Cinema of Interruptions: Action Genres in Contemporary Indian Cinema

The book proposes an ambitious new framework for understanding the distinctiveness of Indian cinema within a global context dominated by Hollywood. With its sudden explosions into song-and-dance sequences, half-time intermissions, and heavy traces of censorship, Indian cinema can be seen as a "cinema of interruptions." To the uninitiated viewer, brought up on the seamless linear plotting of Hollywood narrative, this unfamiliar tendency toward digression may appear random and superfluous. Yet this book argues that in the hands of imaginative directors, the conventions of Indian cinema become opportunities for narrative play and personal expression in such films as "Sholay "(1975), "Nayakan "(1987), "Parinda "(1989), "Hathyar "(1981), and "Hey Ram! "(1999).
Central to this study is the relationship Indian cinema shares with its audience, and an understanding of the pleasures it offers the cinephile. In articulating this bond, Gopalan presents a fresh framework for understanding popular Indian cinema and an important new contribution to film genre studies.