Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in Contemporary Indian CinemaA framework for understanding the distinctiveness of Indian cinema as a national cinema within a global context dominated by Hollywood is proposed by this book. With its sudden explosions into song-and-dance sequences, half-time intermissions and heavy traces of censorship, Indian cinema can be identified as a "Cinema of Interruptions". To the uninitiated viewer, brought up on the seamless linear plotting of Hollywood narrative, this unfamiliar tendency towards digression may appear random and superfluous, yet this book argues that such devices assist in the construction of a distinct visual and narrative time-space. In the hands of imaginative directors, the conventions of Indian cinema become opportunities for narrative play and personal expression in such films as "Sholay" (1975), "Nayakan" (1987), "Parinda" (1989), "Hathyar" (1981) and "Hey Ram!" (1999). "Cinema of Interruptions" places commercial Indian film within a global system of popular cinemas, but also points out its engagement with the dominant genre principles implemented by Western film. By focusing on the action-genre work of leading contemporary directors J.P. Dutta, Mani Rutnam, and Vidhu Vinod Chopra, brazen national style is shown to interact with international genre films to produce a hybrid form that reworks the gangster film, the western and the avenging woman genre. Central to this study is the relationship Indian cinema shares with its audience, and an understanding of the pleasures it offers the cinephile. In articulating this bond the book presents not only a fresh framework for understanding popular Indian cinema but also a contribution to film genre studies. |
Contents
Avenging Women in Indian Cinema | 34 |
Masculinity at the Interval in J P Duttas Films | 63 |
Screening the Past in Mani Ratnams Nayakan | 106 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in Contemporary Indian Cinema Lalitha Gopalan Limited preview - 2019 |
Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in Contemporary Indian Cinema Lalitha Gopalan Limited preview - 2019 |
Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in Contemporary Indian Cinema Lalitha Gopalan No preview available - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
Abdul Anna Anna's audience avenging women Batwara Bombay brother camera Chopra's cinematic style cinephilia close-up shot coitus interruptus commercial cinema conventions cultural dance sequences Delhi diegesis disjunctions dominant Dutta's films essay female film cuts film industry film theory film-makers film's flashback gangster film gangster genre genre films Ghulami global Hathyar high-angle shot Hindi cinema Hindi film homosocial images Indian cinema Indian films Indian popular cinema intercutting interval J. P. Dutta Kamal Haasan Karan kill Kishan love story male masculine mise en scène Moosa morphing moving trains Mumbai narrate narrative cinema Nayakan opening P. C. Sriram Parinda Paro pleasure police popular films Prakash Prakash's death production protagonists rape scenes rape-revenge Ratnam reading relationship representations revenge screen segment sexual Sholay Singh slow-motion shots song and dance soundtrack space spatial spectator structuring suggests Sumer temporal thakurs University Press Velu Velu's Vidhu Vinod Vidhu Vinod Chopra viewers violence Western