Wanted Cultured Ladies Only: Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s-1950s - Hardcover

Neepa Majumdar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198066430 ISBN 13: 9780198066439

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2010

Synopsis

The book discusses the culture of stardom in Indian cinema from its emergence in the silent era to the decade after India gained independence. While commenting on issues of spectatorship, gossip, and popularity of starts, the book also analyses the impact of start monopoly on textual and performance conventions.

About this title

Book Description:

Wanted Cultured Ladies Only! maps out the early culture of cinema stardom in India from its emergence in the silent era to the decade after Indian independence in the mid-twentieth century. Neepa Majumdar combines readings of specific films and stars with an analysis of the historical and cultural configurations that gave rise to distinctly Indian notions of celebrity. She argues that discussions of early cinematic stardom in India must be placed in the context of the general legitimizing discourse of colonial "improvement" that marked other civic and cultural spheres as well, and that "vernacular modernist" anxieties over the New Woman had limited resonance here. Rather, it was through emphatically nationalist discourses that Indian cinema found its model for modern female identities.

Considering questions of spectatorship, gossip, popularity, and the dominance of a star-based production system, Majumdar details the rise of film stars such as Sulochana, Fearless Nadia, Lata Mangeshkar, and Nargis.

About the Author:

Neepa Majumdar is an associate professor of English and film at the University of Pittsburgh.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0198066430
• ISBN 13: 9780198066439
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 258