Bangladesh Cinema and National Identity: In Search of the Modern? (Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series)

Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, cinema has been adopted as a popular cultural institution in Bangladesh. At the same time, this has been the period for the articulation of modern nationhood and cultural identity of Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. This book analyses the relationship between cinema and modernity in Bangladesh, providing a narrative of the uneven process that produced the idea of'Bangladesh cinema.'This book investigates the roles of a non-Western'national'film industry in Asia in constructing nationhood and identity within colonial and postcolonial predicaments. Drawing on the idea of cinema as public sphere and the postcolonial notion of formation of the'Bangladesh'nation, interactions between cinema and middle-class Bengali Muslims in different social and political matrices are analyzed. The author explores how the conflict among different social groups turned Bangladesh cinema into a site of contesting identities. In particular, he illustrates the connections between film production and reception in Bangladesh and a variety of nationalist constructions of Bengali Muslim identity. Questioning and debunking the usual notions of'Bangladesh'and'cinema,'this book positions the cinema of Bangladesh within a transnational frame. Starting with how to locate the'beginning'of the second Bengali language cinema in colonial Bengal, the author completes the investigation by identifying a global Bangladeshi cinema in the early twenty-first century. The first major academic study on this large and vibrant national cinema, this book demonstrates that Bangladesh cinema worked as different'public spheres'for different'publics'throughout the twentieth century and beyond. Filling a niche in Global Film and Media Studies and South Asian Studies, it will be of interest to scholars and students of these disciplines. La quatrième de couverture indique: "Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, cinema has been adopted as a popular cultural institution in Bangladesh. At the same time, this has been the period for the articulation of modern nationhood and cultural identity of Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. This book analyses the relationship between cinema and modernity in Bangladesh, providing a narrative of the uneven process that produced the idea of 'Bangladesh cinema'. This book investigates the roles of a non-western 'national' film industry in Asia in constructing nationhood and identity within colonial and postcolonial predicaments. The political and economic forces and the cultural institutions that have been active in shaping Bangladesh cinema are presented. The author explores how the conflict among different social groups turned Bangladesh cinema into a site of contesting identities during the twentieth century and beyond. In particular, he illustrates the connections between film production and reception in Bangladesh and a variety of nationalist constructions of Bengali Muslim identity. Drawing on the idea of cinema as public sphere and the postcolonial notion of formation of the 'Bangladesh' nation, interactions between cinema and middle-class Bengali Muslims in different social and political matrices are analysed. The first major academic study on this large and vibrant national cinema, this book demonstrates that Bangladesh national cinema worked as different 'public spheres' for different 'publics' throughout the twentieth century. Filling a niche in Global Film and Media Studies and South Asian Studies, it will be of interest to scholars and students of these disciplines." "Throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, cinema has been adopted as a popular cultural institution in Bangladesh. At the same time, this has been the period for the articulation of modern nationhood and cultural identity of Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. This book analyses the relationship between cinema and modernity in Bangladesh, providing a narrative of the uneven process that produced the idea of 'Bangladesh cinema'. This book investigates the roles of a non-western 'national' film industry in Asia in constructing nationhood and identity within colonial and postcolonial predicaments. The political and economic forces and the cultural institutions that have been active in shaping Bangladesh cinema are presented. The author explores how the conflict among different social groups turned Bangladesh cinema into a site of contesting identities during the twentieth century and beyond. In particular, he illustrates the connections between film production and reception in Bangladesh and a variety of nationalist constructions of Bengali Muslim identity. Drawing on the idea of cinema as public sphere and the postcolonial notion of formation of the 'Bangladesh' nation, interactions between cinema and middle-class Bengali Muslims in different social and political matrices are analysed. The first major academic study on this large and vibrant national cinema, this book demonstrates that Bangladesh national cinema worked as different 'public spheres' for different 'publics' throughout the twentieth century. Filling a niche in Global Film and Media Studies and South Asian Studies, it will be of interest to scholars and students of these disciplines"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Title Page 10 Copyright Page 11 Dedication 12 Table of Contents 14 Preface 15 Introduction 18 1 Methods in film historiography: towards an interpretive history of Bangladesh cinema 32 2 National cinema and non-Western modernity: framework to study Bangladesh cinema 57 3 National cinema study and beginning of Bangladesh film history 82 4 Bengali cinema and cultural modernity in colonial Bengal 108 5 The Dhaka film industry and Bengali-Muslim modernity in postcolonial East Pakistan 132 6 Popular cinema: between nation-state and market forces in contemporary Bangladesh 160 7 Cultural modernity and art film discourses: towards a global Bangladeshi cinema? 189 Bibliography 219 Index 236 Analyses the relationship between cinema and modernity in Bangladesh. This book investigates the roles of a non-western 'national' film industry in Asia in constructing nationhood and identity within colonial and postcolonial predicaments, and analyses the political, economic and cultural forces that have been active in shaping Bangladesh cinema.