Articles by M K Raghavendra

Picture Abhi Baaki Hai: Bollywood as a Guide to Modern India by Rachel Dwyer, Gurgaon: Hachette India, 2014; pp 304, Rs 499.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Delhi Belly are perhaps among the first Indian films to propose that communities can be created entirely through a sharing of lifestyles without the need for productive transactions - because they are about people who simply "hang out" together.

Notwithstanding the authentic picture of rural India depicted in Peepli Live, the film is clear that its rural protagonists and its Anglophone audience belong to completely different worlds. Though rich in satirical detail, the film is "humanist" rather than political, in that it is both non-committal and deceptive in its approach to rural indebtedness and in its treatment of the media. Peepli delivers the subliminal message that little can be done about rural indebtedness because its economic/political causes cannot be identified.

The Mumbai film factory has transformed itself from an escapist to a more insidious entity, and the State now conspicuously approves of its "messages". The film 3 Idiots proposes that children of household employees can become inventors without being able to imagine the journey from their origins. It thereby imagines higher education without considering the level of primary education made available to children of such a class. This mirrors the disproportionate attention given to higher education by the government, which regards the public increasingly as a clientele, segments of which can be served "viably".