Under the Shadow of the Bollywood Tree: web-exclusive package
Bollywood! The term itself is contentious. Does it denote a certain type of film made in India? Or only those made in Mumbai? Only Hindi films made in Mumbai? Or all Hindi films from other places as well? While for a non-Southasian audience the term 'Bollywood' has come to encapsulate or at least represent movies made in India, within Southasia it is often used to represent the entire oeuvre of Hindi films. Yet there is something distinctly 'Bollywood' about a certain kind of movie that is difficult to distil on paper though recognisable when one encounters it, whether in Tashkent or Johannesburg, Kathmandu, Kolkata or Kabul.
In Himal's fourth quarterly issue 'Under the Shadow of the Bollywood Tree', we use the term 'Bollywood' consciously, suggesting that it may even be time to introduce it as an adjective or verb in the Southasian lexicon. Indeed, Southasians know exactly what is meant when movie-goers emerge from a cinema hall, claiming that "it was too Bollywood!" In this, the centennial year of Bollywood, Himal thought it appropriate to look at, beyond, under and around it.