Archetypal Patterns of Politics in Third Cinema

Cinema as an art is constantly innovating and over-toppling its own pinnacle of achieved glory. In a century or so since its inception, the age of First Cinema (character and situation oriented) and Second (comparative perspective from an objective viewpoint) have become passé with the arrival of Third Cinema (a term coined by Michael Wayne in his book Political Cinema: The Dialectics of Third Cinema) a genre which has a strong literary and cultural grounding but takes one step further by bringing to the art of cinema- the range, depth and concerns of contemporary politics; a conscious political interlinkage between creator and spectator; clear portrayal of subaltern concerns and cultural specificities. Side stepping the avowed objectives of recreation and supreme creation, Third Cinema seeks to help the spectator build clear political ideologies and loyalties, an imperative in a multi perspective, deceptive, constantly fluctuating political environment. I shall undertake the study of select Third cinema specimen from Bollywood movies and attempt to align them with the prevalent thought and ideology of the day to eke out generalities, predict movements and showcase successful outcomes.