Raaz (Secret)
Vikram Bhatt
2002

Country: India
Language: Hindi

THE IDEA OF LANGUAGE FAMILIES (PHYLA, FAMILIES)

Languages are often seen as "related" and like animals, are classified into groups which are organized into taxonomies. Familes of languages, lkke Romance langugaes (Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Roumanian) are all closely related to Latin, Germanic languages like German, Dutch and English also constitute a single language family known as Germanic. Other language families are Scandanavian, Slavic and so on. These families of languages are all related up to a level called a "phylum" the same way lions and tigers are members of the cat family and dogs and wolves are canines and whales and dophins are cetaceans. These familes are found in a larger group called "mammals" and still larger groups called Phyla (which is the plural of "phlum"). There are many language phyla in the world which have not been shown to be related to other phyla. India is a large country in which many languages are spoken. Some of the languages are closely related while others are quite distantly related - if at all - that is to say they are in different phyla. The major languages belong to the Indo European (also known as Indo-Aryan) phylum (found largely in the north) and the Dravidian phylum found largely in the south. Hindi and Urdu are Indo-Aryan languages that are often thought of as he same language, but using different writing systems and borrowing words from different languages. Urdu borrowed a great deal of vocabulary from Arabic and Persian, while Hindi borrowed largely from Sanskrit. The official languages of India and Hindi and English. English is Germanic but borrowed heavily from Romance languages especially French). Hindi is written in the Devanagari script while Urdu uses a modified Perso-Arabic script.

Dravidian languages like Tamil and Telegu are unreleated to the Indo-European languages In terms of religion 79.8% of Indians claim to be Hindus, while 14.2% claim to be Islamic. Another 2.3% claim to be Christian while 1.7% say they are Sikh.

Hinduism is the third largest world religion with about a billion followers. Only Christianity (2.4 billion) and Islam (1.62 billion) have more. Buddhism has 488–535 million followers and although it originated in India between the 6th and 4th Centuries BC i has few adherents in India. It deals largely with the nature and alleviation of suffering (dukkha). It is a minor religion in India today but its impact on the Asian nations has been great.

India has tense relations with neighbouring Pakistan; the two nations have gone to war four times: in 1947, 1965, 1971, and 1999. Three of these wars were fought over the disputed territory of Kashmir. The fourth war fought in 1971 resulted from India's support for the independence of Bangladesh. After wars waged in 1962 (Sino-Indian) and the war in 1965 with Pakistan, India developed close ties with the Sociviets both militarily and economically. By the end of the 1960s, the Soviet Union was its largest arms supplier.

Motion pictures, television

There is a huge audience for the films made by the Indian film industry. While the major area is in Mumbai (Bombay), there are regional cinematic traditions all around India. The second major film producing companies produce films in Dravidian languages.

State conrolled television appeared in India in 1959 and explanded slowly The state control ended in the 1990s and, since then, satellite channels have appeared.

BOLLYWOOD

Bollywood is a term used strictly to apply to the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai (Bombay) although it is often used to refer to the film industry in India as a whole. There is some dislike for the term since it makes “Bollywood” and kind of poor step cousin to Hollywood. Bollywood makes up about 43% of the film production while Telegu and Taml cinema (excluded from the term) make up together about 36% of the film production. The remaining bit is regional. Bollywood is more properly referred to as Hindi Cinema. This is the largest producer of films in the world, annually producing more than double that of Hollywood (over 1,000 to less than 500).

Earliest films in India are silent and thee first is in 1913. By 1931 the industry in India was making sound films and a market for sound films and musicals appeared quickly. Color movies arrived in 1937 but didn’t become popular until the 50’s. In the 50’s two of India’s major drectors appear: Guru Dutt and Satyajit Ray whose first film Pather Panchali (The first of the Apu trilogy) which won many awards.

Bollywood films have been influenced by

Among the aspects or characteristics of Bollywood films are their elaborate musical song and dance numbers and their melodramatic plots.

Hollywood has perhaps been a strong influence since of more people whi have moved out of India to other countries have had more contact with the Hollywood films, There is also a good deal of plagiarism which has be "justified"by holding that original scripts get rejected because of uncertainty of success and would rather “steal” from something already proven. The result is that producers often play a safer option by remaking popular Hollywood films in an Indian context. Indian screenwriters are more than capable of producing original scripts, but financial uncertainty and insecurity over the success of a film causes many to be rejected. Screenwriters themselves have been criticised for lack of creativity. This maybe the result of tight schedules and restricted funds in the industry. Vikram Bhatt, director of films such as Raaz (itself plagerized or perhaps a remake of What Lies Beneath), and Kasoor, a remake of Jagged Edge, has said things about the strong influence of American culture and desire to produce box office hits based along the same lines in Bollywood. He said, "Financially, I would be more secure knowing that a particular piece of work has already done well at the box office. Copying is endemic everywhere in India. Our TV shows are adaptations of American programmes. We want their films, their cars, their planes, their Diet Cokes and also their attitude. The American way of life is creeping into our culture." Mahesh Bhatt said, "If you hide the source, you're a genius. There's no such thing as originality in the creative sphere".

There have been very few cases of film copyright violations taken to court. Serious delays in the legal process, and the length of time it takes te courts to decide a case. Notable cases of conflict though have occurred. The makers of Partner (2007) and Zinda (2005) have been attacked by the owners and distributors of the original films, Hitch and Oldboy. American Studio Twentieth Century Fox brought the Mumbai-based B.R. Films to court over its forthcoming Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, allegedly an illegal remake of its 1992 film My Cousin Vinny.

Some characteristics have been that companies have been rather clanish. Music (songs) crucial. Most performers are good dancers but not singers and lip synch the songs to performances by professional singers. CDs of songs often released before the films.Dances are often based on Indian dance/folk dance

There are some changes as time has gone on. Sound for example was mostly post, now less so. In part this may be becaue the music (songs) were crucial. Most performers are good dancers but not singers and lip synch the songs to performances by professional singers which is done in postproduction. CDs of songs often released before the films. Dances are often based on Indian dance/folk dance

Americans bring a good deal of sterotyping about India: Caste system. Monsoons, the practice of suttee, thuggi and so on. All of these may be true but they are "decontextualized" from the original cultures and "recontectualized" into an Western idea of India.

It is important to think about two specific things in this film. One has to do with the use of musical production numbers in the film and the other has to do with switching between Hindi and English (a process known as "code switching") What causes two people who speak the same to languages to decide what language they are going to speak to each other in, and what causes them to switch in the middle of a conversation?

AFTER THE FILM

A supernatural horror film, it did very well. Two sequels followed and a third is in the works. Use of music Music The music of Raaz was composed by Nadeem Shravan and utilised a series of melodious tunes and bittersweet rhythms. Songs were written by Sameer. The album was a chart buster in 2002 with songs becoming very popular on the youth. Alka Yagnik received a nomination for Best Female Playback Singer at the Filmfare Awards for the song "Aapke pyaar mein"

Track # Title Singer(s) Length

1 "Aapke Pyaar Mein" Alka Yagnik 05:30
2 "Jo Bhi Kasmein Khai Thi" Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik 05:37
3 "Main Agar Saamne" Abhijeet Bhattacharya, Alka Yagnik 05:46
4 "Itna Main Chahoon Tujhe" Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik 05:21
5 "Mujhe Teri Jaisi Ladki" Udit Narayan, Sarika Kapoor 05:25
6 "Kitna Pyaara Hai Yeh Chehra" Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik 04:21
7 "Pyaar Se Pyaar Hum" Abhijeet Bhattacharya 05:30
8 "Yahan Pe Sab Shanti Hai" Jolly Mukherjee, Bali Brahmbhatt, Suzanne D'Mello 04:39

Bollywood films are noted for their use of musical production numbers, which are generally released before the film comes out. There are several in the film. The first takes place at the night club and is diegetic (that is to say the song takes place in a performance space where it is presumably seen as performance by the people in the film. The song, City of Peace contains a line about the breeze being This contrasts with Ooly where the couple go, where the place is not peaceful and where the breeze signifies the arrival of the spirit

The second number is a reminances of the couple just before the wedding. It appears as a number in a musical (i.e. a non performance space) but also in a non real situation, i.e. a flashback. It also relates to the story in that it contains the idea that Sanjana would "snatch her husband back from God" (i.e. death) which is what she will do by the end of the film.

The third song occurs during the slide show. It starts off with Aditya appearing in a kind of spotlight with a guitar and others in the scene appear to see him. He sings about remembering what they had done together as evidenced in the slide show and she joins in the singing. However, the music waivers between being a "musical" number in the sense that they are singing in no performance spaces, but they are singing in a kind of flashback or memory sequence. At times they are actually "singing" whereas at other times in the flashback the singing continues but their mouths are not moving. The music shifts between diegetic and non diegetic here.
The fourth song is totally non diegetic and occurs again in the sequence where Sanjana leaves after hearing about the affair her husband had. The song deals largely with his atachment to his wife. Near the end of the song he sees his wife holding her arms open to him and then she vanishes.

Later there follows a reprise of a part of the song just before the wedding, when Sanjana says she would bring him back from death.

Finally there is another reprise - this time of a part of the song which is sung when Sanjana is leaving "The face on which I die"

Switches to English at certain moments? When Why? Often emotional Similar techniques in horror:

Repeating elements:

Use of parallel structure: