GLOBALIZATION AND THE MEDIA - Essay Example

GLOBALISATION AND MEDIA 11. Globalisation has its ‘discontents’. Analyse and discuss how groups of citizens engage with resistance to the process of globalisation. Globalisation can be succinctly defined as the process of ever increasing integration of societies and economies of various countries in the world. It is one of the most controversial issues in international economics and trade. Globalization effectively refers to a multifaceted process of economic and trade integration, with a singular focus on shrinking the geographical expanse of the economic sphere of activity. The World Health Organization (WHO) probably gives the best working definition of globalization. “Globalization, or the increased interconnectedness and interdependence of people and countries, is generally understood to include two interrelated elements:  the opening of borders to increasingly fast flows of goods, services, finance, people and ideas across international borders; and the changes in institutional and policy regimes at the international and national levels that facilitate or promote such flows”(www.who.int/trade/entity/). The World Trade Organization (WTO) in its definition (provided by its current Secretary General) makes references to capitalism as against capital flows. This parochial approach renders its definition less acceptable for a comprehensive analysis. The rest of the spectrum of definitions given by various world bodies including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) does not help us to develop a sound set of theoretical postulates on the subject. But nevertheless as we are aware we cannot separate globalization from WTO. They are the kind of Siamese twins. The WTO is increasingly assuming the role of a world government, with almost 153 nations conceding their political and economic authority to it (www.wto.org). Global economic or trade integration necessarily leads to some political and legal integration as well. Here the WTO as the global watchdog of trade oversees the rules-based regime of international trade and lays the foundation for a policy structure of globalization. This whole exercise presupposes the primacy and immediacy of commercial interests based on international free trade. It steadfastly seeks to dismantle all barriers – protectionist, legal, political, ideological and nationalist – to free trade. In the process it has created more “discontents” than “contents”. I will seek to focus attention on these discontents in a well structured analytical presentation. Globalisation, in fact, has created a wave of protests by farmers, economists, trade unionists, agricultural workers, individual countries, interest groups, exporters and importers and even trade negotiators and officials. Third world countries like Brazil and India have constantly complained about the anomalies of existing international trade arrangements. Similarly the developed world, including the United States of America (USA) and the European Union (EU) have complained against the so called “third world intransigence”, a reference to countries like India, China and Mexico which have refused to liberalize their service industries fast enough and allow foreign investment in some sensitive spheres such as banking and insurance. These new developments have, further, been confounded by the existing bilateral trade pacts. Free trade regimes that have come into existence over the years since the World War II have engaged the attention of many analysts, specially the free trade areas and customs unions that divert and create a lot of trade outside the usual regime of international multilateral trading system. An ever increasing number of law suits are being filed on a daily basis at the WTO by both affected countries and unaffected countries. The latter does it with a motive to preempt action by the former. In addition to these legal ramifications there are many political and economic issues that have been reported by global mass media with bias and prejudice. For instance there are two camps that sit on either side of the divide of global free trade, viz. pro-globalization camp and the anti-globalization camp. The camp of discontents is again fragmented into national governments, farmers’ organizations, industrialists, trade blocs, third world trade activists, anti-globalization activists of the developed world and citizens’ groups. A myriad of citizens’ organizations have ganged up against globalization in both the developing world and the developed world. This phenomenon has also brought with it a debate on ‘trade culture’, a debate that focuses on the origin of trade with context as the most important aspect. For instance, in the USA, citizens’ groups that protested against the negative impact of globalization included many skilled workers who felt that their jobs were robbed by skilled workers in the developing world (Scheve and Slaughter, 2001, p.94). Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has grown in leaps and bounds in the last few years and this is as a direct result of the process of globalization. BPO industry involves skilled workers’ jobs being siphoned off to regions where relative labor cost is much less. Right now this discontent group in the West and North America is the largest by any means. However this does not mean that only the skilled workers are affected. According to Scheve and Slaughter workers with low skills are more likely to protest against free trade than skilled workers in the USA. What matters most is the fact that where does trade originate in the first instance. According to Kletzer and Litan of the Peterson Institute for International Economics, less skilled workers are more likely to face lay offs than skilled workers in times of economic slow down. “In 1999, 1.15 million workers lost their jobs through mass layoffs, down only a fraction from the 1.18 million total in 1996. Given the drop in the unemployment rate from a 5.4 percent annual average for 1996 to 4.2 percent for 1999, the level of mass layoffs remains stubbornly high”(Kletzer and Litan, 2001, www.iie.com). Companies that outsource their operations to less-costly workers in the developing world, do so with a view to making a good profit on selling the product that such cheap labor helps them to make. So the source of discontent is not immediately obvious though. On the other hand citizens’ groups in the developing world also complain about cheaper imported agricultural products from the developed world. The EU is well known for its generous handouts of subsidies to dairy and agricultural farmers. The net result is an effort to dump cheaper dairy and agricultural products in markets elsewhere where such subsides are either totally absent or given in lesser amounts. Here the source of discontent is the subsidy that cannot be justified according to both the officials and citizens’ groups in the affected country. Paradoxically, both these groups of discontented citizens are engaged in protests against globalization on the same issue of free trade. The argument put forward by those in support of international free trade is that comparative cost advantages allow non-producing countries to import such goods and consume at a lower price (Rodrik, 1997, p.76). In fact, globalization is all about benefits to both the exporting country and the importing country. But nevertheless, questions like how these benefits are generated and at what hidden cost, have been conveniently ignored by policy makers at either end. Strategic imperatives compel both the groups to seek redress through protests while governments themselves engage in protracted negotiations to iron out differences. Next such discontent group involves agricultural workers of third world countries who complain about genetically modified food crops flooding their markets while their won small-holder plots or extensive land acreages lie fallow because there is less demand for such organic food crops. Just concluded global trade talks on Doha Round, after 7 years of negotiations failed due to disagreement between India and the USA. Yet again the failure has been attributed to a technical glitch. By hindsight of what Stiglitz tells us in his optimistic book “Globalization and Its Discontents”, that developing countries could extract some concessions from the developed world at the new Doha Round of trade negotiations, we have come to a sorry pass again (Stiglitz, 2003, p.224). The Indian Trade Minister, Kamal Nath, sought to highlight the issue of poor farmers by demanding a “special safeguard mechanism” by imposing import tariffs on agricultural imports to protect their incomes during an import surge or a price fall. The demand itself is not an unreasonable one though. The actual development that led to the demand is more important here. Farmers’ interest groups in countries like India, China and Brazil demand protective tariffs that would effectively curtail cheaper imports. These citizens’ groups act in close coordination with a number of intellectual support organizations which basically provide them with intellectual inputs. Pessimism that global trade talks at WTO, generates is boundless and all pervasive. The other two areas of negotiations are the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and the Trade Related Investment Measures (TRIMS). The first is concerned with new patent rights while the second is concerned with protection for investment. These two spheres of international trade have created more controversy than any other issue. Despite early agreement on these two issues between the developing world and the developed world. Developing countries like India and China accuse the West and the USA of duplicity when it comes to patent rights. A new patent will entitle the holder to enjoy all direct and indirect benefits of his discovery or invention for a period of 20 years. However, multinational pharmaceuticals corporations in North America and Western Europe resort to what is known as “ever-greening”, a practice in which even before the first 20 years lapse, the company obtains a new patent on the same drug with slight improvement. Now what’s so interesting about the whole episode is the fact that Pharmaceuticals companies which produce copy-cat drugs in developing countries and sell at cheaper prices, have mobilized citizens’ groups to pressurize their governments to impose restrictions on imports. For instance life saving drugs for cancer and HIV positive patients are mass-produced by these companies. It is the citizens’ or patients’ rights groups that spearhead the campaign on behalf of the former. TRIPS agreement also gives liberal powers to governments which in turn have the authority to allow third parties to use patents without the permission of the patent holder ( Stiglitz and Charlton, 2006, p.143). These developments have given rise to the formation of so many discontent groups that lobby their governments at every level of policy formulation and implementation. The tactics they use in order to protest against government policy vary according to circumstances. For instance when agricultural subsidies were threatened as a result of the success of the Uruguay Round of talks farmers in both the developing world and the developed world protested against even a phased out reduction in farm subsidies. From Seattle to Cancun, Washington to London and New Delhi to Rio de Janeiro pressure groups operate at various levels with a view to influencing decisions of their respective governments on global trade. The nearly universal unanimity in opposing free international trade has no match in any other global issue of significance right now. Job losses in America were recently pinned on globalization and the Republican Administration of George W. Bush has lost all its popularity ratings to Democrats. At the Seattle Ministerial Conference of the WTO member countries in 1999 protests took an even worse turn. However, here the discontents were from various countries and represented various interests and professions. “Estimates ranged from 50,000 to 100,000 protestors. Protesters came from all over the world, not just the developed countries. They ranged from human rights groups, students, environmental groups, religious leaders, labor rights activists etc wanting fairer trade with less exploitation. Even right-wing protectionist groups were there also arguing against the current corporate-led free trade, (although the protectionists were there for very different reasons)”(Shah, Feb 18, 2001, www.globalissues.org). Protestors were of the opinion that international agreements signed by WTO member countries and financial institutions were all put together to benefit a few individuals and multinational corporations. They felt that there were a very few mechanisms in place to remove the existing anomalies in international trade. Transnational Companies (TNCS) were considered to be the most influential entities in international free trade and they were considered to represent the broader interests of capitalists who, in turn, controlled global capital flows. The overarching confluence between global capital and TNCS’ asymmetrical overreach over geographical locations in the world makes matters worse for the decision makers in both the developing world and the developed world (Friedman, 2000, p.191). The protesters were in fact trying to draw attention to these structural inequalities in the existing multilateral trade regime. At Cancun too the issues were similar though the pitch of the protest campaign was heightened by anti-globalizers’ unique articulation of their grievances. A still broader umbrella group of anti-globalization activists did succeed, though partially, in convincing the world community on how complex and treacherous the issues were. These protest groups had already found their voice in the sentiments that were expressed by “an influential alliance of developing nations and major agricultural exporters including Brazil, Thailand, India, Australia and South Africa”. These countries pressed for greater liberalization of agricultural trade (Sept. 10, 2003, www.nytimes.com). Globalization has spread its tentacles beyond the very limits of geography. No country can remain outside its orbit of influence. Agricultural workers of the developing and the developed world gathered here to protest against further liberalization of their markets. However, the USA and the EU were compelled to make some concessions by the above alliance. There is another vocal group of discontents that demand redress against injustice caused by globalization. Industrialists such as textiles, leather, fashionable clothing, consumer electronics, machinery, paper and even drugs, have questioned the logicality of free trade when most of the imports are subject to prohibitive tariffs and import quotas. The other side of the coin is that of the amount of subsidies received by farmers and agricultural producers. The most glaring example is the EU farm subsidies made available under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Though most of its effectiveness is now gone due to a series of dilutions and reforms, the CAP still doles out millions of sterling pounds annually to dairy farmers and agricultural producers. The impact of this policy is felt in some far corners of the globe. Agricultural producers and farmers in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the USA have complained against these mammoth subsidies which are right now paid to encourage producers to set aside their productive resources. The seething discontent among the former has led them to take up the issue with their governments and the WTO. They are of the well organized discontent groups in the world. France is the biggest beneficiary of the EU budget with 40% of subsidies. “The French farming community that receives this money is powerful and effectively represented by the main agriculture union, the FNSEA. This union has become even more aggressive in recent” (Gordon and Boisgrollier, 2005, www.yaleglobal.com). REFERENCES 1. Friedman, Thomas L, (2000), The Lexus and The Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization, New York, First Anchor Books. 2. Gordon Philip H and de Boisgrollier, Nicholas, (Nov. 15, 2005), Why The French Love Their Farmers – Greatest Beneficiary of EU Farm Policy is Reluctant to Reform, retrieved on July 31, 2008, from www.yaleglobal.com. 3. Kletzer, Lori G and Litan, Robert E (March 2001), A Prescription to Relieve Worker Anxiety, Peterson Institute for International Economics(Policy Brief), retrieved on July 31, 2008, from www.iie.com/research. 4. New York Times (Sept. 10, 2003), Showdown in Cancun, retrieved on July 31, 2008, from www.nytimes.com. 5. Rodrik, Dani, (1997), Has Globalization Gone Too Far? Washington DC, Institute for International Economics (IIE). 6.Shah, Anup, (Feb. 18, 2001), Enormous Public Turnout Despite Police Crackdown, Free Trade and Globalization, retrieved on July 31, 2008, from www.globalissues.org. 7. Sheve, Kenneth F and Slaughter, Mathew J (2001), Globalization and The Perception Of American Workers, Washington DC, Institute for International Economics (IIE). 8. Stiglitz, Joseph E, (2003), Globalization and Its Discontents, London, Norton & Company Ltd. 9. Stiglitz, Joseph E and Charlton, Andrew (2006), Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development (Initiative for Policy Dialogue Series C), Oxford, Oxford University Press. 10. Definition of Globalization, retrieved on July 31, 2008, from www.who.inter. 11. Current Issues on Globalization, retrieved on July 31, 2008, from www.wto.org. ASSESSMENT REPORT CONTETNS Title Page Executive summary 13 Introduction 13 2. Corpus of critique: 2.1. The era of silent film 15 2.2. A paradigm shift 15 2.3. Father-and-son music duo 16 2.4. Regional fare 17 2.5. The journey from surrealism to realism 18 2.6. The decisive decade 19 Conclusion 20 Recommendations 21 References 22 Appendix X ASSESSMENT REPORT Executive summary India’s film industry is the largest in the world by ticket sales and the number of films produced annually and has been making giant strides on a global level with its highly successful outward projection campaign of culture. Bollywood, as it’s popularly known, derives its namesake from the city of Bombay (now known as Mumbai) where the film industry is located in India. From its black and white epoch to the present highly technology-centric formulaic potboilers, the Indian film industry has given rise to “a distinct celluloid culture” that has little or no parallel elsewhere. Even the Hollywood film makers would not have imagined the kind of melodramatic sentiment that is packed into a nearly-three-hour run of phantasmagoric nuances. Despite all its garish glamour, Bollywood has engendered “a cultural ethos” that has its own set of mores and dynamism, and cuts across all barriers of geography, ethnicity and religion. Introduction It’s a pastime of many a social scientist to ruminate on ‘parallels’, be them of cultures, models of behaviour or legal systems. The Indian film industry does not, strictly speaking, fall into a stereotypical or archetypal framework of evolution. Its erratic developmental phases are as numerous as the number of ethnic groups that live on this vast subcontinent. That’s why hundreds of re-makes of older genres and stories still appeal to millions in India. From Sathya Jit Ray’s Bengali classic Pather Panchali (Song of the road, 1955) to Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Elippathayam (Rat trap, 1981), the Indian cinema has been progressing on uneven surface of ups and downs (Pym, 2006, p.1,035). Yet, there has been a very credible nuance-ridden anthology of cultural transformation that pervades its whole dimension. Above all, the polymorphous identity has invested it with a paradigm of time-centric metamorphosis. Sathyajit Ray juxtaposes two uncompromising worlds – one orthodox and the other rebellious – in his work (Cooper, 2000, p.70). Its cultural ethos has fundamentally served as a forger of communal common identity that otherwise still remains fragmented on lines of ethnicity, caste, creed, skin colour and geography. It has spawned a new generation of men and women who care less about social cohesion brought about through ethnic identity or any other conventional marker. This celluloid culture has done wonders in a country that otherwise remains divided. The most crucial element in its thread of commonalty is the enduring vigor and the centripetal force that coalesces together a polymorphous society. This cultural ethos has transcended all frontiers to reach other societies that very rarely have anything in common with the subcontinent. Countries from Afghanistan to the USA have been influenced by this sentimental ethos. The Indian film industry is not a monolithic entity either. Its entertainment capacity is further enhanced by a parallel development in the form of television dramas. Their technical cinematic quality has little parallel elsewhere. With Hollywood type swankier sprawling studios and film cities, backed by highly advanced technology, the Indian film industry has acquired an aura of superiority in every aspect of film making. Corpus of critique 2. 1. The era of the silent film Cinematography or film making is a tradition-bound craft. In the hands of veterans it becomes something similar to an act of changing the shape of a clump of clay. The cinematographer also creates an artistic piece out of some resources. India’s film industry started in the early years with black and white silent films. Raja Harishchandra (1931), directed by Dadsaheb Phalke, was the first silent feature film made in India. The first film, with sound Alam Ara (1931), made waves among Indian film-goers. Regional film industry in India too made its presence known during the same period. Tamil, Bengali, Telegu and Malayalam films were made by regional directors who did not want to make films in Hindi. These early years were marked by a desire to entertain and teach. In fact, the films were rather didactic in form and preachy in philosophy. These earlier traits were gradually dropped and replaced with more fanciful scenes that were all intended to appeal at the box office. In the late 1930’s and 1940’s the Indian film industry experienced a downturn, albeit still the phantasmagoric, escapist, cathartic ethos sought to out-perform all the gloom associated with the WW II and the Great Depression. 2. 2. A paradigm shift As the time went on the Indian film industry acquired a new dimension that featured not only a hero-heroine-villain triangle but also a subtler societal theme such as caste or religion. Chemmeen (shrimp), released in 1965 and based on a novel by Thakashi Sivsankara Pillai in 1956, was a Malayali film which won critical acclaim the world over (Philip, April 12, 1999, www.expressindia.com). It was dubbed in Russian and a number of other world languages too. This was the time that films based on regional languages began to make a foray into the industry with a big bang. These films sought to portray the underlying social tensions that had religious, ethnic, caste and other divisive origins. Some of them depicted independence movement with a degree of realism, though social themes were more readily integrated into neat plots to magnify the cleavages that existed on the very surface of the social fabric. A qualitative shift occurred in the early 1950’s in the industry due to independence from Britain. For the first time the sun began to set even on the mighty British Empire and this theme was captured with subtlety and sublime tendency. Both blasé and risque themes were liberally explored though at the same time directors were mindful of the self-proclaimed puritans and rambunctious charlatans. Themes began to be expanded and plots began to be thicker. Genres ranging from drama to historic epic and crime thriller to religious epic were put out with an unprecedented rapidity, almost 200 plus films a year. 2. 3. Father-and-son music duo In the 1960’s a greater degree of sophistication was seen in the industry with new techniques being adopted and new themes being explored as a result of popularity abroad. In the late sixties and the early seventies saw a sea-change in the Indian film industry with a number of films being exported abroad. Russia was particularly open to Indian films. In the 1970’s the glamorous musicals captured the mood of the average Indian filmgoer. The father-and-son duo, S.D. Burman and R.D. Burman, dominated the industry as music directors while Kishor Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar dominated the background scene with their melodious voices during this period (Rajadhaksha and Willemen, 1999, www.indianmelody.com). For the first time the father-and-son duo energized the Indian film with background music as never before, though Salil Chaudhari had by then taken the Hindi film onto a newer higher plane with his euphonious melodies in Madumathi. It is during the 1970’s that the Indian film industry began to generate an obviously positive response abroad. It was said that the average Russian peasant would hum a Hindi song of which the origin he never knew. With this qualitative shift and wider enthusiasm, the industry gathered more momentum to face the formidable challenge of the Western thriller genre, more commonly known as detective films (Ayas, July 25, 2008, www.insidermediagroup.com). Hollywood films during this period particularly had an impact on the youthful audiences that looked for vivid portrayals of violence. Indeed Bollywood films had their fair share of violence but nevertheless, such scenes were less realistic due to technical glitches. Then the next revolutionary change occurred in the 1980’s that witnessed some of the most modern features in cinematography. The era of modesty and the chaste conjugal bliss began to evaporate. Violence and gore became the whole mark of the average Indian film during this period. 2. 4. Regional fare Regional language based film directors were still assiduously holding onto the family drama genre, despite its ever-diminishing appeal to a modern culture. Commercial success at the box office was not their aim. A more visible change came with the advent of the electronic medium, i.e. the television into every average home. However, the exotic appeal of Hindi films on the big screen at the ramshackle cinema hall did not wane. In fact by the end of the eighties almost 1000 films were made annually. This staggering figure included a greater number of formulaic mishmash that collected a lot of money at the box office. There were some notable exceptions too. Insaaf KaTarazu (1980) depicted a very common problem in the then Indian society, viz. rape of poor or the low caste women committed by the high caste or rich males. Tezaab (acid, 1989) again portrayed a very common problem, viz. the rich guy falling in love with the poor lass and the devilish opposition from the guy’s father. These themes are still popular with the Indian audiences though violence has a still greater appeal to the majority of the youth. 2. 5. The journey from surrealism to realism The 1990’s acted as the bridging decade for what was essentially a pre-modernist era of film-making and a highly-technology-centric modern era. During the nineties the Indian film industry underwent a complete transformation. Almost in every sphere of cinematography this change was visible. Japanese technology in video cameras and film editing helped in the process of transformation in great measure. Pop and gloss were the new ingredients in an otherwise archaic formula of film-making. The nineties were also marked by a regenerative spirit of the seventies. Shyam Bengal, the legendary film director, released his landmark film, Sooraj Ka Satwan Ghoda in 1993. From his first film Ankur (the seedling, 1974) to Zubeidda (2000), this India’s new wave film director empathizes with the audience at a subliminal level. His articulate characterization of the deprived and marginalized segments of the Indian society, stands out against all too common commercial efforts of many a film-maker in India. His ability to capture underlying tensions in society has endeared him to many contemporary critics. In Ankur he successfully broke away from the orthodoxy of film-making in India. Ankur portrays the first signs of a fracture in the feudalist village system in India. This also marked a clear shift of focus away from surrealism to realism (Fer, Bathcelor and Wood, 1993, p.270). Scenes of sexual violence markedly increased during this period (Ramasubramanian and Oliver, 2003, pp.327-336). 2. 6. The decisive decade Finally, the present decade in the Indian film industry belongs to such strategic film-makers like Ram Gopal Varma. His forte lies in the analytical exploration of “violence as a cinematic idiom” (Joshi, August 1, 2008, www.southasiancinema.com). Varma is in love with this idiom, not as a money spinner but as a more realistic proposition to subtly portray the prevailing political and social relations. At least this is valid in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India and the state of Maharashtra. The velocity at which the speedometer of violence registers its motion is presumably staggering. His caricatures of local politicians in Mumbai have won him mass acclaim at every level. His two films Sarkar and Sarkar Raj depict a political parallel to that of what prevails in Maharashtra. Shiv Sena is a fundamentalist Hindu entity headed by a strong-willed politician Bal Thakeray in Mumbai. Amithab Bachchan who plays the lead role in the film leaves very little for the imagination of the audience. This reminds us of Coppola’s Godfather trilogy. With two more years to go in the present decade, Indian film industry has notched up a newer frontier. Raj Kapoor, the doyen of Hindi cinema could not have dreamt of such milestones. Conclusion The Indian film industry has traversed a fairly uneven growth trajectory that saw some of the best and worst films being made during different epochs. Its versatility and elasticity make it one of the best in the world today. Hollywood makes films for the entire world and Bollywood used to make them for a particular audience. But no more. The latter too makes them now for a global market. Its peculiarities – cultural ethos, social mores and different systems of belief – have all found expression in a modern medium. Market principles, demand and supply, work for Bollywood films in the same way they work for Hollywood films. However, how best the former has managed to utilize them has left much to be desired. The typical metaphors used in Bollywood films contrast with Hollywood culture of universality and its nascent metempsychosis from a self-effacing sub-continental existence to a genre rich global environment predicates on a space-time dimension that presupposes a paradigm shift from popular razzle-dazzle to more serious qualitative film-making. The Indian nomination, Rang De Basanti (Paint it yellow) for the Cannes in 2006, was considered to be a sensible entry though it failed to win a prize (March 2007, www.bollywoodcelebden.com). Hollywood-based Mira Nair and internationalist Deepa Metha are Indian products and their contribution to world cinema has been immense. Now it is time to think of the directional thrust of this mammoth industry. Sailing between Scylla and Charybdis involves a lot of tact. The industry right now generates billions of dollars in revenue, thanks to a captive audience at home. Its recent forays into Hollywood by way of joint ventures could mean a shift of the gear for good. Recommendations A supply deficiency is obviously the tragedy associated with coming of age for Bollywood films. It lacks the kind of marketing prowess that Hollywood has got in its kitty. The latter hires Ivy-League University graduates in marketing and economics to look after this very sensitive sphere of the business. On the other hand Bollywood has no sense or direction as for a marketing strategy (Flibbert, 2007, p.63). Further, Bollywood is yet to learn how to keep the audience on the edge of the seat till the end. Its dazzling glamour is not serious business in the rest of the world. A few songs, a few dances and a few lackluster fights do not make a film in the eyes of the global film buff. Finally, Bollywood needs to cut across a vast expanse of international genres that demand sophisticated mastery of filmmaking and acting. In this respect the South of the country has done much more by way of refining its skills. A.R. Rahaman, the maestro has produced some of the best musical scores for otherwise lackadaisical films. It has to liberate itself from the glamour-alone syndrome. REFERENCES 1. Ayas, Anas, (July 25, 2008), Bollywood’s Success Adds to India’s Move Forward, Retrieved on August 1, 2008, from www.insidermediagroup.com. 2. Cooper, Darius, (2000), The Cinema of Sathyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity (Cambridge Studies in Film), Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 3. Fer, Briony, Batchelor, David and Wood, Paul (1994), Realism, Rationalism, Surrealism: Art Between the Wars, London, The Open University Press. 4. Flibbert, Andrew J, (2007), Commerce in Culture: States and Markets in the World Film Trade, New York, Palgrave McMillan Ltd. 5. Joshi, Lalit M, (August 1, 2008), Sarkar Raj Moves towards a Trilogy, retrieved on August 1, 2008, from www.southasiancinema.com. 6. Philip, Anton J (April 12, 1999), The Colossus from Kuttanad, Indian Express, retrieved on August 1, 2008, from www.expressindia.com. 7. Pym, John, (2006), Time Out Film Guide, 14th Edition, London, Time Out Guides Limited. 8. Rajadhksha, Ashish and Willemen, Paul (2008), Sachin Dev Burman, A Biography, (1906 – 1975), retrieved on August 1, 2008, from www.indianmelody.com. 9. Ramasubramanian, Srividya and Oliver, Mary B (April 2003), Portrayals of Sexual Violence in Popular Hindi Films 1997-1999, Journal of Sex Roles, Vol. 48 (7-8), pp.327-336, the Netherlands, Springer, Netherlands. 10. Range De Basanti in English as Colour of Sacrifice (2008), retrieved on August 1, 2008, from www.bollywood.celebden.com. APPENDIX Read More