It has been a universal tendency of market forms to assimilate styles, techniques and themes of the minority alternative films. This has led to a diversifi cation of the modes of film-making in India, sometimes with very interesting results, and certainly, to significant technical and stylistic achievements. This article, which draws attention to the refashioning of the conventional cinema in the aftermath of the demise of the parallel-mainstream division in India, focuses on two questions. Does the idea of the "popular cinema" itself survive the end of the "great divide"? Can it really assimilate the political charge of the oppositional cinema?
