Bollywood Travels: Culture, Diaspora and Border Crossings in Popular Hindi Cinema

This book offers a cultural and social analysis of contemporary Bollywood films over the past decade. Using the author#xE2;#xAC;"s analysis of a sociological imagination, it is developed here as one that is concerned with the private and public issues of the day through the silver screen and popular cultures of Bollywood cinema. He engages with the common assumptions about everyday South Asian and diasporic South Asian cultures and representations that are given expression in and through Bollywood cinema. By interrogating these issues further, the ideas of nation, race, religion, gender and sexuality, cinema and public spaces, diaspora and globalization are explored. Providing a socio-cultural commentary on the contemporary workings of popular Hindi cinema as an industry, this book is a continuation of the critical tradition. It presents aesthetic readings of readily available contemporary films that are indicative of select key films of the last ten years and their emerging trends in dealing with issues of representation. Drawing on interdisciplinary schools of thought and modes of close textual analysis across film and media studies, cultural studies, and sociology, it addresses and analyzes key Bollywood films and filmmakers that have emerged from India and fostered a relationship with Bollywood audiences around the globe in the contemporary moment.

Introduction 1. Global Bollywood 2. The Transnational Stars of Hindi Cinema 3. The Homeland and the Diaspora 4. More Masala: Action Hero Meets Sci-Fi in Krrish 5. Bollywood's Dark Side: The Films of Ram Gopal Varma 6. Borders and Border Crossings in Main Hoon Na and Veer Zaara 7. Gender and Sexuality: Bollywood Ish-tyle. Conclusion