Subject: Re: FW: globalization and Indian film
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 14:52:06 -0000



Shoshanna,

I'd think your friend the art critic meant Raj Kapur, not Raj Kumar. Raj 
Kumar was a relatively minor actor; Raj Kapur was a big film-maker.

The question posed by Jill is not detailed enough to offer an answer easily. 
Of course there is a lot of material on Indian cinema: Ashish Rajadhyaksha's 
critical work, Andrew Robinson's study of Satyajit Ray, Wimal Dissanayake's 
dissection of Bollywood, Rajadhyaksha's monograph of Ghatak -- if 
globalization is to mean the impact of international cinema on Indian films, 
then there's a lot of material to look at: the Indian new wave could indeed 
be traced to Italian neorealism and its impact; many Left-wing Indian 
film-makers swear by Dovzhenko and Eisenstein as their inspiration. If Jill 
is looking for popular cinema, Uma Vasudeva's magazine, Cinemaya should have 
a lot of material, as would Siddharth KAk's defunct magazine Cinema Vision 
India. If the question, however, is the Cocacolanisation of Indian films, 
there's little to go by: the basic plot line of a Bollywood blockbuster has 
not changed over the years, though there's greater sophistication and good 
use of cinematic techniques. And if globalization is to mean impact of 
Bollywood overseas, there's growing evidence of it. Many critics have seen 
Bollywood's influence on Moulin Rouge, the recent film starring Nicole 
Kidman, and Andrew Lloyd Webber is making a Bollywood-style musical on West 
End next year.

In other words, much water has flown down the Ganges (or Ganga) since 
1965..... whether it has been captured in academic writing/scholarly 
discourse, I don't know, as I don't read such publications.

Salil

>From: Shoshanna Scholar <scholar-AT-appliedsemantics.com>
>Reply-To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>To: "'postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu'" 
><postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>Subject: FW: globalization and Indian film
>Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2001 18:39:45 -0700
>
>Jill Didur -
>
>I asked an art critic friend who specializes in indian film about
>globalization and indian film - this was her reply:
>
>Actually, it's harder than it looks...I searched long and hard for stuff
>that was "critical" but also knew about contemporary Indian film. Anything
>of any academic stature at all stops at around 1965 with classics by Raj
>Kumar and the like...and then anything that deals with contemporary popular
>film is usually just a glib magazine article talking about how big the
>industry is...
>
>I want to know where all the good stuff is too!!! TX
>
>Shoshanna Scholar
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Shoshanna Scholar
>Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 6:33 PM
>To: Tessa Laird
>Subject: FW: globalization and Indian film
>
>
>thought you might have something to say to this lost canadian academic!
>
>s
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Jill Didur [mailto:jdidur-AT-alcor.concordia.ca]
>Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 6:40 AM
>To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>Subject: globalization and Indian film
>
>
>Hi All
>
>I'm looking for references on recent critical work examining the impact of
>globalization on
>Indian cinema. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>
>Thank you,
>Jill Didur.
>Concordia University
>Department of English
>1455 de Maisonnneuve Blvd. W.
>LB-505-2
>Montreal, Quebec
>Canada
>H3G 1M8
>PHONE: (514) 848-2340
>FAX (514) 848-4501
>
>
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>
>
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