Subaltern reading of film

with special reference to Marathi New Wave

Abstract

Film as an art may not have been a subaltern medium per se. But the medium largely attracted working class and blue-collared audience in the initial years ‘transforming cinema into a site of mass entertainment.’ (Grainge, et al. 2007, p. 22). During its beginning years, film was considered a path of the menials, not to be trodden by the cultured. Traditionally the film actors were not people of high status. Acting in films was considered very cheap as the medium was perceived as ‘low art’ as against the theatre which was seen as ‘legitimate’ art. (Ibid. p. 94).In the Indian context, in the in the early stages men impersonated as women to play female roles. Film as a medium had a humble origin and there were serious doubts if the medium would survive at all. But, today the medium has not only survived, it is thriving to be perhaps the most effective visual medium entertaining, educating and informing masses.
India has just celebrated 100 years of cinema. The first feature film in India was Raja HarischandrabyDadasahebPhalke which came in the year 1913. In fact, this film was released two years before the Hollywood’s full-length feature film The Birth of a Nation by D. W. Griffiths. That speaks of the fascination early film makers showed for this medium in India.