Bollywood's Lens on Indian Society
INTL 407/507, Spring 2012
Wednesdays, 5-7:50 pm
112 Lillis Hall
Contact information for Professor Weiss & Samantha Gammons
Course Syllabus
Film has the ability to project powerful images of a society in ways conventional academic mediums cannot. This is particularly true in learning about India, which is home to the largest film industries in the world. This course explores images of Indian society that emerge through the medium of film. Our attention will be focused on the ways in which Indian society and history is depicted in film, critical social issues being explored through film; the depicted reality vs. the historical reality; and the powerful role of the Indian film industry in affecting social orientations and values.
Class format
Professor Weiss will open each class with a short lecture on the issues which are raised in the film to be screened for that day. We will then view the selected film, followed by a short break, and then extensive in-class discussion. Given the length of most Bollywood films, we will need to fast-forward through much of the song/dance sequences.
There will be assigned readings for each day which can be found either in the following required texts (available at the UO bookstore) or through hot-links from this class website. Please try to complete all readings before the day in which they will be discussed. Most recommended films are available at Vishnu India Imports (135 E. 29th Ave., Ph: 343-6932) or through Netflix. The three required books are:
Tejaswini Ganti Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry Duke University Press, 2012
Ramachandra Guha India after Gandhi: the History of the World's Largest Democracy HarperCollins, 2007
Edward Luce In Spite of the Gods: the Rise of Modern India Anchor Books, 2006
Requirements: (percentage of final grade)
Grading Guidelines accessible here
Class participation 15%
Two typed, 3-5 page double-spaced essays exploring cultural issues presented 25% each
in any two films viewed. The essays should draw upon readings and class discussion
as relevant and is due at the beginning of the class after the film is screened.
6-8 page paper (approx.), due on the last day of class. The paper is to explore 35%
any social issue which was raised in a segment of this course. You are to look at its social origin, and then focus on the way in which this issue is in flux in India today. There are a number of books recommended throughout the syllabus “for further reading.” These are good places to start researching your paper.
You need to confirm the topic of your term paper by May 9th. While you can begin researching and writing the term paper at any time -- and submit it whenever you would like -- the absolute deadline for turning it in is Wednesday June 6th.
***Link to additional grading guidelines for term papers is here***
Course Outline
April 4 Introduction to the Course and to Indian Cinema/Bollywood
Historical overview notes here
Films: "Beginnings" The Story of India with Michael Wood BBC/PBS,
2008 (1 hour)
Larger than Life: India's Bollywood Film Culture Films for the
Humanities & Sciences, 2005 (57 minutes)
Required Readings:
Guha, pp. 709-731
Luce, pp. 1-22
Anil Saari & Partha Cattopadhyaya Hindi Cinema: an Insider's View Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 3-13, 28-39 (accessible here)
April 11 Revisiting Indian History and Society
Hinduism, caste and hierarchy notes here
Film: Jodhaa Akbar, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, 2008 (213 minutes)
Recommended films:
Ashoka the Great directed by Santosh Sivan, 2001
Devdas directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2002 (also here)
Mirch Masala (Hot Spices) directed by Ketan Mehta, 1985
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 1-15
Luce, pp. 23-62
April 18 History from Within and Views of the 'Other': Partition and its Relevance today
Films: Lagaan (Once Upon a Time in India), directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, produced by Aamir Khan Productions, 2001 (also here) (224 minutes)
Recommended films:
Gandhi directed by Richard Attenborough, 1982
Garam Hava (Hot Winds), directed by M.S. Sathyu, 1973
Ghare Baire (The Home and the World), directed by Satyajit Ray, 1984
Lage Raho Munna Bhai directed by Rajkumar Hirani, 2006
A Passage to India directed by David Lean, 1984
The Rising: the Ballad of Mangal Pandey directed by Ketan Mehta, 2005 (also here)
Shakespeare Wallah directed by James Ivory (U of O alumni!), 1965
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 41-63
Guha, pp. 19-40, 41-50, 51-73, 97-114
Luce, pp. 63-104
Milton Singer "Passage to More than India: A Sketch of Changing European and American Images" When a Great Tradition Modernizes: an Anthropological Approach to Indian Civilization Praeger Publishers, 1972, pp. 11-37
Anil Saari & Partha Cattopadhyaya Hindi Cinema: an Insider's View Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 168-176
For further reading:
Bhowmik, Someswar Indian Cinema, Colonial Contours Calcutta: Papyrus Press, 1995
Dirks, Nicholas “The Home and the World: the Invention of Modernity in Colonial India” in Robert A. Rosenstone (ed.) Revisioning History: Film and the Construction of a New Past Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. 44-63
Khilnani, Sunil The Idea of India Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1997 (one of my favorites!)
Lindley, Arthur “Raj as Romance/Raj as Parody: Lean’s and Foster’s Passage to India” Literature/Film Quarterly, 20, No. 1, 1992, pp. 61-66
Prasad, M. Madhava “The State in/of Cinema” in Partha Chatterjee (ed.) Wages of Freedom: Fifty Years of the Indian Nation-State Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 123-146
Metcalf, Barbara D. and Thomas R. Metcalf A Concise History of India
Cambridge University Press, 2001
Trautmann, Thomas R. India: Brief History of a Civilization Oxford
University Press, 2011
April 25 Family Norms and Social Change
Film: Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (Sometimes There's Happiness, Sometimes Sadness) directed by Yash Johar, 2001 (210 minutes)
Recommended films:
Amar, Akbar, Anthony directed by Manmohan Desai, 1977
Baghban (The Gardener) directed by Ravi Chopra, 2003
Billu Barber directed by Priyadarshan, 2009
Bunty aur Babli directed by Shaad Ali, 2005
Hum Tum (You and I), directed by Kunal Khohli 2004
Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (Don't Say We Will Never Meet Again) directed by Karan Johar, 2006
Salaam Namaste directed by Siddharth Anand, 2005
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic directed by Kunal Kohli, 2008
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 63-75, 77-110
Guha, pp. 115-134, 233-248
Luce, pp. 105-142
Anil Saari & Partha Cattopadhyaya Hindi Cinema: an Insider's View Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 56-64
Link on child marriages sent in by Seth Wickrem "Child Bride Has Marriage Annulled. Laxmi Sargara is Our Hero of the Day"
May 2 India, Pakistan and Hindu-Muslim Conflict
Film: Veer Zaara directed by Yash Chopra, Yashraj Studios, 2004 (192 minutes)
Recommended films:
Bombay directed by Mani Ratnam, 1995
Fanaa directed by Kunal Kohli, 2006
Henna directed by Randhir Kapoor, 1991
Required Readings:
Guha, pp. 74-96, 249-266, 349-364, 365-386, 397-405, 445-465
Luce, pp. 143-179, 218-256
For further reading:
Varshney, Ashutosh Ethic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in
India Yale University Press, 2002
May 9 Gender Norms, Social Change . . . and Fantasy
Film: Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (Journey of a Woman, or There Seems to be a Stain on her Shirt) directed by Pradeep Sarkar, 2007 (137 minutes)
Recommended films:
Chak De India! directed by Shimit Amin, Yash Raj Studios, 2007
Lajja directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, 2001
Mirch Masala (Hot Spices) directed by Ketan Mehta, 1987
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 119-144
Guha, pp. 466-490
Jyotika Virdi The Cinematic Imagination: Indian Popular Films as Social History Rutgers University Press, 2003, “The Idealized Woman” pp. 60-86, "Heroines, Romance and Social History, " pp. 121-144
For further reading:
Carr, Marilyn, Martha Chen and Renana Jhabvala (eds.) Speaking Out: Women's Economic Empowerment in South Asia IT Publications, 1996
Derne, Steve Movies, Masculinity, and Modernity: An Ethnography of Men's Filmgoing in India Greenwood Press, 2000
Jeffery, Patricia and Amrita Basu (eds.) Appropriating Gender: Women’s Activism and Politicized Religion in South Asia Routledge, 1998
Mankekar, Purnima Screening Culture, Viewing Politics: an Ethnography of Television, Womanhood, and Nation in Postcolonial India Duke University Press, 1999
Rao, Maithili “To Be a Woman” in Aruna Vasudev (ed.) Frames of Mind: Reflections on Indian Cinema UBSPD, 1995, pp. 241-256
May 16 Social Pressure and the New Economy
Link to economic and human development indicators
Film: Three Idiots directed by Rajkumar Hirani, 2009 (170 minutes)
Recommended films:
Guru directed by Mani Ratnam, 2007
Salaam Bombay! directed by Mira Nair, 1988
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 281-314
Guha, pp. 189-208, 209-232, 682-708
Luce, pp.180-217
Anil Saari & Partha Cattopadhyaya Hindi Cinema: an Insider's View Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 103-109
For further reading:
Ayres, Alyssa and Philip Oldenburg (eds.) India Briefing: Takeoff at Last? M.E. Sharpe, 2005
Cohen, Stephen P. India: Emerging Power Brookings Institution Press, 2001
Kumar, Shanti Gandhi meets Primetime: Globalization and Nationalism in Indian Television
University of Illinois Press, 2006
Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre (HDC) Human Development in South Asia 2008:Technology and Human Development in South Asia Oxford UP, 2009
Malik, Yogendra K., et. al. Government & Politics in South Asia Perseus, 2008
Mendelsohn, Oliver and Marika Vicziany The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty, and the State in Modern India Cambridge University Press, 1998
Narayan, Deepa and Elena Glinskaya (eds.) Ending Poverty in South Asia: Ideas that Work
World Bank Publications, 2006
Rothermund, Dietmar India: The Rise of an Asian Giant Yale University Press, 2009
May 23 India's Changing Cities
Link to list of India's largest cities and their populations
Film: Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Dairies) directed by Kiran Rao, 2010 (100 minutes)
Recommended films:
Life in a Metro directed by Anurag Basu, 2007
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 315-345
Luce, pp. 295-327
"Building the City: India's Urban Future"
List of the world's largest cities (#3 and #5 are in India, as are #s 33, 34, 44, and 45)
May 30 The Growing Fear of Terrorism
Chronology of terrorist attacks in India, 2001-11
Film: A Wednesday directed by Neeraj Pandey, 2008 (104 minutes)
Recommended films:
Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters) directed by Sabiha Sumar (Pakistan), 2003
Khuda Kay Liye (In the Name of God) directed by Shoaib Mansoor
(Pakistan), 2007
My Name is Khan directed by Karan Johar, 2010
Required Readings:
Guha, pp. 624-650
Luce, pp. 328-354
June 6 Bollywood!
Film: For our final class meeting, the class will have a choice to see what
many consider to be a quintessential Bollywood film:
Jab We Met (When We Met), directed by Imtiaz Ali, 2007 (138 minutes) OR
Om Shanti Om directed by Farah Khan, 2007 (and here) (162 minutes)
Required Readings:
Ganti, pp. 359-366
Guha, pp. 733-759