Book conversations: Bollywood A History

This book by Bose is to Hindi cinema what Corner of a Foreign Field by Ramachandra Guha is to Indian cricket.  Truly educational.  If you are a Hindi film buff, then this would be an indispensable guide to the film industry, its history, and its key players over the years.  

Notice how I am using the phrase, 'Hindi films' and not 'Bollywood' as used by the author, because I dislike that term.  It makes our films sound like a poor country cousin of Hollywood films.  Apparently, it was coined by a person who had nothing better to do, taking a cue from 'Tollywood', the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge.  Since the term is so widely used, it is difficult now to change it to anything else.  Still, since Bombay is now Mumbai, shouldn't it really be Mollywood?

Coming back to the book, Bose takes a measured approach to what is essentially a mammoth task of deciphering the history of the film industry, given the difficulty in getting accurate information about the films and their makers.  He starts off with the earliest part; the time when there was neither colour nor sound in our films, having been brought into the country by the pioneering European inventors.  

Despite challenges; such as lack of infrastructure or technology, lack of support from government or society, the travails of those who took the pains to improve the medium is well enumerated.  

We learn about the making of, and inside stories of some of the iconic films at each stage of film development; Alam Ara, Awara, Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay and Lagaan.  We get to know about the men behind these efforts; the early Parsi contingent, Dadasaheb Phalke, V Shantaram, K Asif, Mehboob Khan, the Chopras, Prakash Mehra, Manmohan Desai, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Rakesh Roshan and Karan Johar.  

At the same time, we also learn about the major stars, starting from the very first superstar; K L Saigal, to the next one, Ashok Kumar, on to Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, and the three Khans.  

Bose then introduces us to the other characters of film world, the musicians, comedians and singers.  As expected Lata Mangeshkar's story is given prominence.  The part about Kishore Kumar's eccentricity evokes mirth.

In keeping with the male dominated status of the film industry, which is acknowledged even by Kareena Kapoor when Bose goes to interview her in her 'vanity van', the heroines hardly get a mention.  They only figure in the affairs that the men indulge in, as in, Dilip Kumar-Madhubala, Raj Kapoor-Nargis, Dev Anand-Suraiya, Guru Dutt-Waheeda Rehman, Dharmendra-Jeetendra-Sanjeev Kumar-Hema Malini, and Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya Bhaduri-Parveen Babi-Rekha.  There is hardly any information about Sridevi or Madhuri Dixit - a sacrifice that was probably essential due to Bose's task of doing justice to such a gargantuan topic.

There are some hilarious moments from the above stories, but Bose also combines them with the social and political events of the time; particularly the Emergency and its effect on cinema, as well as the views of prominent film makers such as Shyam Benegal.  But if you are perceptive, you can glean a streak of mental illness in some of the stories; Guru Dutt: depression and/or suicide, Parveen Babi: schizophrenia, and Kishore Kumar: mania/bipolar disorder. 

There are also a number of flaws; spelling errors - especially of the film names, a few grammatical errors (probably an oversight), and one factual error: Kunal Kapoor who has acted in Rang De Basanti is said to be Shashi Kapoor's son (Shashi Kapoor does have a son of that name, but the one in this film is his namesake from a modelling background).

On the whole this is a light, racy read; very interesting if you are a film fan.  

If you have time, you can even read it without an interval!

Image source: https://www.mihirbose.com/index.php/books/history-and-biography/bollywood-a-history/