Hindi Action Cinema: Industries, Narratives, Bodies Book

This book examines the connections between the ways in which a film is made and circulated within a given socio-economic juncture, and the various strategies by which it addresses us. Focusing exclusively on the cinema produced in Bombay between, roughly, the 1910s and the early 2000s, the book explores moments in the history of a cinema in which a category that can be found in all the cinemas of the world-- the action ingredient--acquired prominence as a narrative element and as a means to make and sell films. It examines the action cinema as a structural category, and seeks to find the reasons why some filmmakers in certain sectors of the industry were moved to prioritize one selected narrative ingredient (action), as well as for the diverse ways this ingredient was mobilized at different times in India. Among other things the book traces the emergence of the stunt film which began to be made in the 1920s; examines the presence and function of women in action roles from the mid-1920s to the end of the 1930s; explores the wrestling films of Dara Singh; and revisits the films of Amitabh Bachchan. The final chapter examines the interconnections between, on the one hand, real estate and the emergence, in India, of multiplex cinemas in shopping malls, and, on the other hand, changes in the filmic representation of urban environments, contemporary actors bodies as sites of display, and the cinematic rendition of those bodies movements in that changing environment.Read More