Universalism versus cultural relativism in film storytelling: A comparative analysis of storytelling practice in popular films of India and the United States

The study's focus was on one of the major concerns of media studies: the nature of the relationship between the dominant media of communication and the cultures into which these media have been absorbed.;Popular film, for over a hundred years one of the most pervasive modes of storytelling, has been viewed by media universalists as a universal means of communication, a universal language of storytelling, and by relativists as a means of communication unique to cultures seen as communication environments empowered to determine the nature of the communication processes and to exploit particular media biases.;The purpose of the study was to examine commercially successful popular films in the United States and India, in order to identify possible similarities and/or differences in storytelling practices in films of these two cultures.;The literature review indicated that in the opinion of scholars of popular films of India and the United States, the film making practices in both countries were influenced by elements specific to the cultures in which they were embedded. Scholars of the American film pointed out that film in the US was a key element of the entertainment industry, which quickly developed its own traditions. Scholars of Indian popular films stressed the uniqueness and distinctive character of the Indian film and ascribed it to its cultural traditions, pointing to several diverse influences: religious epic tradition, the Sanskrit drama, old folk traditions of pictorial storytelling, dance drama, puppet shows, folk and street theatre, Indian literary tradition, and the influence of Western cinematic traditions, especially Hollywood.;The research steps included identifying and describing a wide range of basic storytelling practices in selected samples of commercially successful popular love stories, a genre common to most, if not all, film making traditions, produced in India and the United States; comparing the discerned storytelling practices within each national grouping, to establish possible patterns within each grouping, and comparing the practices of both groupings, in order to establish if the popular storytelling practices tended to be specific to the culture or if they tended to be common in both groups.;The sample films were analyzed for discernable consistencies in the following areas: structure and unity, rhythm and continuity, basic narrative devices (voice over and print), music and ambient sound, point of view, literary devices, extended rhetoric, Proppian functions, and Ongian characteristics of oral and literate storytelling traditions.;Findings from a comparison and contrast of these two film samples shed some light on the explication of the universalist-relativist controversy and suggest areas of further research.