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Indian movies are among the most popular in the world. However, despite increased availability and study, these films remain misunderstood and underappreciated in much of the English-speaking world, in part for cultural reasons. In this book, Patrick Colm Hogan sets out through close analysis and explication of culturally particular information about Indian history, Hindu metaphysics, Islamic spirituality, Sanskrit aesthetics, and other Indian traditions to provide necessary cultural contexts for understanding Indian films. Hogan analyzes eleven important films, using them as the focus to explore the topics of plot, theme, emotion, sound, and visual style in Indian cinema. These films draw on a wide range of South Asian cultural traditions and are representative of the greater whole of Indian cinema. By learning to interpret these examples with the tools Hogan provides, the reader will be able to take these skills and apply them to other Indian films. But this study is not simply culturalist. Hogan also takes up key principles from cognitive neuroscience to illustrate that all cultures share perceptual, cognitive, and emotional elements that, when properly interpreted, can help to bridge gaps between seemingly disparate societies. Hogan locates the specificity of Indian culture in relation to human universals, and illustrates this cultural-cognitive synthesis through his detailed interpretations of these films. This book will help both scholars and general readers to better understand and appreciate Indian cinema.
The field of Bollywood studies has remained predominantly critical, theoretical and historical in focus. This book brings together qualitative and quantitative approaches to tackle empirical questions focusing on the relationship between soft power, hybridity, cinematic texts, and audiences. Adopting a critical-transcultural framework that examines the complex power relations that are manifested through globalized production and consumption practices, the book approaches the study of popular Hindi cinema from three broad perspectives: transcultural production contexts, content trends, and audiences. It firstly outlines the theoretical issues relevant to the spread of popular Indian cinema and emergence of India’s growing soft power. The book goes on to report on a series of quantitative studies that examine the patterns of geographical, cultural, political, infrastructural, and artistic power dynamics at work within the highest-grossing popular Hindi films over a 61-year period since independence. Finally, an additional set of studies are presented that quantitatively examine Indian and North American audience consumption practices. The book illuminates issues related to the actualization and maintenance of cinematic soft power dynamics, highlighting Bollywood’s increasing integration into and subsumption by globalized practices that are fundamentally altering India’s cinematic landscape and, thus, its unique soft power potential. It is of interest to academics working in Film Studies, Globalisation Studies, and International Relations.
One of the first serious film studies in India. A contemporary analysis of the central issues contained in Indian films issues which distinguish this cinema from films of other countries. The book argues that film in India is a genuine cultural expression carrying meaning. The special and valuable insights on Indian cinema that this book offers are enhanced by Dr Valicha s own fascination with films.
Indian film industry is the largest in the world. It releases 1000 plus movies annually. Most films are made in South Indian languages (viz., Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam). Nevertheless, Hindi films take the largest box office share. India has 12,000 plus cinema halls and this industry churns out 1000 plus films a year. This book gives a brief history of the world's most exciting industrial enterprise. It gives the details, facts and vital sets of data of Indian cinema with amazing finesse. Its simple style and low cost enable all reader genres to read it. Renu Saran has penned this book for the lovers of Indian cinema. She has given many good books to our valued readers. She has worked very hard to collect data and analyze information sets. That is why this book has become one of the best in its genre.
This book offers an introduction to popular Hindi cinema, a genre that has a massive fan base but is often misunderstood by critics, and provides insight on topics of political and social significance. Arguing that Bollywood films are not realist representations of society or expressions of conservative ideology but mediated texts that need to be read for their formulaic and melodramatic qualities and for their pleasurable features like bright costumes, catchy music, and sophisticated choreography, the book interprets Bollywood films as complex considerations on the state of the nation that push the boundaries of normative gender and sexuality. The book provides a careful account of Bollywood’s constitutive components: its moral structure, its different forms of love, its use of song and dance, its visual style, and its embrace of cinephilia. Arguing that these five elements form the core of Bollywood cinema, the book investigates a range of films from 1947 to the present in order to show how films use and innovate formulaic structures to tell a wide range of stories that reflect changing times. The book ends with some considerations on recent changes in Bollywood cinema, suggesting that despite globalization the future of Bollywood remains promising. By presenting Bollywood cinema through an interdisciplinary lens, the book reaches beyond film studies departments and will be useful for those teaching and studying Bollywood in English, sociology, anthropology, Asian studies, and cultural studies classes.
Published in the year 2012, Housefull: The Golden Age Of Hindi Cinema is a collection of short essays that document some of the groundbreaking film releases during the 1950s and 60s. Summary Of The Book Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema is a collection of short essays that provide insights into the best films in Hindi Cinema during the 1950s and 60s. This book starts off with a foreword by Mahesh Bhatt, followed by a brief introduction by Salam. The readers are provided with little-known facts on the lives of actors, directors, composers, lyricists, and producers during this golden age. This book has been divided into 11 parts, most of which examine the lives of some of the greatest directors during the 50s and 60s, which include Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, B. R. Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, V. Shantaram and the Anands. There is a rather incongruous portion placed between these sections, called Period Films (1952-1960). Each section starts off with a brief introduction by a renowned figure in the Hindi film industry, followed by a series of write-ups on films. Only landmark films by a particular director have been included. An example of this is Bimal Roy, whose hit movies such as Devdas, Madhumati, Sujata, Bandini, and Do Bigha Zameen have been added in this book. Each essay begins with some brief information about the movie, such as the director, writers, lyricist, lead actors, and the cinematographer, which is followed by the movie’s synopsis. Additionally, the readers are given insights into how a particular movie came into being as well as behind-the-scenes stories sans any gossip. The writer of that particular section then gives their take on where the movie scores and what contributed to its success. This book consists of contributions from some of the most renowned figures such as Vijay Lokapally, Anuj Kumar, and Suresh Kohli. This book takes the readers back in time, when the eminent Mangeshkar sisters sang together and the time Gulzar was prevented from singing his own song. Housefull: The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema helps the readers understand how Indian cinematic history has evolved from films such as Mughal-e-Azam and Sholay, to Tare Zameen Par and Lagaan. About Ziya Us Salam Ziya Us Salam is an author and journalist. Salam is a film critic and renowned journalist. He currently serves as the Deputy Editor for The Hindu’s Metroplus. He has been writing about Indian cinema regularly, making his contributions to several anthologies.
Bollywood movies have long been known for their colorful song-and-dance numbers and knack for combining drama, comedy, action-adventure, and music. But these exciting and often amusing films rarely reflect the reality of life on the Indian subcontinent. Exploring the nature of mainstream Hindi cinema, the strikingly illustrated Bollywood’s Indiaexamines its nonrealistic depictions of everyday life in India and what it reveals about Indian society. Showing how escapism and entertainment function in Bollywood cinema, Rachel Dwyer argues that Hindi cinema’s interpretations of India over the last two decades are a reliable guide to understanding the nation’s changing hopes and dreams. She looks at the ways Bollywood has imagined and portrayed the unity and diversity of the country—what it believes and feels, as well as life at home and in public. Using Dwyer’s two decades spent working with filmmakers and discussing movies with critics and moviegoers,Bollywood’s India is an illuminating look at Hindi cinema.
This is an engaging introduction to a fascinating national cinema that is little known in the west.It is the first survey both to cover the full range of Indian film -- popular, artistic and regional -- and to provide the historical and cultural dimensions to enable the reader appreciate its distinctive forms.This book offers both general readers and students of film a succinct and informative guide to the key developments, themes, films and figures of Indian film; and the necessary background to understand India and its influences."Bollywood" and India s regional filmmakers produce more films than any other country. While it has remained peripheral to western cinema buffs, Indian popular film wields immense influence as the main form of entertainment enjoyed by Indian audiences and the Indian Diaspora, who represent at least a sixth of the world s population. The authors begin with an overview of the historical development of Indian cinema, its key characteristics and points of distinctiveness; and then explore the themes and concerns which are pertinent to a critical understanding, through discussion of a wide range of films. A key chapter considers how women are represented, and represent themselves, on screen.Covering the nine decades of Indian cinema, their range of reference includes both films which have achieved classic status, such as Mother India, Awaara and Sholay, and the lesser known films which are recognized landmarks in the development of the industry. They equally embrace recent developments and the contributions of British Asian filmmakers.The book includes a glossary of Indian terms.
Provides a road map of the scholarship on modern Hindi cinema in India, with an emphasis on understanding the interplay between cinema and colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. This book attends to issues of capitalism, nationalism, orientalism, and modernity through understandings of race, gender and sexuality, religion, and politics.
Providing a theoretical and empirical engagement with Bollywood cinema and its audiences, this book examines the role and representations of cultural icons in Bollywood films, the key trends in the Bollywood film industry as it develops in the age of globalization, and subjects Bollywood to a systematic media and sociological analysis.