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RR 2004/39 Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema Editorial Board, Gulzar, Govind Nihalani and Saibal Chatterjee Encyclopaedia Britannica (India) New Delhi 2003 xx + 659 pp. ISBN 81 7991 066 0 £49.99
Keywords Cinema, India
Review DOI 10.1108/09504120410513393
The cinema has proved to be one of the major twentieth century cultural success stories. How many millions of people across all continents and nations have merged from their local cinemas, imagining that they were as cool as Humphrey Bogart, as smooth and silky as Ava Gardner, as tough as Steve McQueen or as honest as James Stewart? But it is not only US films that have had this effect on the imaginations of filmgoers. France, Italy and Japan have all had very successful film-makers who have made significant impact on world culture as well as their own. The Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema tells the reader that the Lumiere brothers showed moving pictures at the Watson's hotel in Bombay (Mumbai) as early as July 1896 and that "even as 200 spellbound persons watched The Arrival of a Train and applauded the new marvel, a few enterprising Indians were already weaving their celluloid dreams". However, despite the huge cultural and commercial success of Indian cinema over the past 50 years or so, surprisingly little has been written about it. Nevertheless, as the word "Hollywood" has become a peg on which journalists and...