Understanding Indian Movies: Culture, Cognition, and Cinematic Imagination (Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Culture Series)

308 Pages·2008·6.64 MB·English

by  Patrick Colm Hogan

Understanding Indian Movies
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Culture Series
Edited by Frederick Luis Aldama, Arturo J. Aldama,
and Patrick Colm Hogan
Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Culture includes monographs
and edited volumes that incorporate cutting edge research in cognitive
science, neuroscience, psychology, linguistics, narrative theory, and
related fields, insofar as this research bears on and illuminates cultural
phenomena such as literature, film, drama, music, dance, visual art,
digital media, and comics, among others.
The volumes published in this series represent both specialized
scholarship and interdisciplinary investigation that are deeply sensitive
to cultural particularities, but as grounded in an understanding of
cross-culturally shared emotive and cognitive principles.
Understanding
Indian Movies
Culture, Cognition, and
Cinematic Imagination
patrick colm hogan
University of Texas Press
Austin
Copyright © 2008 by the University of Texas Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First edition, 2008
Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to:
Permissions
University of Texas Press
P.O. Box 7819
Austin, TX 78713-7819
www.utexas.edu/utpress/about/bpermission.html
♾ The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso Z39.48-
1992 (r1997) (Permanence of Paper).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hogan, Patrick Colm.
Understanding Indian movies : culture, cognition, and cinematic imagination /
Patrick Colm Hogan. — 1st ed.
p. cm. — (Cognitive approaches to literature and culture series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-71786-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Motion pictures—India. I. Title. II. Series.
pn1993.5.i8h64 2008
791.430954—dc22
2007042909
For Grinder (Hogie) and Tina
Vanu and Lovely
Api and Lily
THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction Indian Movies and the People Who Love Them:
Universality and Cultural Particularity in the
Cinema 1
Chapter One From Mythical Romances to Historical Sacrifices:
Universal Stories in South Asia (Ardhangini, Baaz,
and The Terrorist) 14
Chapter Two The Film and the World: Global Themes, Local
Movies (Nishānt and Sholay) 72
Chapter Three Once More, with Feeling: Human Emotions and
Cultural Imagination (Mother India, Bandit
Queen, and Shree 420) 100
Chapter Four “So, What’s the Deal with All the Singing?”:
The Cognitive Universality of the Hindi Musical
(Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham . . .) 160
Chapter Five Seeing Indian Style: The Brain and Its Visual
Culture (Umrao Jaan and Fire) 194
Afterword On Watching Indian Movies 250
Notes 259
Bibliography 265
Index 281