Contemporary India as Captured by Bollywood

The manuscript starts with a question how does a country with so much diversities like India claim to be a nation? What glues it together? It then suggests that Bollywood has in the last hundred years acted as one of the glues that binds the country together and that it has represented the feelings and aspiration of the country commendably. It has also become the inner voice that introspects and questions the society and behaves as a collective moral compass. To further this theory the seventy odd years of post- independence is divided into four periods. Films released in each period is shown not just to reflect the period but to comment on the need for change. For example the highlighting of problems of dowry in early 1950’s to 1980’s which evolved from a custom to demand due to greed resulted in legislations to protect women. Similarly the issue of triple talak highlighted in early 1980’s leading to recent legislation on the subject. Analyzing the evolution of story telling and nature of presentation the book concludes that since late nineties Hindi movies have been screaming the failure of the judiciary with initial movies showing system failure then corrupt lawyers to now questionable judges. The book thus contrary to recent trends of being critical of the industry highlights the significant role it has played in contemporary times.