You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Bollywood movies have long been known for their colorful song-and-dance numbers and knack for combining drama, comedy, action-adventure, and music. But these exciting and often amusing films rarely reflect the reality of life on the Indian subcontinent. Exploring the nature of mainstream Hindi cinema, the strikingly illustrated Bollywood’s Indiaexamines its nonrealistic depictions of everyday life in India and what it reveals about Indian society. Showing how escapism and entertainment function in Bollywood cinema, Rachel Dwyer argues that Hindi cinema’s interpretations of India over the last two decades are a reliable guide to understanding the nation’s changing hopes and dreams. She looks at the ways Bollywood has imagined and portrayed the unity and diversity of the country—what it believes and feels, as well as life at home and in public. Using Dwyer’s two decades spent working with filmmakers and discussing movies with critics and moviegoers,Bollywood’s India is an illuminating look at Hindi cinema.
Hinduism is a much contested term used to describe the religious beliefs and practices of more than 800 million people, most of whom live in India. Yet Hinduism is a religion that lacks a set of core beliefs (there is no founder, no single scripture nor any central organization). The sheer diversity of beliefs (Hindus may be atheists, polytheists and monotheists) and practices that vary across social groups and regions has led some to claim that the term 'Hindu' is almost meaningless. What Do Hindus Believe? argues, however, that there are central threads in this diversity which can be traced through more than three thousand years, from the prehistoric depictions of Hindu deities in the Indu...
As a charismatic director in the Indian film industry, Chopra's name is synonymous with the glamour of the romantic film and a certain style within Indian culture. Spanning four decades, his directed features include some of the classic films of Indian film history, such as 'Deewaar' and 'Kabhi Kabhie'. His directorial career began in 1959 with 'Dhool Ka Phool' and he has been a major producer since 1973, consolidating his success in the 1990s with a series of huge box office hits including 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'. He has also worked in other Hindi movie genres, directing action movies such as 'Mashaal' and a thriller, 'Darr'. This book discusses in depth his work with the Hindi megas...
Bollywood film is the national cinema of India, describing movies made in Mumbai, distributed nationally across India and with their own production, distribution and exhibition networks worldwide. This informative screen guide reflects the work of key directors, major stars and important music directors and screenplay writers. Historically important films have been included along with certain cult movies and top box office successes. No guide to Hindi film would be complete without discussing: Mother India, the national epic of a peasant woman's struggle against nature and society to bring up her family; Sholay, a 'curry western' where the all-star cast sing and dance, romance and kill; Dilw...
Encountering Morocco introduces readers to life in this North African country through vivid accounts of fieldwork as personal experience and intellectual journey. We meet the contributors at diverse stages of their careers–from the unmarried researcher arriving for her first stint in the field to the seasoned fieldworker returning with spouse and children. They offer frank descriptions of what it means to take up residence in a place where one is regarded as an outsider, learn the language and local customs, and struggle to develop rapport. Moving reflections on friendship, kinship, and belief within the cross-cultural encounter reveal why study of Moroccan society has played such a seminal role in the development of cultural anthropology.
Modern Indian studies have recently become a site for new, creative, and thought-provoking debates extending over a broad canvas of crucial issues. As a result of socio-political transformations, certain concepts—such as ahimsa, caste, darshan, and race—have taken on different meanings. Bringing together ideas, issues, and debates salient to modern Indian studies, this volume charts the social, cultural, political, and economic processes at work in the Indian subcontinent. Authored by internationally recognized experts, this volume comprises over one hundred individual entries on concepts central to their respective fields of specialization, highlighting crucial issues and debates in a lucid and concise manner. Each concept is accompanied by a critical analysis of its trajectory and a succinct discussion of its significance in the academic arena as well as in the public sphere. Enhancing the shared framework of understanding about the Indian subcontinent, Key Concepts in Modern Indian Studies will provide the reader with insights into vital debates about the region, underscoring the compelling issues emanating from colonialism and postcolonialism.
Sarah Dessen meets Adam Silvera in the debut YA romance everyone is talking about! “A breathtaking tour de force of angst and longing. Heartbreaking, painfully romantic, and deeply human.” —STEPHANIE GARBER, #1 bestselling author of Caraval “A novel you can make yourself at home in, with characters so real it feels like you’ve known them for ages.” —JENNA EVANS WELCH, bestselling author of Love & Gelato “This book comes with its own aching heartbeat. Be forewarned, it’s stronger than it looks.” —STACEY LEE, award-winning author of The Downstairs Girl Ellis and Easton have been inseparable since childhood. But when a rash decision throws Ellis’s life—and her relationship with Easton—into chaos, she’s forced to move halfway across the country, far from everything she’s ever known. Now Ellis hasn’t spoken to Easton in a year, and maybe it’s better that way; maybe eventually the Easton-shaped hole in her heart will heal. But when Easton’s mom invites her home for a visit, Ellis finds herself tangled up in the web of heartache, betrayal, and anger she left behind . . . and with the boy she never stopped loving.
Filming the Gods examines the role and depiction of religion in Indian cinema, showing that the relationship between the modern and the traditional in contemporary India is not exotic, but part of everyday life. Concentrating mainly on the Hindi cinema of Mumbai, Bollywood, it also discusses India's other cinemas. Rachel Dwyer's lively discussion encompasses the mythological genre which continues India's long tradition of retelling Hindu myths and legends, drawing on sources such as the national epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; the devotional genre, which flourished at the height of the nationalist movement in the 1930s and 40s; and the films made in Bombay that depict India's Isla...
Papers presented at a seminar on Cinemas of India held in Abu Dhabi in November 2008 on Hindi cinema and interviews with celebrities from the film world.