Routledge Filming the Gods: Religion and Indian Cinema

Filming the Gods examines the role and depiction of religion in Indian cinema, showing that the relationship between the modern and the traditional in contemporary India is not exotic, but part of everyday life. Concentrating mainly on the Hindi cinema of Mumbai, Bollywood, it also discusses India's other cinemas. Rachel Dwyer's lively discussion encompasses the mythological genre which continues India's long tradition of retelling Hindu myths and legends, drawing on sources such as the national epics of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana; the devotional genre, which flourished at the height of the nationalist movement in the 1930s and 40s; and the films made in Bombay that depict India's Islamicate culture, including the historical, the courtesan film and the 'Muslim social' genre. Filming the Gods also examines the presence of the religious across other genres and how cinema represents religious communities and their beliefs and practices. It draws on interviews with film stars, directors and producers as well as popular fiction, fan magazines and the films themselves. As a result, Filming the Gods is a both a guide to the study of film in religious culture as well as a historical overview of Indian religious film. Review 'This book will be an eye-opener for those who still think of religion as something traditional. based on a weatlth of original research, Dwyer's narrative of religion in Indian cinema tells us how the divine makes itself at home in modern technology. More than an argument about the represetnation of religion in film, her book addresses the very different ways in which Hindu, Muslim and other forms of devotion pervade adn are produced by Indian cinema as part of a distinctive modernity.' - Professor Faisal Devji, The New School University, New York'Casting new and authoritiative light on Indian cinema's religious engagements, Filming the Gods is a sparkling and perceptive intervention by a scholar with an unrivalled knowledge of her subject. A seminal and welcome antidote to Indian film studies' obsession with the nation, it will certainly have a major impact.' - Christopher Pinney, Professor of Anthropology and Visual Culture, University College London'Scholarship is at its finest when it makes you think and Dwyer's book certainly does ... For anyone who wants to understand why Indians-or at least predominantly Hindi-speaking Indians-like their entertainment the way it is, this is a book both wise and witty. Let the critics call Hindi cinema kitschy. Dwyer knows why many Indians are devoted to it.' - India Today'Scholarship is at its finest when it makes you think and Dwyer's book certainly does ... For anyone who wants to understand why Indians – or at least predominantly Hindi-speaking Indians-like their entertainment the way it is, this is a book both wise and witty. Let the critics call Hindi cinema kitschy. Dwyer knows why many Indians are devoted to it.' - India Today