Bollywood and the First Decade of Independence

This book focuses on the cinema of the 1950s in India and analyses the work of seven filmmakers from mainstream Hindi cinema and how they responded to the independent Indian nation after 1947.

This book focuses on the cinema of the 1950s in India and analyzes the work of seven filmmakers from mainstream Hindi cinema and how they responded to the independent Indian nation after 1947.

The selection of key filmmakers instead of cinema in general shows individual trajectories within cinema. The book examines the change in preoccupations or representations in the work of a single filmmaker, followed by an interpretation about the meaning of those representations. The filmmakers were very prolific and their work was commercially successful. Each chapter studies five or six selected films of each filmmaker and also include some relevant biographical details. The book demonstrates that each filmmaker uses their own strategies to address independent India of the 1950s and how Hindu cinema interrogated the nation-state.

A novel contribution to Indian cinema, especially Hindi cinema, during formative years of the 1950s, this book will be of interest to researchers in Film Studies, Gender Studies, Political Science, and History, as well as South Asian society and culture.

Autorentext

Devapriya Sanyal is Assistant Professor at School of Communication and Media Studies, St Joseph's University, Bengaluru. She is the author of several books on film and gender such as Failed Masculinities: The Men in Satyajit Ray's Films, Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray's Films (Routledge, UK), Salman Khan: The Man, The Actor, The Legend and Through the Eyes of a Cinematographer: The Biography of Soumendu Roy. Her writings have appeared in national and international journals. She has a PhD from the Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Inhalt

Introduction

Chapter 1: V Shantaram: From Reformist Idealism to Doubt

Chapter 2: Mehboob Khan: Charting the Nation's Trajectory

Chapter 3: Bimal Roy: The Eternal Truths of Literature

Chapter 4: Guru Dutt: Tradition and Democracy

Chapter 5: Raj Kapoor: The Filmmaker and his Image

Chapter 6: Raj Khosla: Moral Watchdogs in a Fledgling Democracy

Chapter 7: BR Chopra: From Entertainment to Concern

Afterword: The Concerns and Attitudes of the 1950s

Index