Summer Teaching: "Beyond Bollywood -- Indian Cinema in an Era of Globalization"

This summer I'm teaching an online course called "Beyond Bollywood." It's meant as a gentle introduction to a small slice Indian cinema that is equal parts mainstream Hindi cinema, Indian art films, and Indian diaspora films. I tried to peg the course to the Mira Nair book that I'm finally finishing up -- and that will hopefully be out sometime in the near future. I also decided to bypass classics that I thought my students might find tedious or over-long and just do a handful of films that will 'work' with American students -- and also illustrate some key aspects of Indian cinema.

I have some conventional lecture notes on some key concepts in the course (i.e., "melodrama," "song and dance," etc). I can't imagine that readers will be too excited about those (I'll spare you). But I've also been doing slides with screen captures from the films we've done so far to help the students work through the films with a focus on the visual elements. Making these has been a bit time-consuming but also really fun (I especially had some fun with the intense, bordering on over-the-top, cinematography of "Dil Se...")

So here are the first three slide shows. (Hint: they look better if you click on the full screen option) Next week, we'll do "Monsoon Wedding" and "Maqbool."




Sholay (1975)

Salaam Bombay! (1988)


Dil Se... (1998)