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[Sara Legath]

Sincethe 1920s, India has had a flourishing movie industry, and for at least two decades, India has produced more studio films than the United States. By the 1930s, there had emerged two fairly distinct types of Indian films: Bollywood films and art house films. Bollywood and Hollywood are the epicenters of Indian and American filmmaking, respectively. Both Hollywood and Bollywood are unabashed moneymakers, but Bollywood is heavy on romance, song, and dance, all intended to leave the audience in a good mood. In contrast, art house films have long targeted a much smaller and sophisticated audience that prefers movies that challenge their intellect rather than their emotions. From roughly 1955 until 1992, the great Indian director Satyajit Ray made many outstanding art house films about India, including his masterpiece Pather Panchali (1955). Occasionally, Bollywood produces a film that captures the essence of India at a particular time in history. The classic Sholay (1975) is a case in point.

The list is far from complete, and teachers should share with each other which Indian films they use and how. I rarely show any of these films in their entirety, given how long they are. Instead, I show one or two excerpts, perhaps ten to fifteen minutes each, that reflect important historical attitudes and perspectives, and allow for constructive discussion. Many of my students become so intrigued by the films that they go on to watch the films in their entirety. Most Indian films are easily available with English subtitles as DVDs or through subscription-based online streaming services such as Netflix. Many free streaming services such as YouTube may have clips of an Indian film (sometimes the entire film is available), but often films do not have English subtitles and are thus less useful.

Directed by the legendary Satyajit Ray, this art house film is a fairly slow but interesting take on Mughal society on the eve of the 1857 Revolt. The plot follows two well-to-do Indian Muslim men who are oblivious to the drama unfolding around them. Their obsession for the game of chess is a metaphor for the British machinations against the unsuspecting Mughals. I show the first thirty or forty minutes, which is quite good history and includes an appearance by Richard Attenborough, the director of Gandhi, as a conniving British East India Company official.

Although technically not an Indian movie, this excellent biopic was filmed in India, includes many excellent Indian actors, and was a labor of love by the director, Richard Attenborough, who spent many years in India. In other words, it is as good a film about India made for a Western audience as one might find. Winner of eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, the film is a spectacular epic about the role of Mahatma Gandhi in the Indian independence movement. Overall, its history is quite good, though it spends too much time on some episodes and eras while virtually ignoring others. Critics also complain that it is more hagiography than history. Yet I show most of the film (skipping some parts) over eighty to ninety minutes of class time. Some editions of the DVD come with a bonus disc that includes classic newsreel footage of Gandhi (some of which can also be found on YouTube).

The film is about the tortured relationship between an elderly Akbar and his son and successor, Jahangir. Although it is considered a Bollywood classic, the sets and the acting have not held up well, and I would not show very much of this except for a few scenes. It is more interesting as a representation of Indian nationalism in postindependence India.

Although this is not a Hindi film since the dialogue is in English and the film is a Canadian, British, and South African production, it remains a very good depiction of the terrible events of Partition and is very accessible to American students. The plot centers on a young Muslim woman who finds herself protected from marauding mobs by a young Sikh man who has lost his own family.

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, this is a very slow, depressing, and yet also absorbing art house movie about slum children in Bombay (Mumbai) in the 1980s. It serves as an excellent contrast to Slumdog Millionaire; while Slumdog Millionaire is ultimately optimistic and shows many of the positive effects of modernization in India today, Salaam Bombay! presents an India desperately poor and hopelessly stagnant. Although the film is not about a particular historical event or figure, it is a powerful portrayal of India on the eve of the reform era. This is the only film that I show in its entirety, and my students always express appreciation for having seen it, once they have wiped away their tears.

Most of the films on this list deal with the clash of tradition and modernity, usually through the prism of generational or gender divisions and usually in the context of marriage or family relationships. Unlike films on Indian history, these films are best viewed in their entirety, which, of course, raises the question of how to make the time available. One option is to have each student watch one of them and present a summary to the rest of the class. At the very least, teachers would benefit from watching these films.

This is the first of two blockbuster musical comedies about a goonda (Hindi for gangster) who despite his illegitimate business activities apparently has a heart of gold. In this film, he tries to convince his parents who are visiting from their village that he is a successful doctor. The film is a fun and amusing look at India today and the near-obsessive desire of Indian parents to have theirchildren become doctors or engineers. The film is also interesting in that the lead actor was recently convicted and imprisoned briefly for his role in the Mumbai bombings of 1993. Some believe that this film series was backed in part by the Mumbai mafia.

THOMAS LAMONT teaches Indian History, Chinese History, World History, and International Relations at the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts, where he also serves as Chair of the History Department.

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