""Book Cover""; ""Title""; ""Copyright""; ""Contents""; ""Figures""; ""Acknowledgements""; ""Introduction""; ""The early years""; ""1 The idea of a �Bengali� cinema""; ""2 Bengal and a �national� cinema: New Theatres Ltd.""; ""3 The transition to a �regional� cinema""; ""4 Bengali love stories: Uttam�Suchitra and the golden era of Bengali cinema""; ""5 Common man�s comedy: The Bhanu factor""; ""6 Satyajit Ray and the Bengali cinema""; ""7 Changing context, new texts: Bengali cinema and another Bengaliness""; ""Epilogue""; ""Afterword""; ""Notes""; ""Bibliography""; ""Index""
Summary
Covering the years spanning cinema's emergence as a popular form in Bengal in the first half of the twentieth century, this book examines the main genres and trends produced by this cinema, and leads up to Bengali cinema's last phase of transition in the 1980s. Arguing that Bengali cinema has been a key economic and social institution, the author highlights that the Bengali filmic imaginary existed over and above the imaginary of the Indian nation
