The Melodramatic Public : Film Form and Spectatorship in Indian Cinema

What role has Indian cinema played in the history of Indian cultural and political transformations? How have Indian films addressed notions of nationhood, ideas about nation and region, matters of social difference, and conflicts over caste and religion? What cultural visions can be traced through the history of Indian cinema, and how have their co-ordinates changed? What new vistas have emerged?24of national territory, new lifestyles, and urban cultures?24as India has moved from the early days of state formation, through the unravelling of national consensus, down to contemporary globalization? "What does it mean to say Indian movies are melodramatic? How do film audiences engage with socio-political issues? What role has cinema played in the emergence of new economic forms, consumer cultures, and digital technologies in a globalizing India? The Melodramatic Public analyzes melodrama as a narrative architecture and expressive form which connect the public and the private, the personal and the political, in ways that draw film audiences into complex passages of historical change. Vasudevan explores film form and narrative strategy across a wide repertoire of film traditions, including popular classics and canonical art works. Topics include the contemporary global moment associated with the category "Bollywood," changes in state policy and industrial organization, and the impact of digital technologies, new economies of consumption, and wider export markets on Indian film culture" -- Provided by publisher What does it mean to say Indian movies are melodramatic? How do film audiences engage with socio-political issues? What role has cinema played in the emergence of new economic forms, consumer cultures and digital technologies in a globalizing India? Ravi Vasudevan addresses these questions in a wide-ranging analysis of Indian cinema. Melodramatic and other publics pt. 2. Cinema and territorial imagination in the subcontinent : Tamilnadu and India pt. 3. Melodrama mutated and differentiated : narrative form, urban vistas, and new publics in a history of the present.