The Bollywood Saga
Jitendra Kothari, Dinesh Raheja
Roli
2004
Cinema
Pages: 156
Price: Rs 1,975
ISBN: 81-7436-285-1
Format: Large, Coffee Table
Hardcover
That Bollywood continues to be flavour of the moment is evident from the number of books that are being released in quick succession. Here is another book from Roli, who have earlier too published major illustrated books on the subject.
This book, which is a sort of round–up of the industry by two industry observers, is almost an extension of their earlier work, the Hundred Luminaries of Indian Cinema. As with the previous one, the stress is on the visual in this book too.
The book is divided into chapters, largely by the decade eg ‘The Gilded Age 1950s’ or ‘Going Retro 1990s’. The book is almost up to date, even taking into account films like Koi Mil Gaya (1993). This may seem like a simplistic way to group, or exclude, but is perhaps as good as any other given the scope of the text.
However once inside the chapter, there is a fair attempt at dissecting and understanding the decade, following the patterns, placing it in context to global movements in cinema.
Taking the ‘1970s The Decade of Rebellion’ as an example, the starting line establishes the tone, “The most strident voice in the ‘70s belonged to the counterculture. In a world unnerved by Vietnam and the long-drawn Cold War, anti-establishment forces had found favour everywhere. From the lifestyle of the hippies to the poetry of the beatniks, it was becoming apparent that it was just not hip to be square. India was not immune to these global changes and as if to compound matters, the Emergency (‘75) caused a tectonic shift in the very foundation of Indian social and political life”.
{{/usCountry}}Taking the ‘1970s The Decade of Rebellion’ as an example, the starting line establishes the tone, “The most strident voice in the ‘70s belonged to the counterculture. In a world unnerved by Vietnam and the long-drawn Cold War, anti-establishment forces had found favour everywhere. From the lifestyle of the hippies to the poetry of the beatniks, it was becoming apparent that it was just not hip to be square. India was not immune to these global changes and as if to compound matters, the Emergency (‘75) caused a tectonic shift in the very foundation of Indian social and political life”.
{{/usCountry}}The chapter has sub heads like ‘The Early Seventies - a Period of Transition’, ‘The Times They are A-changing’, ‘The Amitabh Phenomenon’, Trophy Heroines’, ‘The God of Small Things’ and ‘The Cult of the Multistarrer’. There is a small section on the growth of Art Cinema too. Each chapter has a few ‘seminal films’ marked out, and this chapter has
Anand, Sholay, Deewar
and
Bhumika
.
What works for the book, expectedly, are the fabulous visuals. Starting with a seductive Aishwarya Rai on the front cover, the book is full of stunning stills that capture some of the most memorable moments of Indian cinema. Not just familiar scene shots like those of Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam, Amjad Khan in Sholay, Nargis in Mother India but less seen moments like a superb frontispiece of Rekha and Naseeruddin Shah in Umrao Jaan, posters of Alam Ara, India’s first ‘talkie’ and Himansu Rai’s The Light of Asia, Nadia atop a train from Miss Frontier Mail, Sharmila Tagore in groundbreaking bikini shot from An Evening in Paris… the list could go on.
Aficionados of Hindi cinema will love to revisit these moments that have shaped the collective psyche of India as few other factors. The book may be steeply priced, but a must for fans of the craft.