This book picks 200 of the best Hindi films ever produced and catalogues them. Densely packed and visually appealing, the guide is written in a reader-friendly, accessible style to enable even those not familiar with Hindi to see and understand popular Bollywood films. Entries are arranged genre-wise as drama, comedy and romance, among other categories.
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.
'Bollywood' is the dominant global term to refer to the prolific Hindi language film industry in Bombay (renamed Mumbai in 1995). Characterised by music, dance routines, melodrama, lavish production values and an emphasis on stars and spectacle, Bollywood films have met with box-office success and enthusiastic audiences from India to West Africa to Russia, and throughout the English-speaking world. In Bollywood, anthropologist and film scholar Tejaswini Ganti provides a guide to the cultural, social and political significance of Hindi cinema, outlining the history and structure of the Bombay film industry, and the development of popular Hindi filmmaking since the 1930s. Providing information and commentary on the key players in Bollywood, including directors and stars, as well as material from current filmmakers themselves, the areas covered in Bollywood include: history of Indian cinema narrative style, main themes, and key genres of Hindi cinema significant films, directors and stars production and distribution of Bollywood films interviews with actors, directors and screenwriters.
In Bollywood, anthropologist and film scholar Tejaswini Ganti provides a guide to the cultural, social and political significance of Hindi cinema, outlining the history and structure of the Bombay film industry, and the development of popular Hindi filmmaking since the 1930s. Providing information and commentary on the key players in Bollywood, including composers, directors and stars, as well as material from current filmmakers themselves, the areas covered in Bollywood include: history of Indian cinema main themes and characteristics of Hindi cinema significant films, directors and stars production and distribution of Bollywood films interviews with actors, directors and screenwriters. Anyone interested in, or studying Bollywood cinema will find this a valuable purchase.
A unique collection of interviews, reviews and behind the scenes articles selected from the works of Fuad Omar and his writings on the Indian film industry.
Middle-schooler Sonali cannot bring herself to share her feelings, but when she wakes up one day and begins to involuntarily burst into Bollywood song and dance routines that showcase her emotions, she realizes she has to find her voice and share her feelings.
‘This superb book is everything we could have expected from a major authority on India cinema. It shows both how India has shaped Bollywood and Bollywood has shaped the Indian imagination. It will be indispensable for scholars and a delight for the general reader.’ – Arjun Appadurai, Goddard Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, New York University When Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge released in 1995, it marked a watershed moment in popular Hindi cinema – gone were the thakurs and the judwa bhais; in came the celebration of love, with expansive sets, foreign locales and beautifully decked-up stars. No longer was Bollywood just the Hindi film industry – instead, it became a symbol of the times, of India’s expanding liberalization and the corresponding rise of the new middle class. In Picture Abhi Baaki Hai, eminent Hindi film scholar Rachel Dwyer looks at Bollywood films since 1991, the year of India’s economic liberalization, and explains how the films have corresponded to – and in some cases, birthed – India’s changing dreams and hopes, fears and anxieties. From DDLJ to Dabangg and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to Kahaani, Rachel shows how escapism and entertainment function in Bollywood, revealing the ways in which Hindi films have imagined and portrayed modern India – what its people believe and feel; their views on religion, caste and politics; and theirs aspirations and hopes – and will continue to do so. Kyonki, picture abhi baaki hai.
Bollywood is India's most popular entertainment and one of its most powerful social forces. Its blockbusters contest ideas about state formation, capture the nation's dispersed anxieties, and fabricate public fantasies of what constitutes "India." Written by an award-winning scholar of popular culture and postcolonial modernity, Bollywood's India analyzes the role of the cinema's most popular blockbusters in making, unmaking, and remaking modern India. With dazzling interpretive virtuosity, Priya Joshi provides an interdisciplinary account of popular cinema as a space that filters politics and modernity for its viewers. Themes such as crime and punishment, family and individuality, vigilante and community capture the diffuse aspirations of an evolving nation. Summoning India's tumultuous 1970s as an interpretive lens, Joshi reveals the cinema's social work across decades that saw the decline of studios, the rise of the multi-starrer genre, and the arrival of corporate capital and new media platforms. In elegantly crafted studies of iconic and less familiar films, including Awara (1951), Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Dil Se (1998), A Wednesday (2008), and 3 Idiots (2009), Joshi powerfully conveys the pleasures and politics of Bollywood blockbusters.
America is a confusing place, especially today. In America Explained: A Guide for Indian Immigrants, Allison Singh draws upon interviews with Indian immigrants and her own experience to answer practical and complex questions about America. For example, if America is a land of immigrants, how could anyone be anti-immigrant? How do I know what is offensive to others? How do I give my children Indian culture in America? How is Donald Trump different from past U.S. presidents? What should I expect as a minority in America? Why are there so many mass shootings in America? How are gender roles, the workplace, schools, parents, medicine, business, finance and government different in America than India? Allison discusses common questions immigrants share, as well as those they might not know to ask. The book has two goals. First, to provide immigrants with information they need to be comfortable, confident and successful in America. Second, to remind them that America is a land of immigrants just like them, and they are still welcome here.
