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Bollywood: A History
The first comprehensive history of India's film industry, one that now rivals Hollywood. Hollywood may define our idea of movies but it is the city of Bombay on the west coast of India that is now the center of world cinema. Every year the Indian film industry produces more than a 1,000 feature films, every day fourteen million Indians go to a movie and, a billion more people a year buy tickets for Indian movies than for Hollywood ones. The rise of Bombay as the film capital of the world has been remarkable. Bollywood takes the cinematic tech-niques of Hollywood and uses them to produce movies that bear no relation to the original, but have a compelling appeal, that, in the last half a century, has enthralled audiences throughout eastern Europe, the Middle East and north Africa. The movies themselves are a self contained world with their multiple song and dance routines, intense melodrama, a plot that contains everything from farce to tragedy, but always produces a happy ending. The men and women who create these movies are even more remarkable and it is this fantastic, rich, diverse story, a veritable Indian fairyland that Mihir Bose, a native of Bombay, tells with vivid brilliance, in the first comprehensive history of this major social and cultural phenomenon. Bollywood movies may only recently have begun to be noticed in the west, but they have long defined the very concept of cinema for many millions across the globe. While the name Bollywood echoes and acknowledges its bastard American parentage the son has long since taken over from the father
320 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2007
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193 people want to read
About the author
Mihir Bose
50 books17 followersAbout Mihir Bose
Award-winning journalist and author Mihir Bose writes and broadcasts on social and historical issues and sport for outlets including the BBC, the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard and Irish Times.
He has written more than fifty books on sport, including football and cricket, and history, such as Bollywood, India and the extraordinary WW2 quintuple agent Silver. The subjects of his many biographies include Michael Grade, Moeen Ali and the Indian nationalist Subhas Bose (no relation).
Mihir was the BBC’s first sports editor and first non-white editor. He was chief sports news correspondent at the Daily Telegraph and worked for the Sunday Times for 20 years.
His honorary doctorate from Loughborough University was awarded for his outstanding contribution to journalism and the promotion of equality. Mihir is a member of the English Heritage Blue Plaques Panel and former chairman of the Reform Club. He and his wife Caroline live in London. He has a daughter, Indira.
Award-winning journalist and author Mihir Bose writes and broadcasts on social and historical issues and sport for outlets including the BBC, the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard and Irish Times.
He has written more than fifty books on sport, including football and cricket, and history, such as Bollywood, India and the extraordinary WW2 quintuple agent Silver. The subjects of his many biographies include Michael Grade, Moeen Ali and the Indian nationalist Subhas Bose (no relation).
Mihir was the BBC’s first sports editor and first non-white editor. He was chief sports news correspondent at the Daily Telegraph and worked for the Sunday Times for 20 years.
His honorary doctorate from Loughborough University was awarded for his outstanding contribution to journalism and the promotion of equality. Mihir is a member of the English Heritage Blue Plaques Panel and former chairman of the Reform Club. He and his wife Caroline live in London. He has a daughter, Indira.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 14, 2017
An interesting but somewhat uneven history of Bollywood.
The view is clearly personal as it starts with a lengthy prologue about the author accompanying Pamela Bordes to produce a photo feature on Bollywood (for a British magazine) and ends with excerpts from interviews of directors and actors.
The book starts right from the beginning of Bollywood - the silent films, the visionary directors, the legends - and continues down the decades till 1970s in great detail and then jumps through the next two decades in one chapter and an afterword.
Also, it focuses a lot on the 1970s, devoting a full chapter to the making of Sholay. This, in itself, shouldn't have been a problem - except the chapter is merely a summary of Anupama Chopra's excellent book on the film.
Also, the detail kind of digresses depending on the material available to the author. For example, in the chapter on India's parallel cinema, we get a lengthy description of Shyam Benegal's Bose but many worthies of the movement are either left out or mentioned cursorily.
I quite enjoyed the story till the 1960s as the writing is engaging and follows the Indian tradition of sub-stories emerging out of the main story. The writing holds you till the very end but several factual errors started popping up from the 1970s. (This made me wonder if errors were there in the earlier chapters also and I noticed them only in the period I know a bit about.)
Overall, not a bad attempt but clearly written for the 'foreigner curious about India' market.
That would have been fine but the author tries to make his characters identifiable reference points, providing some unintended hilarity. (E.g. Subhash Ghai is called Bollywood's Oliver Stone, Madhuri Dixit is our Meryl Streep and Dimple a cross between Barabara Streisand and Bette Midler! Oh, also Mother India is India's Citizen Kane.)
The view is clearly personal as it starts with a lengthy prologue about the author accompanying Pamela Bordes to produce a photo feature on Bollywood (for a British magazine) and ends with excerpts from interviews of directors and actors.
The book starts right from the beginning of Bollywood - the silent films, the visionary directors, the legends - and continues down the decades till 1970s in great detail and then jumps through the next two decades in one chapter and an afterword.
Also, it focuses a lot on the 1970s, devoting a full chapter to the making of Sholay. This, in itself, shouldn't have been a problem - except the chapter is merely a summary of Anupama Chopra's excellent book on the film.
Also, the detail kind of digresses depending on the material available to the author. For example, in the chapter on India's parallel cinema, we get a lengthy description of Shyam Benegal's Bose but many worthies of the movement are either left out or mentioned cursorily.
I quite enjoyed the story till the 1960s as the writing is engaging and follows the Indian tradition of sub-stories emerging out of the main story. The writing holds you till the very end but several factual errors started popping up from the 1970s. (This made me wonder if errors were there in the earlier chapters also and I noticed them only in the period I know a bit about.)
Overall, not a bad attempt but clearly written for the 'foreigner curious about India' market.
That would have been fine but the author tries to make his characters identifiable reference points, providing some unintended hilarity. (E.g. Subhash Ghai is called Bollywood's Oliver Stone, Madhuri Dixit is our Meryl Streep and Dimple a cross between Barabara Streisand and Bette Midler! Oh, also Mother India is India's Citizen Kane.)
July 27, 2014
Though it had some good attributes, this book was very disappointing. The author is clearly biased towards and against certain Bollywood actors and actresses, and it comes through in his writing. Honestly, this book isn't worth reading if one is truly interested in the story of Bollywood without having to look through the tinted glasses of the Non-Resident Indian.
November 23, 2012
This could have been a very good book , if it was a bit more planned and edited well.
The book would start off very well giving enough of a gist of Indian Cinema's evolution , but it goes down of It's previous pace as it advances .
Somewhere down the middle of the book , you feel the author has left the main idea of the book and is talking about some other idea .
But , having said all this , talking up a subject matter like 'History of Bollywood' and bundling it up in a book was a challenge. A pretty hard challenge as of that . I do feel , Mihir Bose does a good job on the whole , if not great .
The book would start off very well giving enough of a gist of Indian Cinema's evolution , but it goes down of It's previous pace as it advances .
Somewhere down the middle of the book , you feel the author has left the main idea of the book and is talking about some other idea .
But , having said all this , talking up a subject matter like 'History of Bollywood' and bundling it up in a book was a challenge. A pretty hard challenge as of that . I do feel , Mihir Bose does a good job on the whole , if not great .
April 9, 2008
This one not so great. I adore old Indian movies, so I was really excited about "Bollywood: A History"; however, it seemed sort of slapped together at the last minute, with many chapters starting off with one topic and then veering off wildly halfway through and a veritable carnival of typos. Interesting subject matter, though, if you can manage a bit of editorial chaos.
May 17, 2012
Great subject! Badly researched and even badly edited. Super raw material gone waste. Absolutely amateurish!
December 22, 2021
A fascinating journey across the bollywood. Great research fantastic narration. I did see an error Prem Adib, despite a rather Muslim name was a Hindu, and a brother-in-law of Delhi's Chief Minister Sheila Kaul. The book otherwise reads itself like a bollywood film.
June 3, 2012
Remarkable & well written! A must read for folks interested in the evolution of Indian Cinema down the ages from the advent- via Lahore-Kolkata-Chennai-Karachi studios to post partition Mumbai!
June 12, 2013
This book alone got me past the Ftii direction entrance :D. woohoo Mihir Bose .
January 31, 2015
Great read..
August 5, 2014
Took me about 6 months to read it because of way too many facts, names, films, eras. But overall, superb read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews