.jpg)
Musical film is afilm genre in which songs by thecharacters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate "production numbers".
The musical film was a natural development of thestage musical after the emergence of sound film technology. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery and locations that would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if a live audience were watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes thediegetic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it.
With theadvent of sound in the late 1920s, musicals gained popularity with the public and are exemplified by the films ofBusby Berkeley, a choreographer known for his distinctive and elaborate set pieces featuring multiple showgirls. These lavish production numbers are typified by his choreographic work in42nd Street,Gold Diggers of 1933,Footlight Parade (all from 1933). During the 1930s, the musical films ofFred Astaire and Ginger Rogers became massive cultural fixtures in the eyes of the American public. These films included,Top Hat (1935),Follow the Fleet,Swing Time (both 1936), andShall We Dance (1937). Victor Fleming'sThe Wizard of Oz (1939) would become a landmark film for movie musical as it experimented with new technology such asTechnicolor.
During the 1940s and 1950s, musical films fromMGM musicals regularly premiered. These works included:Meet Me in St. Louis (1944),Easter Parade (1948),On the Town (1949),An American in Paris (1951),Singin' in the Rain (1952),The Band Wagon (1953),High Society (1956), andGigi (1958). During this time, films outside theArthur Freed unit atMGM includedHoliday Inn (1942),White Christmas (1954), andFunny Face (1957) as well asOklahoma! (1955),The King and I (1956),Carousel, andSouth Pacific (1958). These films of the era typically relied on the star power of such film stars asFred Astaire,Gene Kelly,Bing Crosby,Frank Sinatra,Judy Garland,Ann Miller,Kathryn Grayson, andHoward Keel. They also relied on film directors such asStanley Donen andVincente Minnelli as well as songwritersComden and Green,Rodgers and Hammerstein,Irving Berlin,Cole Porter, and theGershwin Brothers.
During the 1960s, films based on stage musicals continued to be critical and box-office successes. These films included,West Side Story (1961),Gypsy (1962),The Music Man (1962),Bye Bye Birdie (1963),My Fair Lady,Mary Poppins (both 1964),The Sound of Music (1965),A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying,Thoroughly Modern Millie (all 1967),Oliver!, andFunny Girl (both 1968). In the 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while the pure entertainment and theatricality of classical-era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned. Despite this,Scrooge (1970),Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971),Fiddler on the Roof (1971),Cabaret (1972),1776 (1972), Disney'sBedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), andPete's Dragon (1977), as well asGrease andThe Wiz (both 1978), were more traditional musicals closely adapted from stage shows and were strong successes with critics and audiences. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, musicals tended to be mainly coming from theDisneyanimated films of the period, from composers and lyricists,Howard Ashman,Alan Menken, andStephen Schwartz. TheDisney Renaissance started with 1989'sThe Little Mermaid, then followed byBeauty and the Beast (1991),Aladdin (1992),The Lion King (1994),Pocahontas (1995),The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996),Hercules (1997), andMulan (1998).
In the 21st century, the musical genre has been rejuvenated with darker musicals, musical biopics, musical remakes, epic drama musicals and comedy drama musicals such asMoulin Rouge! (2001),Chicago (2002),The Phantom of the Opera (2004),Rent (2005),Dreamgirls (2006),Across the Universe,Enchanted,Hairspray,Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (all 2007),Mamma Mia! (2008),Nine (2009),The Muppets (2011),Les Misérables (2012),Into the Woods (2014),Descendants (2015),La La Land (2016),Beauty and the Beast,The Greatest Showman (both 2017),Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!,A Star Is Born,Mary Poppins Returns,Bohemian Rhapsody (all 2018),Aladdin,Rocketman,The Lion King (all 2019),The Prom (2020),In the Heights,Respect,Dear Evan Hansen,Cyrano, Everybody's Talking About Jamie,Tick, Tick… Boom!,West Side Story (all 2021),Elvis,Spirited,Disenchanted,Matilda the Musical (all 2022),The Little Mermaid,Wonka,The Color Purple (all 2023),Mean Girls,Wicked,Mufasa: The Lion King,Joker: Folie à Deux,A Complete Unknown (all 2024),Kiss of the Spider Woman,Snow White,Blue Moon (all 2025).
The 1930s through the early 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its highest in theWestern world.Disney'sSnow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the earliest Disney animated feature film, was a musical which won an honorary Oscar forWalt Disney at the11th Academy Awards.
Musical short films were made byLee de Forest in 1923–24. Beginning in 1926, thousands ofVitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists, and dancers. The earliest feature-length films with synchronized sound had only a soundtrack of music and occasional sound effects that played while the actors portrayed their characters just as they did in silent films: without audible dialogue.[1]The Jazz Singer, released in 1927 byWarner Brothers, was the first to include an audio track including non-diegetic music and diegetic music, but it had only a short sequence of spoken dialogue. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuringAl Jolson singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", "Blue Skies", and "My Mammy". HistorianScott Eyman wrote, "As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights,Sam Goldwyn's wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd. She saw 'terror in all their faces', she said, as if they knew that 'the game they had been playing for years was finally over'."[2] Still, only isolated sequences featured "live" sound; most of the film had only a synchronous musical score.[1] In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie,The Singing Fool, which was a blockbuster hit.[1] Theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hireBroadway composers to write musicals for the screen.[3] The first all-talking feature,Lights of New York, included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively.The Broadway Melody (1929) had a show-biz plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised byMGM as the first "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" feature film, it was a hit and won theAcademy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits.The Love Parade (Paramount 1929) starredMaurice Chevalier and newcomerJeanette MacDonald, written by Broadway veteranGuy Bolton.[3]
Warner Brothers produced the first screen operetta,The Desert Song in 1929. They spared no expense and photographed a large percentage of the film inTechnicolor. This was followed by the first all-color, all-talking musical feature which was entitledOn with the Show (1929). The most popular film of 1929 was the second all-color, all-talking feature which was entitledGold Diggers of Broadway (1929). This film broke all box office records and remained the highest-grossing film ever produced until 1939. Suddenly, the market became flooded with musicals, revues, and operettas. The following all-color musicals were produced in 1929 and 1930 alone:The Hollywood Revue of 1929 (1929),The Show of Shows (1929),Sally (1929),The Vagabond King (1930),Follow Thru (1930),Bright Lights (1930),Golden Dawn (1930),Hold Everything (1930),The Rogue Song (1930),Song of the Flame (1930),Song of the West (1930),Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930),Under a Texas Moon (1930),Bride of the Regiment (1930),Whoopee! (1930),King of Jazz (1930),Viennese Nights (1930), andKiss Me Again (1930). In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences.
Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931.[4] By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut the music from films that were then being released. For example,Life of the Party (1930) was originally produced as an all-color, all-talking musical comedy. Before it was released, however, the songs were cut out. The same thing happened toFifty Million Frenchmen (1931) andManhattan Parade (1932) both of which had been filmed entirely inTechnicolor.Marlene Dietrich sang songs successfully in her films, andRodgers and Hart wrote a few well-received films, but even their popularity waned by 1932.[4] The public had quickly come to associate color with musicals and thus the decline in their popularity also resulted in a decline in color productions.
The taste in musicals revived again in 1933 when directorBusby Berkeley began to enhance the traditional dance number with ideas drawn from thedrill precision he had experienced as a soldier duringWorld War I. In films such as42nd Street andGold Diggers of 1933 (1933), Berkeley choreographed a number of films in his unique style. Berkeley's numbers typically begin on a stage but gradually transcend the limitations of theatrical space: his ingenious routines, involving human bodies forming patterns like a kaleidoscope, could never fit onto a real stage and the intended perspective is viewing from straight above.[5]
Musical stars such asFred Astaire andGinger Rogers were among the most popular and highly respected personalities in Hollywood during the classical era; the Fred and Ginger pairing was particularly successful, resulting in a number of classic films such asTop Hat (1935),Swing Time (1936), andShall We Dance (1937). Many dramatic actors gladly participated in musicals as a way to break away from their typecasting. For instance, the multi-talentedJames Cagney had originally risen to fame as a stage singer and dancer, but his repeated casting in "tough guy" roles andmob films gave him few chances to display these talents. Cagney'sOscar-winning role inYankee Doodle Dandy (1942) allowed him to sing and dance, and he considered it to be one of his finest moments.
Many comedies (and a few dramas) included their own musical numbers. TheMarx Brothers' films included a musical number in nearly every film, allowing the Brothers to highlight their musical talents. Their final film, entitledLove Happy (1949), featuredVera-Ellen, considered to be the best dancer among her colleagues and professionals in the half century.
Similarly, thevaudevillian comedianW. C. Fields joined forces with the comic actressMartha Raye and the young comedianBob Hope inParamount Pictures musical anthologyThe Big Broadcast of 1938. The film also showcased the talents of several internationally recognized musical artists including:Kirsten Flagstad (Norwegian operatic soprano),Wilfred Pelletier (Canadian conductor of theMetropolitan Opera Orchestra),Tito Guizar (Mexican tenor),Shep Fields conducting his Rippling Rhythm Jazz Orchestra andJohn Serry Sr. (Italian-American concert accordionist).[6] In addition to theAcademy Award for Best Original Song (1938), the film earned anASCAP Film and Television Award (1989) for Bob Hope's signature song "Thanks for the Memory".[7]
During the late 1940s and into the early 1950s, a production unit atMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer headed byArthur Freed made the transition from old-fashioned musical films, whose formula had become repetitive, to something new. (However, they also produced technicolor remakes of such musicals asShow Boat, which had previously been filmed in the 1930s.) In 1939, Freed was hired as associate producer for the filmBabes in Arms. Starting in 1944 withMeet Me in St. Louis, the Freed Unit worked somewhat independently of its own studio to produce some of the most popular and well-known examples of the genre. The products of this unit includeEaster Parade (1948),On the Town (1949),An American in Paris (1951),Singin' in the Rain (1952),The Band Wagon (1953) andGigi (1958). Non-Freed musicals from the studio includedSeven Brides for Seven Brothers in 1954 andHigh Society in 1956, and the studio distributedSamuel Goldwyn'sGuys and Dolls in 1955.
This era saw musical stars become household names, includingJudy Garland,Gene Kelly,Ann Miller,Donald O'Connor,Cyd Charisse,Mickey Rooney,Vera-Ellen,Jane Powell,Howard Keel, andKathryn Grayson. Fred Astaire was also coaxed out of retirement forEaster Parade and made a permanent comeback.
The other Hollywood studios proved themselves equally adept at tackling the genre at this time, particularly in the 1950s. Four adaptations ofRodgers and Hammerstein shows -Oklahoma!,The King and I,Carousel, andSouth Pacific - were all successes, whileParamount Pictures releasedWhite Christmas andFunny Face, two films which used previously written music by Irving Berlin and the Gershwins, respectively.Warner Bros. producedCalamity Jane andA Star Is Born; the former film was a vehicle forDoris Day, while the latter provided a big-screen comeback for Judy Garland, who had been out of the spotlight since 1950. Meanwhile, directorOtto Preminger, better known for "message pictures", madeCarmen Jones andPorgy and Bess, both starringDorothy Dandridge, who is considered the first African American A-list film star. Celebrated directorHoward Hawks also ventured into the genre withGentlemen Prefer Blondes.
 | This sectionpossibly containsoriginal research. Pleaseimprove it byverifying the claims made and addinginline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(October 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In the 1960s, 1970s, and continuing up to today, the musical film became less of a bankable genre that could be relied upon for sure-fire hits. Audiences for them lessened and fewer musical films were produced as the genre became less mainstream and more specialized.
In the 1960s, the critical and box-office success of the filmsWest Side Story,Gypsy,The Music Man,Bye Bye Birdie,My Fair Lady,Mary Poppins,The Sound of Music,A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,The Jungle Book,Thoroughly Modern Millie,Oliver!, andFunny Girl suggested that the traditional musical was in good health, while French filmmakerJacques Demy'sjazz musicalsThe Umbrellas of Cherbourg andThe Young Girls of Rochefort were popular with international critics. However popular musical tastes were being heavily affected byrock and roll and the freedom and youth associated with it, and indeedElvis Presley made a few films that have been equated with the old musicals in terms of form.A Hard Day's Night andHelp!, starringthe Beatles, were audacious. Most of the musical films of the 1950s and 1960s such asOklahoma! andThe Sound of Music were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful stage productions. The most successful musicals of the 1960s created specifically for film wereMary Poppins andThe Jungle Book, two of Disney's biggest hits of all time.
The phenomenal box-office performance ofThe Sound of Music gave the major Hollywood studios more confidence to produce lengthy, large-budget musicals. Despite the resounding success of some of these films, Hollywood also produced a large number of musical flops in the late 1960s and early 1970s which appeared to seriously misjudge public taste. The commercially and/or critically unsuccessful films includedCamelot,Finian's Rainbow,Hello Dolly!,Sweet Charity,Doctor Dolittle,Half a Sixpence,The Happiest Millionaire,Star!,Darling Lili,Goodbye, Mr. Chips,Paint Your Wagon,Song of Norway,On a Clear Day You Can See Forever,1776,Man of La Mancha,Lost Horizon, andMame. Collectively and individually these failures affected the financial viability of several major studios.
In the 1970s, film culture and the changing demographics of filmgoers placed greater emphasis on gritty realism, while the pure entertainment and theatricality of classical-era Hollywood musicals was seen as old-fashioned. Despite this,Fiddler on the Roof andCabaret were more traditional musicals closely adapted from stage shows and were strong successes with critics and audiences.Changing cultural mores and the abandonment of theHays Code in 1968 also contributed to changing tastes in film audiences. The 1973 film ofAndrew Lloyd Webber andTim Rice'sJesus Christ Superstar was met with some criticism by religious groups but was well received. By the mid-1970s, filmmakers avoided the genre in favor of using music by popular rock or pop bands as background music, partly in hope of selling asoundtrack album to fans.The Rocky Horror Picture Show was originally released in 1975 and was a critical failure until it startedmidnight screenings in the 1980s where it achieved cult status. That same year also saw the premiere of the R&B bandBloodstone's movieTrain Ride to Hollywood, but problems in distribution rendered it barely getting token theatrical release.[8] The year 1976 saw the release of the low-budget comic musical,The First Nudie Musical, released by Paramount. The 1978 film version ofGrease was a smash hit; its songs were original compositions done in a 1950s pop style. However, the sequelGrease 2 (released in 1982) bombed at the box-office. Films about performers which incorporated gritty drama and musical numbers interwoven as adiegetic part of the storyline were produced, such asLady Sings the Blues,All That Jazz, andNew York, New York. Some musicals made in Britain experimented with the form, such asRichard Attenborough'sOh! What a Lovely War (released in 1969),Alan Parker'sBugsy Malone andKen Russell'sTommy andLisztomania.
A number of film musicals were still being made that were financially and/or critically less successful than in the musical's heyday. They include1776,The Wiz,At Long Last Love,Mame,Man of La Mancha,Lost Horizon,Godspell,Phantom of the Paradise,Funny Lady (Barbra Streisand's sequel toFunny Girl),A Little Night Music, andHair amongst others. The critical wrath againstAt Long Last Love, in particular, was so strong that it was never released on home video. Fantasy musical filmsScrooge,The Blue Bird,The Little Prince,Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,Pete's Dragon, and Disney'sBedknobs and Broomsticks were also released in the 1970s, the latter winning theAcademy Award for Best Visual Effects.
By the 1980s, financiers grew increasingly confident in the musical genre, partly buoyed by the relative health of the musical onBroadway andLondon's West End. Productions of the 1980s and 1990s includedThe Apple,Xanadu,The Blues Brothers,Annie,Monty Python's The Meaning of Life,The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,Victor/Victoria,Footloose,Fast Forward,A Chorus Line,Little Shop of Horrors,Forbidden Zone,Absolute Beginners,Labyrinth,Newsies,Evita, andEveryone Says I Love You. However,Can't Stop the Music, starring theVillage People, was a calamitous attempt to resurrect the old-style musical and was released to audience indifference in 1980.Little Shop of Horrors was based on an off-Broadway musical adaptation of a 1960 Roger Corman film, a precursor of later film-to-stage-to-film adaptations, includingThe Producers.
Manyanimated films of the period – predominately fromDisney – included traditional musical numbers.Howard Ashman,Alan Menken, andStephen Schwartz had previous musical theater experience and wrote songs for animated films during this time, supplanting Disney workhorses theSherman Brothers. Starting with 1989'sThe Little Mermaid, theDisney Renaissance gave new life to the musical film. Other successful animated musicals includedAladdin,The Hunchback of Notre Dame, andPocahontas from Disney proper,The Nightmare Before Christmas from Disney division Touchstone Pictures,The Prince of Egypt from DreamWorks,Anastasia from Fox and Don Bluth,Eight Crazy Nights from Columbia, andSouth Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut from Paramount.Beauty and the Beast,The Lion King, and others were adapted for the stage after their blockbuster success.
In the 21st century, movie musicals were reborn with darker musicals, musical biopics, epic drama musicals and comedy drama musicals such asO Brother, Where Art Thou?,Moulin Rouge!,Chicago,Walk the Line,Dreamgirls,Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,Les Misérables,La La Land, andWest Side Story; all of which won theGolden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy in their respective years, while such films asThe Phantom of the Opera,Hairspray,Mamma Mia!,Nine,Into the Woods,The Greatest Showman,Mary Poppins Returns,Rocketman,The Prom,Cyrano,Tick, Tick... Boom!,Elvis,The Color Purple, andWicked were only nominated.Chicago was also the first musical sinceOliver! to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
Joshua Oppenheimer's Academy Award-nominated documentaryThe Act of Killing may be considered a nonfiction musical.[9]
One specific musical trend was the rising number ofjukebox musicals based on music from various pop/rock artists on the big screen, some of which based on Broadway shows. Examples of Broadway-based jukebox musical films includedMamma Mia! (ABBA),Rock of Ages, andSunshine on Leith (The Proclaimers). Original ones includedAcross the Universe (The Beatles),Moulin Rouge! (various pop hits),Idlewild (Outkast) andYesterday (The Beatles).
Disney also returned to musicals withEnchanted,The Princess and the Frog,Tangled,Winnie the Pooh,The Muppets,Frozen,Muppets Most Wanted,Into the Woods,Moana,Mary Poppins Returns,Frozen II,Stargirl,Encanto,Better Nate Than Ever,Hollywood Stargirl,Disenchanted,Wish,Moana 2 andMufasa: The Lion King. Following a string of successes withliveactionfantasyadaptations of several of theiranimatedfeatures, Disney produced a live action version ofBeauty and the Beast, the first of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical, and features new songs as well as new lyrics to both theGaston number and the reprise of the title song.Bill Condon, who directedDreamgirls, directedBeauty and the Beast. The second film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical wasAladdin and features new songs. The third film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical wasThe Lion King and features new songs. The fourth film of this live action fantasy adaptation pack to be an all-out musical wasThe Little Mermaid and features new songs with lyrics byLin-Manuel Miranda, replacing Ashman.Pixar also producedCoco, the firstcomputer-animated musical film by the company. Other animated musical films includeHappy Feet,Rio,Happy Feet Two,Dr. Seuss' The Lorax,Rio 2,The Book of Life,Trolls,Sing,My Little Pony: The Movie,Smallfoot,UglyDolls,Trolls World Tour,Over the Moon,Vivo,Sing 2,The Bob's Burgers Movie,Under the Boardwalk,Trolls Band Together,Leo,Thelma the Unicorn,Spellbound, andSmurfs.
Biopics about music artists and showmen were also big in the 21st century. Examples include8 Mile (Eminem),Ray (Ray Charles),Walk the Line (Johnny Cash andJune Carter),La Vie en Rose (Édith Piaf),Notorious (Biggie Smalls),Jersey Boys (The Four Seasons)Love & Mercy (Brian Wilson),CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story (TLC),Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B (Aaliyah),Get on Up (James Brown),Whitney andI Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston),Straight Outta Compton (N.W.A),The Greatest Showman (P. T. Barnum),Bohemian Rhapsody (Freddie Mercury),The Dirt (Mötley Crüe),Judy (Judy Garland),Rocketman (Elton John),Respect (Aretha Franklin),Elvis (Elvis Presley) andA Complete Unknown (Bob Dylan). Grossing over $900 million at the box officeBohemian Rhapsody is the most commercially successful musical biopic.[10]
DirectorDamien Chazelle created a musical film calledLa La Land, starringRyan Gosling andEmma Stone. It was meant to reintroduce the traditional jazz style of song numbers with influences from the Golden Age of Hollywood andJacques Demy's French musicals while incorporating a contemporary/modern take on the story and characters with balances in fantasy numbers and grounded reality. It received 14 nominations at the89th Academy Awards, tying the record for most nominations withAll About Eve (1950) andTitanic (1997), and won the awards forBest Director,Best Actress,Best Cinematography,Best Original Score,Best Original Song, andBest Production Design.
In 2013,NBC producedThe Sound of Music Live! as part of their effort for expanded live entertainment events, which became an annual tradition of adaptations of stage musicals, created specifically as live television events. The following years featuredPeter Pan Live!,The Wiz Live!,Hairspray Live!,Jesus Christ Superstar Live!,Dr. Seuss' The Grinch Musical Live!, andAnnie Live!.ABC andFox also produced similar events, includingGrease Live!,A Christmas Story Live!,Rent: Live, andThe Little Mermaid Live!.[11]
An exception to the decline of the musical film isIndian cinema, especially theBollywood film industry based inMumbai (formerly Bombay), where most of films have been, and still are, musicals. The majority of films produced in theTamil industry, based inChennai (formerly Madras), theSandalwood industry, based inBangalore, theTelugu industry, based inHyderabad, and theMalayalam industry are also musicals.
Despite this exception of almost every Indian movie being a musical and India producing the most movies in the world (formed in 1913), the first Bollywood film to be a complete musical,Dev D (directed byAnurag Kashyap), came in 2009. The second musical film to follow wasJagga Jasoos (directed byAnurag Basu), in 2017.
Bollywood musicals have their roots in the traditional musicaltheatre of India, such asclassical Indian musical theatre,Sanskrit drama, andParsi theatre. EarlyBombay filmmakers combined these Indian musical theatre traditions with the musical film format that emerged from early Hollywood sound films.[12] Other early influences on Bombay filmmakers includedUrdu literature and theArabian Nights.[13]
The first Indian sound film,Ardeshir Irani'sAlam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success.[14] There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.
In 1937, Ardeshir Irani, ofAlam Ara fame, made the first colour film inHindi,Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made another colour film, a version ofMother India. However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema.
FollowingIndia's independence, the period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as the "Golden Age" ofHindi cinema.[15][16][17] Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples includePyaasa (1957) andKaagaz Ke Phool (1959), directed byGuru Dutt and written byAbrar Alvi,Awaara (1951) andShree 420 (1955), directed byRaj Kapoor and written byKhwaja Ahmad Abbas, andAan (1952), directed byMehboob Khan and starringDilip Kumar. These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class life inIndia, particularly urban life in the former two examples;Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, whilePyaasa critiqued the unreality of city life.[18]
Mehboob Khan'sMother India (1957), a remake of his earlierAurat (1940), was the first Indian film to be nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, which it lost by a single vote.[19]Mother India was also an important film that defined the conventions of Hindi cinema for decades.[20][21][22]
In the 1960s and early 1970s, the industry was dominated by musicalromance films with "romantic hero" leads, the most popular beingRajesh Khanna.[23] Other actors during this period includeShammi Kapoor,Jeetendra,Sanjeev Kumar, andShashi Kapoor, and actresses likeSharmila Tagore,Mumtaz,Saira Banu,Helen andAsha Parekh.
By the start of the 1970s, Hindi cinema was experiencing thematic stagnation,[24] dominated by musicalromance films.[23] The arrival of screenwriter duoSalim–Javed, consisting ofSalim Khan andJaved Akhtar, marked a paradigm shift, revitalizing the industry.[24] They began the genre of gritty, violent,Bombay underworld crime films in the early 1970s, with films such asZanjeer (1973) andDeewaar (1975).[25][26]
The 1970s was also when the name "Bollywood" was coined,[27][28] and when the quintessential conventions of commercial Bollywood films were established.[29] Key to this was the emergence of themasala film genre, which combines elements of multiple genres (action,comedy,romance,drama,melodrama, musical). The masala film was pioneered in the early 1970s by filmmakerNasir Hussain,[30] along with screenwriter duo Salim-Javed,[29] pioneering the Bollywoodblockbuster format.[29]Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973), directed by Hussain and written by Salim-Javed, has been identified as the first masala film and the "first" quintessentially "Bollywood" film.[31][29] Salim-Javed went on to write more successful masala films in the 1970s and 1980s.[29] Masala films launchedAmitabh Bachchan into the biggest Bollywood movie star of the 1970s and 1980s. A landmark for the masala film genre wasAmar Akbar Anthony (1977),[32][31] directed byManmohan Desai and written byKader Khan. Manmohan Desai went on to successfully exploit the genre in the 1970s and 1980s.
Along with Bachchan, other popular actors of this era includedFeroz Khan,[33]Mithun Chakraborty,Naseeruddin Shah,Jackie Shroff,Sanjay Dutt,Anil Kapoor andSunny Deol. Actresses from this era includedHema Malini,Jaya Bachchan,Raakhee,Shabana Azmi,Zeenat Aman,Parveen Babi,Rekha,Dimple Kapadia,Smita Patil,Jaya Prada andPadmini Kolhapure.[34]
In the late 1980s, Hindi cinema experienced another period of stagnation, with a decline in box office turnout, due to increasing violence, decline in musical melodic quality, and rise in video piracy, leading to middle-class family audiences abandoning theaters. The turning point came withQayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), directed byMansoor Khan, written and produced by his fatherNasir Hussain, and starring his cousinAamir Khan withJuhi Chawla. Its blend of youthfulness, wholesome entertainment, emotional quotients and strong melodies lured family audiences back to the big screen.[35][36] It set a new template for Bollywood musical romance films that defined Hindi cinema in the 1990s.[36]
The period of Hindi cinema from the 1990s onwards is referred to as "New Bollywood" cinema,[37] linked toeconomic liberalisation in India during the early 1990s.[38] By the early 1990s, the pendulum had swung back toward family-centric romantic musicals.Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak was followed by blockbusters such asMaine Pyar Kiya (1989),Chandni (1989),Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994),Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995),Raja Hindustani (1996),Dil To Pagal Hai (1997),Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha (1998) andKuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). A new generation of popular actors emerged, such as Aamir Khan,Aditya Pancholi,Ajay Devgan,Akshay Kumar,Salman Khan (Salim Khan's son), andShahrukh Khan, and actresses such asMadhuri Dixit,Sridevi,Juhi Chawla,Meenakshi Seshadri,Manisha Koirala,Kajol, andKarisma Kapoor.[34]
Since the 1990s, the three biggest Bollywood movie stars have been the "Three Khans":Aamir Khan,Shah Rukh Khan, andSalman Khan.[39][40] Combined, they have starred in most of the top tenhighest-grossing Bollywood films. The three Khans have had successful careers since the late 1980s,[39] and have dominated the Indian box office since the 1990s,[41] across three decades.[42]
Baz Luhrmann stated that his successful musical filmMoulin Rouge! (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals.[43] The film pays homage to India, incorporating an Indian-themed play and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the filmChina Gate. The critical and financial success ofMoulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western live action musical genre, and subsequently films such asChicago,The Producers,Rent,Dreamgirls, andHairspray were produced, fueling a renaissance of the genre.[44]
The Guru andThe 40-Year-Old Virgin also feature Indian-style song-and-dance sequences; the Bollywood musicalLagaan (2001) was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; two other Bollywood filmsDevdas (2002) andRang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for theBAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language; andDanny Boyle'sAcademy Award winningSlumdog Millionaire (2008) also features a Bollywood-style song-and-dance number during the film's end credits,Tallika (2022) was the first movie with Maximum Genres of Music Composed by Maharaja and registered as a World Record Holder in Music,[45]
Spain has a history and tradition of musical films that were made independent of Hollywood influence. The first films arise during theSecond Spanish Republic of the 1930s and the advent ofsound films. A fewzarzuelas (Spanishoperetta) were even adapted as screenplays during the silent era. The beginnings of the Spanish musical were focused on romantic Spanish archetypes:Andalusian villages and landscapes, gypsies, "bandoleros", andcopla and other popular folk songs included in story development. These films had even more box-office success than Hollywood premieres in Spain. The first Spanish film stars came from the musical genre:Imperio Argentina,Estrellita Castro,Florián Rey (director) and, later,Lola Flores,Sara Montiel andCarmen Sevilla. The Spanish musical started to expand and grow. Juvenile stars appear and top the box-office.Marisol,Joselito,Pili & Mili, andRocío Dúrcal were the major figures of musical films from the 1960s to 1970s. Due toSpanish transition to democracy and the rise of "Movida culture", the musical genre fell in production and box-office, only saved byCarlos Saura and hisflamenco musical films.
Unlike the musical films of Hollywood and Bollywood, popularly identified with escapism, the Soviet musical was first and foremost a form of propaganda.Vladimir Lenin said that cinema was "the most important of the arts". His successor,Joseph Stalin, also recognized the power of cinema in efficiently spreading Communist Party doctrine. Films were widely popular in the 1920s, but it was foreign cinema that dominated the Soviet filmgoing market. Films from Germany and the U.S. proved more entertaining than Soviet directorSergei Eisenstein's historical dramas.[46] By the 1930s it was clear that if the Soviet cinema was to compete with its Western counterparts, it would have to give audiences what they wanted: the glamour and fantasy they got from Hollywood.[47] The musical film, which emerged at that time, embodied the ideal combination of entertainment and official ideology.
A struggle between laughter for laughter's sake and entertainment with a clear ideological message would define the golden age of the Soviet musical of the 1930s and 1940s. Then-head of the film industryBoris Shumyatsky sought to emulate Hollywood's conveyor belt method of production, going so far as to suggest the establishment of a Soviet Hollywood.[48]
In 1930, the esteemed Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein went to the United States with fellow directorGrigori Aleksandrov to study Hollywood's filmmaking process. The American films greatly impacted Aleksandrov, particularly the musicals.[49] He returned in 1932, and in 1934 directedThe Jolly Fellows, the first Soviet musical. The film was light on plot and focused more on the comedy and musical numbers. Party officials at first met the film with great hostility. Aleksandrov defended his work by arguing the notion of laughter for laughter's sake.[50] Finally, when Aleksandrov showed the film to Stalin, the leader decided that musicals were an effective means of spreading propaganda. Messages like the importance of collective labor and rags-to-riches stories would become the plots of most Soviet musicals.
The success ofThe Jolly Fellows ensured a place in Soviet cinema for the musical format, but immediately Shumyatsky set strict guidelines to make sure the films promoted Communist values. Shumyatsky's decree "Movies for the Millions" demanded conventional plots, characters, and montage to successfully portraySocialist Realism (the glorification of industry and the working class) on film.[51]
The first successful blend of a social message and entertainment was Aleksandrov'sCircus (1936). It starred his wife,Lyubov Orlova (an operatic singer who had also appeared inThe Jolly Fellows) as an American circus performer who has to immigrate to the USSR from the U.S. because she has a mixed-race child, whom she had with a black man. Amidst the backdrop of lavish musical productions, she finally finds love and acceptance in the USSR, providing the message that racial tolerance can only be found in the Soviet Union.
The influence ofBusby Berkeley's choreography on Aleksandrov's directing can be seen in the musical number leading up to the climax. Another, more obvious reference to Hollywood is theCharlie Chaplin impersonator who provides comic relief throughout the film. Four million people in Moscow and Leningrad went to seeCircus during its first month in theaters.[52]
Another of Aleksandrov's more-popular films wasThe Bright Path (1940). This was a reworking of the fairytaleCinderella, set in the contemporary Soviet Union. The Cinderella of the story was again Orlova, who by this time was the most popular star in the USSR.[53] It was a fantasy tale, but the moral of the story was that a better life comes from hard work. Whereas inCircus, the musical numbers involved dancing and spectacle, the only type of choreography inBright Path is the movement of factory machines. The music was limited to Orlova's singing. Here, work provided the spectacle.
The other director of musical films wasIvan Pyryev. Unlike Aleksandrov, the focus of Pyryev's films was life on the collective farms. His films,Tractor Drivers (1939),The Swineherd and the Shepherd (1941), and his most famous,Cossacks of the Kuban (1949) all starred his wife,Marina Ladynina. Like in Aleksandrov'sBright Path, the only choreography was the work the characters were doing on film. Even the songs were about the joys of working.
Rather than having a specific message for any of his films, Pyryev promoted Stalin's slogan "life has become better, life has become more joyous."[54] Sometimes this message was in stark contrast with the reality of the time. During the filming ofCossacks of the Kuban, the Soviet Union was going through a postwar famine. In reality, the actors who were singing about a time of prosperity were hungry and malnourished.[55] The films did, however, provide escapism and optimism for the viewing public.
The most popular film of the brief era of Stalinist musicals was Alexandrov's 1938 filmVolga-Volga. The star, again, was Lyubov Orlova and the film featured singing and dancing, having nothing to do with work. It is the most unusual of its type. The plot surrounds a love story between two individuals who want to play music. They are unrepresentative of Soviet values in that their focus is more on their music than their jobs. The gags poke fun at the local authorities and bureaucracy. There is no glorification of industry since it takes place in a small rural village. Work is not glorified either, since the plot revolves around a group of villagers using their vacation time to go on a trip up theVolga andMoscow Canal to perform in Moscow. The film can be seen as a glorification of Moscow canal without any hint that the canal was built byGulag prisoners.
Volga-Volga followed the aesthetic principles of Socialist Realism rather than the ideological tenets. It became Stalin's favorite film and he gave it as a gift to PresidentRoosevelt duringWWII. It is another example of one of the films that claimed life is better. Released at the height of Stalin's purges, it provided escapism and a comforting illusion for the public.[56]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
