An engaging account of the history and influence of Muslim cultures on Bombay cinema.
Following Marshal Hodgson, the term “Islamicate” is used to distinguish the cultural forms associated with Islam from the religion itself. The term is especially useful in South Asia where Muslim cultures have commingled with other local cultures over a millennium to form a rich vein of syncretic aesthetic expression. Comprised of fourteen essays written by major scholars, this collection presents an engaging account of the history and influence of cultural Islam on Bombay cinema. The book charts the roots of South Asian Muslim cultures and the precursors of Bombay cinema’s Islamicate idioms in the Urdu Parsi Theatre; the courtesan cultures of Lucknow; the literary, musical, and performance traditions of north India; the traditions of miniature painting; and various modes of Perso-Arabic story-telling. Published at a time of acute crisis in the perception and understanding of Islam, this book demonstrates how Muslim and Hindu cultures in India are inextricably entwined.
Introduction: Bombay cinema’s Islamicate histories – Richard Allen & Ira Bhaskar Part One: Islamicate Histories Passionate refrains: The theatricality of Urdu on the Parsi stage Kathryn Hansen The Persian Masnavī tradition and Bombay cinema Sunil Sharma Reflections from Padminī’s Palace: Women’s voices of longing and lament in the Sufi romance and Shiʿi elegy Peter Knapczyk Situating the Ṭawāʼif : Nostalgia, Urdu literary cultures and vernacular modernity Shweta Sachdeva Jha Mughal chronicles: Words, images, and the gaps between them Kavita Singh Justice, love and the creative imagination in Mughal India Najaf Haider The ‘Muslim presence’ in Padmaavat Hilal Ahmed Part Two: Cinematic Forms Ali Baba’s open sesame: Unravelling the Islamicate in Oriental fantasy films Rosie Thomas The textual, musical and sonic journey of the Ghazal in Bombay cinema Shikha Jhingan The Sufi sacred, the Qawwali and the songs of Bombay cinema Ira Bhaskar Avoiding Urdu and the Ṭawāʼif: Re-gendering Kathak dance in Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje Philip Lutgendorf The poetics of Pardā Richard Allen Transfigurations of the star body: Salman Khan and the spectral Muslim Shohini Ghosh Terrorism, conspiracy and surveillance in Bombay’s urban cinema Ranjani Mazumdar
Richard Allen is chair professor of film and media art and dean of the School of Creative Media at City University Hong Kong Ira Bhaskar is professor of cinema studies at the School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
Reviews for Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories
'This collection elaborates carefully the waxing and waning of attachment to and detachment from the Islamicate at personal and political levels through the affective register of the cinema. There is no comparable volume that dives so thoroughly into the history, theory and analysis of such a wide array of Islam-derived themes in Bombay cinema's history, from its inception to the present. A tour de force in both range and scope. Bombay Cinema's Islamicate Histories is unfailingly rigorous, lively and groundbreaking.' -- Anupama Prabhala Kapse, Loyola Marymount University
