In this auratic ecology of a new India-in-the-world, tradition can be seen to be bolstered with technology, while technology can be seen to be claimed by unique Indian spirit and absolved of its otherwise profane status. They develop a novel exhilarated syntax for the times – a new plane of language – by which signatures of an erstwhile alienating horizon of techno-scientific development can be advertised or informatized without obligation to contending grand narratives like that of tradition or modernity. These new films deal with inscriptions of science and technology in a manner remarkably different from both, a cautious and calibrated Nehruvian humanism of the ‘third way’ and a Gandhian anti-modern agrarianism. In recent times, the entry of Hindi film in transnational markets has perhaps necessitated the upgrading or fresh minting of genres like the superhero film or the sci-fi film that were either low end or peripheral in Bombay cinema. This article provides a genealogical understanding of the tropes of ‘science’ and ‘technology’ as they currently operate within dominant melodramatic structures of ‘Bollywood’ cinema.
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