Bollywood and the First Decade of Independence - Seven Directors in Search of a Nation

This book focuses on the cinema of the 1950s in India and analyses the work of seven filmmakers from mainstream Hindi cinema and how they responded to the independent Indian nation after 1947.

List of contents

Introduction
Chapter 1: V Shantaram: From Reformist Idealism to Doubt
Chapter 2: Mehboob Khan: Charting the Nation's Trajectory
Chapter 3: Bimal Roy: The Eternal Truths of Literature
Chapter 4: Guru Dutt: Tradition and Democracy
Chapter 5: Raj Kapoor: The Filmmaker and his Image
Chapter 6: Raj Khosla: Moral Watchdogs in a Fledgling Democracy
Chapter 7: BR Chopra: From Entertainment to Concern
Afterword: The Concerns and Attitudes of the 1950s
Index

About the author

Devapriya Sanyal is Assistant Professor of English at St Joseph's University, Bangalore where she teaches literature and researches on Film, Gender Studies, Urban Studies and Environmental Humanities. She is the author of several books on film and gender such as Failed Masculinities: The Men in Satyajit Ray's Films, Gendered Modernity and Indian Cinema: The Women in Satyajit Ray's Films (Routledge, UK), Salman Khan: The Man, The Actor, The Legend and Through the Eyes of a Cinematographer: The Biography of Soumendu Roy. Her writings have appeared in national and international journals. She has degrees in English and Film Studies from Lady Brabourne College and JNU.

Product details

• Authors: Devapriya Sanyal
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 03.07.2025
• EAN: 9781032955582
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3295558-2
• No. of pages: 130
• Series: Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Media Studies, Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000, Cultural Studies, Nationalism, India, Films, cinema, General & world history, Social & political philosophy, social and political philosophy, Regional Studies, Regional / International studies, Asian History, Literary studies: post-colonial literature, General and world history, History and Archaeology, Literary studies: postcolonial literature, HISTORY / Asia / South / General, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Cultural & Ethnic Studies / Asian Studies