First Published in 1989. One Hundred Indian Films attempts to bring together a representative selection from the first talkies to the present day. The book originated as a project under the National Film Heritage programme at the Centre for Development of Instructional Technology in Delhi, along with the efforts to build up a collection of Indian cinema at the United States Library of Congress.
India is the largest producer and consumer of feature films in the world, far outstripping Hollywood in the number of movies released and tickets sold every year. Cinema quite simply dominates Indian popular culture, and has for many decades exerted an influence that extends from clothing trends to music tastes to everyday conversations, which are peppered with dialogue quotes. With House Full, Lakshmi Srinivas takes readers deep into the moviegoing experience in India, showing us what it’s actually like to line up for a hot ticket and see a movie in a jam-packed theater with more than a thousand seats. Building her account on countless trips to the cinema and hundreds of hours of conversation with film audiences, fans, and industry insiders, Srinivas brings the moviegoing experience to life, revealing a kind of audience that, far from passively consuming the images on the screen, is actively engaged with them. People talk, shout, whistle, cheer; others sing along, mimic, or dance; at times audiences even bring some of the ritual practices of Hindu worship into the cinema, propitiating the stars onscreen with incense and camphor. The picture Srinivas paints of Indian filmgoing is immersive, fascinating, and deeply empathetic, giving us an unprecedented understanding of the audience’s lived experience—an aspect of Indian film studies that has been largely overlooked.
One Of The Most Enduring Love Stories Of Our Times. First Published In Bengali In 1917, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay'S Tragic Tale Of Devdas Has Become Synonymous With A Passionate, Intense Love That Does Not Find Consummation. It Is The Story Of Devdas And Paro, Childhood Sweethearts Who Are Torn Apart When Devdas Is Sent Away To Calcutta By His Father, The Local Zamindar. When Devdas Returns To His Village, Now A Handsome Lad Of Nineteen, Paro Asks Him To Marry Her. But Devdas Is Unable To Stand Up To Parental Opposition To The Match And Rejects The Proposition. Stunned, Paro Agrees To Marry An Elderly Widower. Devdas Returns To Calcutta, But Every Waking Hour Of His Is Now Filled With Thoughts Of Paro And His Unfulfilled Love For Her. Desperate To Resolve The Situation Somehow, He Runs To Paro Who Is Now Married And Asks Her To Elope With Him, But She Refuses. Heartbroken, He Seeks Solace In Alcohol And In The Company Of The Courtesan Chandramukhi. Chandramukhi Falls In Love With Devdas, But Even When He Is With Her He Can Only Think Of Paro. It Is Now His Destiny To Hurtle On Relentlessly On The Path To Self-Destruction. Devdas S Tortured Life Ends When, Dying Of A Liver Ailment Brought On By Alcoholism, He Journeys To Paro S House To See Her One Last Time. Arriving In The Middle Of The Night, He Dies Unknown, Untended, On Her Doorstep. Paro Comes To Know Of His Death Only The Following Morning. Devdas Has Enthralled Readers And Filmgoing Audiences Alike For The Better Part Of A Century. This New Translation Brings The Classic Tale Of Star-Crossed Lovers Alive For A New Generation Of Readers. The Classic Novel Brought To Life In A New, Lucid, Extremely Readable Translation.
"Film made in Bombay" have a much longer and more complex history than "Bollywood"; and what is widely projected as "authentically Indian" is a politicised and ideologically contested space since the first decades of the 20th century. How did the historical audiences in Bombay actually respond to the first "Indian films", to an Indian filmaker's mediation of ideas and feelings of "being Indian"? In what way did for instance in 1913-18 the first long narrative films by the pioneer Dhundiraj Govind Phalke convey patriotic sentiments? These are some of the questions tackled by Brigitte Schulze, a sociologist and activist of Indian cinema cultures since the late 1980s. Exploring the beginnings of Bombay's cinema means to enter spaces largely occupied by orientalist or nationalist myths; however, once these are critiqued her discursive and contextualising approach brings into light long forgotten visions and landscapes of a "cinematographic humanism" beyond caste, class, gender or nation-state.
This book is one of the comprehensive studies about the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where all the Chief Ministers since 1967 have been former actors. By problematising the popular misconception that Bollywood is a synecdoche of Indian cinema, this book explores the cultural history of South India through the prism of films.
