Fingerprinting Popular Culture: The Mythic and the Iconic in Indian CinemaVinay Lal, Ashis Nandy Cinema in India has always been a play of middle-class sensibilities and fantasy life. And, this middle class now seems to have come into its own. From the time of Indira Gandhi, the political agendas of political parties and leaders have been increasingly shaped by middle-class consciousness and popular cinema has become for this class both an ideological phalanx and a major vehicle of self-expression. The media-exposed public in turn has become more accessible through the mythic structures and larger-than-life figures of popular cinema. The medium has become a new, more powerful language of public discourse. This book, like its companion volume The Secret Politics of our Desires (1998), is a product of this awareness. It uses Indian popular cinema to reexamine the relationships among society, politics, and culture. The six essays in it, mostly by contributors from outside the world of film studies and film criticism, span topics such as showmanship and stylization of images; the human characterization of abstract concepts such as good and evil; the open-ended, episodic and fragmented nature of the narrative, cemented together through devices such as family "history" and "filial love"; and the re-emergence of "Hindustani" as a secular language of film. The essays also cover popular cinema's fear of using comedy when dealing with the legitimacy and authority of the state; the "ideal" femininity conjured by Lata Mangeshkar's voice; and the debts to Hollywood and the carnivalesque that shape Guru Dutt's comedies. |
Contents
Popular Cinema India and Fantasy | 1 |
K Raghavendra | 24 |
The Evolving Language | 51 |
Copyright | |
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Fingerprinting Popular Culture: The Mythic and the Iconic in Indian Cinema Vinay Lal,Ashis Nandy No preview available - 2007 |
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Aar Paar actors aesthetic Amitabh Bachchan Anita Ashis Nandy audience Bachchan become Bombay Cassette Culture characters Classical Hollywood comedy comic context conventions critical culture dance Delhi dialogue discourse Dutt's English Enlightenment essay fantasy film songs film-maker filmic FYP hero Gandhi Gauriganesha gender genre Guru Dutt Hindi cinema Hindi films Hindu Hindustani Ibid iconic Indian cinema Indian film Indian popular cinema internal translation Javed Akhtar Johnny Kaagaz Kaagaz Ke Phool Kailas Kalu Kannada Karnick kind Lagaan Lalaji Lambodara language of Hindi Lata Lata's voice melodrama mode modern Muslim nahin narrative nationalist Nikki Nisha Oxford University Press Panthulu play political popular film post-colonial Preetam Prem Pyaasa Radha Raj Kapoor Rajeshwar relationship representation role romantic love Sanskritic Saudagar scenes sexual Sholay singer Singh singing social society space spectator story style Tamil theme theory tradition Urdu Vasu viewers village Western woman women writers