one scene from Shakespeare film adaptations, either low or high in foregrounded elements.

This theory plays a vital significant role in every cinema. If we look closer then we can clearly see that Foregrounding theory is parallel to Russian formalism theory. This theory mainly deals with development of a situation in that particular movie. The motive behind including this theory in the film is to make the audience remember that particular seen in their whole life if it comes to any kind of discussion point. For examples there are so many Bollywood movies whose names comes in our mind with a particular situation in that movie.

Example: Hera Pheri, Schindler's List, Mostly all the Priyadarshan movies and in latest the Marathi movie Time - Pass

It was expected that showing these materials twice would reveal differences in levels of foregrounding effects. It was found that seeing high-foregrounding scenes twice was more enjoyable and made spectators perceive more significant aspects than the low-foregrounding versions of the same scenes did. A third experiment examined the extent to which a foregrounding effect requires spectators' awareness of a `background'. Participants in the experimental group were shown a conventional dinner scene (background) before they saw an unconventional one.

In this we define foregrounding as an effect. It is something that readers and spectators experience (or not). The cause of this effect is found in deviation, deviation from ‘normal’ ways of presenting things.

Andre Bazin’s Myth of Total Cinema

In 1946 the co-founder of cahiers du cinema, and well respected movie critic André Bazin wrote an article entitled The Myth of Total Cinema in which he outlined a theory about the change in life and future of the cinema.

This theory deals with how film originally came to be, and the visions of the creators of the medium. Bazin works to prove that some inventors were in the business of making film equipment just for the purpose of earning money, while others, the small number of "savants" as he calls them, he had a clear vision, a drive to succeed to push the envelope and to make films that were beyond real.

His theory also worked and explains about the new technology which is always evolving, the large amount of reality that can be achieved in the cinema is in a large number and therefore according to him cinema has not yet been invented. Although this theory is impossible to explain. The film My Dinner with Andre provides the best examples of Bazin's theory.

My Dinner With Andre was directed by Louis Malle a French movie maker renowned for making films that deals with extremely not to be touched subjects from sexual activity between family members, to extramarital sex. While many of his movies deal with real life situations and emotions, The Real primitives of the cinema, existing only in the imaginations of a small number of males of the nineteenth Century and are in complete copying of nature.

Every new development added to the cinema must, paradoxically, take it nearer and nearer to its origins of the cinema on the capitalists, who were more concerned with profit than they were with the progress of cinema as an art form.

Natya Shastra (Film Studies)

The Natya Shastra is an very old Indian long documents on the performing arts, encompassing theatre, dance and music. It was written during the period between 200 before Common Era and 200 creative editing in classical India and is traditionally attributed to the wise India's. As an audio-visual form, Natyashastra mirrors all the arts and crafts, higher knowledge, learning, sciences, Hindu system of contemplation for effecting union of the human soul with the Supreme Being, and conduct. Its purpose is to entertain as well as teach. Abhinaya is a concept in Indian dance and drama implied by calculation from Bharata's Natya Shastra.

A key text which deals with the emotions theory of race is the Natyashastra (the book used to study a subject on Drama) India's attributed to a from god the source to drama and considered it to be a fifth see. The Natyashastra mainly deals with theatre, dance and musical performance. According to the Natyashastra, the major purpose of dance, drama, ritual and poetry is catalytic in that to do with the look performance should make angry an emotion that is already present in members of the group most likely to be interested. The various elements of a performance combine to create a sympathetic response in those who experience them. furthermore, a member of the group most likely to be interested who has grew his or her own to do with the look response may experience a transformation of their own emotion into a purely to do with the look, independent feeling – an experience of from god a state of extreme happiness.

Natyasastra deals with the principal work of dramatic theory in the Sanskrit drama of classical India. This is the art for which is the base of the art forms in India. It is the traditional asset of our Indian culture.

Rasa Theory (Film Studies)

Rasa can be understood as a actively changing experience between the artist, expression, and those who get it. The artist experiences an emotion and is so overwhelmed by it that he seeks a medium with which to express those emotions. The one who views the artists’ work receives this emotion through the artists’ medium and so experiences the same emotion felt by the creator. The extent to which the viewer experiences the emotion felt by the creator depends on both the creator’s ability in presenting the work and the viewers’ ability to get it.

Human life is given colour and texture by the many happenings. The one thing that is common to all that they raise, feelings in us, we all respond to them with emotions and which is a part of our internal life. Human life focuses Mostly on these rasas or emotions in order to appeal to the audience. That rasas are mainly of performing art, or natya, is a fact that has been well-recognized for centuries now. It is also called the fifth Veda because of its importance. In it one finds a thorough exposition on the rasas, or emotions that characterize Life as well as Art. 

The NatyaShastra describes nine rasas or NavaRasas which deals with all human emotion. These two things go hand in hand and are impossible to treat separately. Today we try to bring to you a flavor of each of these nine rasas, explaining what each one means and presenting it to you through some Indian art form.

Indian cinema deals with Rasa. Hum Aapke Hain Koun...! Hum Saat Saat Hai Vivha are An Example of the Coding of Emotions in Contemporary Hindi Mainstream Film.

Schindler’s List

This film has a very unique element that if we see the trailer of this movie then they have shown that Mr.Schindler as a dictator and as a very brutal man. This type of thinking is enough to explain about the scripting of the movie. The movie is all about the Second World War and the suffering of the Jews in Germany. In the very first scene the director have implemented the Montage and Cultivation together to create interest in the minds of viewers.

In the very beginning there is a scene were a person is dressing up and he put a pin which is marked with the reversed swastika which is the symbol of the Nazi party of Hitler in his coat for a while we feel like he is Hitler, that person who is tall with a tough personality is the main character of the movie Mr. Schindler’s List. The director has successfully covey the main element of the movie regarding the risqué of 101 Jews people is no were seen in dialogs in the whole movie. In this movie the director have explained the understanding between the two characters Mr. Schindler and his Jews accountant Mr. Itzhak Stern very strongly that in some of the viewers get confused that any one of them is going to do something unethical but that all thinking of the viewers are the part of Cultivation theory.

The movie is scripted so interestingly that as an audience we get stuck with the movie till the end. The movie has so many twists and turns in it but all of them play’s their own important role in the whole movie. One of the best seen is that when Schindler ask the German soldier to shell out the water on the train were the Jews were loaded on a large numbers. And the other scene is in the climax when the rescued Jews gift him a gold ring and that emotional sequence is flooded with the Rasa theory.  
The movie has showed so many hidden facts and the brutality of the German Powers. This movie was a tribute the Oskar Schindler. The message of this movie was Humanity.  

Achut Kanya

Achut Kanya is other example of classic movie which is totally based on the one and only Indian Theory Rasa without making any kind of over acting element. The whole story is about the eight rasa from which the director have focused to showcase the Sringara means Love the most. This film was the first step to educate the people regarding the ill effects of casteism at that time was a great challenge. In some part of the film the director have also implemented the Dhvani Theory like showing the new twist in that girl’s life, a rising sun is shown.
Achut Kanya was one of the most respected movies for its socials topic it was one of the film which was passed by Bombay Talkies. The basic them of this movie was to show the manner of Untouchability in India and this film was a slap to all the believers of the Indian society who believes in un-uniformity among the people. The story directly attacked the canons of Hindu society. This was a time when law and precedent obstructed the inter-caste marriage and firmly supported the ostracism of the untouchable. To be sure, the great leaders like Gandhi, Nehru and other leaders of the Indian National Congress called for an end to this and repeated, week after week, that independence in itself would not be enough, that Hindu society must also reform itself from within. They successfully hammered at issues of caste, untouchability, widow remarriage. On the level of popular fable the social films to educate the people by the medium of entertainment.

The main element in the movie was that it was the first films in the whole Indian cinema were the climax was shown in the very starting of screen play. The story is well played with the love bonding between the Brahmin and the Dalit girl. In story have covered the entire struggle and the radiant face of the Indian dominating society who blindly believes in old traditions of Indian culture.

Even today this film is surprisingly honest, evocative and sensitive. Pictures more than words are used to suggest a mood, describe a feeling or indicate a crucial point in the narrative. An element of understatement is evident throughout the film. The ending of the movie is sad were the lead actress dies in a train accident were she tries to help out her lover. This climax straightly shows the impact of the deep rooted stupid cultures, rituals and blind fiats of the Indian society. This is the movie which resembles the thoughts of the today Indian mentality also nothing is changed only the people now are educated chastises believers.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist is a horror movie which can beat any of the horror film. It is one of the films which have no repeated camera angles and full of horrifying sound track and one of the most important elements in this film is that a viewer will feel the fear of each situation though they are watching it without the audio track. This was film by William Friedkin in 1973 the film was inspired by the novel named exorcism case of Roland Doe (1949). The novel states that the story is a real life story of a 14 year old boy who is demonic. The story line of movie speaks about the parallel lines between reality and faith of a mother to rescue her daughter form an evil spirit.

This is one of the film in which no one find any mistake in any screenplay, music, camera angles , direction, makeup and so on and so far. If we see to other horror movies then we can see the impact of The Exorcist in those movies. One of the freaking seen which made me to think was the scene when the girl comes down from the stairs and the camera angle used is just apt to the situation, the other Sean which defines the patrimonial activities, when her mother runs up the stairs towards the door, the camera registers Chris' horrifying face of her daughter and the sudden camera shot is of self-abuse with a cross. Both the shorts are shooted in two different manners to specify the intense in the paranormal fear in the movie.

In this movie the director has established the movie with the Montage theory with a song running in the background and the story clips are shown. This movie is the classic example for the implementation of Rasa theory to its better shape up the story without making the act crossing the limits. This is the film which have added the classic French theory to show the horror effect in the movie scene and this was an experiment done by the director and have hit as a great success.  

All over, the movie is a terrifying with all the elements. The shorts taken in the movie are very well placed and established as this was the unique style of presentation. The movie has a great impact in the mind of all the viewers as well as the new horror film directors. Even many of the Bollywood directors are very much inspired by this movie.

DO BIGHA ZAMIN

DO BIGHA ZAMIN is one of the most famous masterpieces Written and directed by director Bimal Roy. The story is all about the poor & helpless farmer caught in the web of poverty Zamindar is willing to acquire every bit of their land. DO BIGHA ZAMIN does have its basic structure but inspired by the Movie Bicycle Thief But Bimal Roy used this foreign reference in the Indian context so beautifully that we all can easily say that it is a perfect tribute to Indian Cinema However DO BIGHA ZAMIN is still considered as one of the best Movie which made on this particular theme till date because it is protracted very excellently & emotionally touching Cinema of that Particular era.

The acting of Balraj Sahni is very beautiful his affection for his family, his love even for others there’s a touching scene where two little girls whom Shambhu takes in his rickshaw to school daily tell him they’ll be walking to school the next day onwards, since their father’s been laid off. Shambhu ferries them anyway, free. This is Balraj Sahni at his best. This movie was Mehmood’s first debut film who always flirts with the character Rani.  All the characters have their own importance in the movie.

Do Bigha Zamin is a sad & Emotional movie and has great emotional depth. The Movie is well photographed. The music is partly good. Touching act by everybody, it is the most memorable film ever, but the disasters faced by Shambhu and his family. Come too thick and fast to be believable though they are poor, illiterate and in bad time but everything cannot happen all at once? This was the only drawback in the whole movie which I observed hard to believe.

Do Bigha Zamin is the movie which have created a new dimension to the Indian cinema. As it is an Indian it was totally build up on the Rasa Theory the opening of the film with happiness then the director took the movie to a really sad mode if we look at the narration style of this movie then we can get to know that all the eighty Rasa are widely used in this movie. The director have also implemented a jest of Foregrounding theory after the first half and this part is just every interesting as it has so many twist and turns in it. The theory is used I the climax of the move which is like a perfect icing on the cake.