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Covering the years spanning cinema’s emergence as a popular form in Bengal in the first half of the twentieth century, this book examines the main genres and trends produced by this cinema, and leads up to Bengali cinema’s last phase of transition in the 1980s. Arguing that Bengali cinema has been a key economic and social institution, the author highlights that the Bengali filmic imaginary existed over and above the imaginary of the Indian nation. This book argues that a definitive history of Bengali cinema presents an alternative understanding to the currently influential notion of the Hindi film as the ‘Indian’ or ‘national’ cinema. It suggests that the Bengali cinema presents...
Sharmistha Gooptu is a founder and managing trustee of the South Asia Research Foundation (SARF), a not-for-profit research body based in India. SARF’s current project SAG (South Asian Gateway) is in partnership with Taylor and Francis, and involves the creation of what will be the largest South Asian digital database of historical materials. She is also the joint editor of the journal South Asian History and Culture (Routledge) and the Routledge South Asian History and Culture book series.
The summer of 2024. Sixty-four-year-old Mrs G starts to reminisce about her love affair with a man she calls ‘A’. To Aisha, her daughter, ‘A’ appears to be a figment of her mother’s dementia-afflicted mind. ‘Miu, there was no A. You were happily married to Boy,’ an exasperated Aisha tells her mother. Even as it starts to seem that her mother had, for years, lived a whole other life. A life peopled by those who had together played out the obsession of love, morbid jealousy, hurt, harm and finally death. ‘Shree’s death,’ her mother whispers to Aisha. But how could it be? Her father had been so deeply in love with her mother and theirs was almost the perfect marriage. Who were these people that her mother now spoke about at odd hours? And the death that seemed to weigh so deeply on her mind… a death that leads Aisha to the holy city of Varanasi where people go to die.
A telephone call from the studio, night of the new year…1937. Menoka, heroine of Bharat Talkies, has hanged herself by her own sari, in costume for her new film… Silent films are now the talkies. Bioscope pictures are a rage and film stars subjects of gossip and fantasy. The world of films is a phantasmagoria, a place where young girls become prey in the hands of those that have the power to give them fame and fortune. Two women, both remarkably different and both stars of this world of bioscope films might now lose all... and one even her life, if they take the wrong steps forward. Sickness lurks in a lust for dead flesh... unlikely bonds are forged... and an impossible love rears up. In this world of shadows and greyness, unlikely people come into their own.
Attempts to reassess the myths, memories and the lives of historic personalities of 1857.
This book explores India’s rich popular culture and provides illuminating insights into various aspects of the social, cultural, economic and political realities of contemporary globalised India. It is essential reading for courses on Indian popular culture and a useful resource for more general courses in the field of cultural studies, media studies, history, literary studies and communication studies.
Bengal has long been one of the key centres of civilisation and culture in the Indian subcontinent. However, Bengali identity – "Bengaliness" – is complicated by its long history of evolution, the fact that Bengal is now divided between India and Bangladesh, and by virtue of a very large international diaspora from both parts of Bengal. This book explores a wide range of issues connected with Bengali identity. Amongst other subjects, it considers the special problems arising as a result of the division of Bengal, and concludes by demonstrating that there are many factors which make for the idea of a Bengali identity.
Recognising the different ways that capitalism is theorised, this book explores various aspects of contemporary capitalism in India. Using field research at a local level to engage with larger issues, it raises questions about the varieties and processes of capitalism, and about the different roles played by the state. With its focus on India, the book demonstrates the continuing relevance of the comparative political economy of development for the analysis of contemporary capitalism. Beginning with an exploration of capitalism in agriculture and rural development, it goes on to discuss rural labour, small town entrepreneurs, and technical change and competition in rural and urban manufactur...
This title traces how middle-class Indians responded to the rise of the cinema as a popular form of mass entertainment in early twentieth-century India. It draws on archival research to uncover aspirations and anxieties about the new medium, which opened up tantalising possibilities for nationalist mobilisation on the one hand and troubling challenges to the cultural authority of Indian elites on the other.
Historically, Indian cinema has positioned women at the intersection of tradition and a more evolving culture, portraying contradictory attitudes which affect women’s roles in public and private spheres. Examining the work of three directors from West Bengal, this book addresses the juxtaposition of tradition and culture regarding women in Bengali cinema. It argues the antithesis of women’s roles, particularly in terms of ideas of resistance, revolution, change, and autonomy, by suggesting they convey resistance to hegemonic structures, encouraging a re-envisioning of women’s positions within the familial-social matrix. Along with presenting a perception of culture as dynamic and evolv...