Art History 290BC - Bollywood Cinema

Indian popular cinema, known as Bollywood, is commonly criticized for meandering storylines, overblown spectacles, and distracting dance numbers. But we will take popular cinema seriously, and explore it as both, a vibrant cultural form in India as well as intelligent filmmaking that entertains and challenges us. We will analyze a selection of films as what scholar Lalitha Gopalan calls a constellation of interruptions. Closely reading scholarly articles, participating in debates, writing guided assignments as well as independent research papers, we will learn to develop provocative ideas on Indian films in the context of world cinema.