HNAR-341: The Films of India

This course is a comprehensive meta-generic study of the world's largest producers of films, India. The purpose of study is to consider the development of world cinema as well as examine topics of colonialism to globalization facing the nation, its varying regions, the world and the individual. Topics include an examination of India's film history paralleling European cinema of the 20th ca. and its development of genres, and following up to today's hyper-production of the mirror Hollywood imaging Bollywood. Issues facing the individual, gender and the multi-culture within will be considered as the country was colonized, and then how the country moved away from that space into achieving their own identity. In addition, we will study the new challenges and conflicts the country faced over the decades after independence and how it continues to play a vast role in the globalizing world. Some of the filmmakers we will study include Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Mira Nair and Adoor Gopalakrishnan. In addition, the course will examine films of India's relationship to literature, art, and other cultural elements of India as it is explored in the variety of films selected. Along with lectures, the class will view and discuss a precise curation of India's films. Discussions, readings and research papers are organized to develop the student's interests in visual culture alongside their own developing visual production.