This book charts out a new direction in scholarship on Indian cinema. It argues that with mainstream Hindi cinema becoming 'Bollywood' and the diaspora becoming a key commercial factor, the constituency addressed by the mainstream Hindi film has significantly changed. Consequently, the audience
for Hindi cinema has become more asymmetric. With the emergence of a new knowledge economy in the 1990s and Indian professionals traveling and settling abroad, a new 'Anglophone Indian Nation', the one with the greatest spending power, was born. Where mainstream Hindi cinema had been regarded as a
pariah by the Indian state, the commercial success of Bollywood globally gave it immense respectability in the government. This work expresses the hope that understanding such an asymmetry will help us appreciate some of the alignments in India and the political forces which often masquerade as
'opinion'. Apart from bringing out the transformation of the mainstream Hindi film after it became 'Bollywood', the book provides fresh insights into political developments in India in the past decade outside cinema.
Preface
Introduction
1. The Global and the Pre-Modern
Raaz (2002)
1. The Adulterous Woman
Jism (2003) to Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (2006)
1. 'Undivided India'
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (2001) and Veer-Zara (2004)
1. The Youth Film as Dissent
Rang de Basanti (2006) and
the Political Class
1. The Agony Aunt and the Small Illegality
Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) and Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006)
1. Thieves like Us
Enterprise in Bunty Aur Babli (2005), Dhoom 2 (2006), and Guru (2007)
1. The 'Hyperreal' and the Narrowing Nation
Om Shanti Om
(2007)
1. The Reservations of Middle-Class Concern
Page 3 (2005), Corporate (2006), Traffic Signal (2007), and Fashion (2008)
1. Dystopia or Entrepreneurial Fantasy
Kaminey (2009)
1. The Exemplary Citizen
Education, Taare Zamin Par (2007) and Three Idiots (2009)
1.
Politics and Enterprise
Raajneeti (2010)
1. The Anthropological Gaze
Agrarian Issues and Peepli (Live) (2010)
1. Resisting the Anglophone Nation
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) and Dabangg (2010)
1. Transactions
Friendships in Dil Chahta Hai (2001) and Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
(2011)
1. Sport and the Nation
Iqbal (2005), Chak De India (2007) and Paan Singh Tomar (2012)
Conclusion: Collapsing State, Dissolving Nation
Index
About the Author
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
M K Raghavendra is a film critic, researcher, and scholar.
Making Sense - Margot Northey and Joan McKibbin
Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood - Edited by Dr. Rachel Dwyer and Jerry Pinto
Bipolar Identity - M.K. Raghavendra
Travels of Bollywood Cinema - Edited by Dr. Anjali Gera Roy and Dr. Chua Beng Huat
Seduced by the Familiar - M.K. Raghavendra
