Studying Bollywood

Studying Bollywood introduces the stars, directors, and trends of India's national cinema. Popular Hindi film has been largely overlooked in the West, since its construction and traditions are so unfamiliar. Our film consumption is influenced by Hollywood styles and the methods of European and far eastern cinema, making Bollywood seem over the top. Including such theorists as James Monaco, Studying Bollywood plumbs the richness and underlying quality of this genre. Follows a choronological course, the book initially explores the story of modern India, which is intimately connected to the import of Bollywood texts. Many of directors lean on this history to propel their narratives. The long colonial influence of Great Britain has also contributed greatly to the postcolonial and post-Partition views of Bollywood filmmakers. The volume then covers the early years of Bollywood and the aspirational development of Tollywood, an attempt at an Indian Hollywood in Calcutta, and the development of sound, the masala mix that became Bollywood, and Mehboob Kahn's Oscar nominated Mother India. The book next describes the next wave of stars and heroes: the selfmade Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Amir Khan, and Mani Ratnam, and studies a range of key Bollywood films, including Sholay, Bombay, and the Oscar nominated Lagaan. The book conlcudes with a look at India's parallel cinema, made famous by the visionary and technically brilliant work of the Bengali writer-director, Sanjit Ray. The text reads Ray's important films, Bandit Queen, Monsoon Wedding, and Black.