Instructor: Abir Bazaz, Middle East/South Asia Program, College of Letters and Science
Description: This course is designed to provide an introduction to the history of Hindi cinema. The seminar will trace the growth of India’s national cinema industry from its beginnings in 1896 to its current globalization. The seminar will situate the work of major Indian directors (and Bollywood film genres) in its relationship to Indian literary and religious cultures. We will in particular pay special attention to the golden age of Indian cinema (1938-1960) and the work of major directors like Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and Mehboob Khan. The seminar will also focus on the centrality of the Urdu lyric to Bollywood film and its impact on the work of directors as diverse as Guru Dutt, Yash Chopra and Karan Johar. The students are expected to not only gain an understanding of the history of Indian cinema but also be able to recognize how the global Indian diaspora has transformed Indian film.
Format: The seminar will meet once on Monday from 5:40-7:00 PM and for a film screening on Thursday 7:10-10:00 PM. Every week we will discuss one relevant reading in class from the Course packet. Students will write one-page response papers integrating the readings discussed in class with their own reflections on the weekly film screening. Grading: Students will get a letter grade on the quality of their one-page response papers (50%) and their participation in class discussion (50%). The class discussion will also be used to assess the students’ understanding of topics and issues in Indian film history which will contribute towards their final grade.
About the Instructor: Abir Bazaz is a Lecturer of Hindi /Urdu at UC Davis in the Middle East/South Asia Program. He is also a documentary filmmaker and has produced and directed three documentary films. His film Paradise on a River of Hell (2002) was chosen for a special screening in a Conference to honour film theorist, Laura Mulvey (“Film Theory between Indexicality and Virtuality”) at the Leeds University, UK, and also opened a three-day peace conference on Kashmir at Swarthmore College, Philadelphia. He is also a poet and has published one collection of poems, Deserts of Desolation (1993). Abir’s research on cinema focuses on the influence of Urdu and Hindi literary cultures on Indian cinema. He has an MA in Mass Communication from Jamia Millia University, New Delhi, and an MA in Humanities (Cinema Studies) from the University of Chicago. He is also the recipient of many awards and fellowships which include the Inlaks Fellowship (2005-06), BBC Fellowship (1998-2000) and the Agha Shahid Ali Award for Excellence in Arts (2003). A native of Kashmir, Abir has lived and worked in Srinagar, New Delhi and Chicago. He has also written on the conflict in Kashmir and participated in many Conferences and panel discussions on the subject. Abir also writes on Indian cinema for the BBC’s Urdu website, www.bbc.co.uk