Omar Ahmed
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733681
- eISBN:
- 9781800342088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733681.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores Mani Ratnam's 1998 film Dil Se (From the Heart) to engage critically with changing representations of terrorism in contemporary Indian cinema. Mani Ratnam is recognised by many ...
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This chapter explores Mani Ratnam's 1998 film Dil Se (From the Heart) to engage critically with changing representations of terrorism in contemporary Indian cinema. Mani Ratnam is recognised by many critics and the Indian film industry as one of its finest and most commercially successful film-makers. Dil Se was Ratnam's first Hindi film and the third part in a loose trilogy of films dealing with the relationship between nationalism, terrorism, and urban violence. The chapter then looks at regional film-making in India, particularly Tamil cinema. It also considers Mani Ratnam's concerns as an auteur, the music of Dil Se and composer A.R. Rahman, and perhaps most importantly, the impact the film had at the UK box office with the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) audience.Less
This chapter explores Mani Ratnam's 1998 film Dil Se (From the Heart) to engage critically with changing representations of terrorism in contemporary Indian cinema. Mani Ratnam is recognised by many critics and the Indian film industry as one of its finest and most commercially successful film-makers. Dil Se was Ratnam's first Hindi film and the third part in a loose trilogy of films dealing with the relationship between nationalism, terrorism, and urban violence. The chapter then looks at regional film-making in India, particularly Tamil cinema. It also considers Mani Ratnam's concerns as an auteur, the music of Dil Se and composer A.R. Rahman, and perhaps most importantly, the impact the film had at the UK box office with the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) audience.
Anustup Basu
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748641024
- eISBN:
- 9780748651245
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748641024.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the use of music and song sequences in Hindi cinema, along with globalisation and the sound of partitioned selves. It first frames the terms of engagement by attaching an ...
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This chapter discusses the use of music and song sequences in Hindi cinema, along with globalisation and the sound of partitioned selves. It first frames the terms of engagement by attaching an aesthetic-political question of lyricism to that of Indian nationalism. In discussing the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Aamir Mufti has posed an important question in relation to third world modernities: instead of a more conventional format of aligning categories and events into a narrative of constitution, is it possible to understand historicity as a lyrical assemblage of expressions that are obtuse and eliding in their relational meaningfulness? The work of Faiz has regularly featured in dialogues and lyrics in countless films in India and Pakistan. This chapter examines the lyrical as that which can infuse exiling and errant powers of language and contaminate hard artifacts of historical narration. It looks at some exemplary uses of cinematic musicality in the works of Mani Ratnam, including his 1997 Hindi film Dil Se (From the Heart) whose title track sequence is an anticipatory coupling of affects of violence and love.Less
This chapter discusses the use of music and song sequences in Hindi cinema, along with globalisation and the sound of partitioned selves. It first frames the terms of engagement by attaching an aesthetic-political question of lyricism to that of Indian nationalism. In discussing the poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Aamir Mufti has posed an important question in relation to third world modernities: instead of a more conventional format of aligning categories and events into a narrative of constitution, is it possible to understand historicity as a lyrical assemblage of expressions that are obtuse and eliding in their relational meaningfulness? The work of Faiz has regularly featured in dialogues and lyrics in countless films in India and Pakistan. This chapter examines the lyrical as that which can infuse exiling and errant powers of language and contaminate hard artifacts of historical narration. It looks at some exemplary uses of cinematic musicality in the works of Mani Ratnam, including his 1997 Hindi film Dil Se (From the Heart) whose title track sequence is an anticipatory coupling of affects of violence and love.
Priya Joshi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231169615
- eISBN:
- 9780231539074
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169615.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book analyzes the role of popular blockbuster films made by Bollywood in the making, unmaking and remaking of modern India. It explains that Bollywood films are India’s most popular ...
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This book analyzes the role of popular blockbuster films made by Bollywood in the making, unmaking and remaking of modern India. It explains that Bollywood films are India’s most popular entertainment and one of its most powerful social forces. It argues that Bollywood’s blockbusters contest ideas about state formation, capture the nation’s dispersed anxieties and fabricate public fantasies of what constitutes “India.” The book provides an interdisciplinary account of popular cinema as a space that filters politics and modernity for its viewers. It covers themes such as crime and punishment, family and individuality, vigilante and community, and shows how these capture the diffuse aspirations of an evolving nation. It reveals the cinema’s social impact across decades that saw the decline of studios, the rise of the multi-star genre, and the arrival of corporate capital and new media platforms. It includes studies of iconic and less familiar films, including Awara (1951), Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Dil Se (1998), A Wednesday (2008), and 3 Idiots (2009). Overall it conveys the pleasures and politics of Bollywood blockbusters.Less
This book analyzes the role of popular blockbuster films made by Bollywood in the making, unmaking and remaking of modern India. It explains that Bollywood films are India’s most popular entertainment and one of its most powerful social forces. It argues that Bollywood’s blockbusters contest ideas about state formation, capture the nation’s dispersed anxieties and fabricate public fantasies of what constitutes “India.” The book provides an interdisciplinary account of popular cinema as a space that filters politics and modernity for its viewers. It covers themes such as crime and punishment, family and individuality, vigilante and community, and shows how these capture the diffuse aspirations of an evolving nation. It reveals the cinema’s social impact across decades that saw the decline of studios, the rise of the multi-star genre, and the arrival of corporate capital and new media platforms. It includes studies of iconic and less familiar films, including Awara (1951), Ab Dilli Dur Nahin (1957), Deewaar (1975), Sholay (1975), Dil Se (1998), A Wednesday (2008), and 3 Idiots (2009). Overall it conveys the pleasures and politics of Bollywood blockbusters.