National Identity in Indian Popular Cinema 1947-1987

<p>Although Indian popular cinema has a long history and is familiar to audiences around the world it has rarely been systematically studied. This book offers the first detailed account of the popular film as it has grown and changed during the tumultuous decades of Indian nationhood. The study focuses on the cinema's characteristic forms its range of meanings and pleasures and above all its ideological construction of Indian national identity.</p> <p>Informed by theoretical developments in film theory cultural studies postcolonial discourse and Third World cinema the book identifies the major genres and movements within Bombay cinema since Independence and uses them to enter larger cultural debates about questions of identity authenticity citizenship and collectivity. Chakravarty examines numerous films of the period including <i>Guide</i> (Vijay Anand 1965) <i>Shri 420</i> [The gentleman cheat] (Raj Kapoor 1955) and <i>Bhumika</i> [The role] (Shyam Benegal 1977). She shows how imperso-<i>nation</i> played out in masquerade and disguise has characterized the representation of national identity in popular films so that concerns and conflicts over class communal and regional differences are obsessively evoked explored and neutralized.</p> <p>These findings will be of interest to film and area specialists as well as general readers in film studies.</p>