We can best understand the importance of these classifications by making two simple distinctions. The first is between ‘popular’ and ‘art’ cinema. The massive popular audience in India is hungry for cheap entertainment and this is what cinema has provided. This audience, which includes a significant proportion of people with limited access to education, enjoys universal genres such as action, comedy and melodrama and more specifically ‘Indian’ stories with spiritual/mythological themes. The typical Indian film as viewed from outside the country may well be a three hour spectacular ‘multi-genre’ film with six or seven extended elaborately choreographed and costumed musical.
