Content area
Full Text
Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema, rev. ed. By Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Pub., 1999. 658p. $75 (ISBN 1-57958-1463). www.fitzroydearborn.com.
According to the National Film Development Corporation, Ltd. Web site (www.nfdcindia.com/ cinema-history.html), India makes about eight hundred feature films per year and is one of the largest film-- producing countries in the world. Yet internationally, few people may be familiar with Indian cinema. However, Oscar watchers might remember that in 1991 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded legendary Indian film director Satyajit Ray an honorary Oscar For his prolific filmmaking career (a month before his death).
The first edition of Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (Oxford University Press, 1994) by film scholars Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen contained spelling and date errors and did not present much information on recent films. In their New Revised Edition however, the authors have attempted to correct the errors and have expanded coverage to include details about films from the 1970s to the 1990s. They admit in the explanatory notes that some biographical and...