Article Details

This article propounds the thesis that Bollywood cinema, the modern Indian cinema based in Mumbai (Bombay) is a better guide to the realities of modern India than other, more scholarly works. The author, who distinguishes and describes a number of different types of Bollywood film, suggests that these films are an unparalleled guide to the thoughts, aspirations and attitudes of the hundreds of millions of members of the emergent middle classes. For example, their view of history is purveyed by the cinema, not by books written by academic historians; their attitudes to politics are formed by films, not by the speeches given by politicians.

If you are a Member of the RSAA, please log in before proceeding.