The Bollywood Reader - Softcover

Dudrah, Rajinder

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0335222129 ISBN 13: 9780335222124

Publisher: Open University Press, 2008

Synopsis

"From its historical roots through to the contemporary moment, the collection of essays, written by eminent scholars in the field, demonstrate so clearly how Indian cinema is more than the sum of its parts. An essential text for anyone wishing to understand properly the full complexities of Hindi cinema."
Professor Susan Hayward, University of Exeter, UK

"We are finally at a point when the study of Bollywood is a fully fledged field in Film Studies."
Professor Dina Iordanova, University of St. Andrews, Scotland

"The Bollywood Reader extends the discursive boundaries of Indian popular cinema in interesting and complex ways. In putting together this volume, the editors have performed magnificently."
Professor Wimal Dissanayake, University of Hawaii, USA

• What is Bollywood cinema?
• How does it operate as an industry?
• Who are the audiences of Bollywood cinema?

These are just some of the questions addressed in this lively and fascinating guide to the cultural, social and political significance of popular Hindi cinema, which outlines the history and structure of the Bombay film industry, and its impact on global popular culture.

Including a wide-ranging selection of essays from key voices in the field, the Reader charts the development of the scholarship on popular Hindi cinema, with an emphasis on understanding the relationship between cinema and colonialism, nationalism, and globalization.

Features include:

Comprehensive introductory essay

Landmark essays by key scholars in the field

Glossary of key terms

Timeline of key events in Indian cinema

Further reading sectionThe authors address the issues of capitalism, nationalism, Orientalism and modernity through understandings of race, class, gender and sexuality, religion, politics and diaspora as depicted in Indian popular films.

The Bollywood Reader is captivating reading for film, media and cultural studies students and scholars with an interest in Bollywood cinema.

About this title

Synopsis:

The reader 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. The book attends to issues of capitalism, nationalism, orientalism, and modernity through understandings of race, class, gender and sexuality, religion, and politics as depicted in Indian popular films. The book additionally focuses on select key films of recent years and their representations in relation to current social and political issues, including the role of Bollywood cinema in the public culture of India and its diasporas. In doing so, it forwards essays that seek to understand the relationship between popular culture, political economy and the social imaginary of the nation-state.The essays also raise a variety of issues specific to the medium itself, including the development of particular genres, narrative forms, and textual elements including musical and dance numbers as well as questions of spectatorship, audience, and institutional formations.

The Reader consists of seminal essays as well as new work researched and written by emerging scholars in the burgeoning field of contemporary Hindi cinema.

About the Author:

Rajinder Dudrah is Head of Drama and Senior Lecturer in Screen Studies at the University of Manchester, UK. Jigna Desai is Associate Professor in the Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies Department and the Asian American Studies Program at the University of Minnesota, USA.

About this edition

• Publisher: Open University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0335222129
• ISBN 13: 9780335222124
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320