The Melodramatic Public Film Form and Spectatorship in Indian Cinema

by Ravi Vasudevan

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—of national territory, new lifestyles, and urban cultures—as India has moved from the early days of state formation, through the unravelling of national consensus, down to contemporary globalization?

The Melodramatic Public explores these issues as they play out in different historical moments, and in response to larger theoretical formulations—for example, vis-à-vis the place of film in discourses of secularism and citizenship. At the same time, it deploys the category of melodrama to navigate this variegated field. Drawing on debates in film studies, it reveals how melodrama relates the public and the private, as well as modes of aesthetic expression, in different historical and cultural settings. Vasudevan explores significant crossovers and comparative registers in Indian and American cinema, as well as changes in the nature of Indian cinema and melodramatic form, especially between the ‘classical’ 1950s and the contemporary period.

Several features make this a work of seminal importance in film studies. First, it moves away from generalities about the ways in which film represents or contributes to large political and cultural issues: it does so by attending to the specifics of cultural address, film style, and film technology. Second, it analyses the transformation of the film industry since the 1990s in terms of the changing location of cinema in a new globalized environment. Third, it considers the impact of digitization, both in terms of film form and audience engagement, and through the new circuits of distribution and delivery.

Vasudevan lays great emphasis on film analysis to explore significant practices and changes in the realm of cinema and the world around it. While primarily focused on popular cinema, his book also devotes attention to the work of Satyajit Ray, as well as to the practices of art cinema and documentarists in present times.

546 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Bitika Paul]

This book details the Indian spectatorship and their approach to melodramatic visuals in cinema. Political handling of the melodrama to affect the masses for controlling economic behavior in the Indian market. For the film analysts, this book is a bliss! As the book deconstructs how filmmakers utilize melodrama for presenting attractions, rather than representing narrative spaces. The passivity of the audiences in the Indian cinema for the lack of empty spaces provided to them. The making of the stars, representation of the voices, choosing the locations, etc are connected with the melodramatic representation. The emergence of the small screen for watching films or distribution of pirated videos are too supporting the alternate economy in globalisation. The book is limited in explaining the bollywood film production and distribution process in terms of affect.