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CENSORIUM: Cinema and the Open Edge of Mass Publicity. By William Mazzarella. Durham; London: Duke University Press, 2013. ix, 284 pp. US$24.95, paper. ISBN 978-0-8223-05388-1.
The book under review is die result of painstaking field and archival research and reflects the autiior's extraordinary versatility as a scholar. Drawing on work done in die field of censorship by botii Indian and Western scholars and on interviews witii people who have long-standing associations with Indian cinema and related fields, Mazzarella undertakes an analysis of Indian film censorship across colonial and postcolonial periods. Exploring continuities and discontinuities across diese periods, die autiior claims "not to assume die insincerity of die censors' discourse," but radier takes it "seriously" (21), tiiereby moving it beyond "an entirely cynical discourse" (20). In die process, Mazzarella grapples with issues tiiat have a direct bearing on our political culture and the processes of legitimation. The insights that we gain from die analysis done by Mazzarella can be applied to deepen our understanding of various issues that beset our political process and have baffled the analysts of Indian democracy, botii native and foreign.
Nevertheless, die language of Censoriumisjargonistic and die arguments are intricate. An Orientalist witii littie grounding in Western philosophical thinking may not find it easy reading. Being a foreigner, Mazzarella is easily able to look at the discourse of censorship from a distance and witii a degree of critical detachment tiiat is required for its proper understanding; however, die same strength could become...