From jazz music to “yatra”, from “masala” Hindi movies to roadside plays—popular culture is being enthusiastically subsumed in the academic arena. Hindi movies looked down upon as “low art”, have been kept at bay by serious academicians. Of late, however, the socio-political import of these films has been recognized. In fact, popular cinema deserves to be canonized, for it provides us with a historical discourse of the people and for the people, notwithstanding whatever mode it resorts to.  

In India, in particular, Hindi movies that cater to diverse audiences belonging to different parts of the country with remarkably and astonishingly different cultures play a primary role in constructing the idea of the nation. This construction is specifically important in a country that is so awesomely variegated in terms of traditions and cultures. That Jyotika Virdi’s book is focussed on this issue is evident from the main title itself. A nation is an imaginary construct and how Hindi cinema is significantly instrumental in creating an India in the collective imagination of its people is beautifully expressed in the word “ImagiNation” that recalls the wit of Jacques Derrida.

Though structured as a thesis, the book would appeal to a lay reader. In the very first paragraph of the book, Virdi clearly charts out her argument: “Hindi cinema’s own agenda—imagining a unified nation—is the organizing principle of my project. In Hindi films the image of the nation as a mythical community—a family—collapses under the weight of its own contradictions. Gender, heterosexuality, class, and religious communities crosshatch the nation, and each of these disrupts the nationalist narration in Hindi cinema to reveal a different history.” (Italics mine) Recorded history is monopolized by the ruling political party, and therefore, it goes without saying, is mostly fallacious. Yet artistic representation of history (in this case Hindi films) is also politicized to a considerable extent, thanks to a state-regulated censor board. Under such circumstances, nationalist history as narrated by Bollywood while remaining cautious of the censor-board chopper also reveals the truth. Therefore, there are several contradictions in the narratives produced; these contradictions are indeed important, and need to be addressed for these uncover the real social history. Virdi’s book by addressing these gaps and contradictions, deconstructs eminent films like Upkaar, Aradhana, Insaaf, Seeta Aur Geeta, Sangam, Qayamat Se Qayamatak, Hum Apke Hain Koun, Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, only to name a few. Her analysis covers five decades of Hindi cinema, and is appreciatively not dated. For, she makes a praiseworthy attempt in the first chapter of the book to summarize in painstaking details the theories of nation and nationalism as they have evolved over the decades. In fact, lay readers unaware of the theories of nationalism as propounded by Benedict Anderson, David Lloyd or Aijaz Ahmed, need not really read up these theorists in the original to comprehend Virdi’s argument. For, she orients her readers into the concept of the nation and its associated theories at the very outset. By placing Hindi cinema in the context of such theories, she at once catches the attention of the readers.

Moving from one chapter to the other is like moving forward down the lanes of history, with milestones of box-office hits acting as signboards of direction. Since Indians quite naturally connect to Hindi cinema, Virdi’s analysis of the same becomes a thorough education in social history. India’s social transformation, from Manoj Kumar’s Purab Aur Paschim to Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, the two films separated by a good 27 years, is beautifully chronicled. While Kumar’s film poses a formidable resistance to the West, Chopra’s film addressing the Indian diasporic community in London focuses on the appropriation of the West in the traditional Indian culture. The choice of both these films is significant; for, both are constructed on similar arguments. While the resistance towards the West seems to have diluted to some extent in the Chopra film, Purab Aur Paschim is seriously concerned about the contamination of Indian culture under the demonic influence of the West. The acceptance of the West through the filters of Indian tradition has become a necessity post-1990, when globalization of Indian economy began “officially”. Purab Aur Paschim still basking in the glory of Independence, on the other hand, glorifies in the triumph of the religious, morally upright East over the licentious and immoral West. The discussions are so profound and so well substantiated by theoretical inputs that they effortlessly orient the reader to see beneath the surface and derive for himself the symbolic import of a mustard field with an NRI hero and a Punjabi heroine romancing to the tunes of “Tujhe dekha to yeh jana sanam” or the awful blonde wig that somewhat distorts the Indian look of Saira Banu!

Again, while connecting the construction of the idealized woman with prevalent national cultures, Virdi reads the genre of the Romance as it appears in almost all the five decades. The study turns out to be highly interesting for while romance in the films of the Nehruvian era was a mere subplot, in the 1990s, it became the dominant theme in all the major box-office hits: “The romance films were conditioned by a new factor: economic liberalization.” Virdi explains the “why” behind every kind of film that has been widely accepted. However, an important genre, namely the gangster movies, that got a realistic makeover in the hands of Ram Gopal Varma in the late 90’s does not feature in the book. Apart from this drawback (I am not sure whether I can call it a “drawback” at all) the book hardly has any negatives to be complained about. Basing her argument on critical theories about the nation and socio-economic theories that apparently seem difficult to the lay-reader, Virdi makes Hindi cinema appear more meaningful, and breaks the ice between incomprehensible theories and the matinee show audience. 

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