Bombay before Bollywood

Rosie Thomas

Description

Bombay before Bollywood offers a fresh, alternative look at the history of Indian cinema. Avoiding the conventional focus on India's social and mythological films, Rosie Thomas examines the subaltern genres of the "magic and fighting films"—the fantasy, costume, and stunt films popular in the decades before and immediately after independence. She explores the influence of this other cinema on the big-budget masala films of the 1970s and 1980s, before "Bollywood" erupted onto the world stage in the mid-1990s.

Thomas focuses on key moments in this hidden history, including the 1924 fairy fantasy Gul-e-Bakavali; the 1933 talkie Lal-e-Yaman; the exploits of stunt queen Fearless Nadia; the magical neverlands of Hatimtai and Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp; and the 1960s stunt capers Zimbo and Khilari. She includes a detailed ethnographic account of the Bombay film industry of the early 1980s, centering on the beliefs and fantasies of filmmakers themselves with regard to filmmaking and film audiences, and on-the-ground operations of the industry. A welcome addition to the fields of film studies and cultural studies, the book will also appeal to general readers with an interest in Indian cinema.
List of Tables and Figures
Credits
Acknowledgments

1. Bombay before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies

Part One

Introduction to Part One

2. Thieves of the Orient: The Arabian Nights in Early Indian Cinema

3. Distant Voices, Magic Knives: Lal-e-Yaman and the Transition to Sound in Bombay Cinema

4. Not Quite (Pearl) White: Fearless Nadia, Queen of the Stunts

5. Zimbo and Son Meet the Girl with a Gun

6. Still Magic: An Aladdin’s Cave of 1950s B-Movie Fantasy

Part Two

Introduction to Part Two

7. Where the Money Flows, the Camera Rolls

8. Indian Cinema: Pleasures and Popularity

9. Sanctity and Scandal: The Mythologisation of Mother India

10. Mother India Maligned: The Saga of Sanjay Dutt

References and Select Bibliography
Index

Sujets

• Película fotográfica
• Visual culture
• History of Asia
• History of film
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781438456775
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Praise for Bombay before Bollywood
“In this powerful account, Rosie Thomas opens out filmic artifacts to an array of dazzling reflections shedding new light on the movement and circulation of popular culture in India. With a remarkable body of research conducted over a period of time, Bombay before Bollywood decisively challenges certain assumptions about India, its cinemas, and its audiences.”
— Ranjani Mazumdar, author of Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City
“This is the archaeology of media performed with intellect, wit, and passion. Rosie Thomas pioneered this field and she remains its most brilliantly iridescent critic and advocate. If only all film studies were this revelatory and this enjoyable!”
— Christopher Pinney, author of Camera Indica: The Social Life of Indian Photographs
“Rosie Thomas’s body of research over the last twenty-five years has set up key discourses in the study of Indian popular cinema. This book brings together her pioneering fieldwork into film industry categories and practices, and her more recent bid to resurrect a history made well-nigh clandestine by official narratives: the significance of Arabian Nights fantasies, stunt films, and visceral attractions in Bombay cinema. Pleasurably crafted and provocatively argued, Bombay before Bollywood is an important intervention in Indian and world cinema studies.”
— Ravi Vasudevan, author of The Melodramatic Public: Film Form and Spectatorship in Indian Cinema
BOMBAY BEFORE B OLLYWOOD
Also in the series
William Rothman, editor, Cavell on Film
J. David Slocum, editor, Rebel Without a Cause
Joe McElhaney, The Death of Classical Cinema
Kirsten Moana Thompson, Apocalyptic Dread
Frances Gateward, editor, Seoul Searching
Michael Atkinson, editor, Exile Cinema
Bert Cardullo, Soundings on Cinema
Paul S. Moore, Now Playing
Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann, Ecology and Popular Film
William Rothman, editor, Three Documentary Filmmakers
Sean Griffin, editor, Hetero
Jean-Michel Frodon, editor, Cinema and the Shoah
Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Constantine Verevis, editors, Second Takes
Matthew Solomon, editor, Fantastic Voyages of the Cinematic Imagination
R. Barton Palmer and David Boyd, editors, Hitchcock at the Source
William Rothman, Hitchcock, Second Edition
Joanna Hearne, Native Recognition
Marc Raymond, Hollywood’s New Yorker
Steven Rybin and Will Scheibel, editors, Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground
Claire Perkins and Constantine Verevis, editors, B Is for Bad Cinema
Dominic Lennard, Bad Seeds and Holy Terrors
BOMBAY BEFORE B OLLYWOOD
Film City Fantasies
ROSIE THOMAS
Cover: “On the Set of Razia Sultan,” original hand-colored photograph by Olivier Richon.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
First published in 2013 by Orient Blackswan Private Limited, Hyderabad, India, for the territory of South Asia.
Not for sale in South Asia.
© 2013 Rosie Thomas
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production, Ryan Morris Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thomas, Rosie.
Bombay before Bollywood : film city fantasies / Rosie Thomas.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5675-1 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5676-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4384-5677-5 (e-book)
1. Motion pictures—India—Mumbai—History—20th century. I. Title. PN1993.5.I4T55 2013 791.430954—dc23 2014046802
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C ontents
List of Tables and Figures
Credits
Acknowledgments
chapter 1 Bombay before Bollywood
Film City Fantasies
PART ONE
Introduction to Part One
chapter 2 Thieves of the Orient
The Arabian Nights in Early Indian Cinema
chapter 3 Distant Voices, Magic Knives
Lal-e-Yaman and the Transition to Sound in Bombay Cinema
chapter 4 Not Quite (Pearl) White
Fearless Nadia, Queen of the Stunts
chapter 5 Zimbo and Son Meet the Girl with a Gun
chapter 6 Still Magic
An Aladdin’s Cave of 1950s B-Movie Fantasy
PART TWO
Introduction to Part Two
chapter 7 Where the Money Flows, the Camera Rolls
chapter 8 Indian Cinema
Pleasures and Popularity
chapter 9 Sanctity and Scandal
The Mythologisation of Mother India
chapter 10 Mother India Maligned
The Saga of Sanjay Dutt
References and Select Bibliography
Index
T ables and Figures Table 7.1 Cinema distribution territories in 1981 Appendix 7.1 Major territory average prices, 1935–83 FIGURES 1.1 Hatimtai (1956) lobby card 1.2 Basant’s Alibaba (1954) postcard I.1 Booklet cover for Hunterwali (1935) 2.1 Gul-e-Bakavali (1932) 2.2 Still of Lal-e-Yaman (1933) 3.1 Still of Lal-e-Yaman (1933) 3.2 Booklet cover of Noor-e-Yaman (1935) 4.1 Booklet cover of Lootaru Lalna (1938) 4.2 The one and only Fearless Nadia 4.3 Poster of Hunterwali ki Beti (1943) 4.4 Still of Hunterwali (1935) 4.5 A still from Diamond Queen (1940) 5.1 Poster of Zimbo Finds a Son (1966) facing page 5.2 Poster of Khilari (1968) facing page 6.1 Alif Laila (1953) lobby card for the movie theatres 6.2 Textile label for Ralli Brothers 6.3 Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1952) lobby card for the movie theatres 6.4 Jahan Ara (1964) lobby card for the movie theatres 6.5 Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1952) lobby card for the movie theatres 6.6 Poster of Anglo-Burmese star, Helen, as cabaret dancer ‘Chin Chin Chu’ 6.7 Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1952) lobby card for the movie theatres 6.8 Zimbo (1958) hand-coloured collage used as lobby card for the movie theatres 6.9 Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp (1952) reverse of lobby card for the movie theatres II.1 A still from Kartavya (1979) 7.1 Flow of Finance in Bombay Film Production 8.1 Naseeb (1981) 8.2 Naseeb : sword fight 8.3 Naseeb party scene 9.1 Poster for Mother India (1957) 9.2 Still from Mother India 9.3 Poster on Bombay streets in 1985 10.1 A still from Sadak (1991) 10.2 A still from Aladin (2009) 10.3 A still from Agneepath (2012)
C redits
A version of chapter 3 in this volume, ‘Distant Voices, Magic Knives: Lal-e-Yaman and the Transition to Sound in Bombay Cinema’, was first published in Rachel Dwyer and Jerry Pinto (eds), Beyond the Boundaries of Bollywood: The Many Forms of Hindi Cinema, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 53–76. Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press and © Rosie Thomas.
A version of chapter 4 in this volume ‘Not Quite (Pearl) White: Fearless Nadia, Queen of the Stunts’ was originally published in Raminder Kaur and Ajay Sinha (eds), Bollyworld: Indian Cinema through a Transnational Lens , New Delhi: Sage, 2005, pp. 35–69. Reprinted with permission of Sage Publications and © Rosie Thomas.
A version of chapter 5 in this volume was originally published as ‘Zimbo and Son Meet the Girl with a Gun’, in David Blamey and Robert d’Souza (eds) Living Pictures: Perspectives on the Film Poster in India, London: Open Editions Press, 2005, pp. 27–44. Reprinted with permission of Open Editions Press and © Rosie Thomas.
A version of chapter 6 was originally published online as ‘Still Magic: An Aladdin’s Cave of 1950s B Movie Fantasy’ on the website of Tasveer Ghar, edited by Sumathi Ramaswamy, Christiane Brosius, Yousuf Saeed. http://tasveerghar.net/cmsdesk/essay/103/ . Reprinted with permission of Tasveer Ghar.
Chapter 8 was originally published as ‘Indian Cinema: Pleasures and Popularity’ in Screen, vol. 26, nos 3–4, pp. 116–32, May–August 1985. Reprinted with permission of Oxford University Press journals and © Rosie Thomas.
Chapter 9 was originally published as ‘Sanctity and Scandal: The Mythologization of Mother India’ in Quarterly Review of Film and Video , vol. 11, no. 3, pp. 11–30, 1989. Reprinted with permission of Taylor and Francis and © Rosie Thomas.
We would like to thank—
Olivier Richon for the cover photograph: ‘On the set of Razia Sultan’, original hand-coloured photograph © Olivier Richon; and frontispiece, ‘Film City’, original hand-coloured photograph © Olivier Richon.
Roy Wadia and Wadia Movietone for the following: Figure 1.1 : Hatimtai (1956) lobby card (also courtesy the Priya Paul Collection); Figure 1.2 : Basant’s Alibaba (1954) postcard; Figure I.1 : Booklet cover for Hunterwali (1935); Figure 2.2 : Still of Lal-e-Yaman (1933); Figure 3.1 : Still of Lal-e-Yaman (1933); Figure 3.2 : Booklet cover of Noor-e-Yaman (1935); Figure 4.1 : Booklet cover of Lootaru Lalna (1938); Figure 4.2 : The one and only Fearless Nadia; Figure 4.3 : Poster of Hunterwali ki Beti (1943); Figure 4.4 : Still of Hunterwali (1935); Figure 4.5 : A still from Diamond Queen (1940); Figure 5.1 : Poster of Zimbo Finds a Son (1966) (also image courtesy Open Editions Collection); Figure 5.2 : Poster of Khilari (1968) (also image courtesy Open Edi