Reading Recommendations for the Bollywood Fanatic

[chrism]

I have nothing of my own to contribute here except to say that I'm finding this subject very interesting - so I second that, I'll read anything you all have to say about your reading and your reactions to (and interpretations of) it! Thanks to all you literate, inquiring minds! Bollywood just keeps getting more interesting all the time.

[chrism]

PS that sounded a bit feeble - I did recommend some books earlier, I thought, but maybe that was somewhere else - and meant to say, here, that I was just enjoying all the posts. Still... now that I'm thinking about books again here's a little list that covers a spectrum of interests.

I think I recommended before Anupama Chopra's books (King of Bollywood, and also the study of DDLJ). Then, Maximum City by Suketu Mehta, and Planet India, by Mira Kamdar, both about Bombay and today's India. And more recently I absolutely loved The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria, which has some wonderfully concise sections on India's history and current situation.

A couple of memoirs that I'd recommend: Daughter of the Ganges by Asha Miro (about an Indian orphan who's brought up by a Catalon couple, as a Spaniard, and goes back to Bombay to find her birth mother; fascinating story, and fascinating view through her eyes of Bombay); and Burnt Bread and Chutney: Growing Up Between Cultures - A Memoir of an Indian Jewish Girl by Carmit Delman (she's descended from one of the Jewish groups south of Bombay, and it's a very touching memoir of her rediscovery of her grandmother's life).

For some time I've been working my way through Love's Last Madness: Poems on a Spiritual Path, on the poetry of Darshan Singh; it's pithy going, but giving me a lot of insights into the metaphors and traditions of the Bollywood lyrics, believe it or not.

Some novels: I like the classic Indian novels in English (if you like Welcome to Sajjanpur, read RK Narayan and the others of his generation, including Raja Rao - Kanthapura, for example; wonderful stories of village life pre and post Independence). I also like the current generation of Indian and Desi writers; some of my favorites are Hullabaloo in the Guava Orchard by Kiran Desai; Sari of the Gods, beautiful short stories by G.S. Sharat Chandra; Amrt Chaudhuri's Freedom Song, about a boy who lives in Bombay and Calcutta).

[kmemphis]

Has anyone read A Good Indian Wife by Anne Cherian?

I like it a lot and will probably buy it once it comes out in paperback. (The library has it in hardback.)

It's about a couple who gets married through an arranged marriage, even though the groom doesn't really want to. (He has a girlfriend back home in San Francisco - an American one, no less.) It's also about more than that, but aren't they always?


Oh, they mention Bollywood a couple times.

And there is an awesome line from Leila (the wife) - paraphrasing - "There are over 100 languages in India and none of them are called Indian."

[Darshana]

Here's a great piece of news - just found out that Madhu Jain's terrific biography of the Kapoors , whose title is The Kapoors: the first family of Indian cinema, is coming out in paperback!!

I really recommend it as a good source about this family and about almost the whole span of Hindi cinema history.  There are whole chapters on each major figure - Prithviraj, Raj, Shammi Shashi, Rishi, the less-known males, and "les girls" (Kareena and Karisma).

Now the thing is finding copies - please post if you find any for sale anywhere, by mail or otherwise.  I think I got my hardback through the mail from India, right now I can't get access to my India shopping links.  There is a place with a name like "India arts" that has a good book list as well as other stuff.

PS - the new one is updated since the 2005 one.  Both are Penguin/Viking.

[Darshana]

PS looks to me as if you can order this here

http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/madhu-jain/kapoors-first-family-indian-cinema/9780143065890.html

[cissyboo]

Has anyone read A Good Indian Wife by Anne Cherian?

I like it a lot and will probably buy it once it comes out in paperback. (The library has it in hardback.)

It's about a couple who gets married through an arranged marriage, even though the groom doesn't really want to. (He has a girlfriend back home in San Francisco - an American one, no less.) It's also about more than that, but aren't they always?


Oh, they mention Bollywood a couple times.

And there is an awesome line from Leila (the wife) - paraphrasing - "There are over 100 languages in India and none of them are called Indian."

I've read this several times and enjoyed it.  It should be out in paperback the second week of June (according to Amazon).  It will be a trade paperback, though so around $15.00 to buy.

[Darshana]

More on Madhu Jain's book The Kapoors - for the new paperback edition she has added more about Kareena, and a chapter on Ranbir!!

[chrism]

Glad to have found this information here - there are some copies of the earlier edition online, at Amazon and aLibris at any rate, but I'd rather wait for the new edition with the additional material! Thanks   

[Darshana]

I think that if it's in paperback, it's the new one, I think this is the first paperback.  But check the date I guess.  Or wait to hear from me, I just ordered it without thinking of that. 

[chrism]

I think that if it's in paperback, it's the new one, I think this is the first paperback.  But check the date I guess.  Or wait to hear from me, I just ordered it without thinking of that. 

The only ones I found had a 2006 date, so I assumed they were the old edition and probably HB. I'll wait to hear from you, thanks!

[Darshana]

uh oh than that is what I've ordered.
 
I also found an India link for the right book.


http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/madhu-jain/kapoors-first-family-indian-cinema/9780143065890.html

[chrism]

uh oh than that is what I've ordered.
I also found an India link for the right book.
http://www.infibeam.com/Books/info/madhu-jain/kapoors-first-family-indian-cinema/9780143065890.html

Well then you can enjoy catching up on the updates later, and still enjoy the original book. Win-win! Just came across this review of the book by Jabberwock, which will keep me going for now. His review of Dev Anand's memoir, on the site too, is wonderful reading as well. Whoever on BWHAT put me on to Jabberwock - thank you a thousand times over. This blogger is an endless delight!
http://jaiarjun.blogspot.com/2005/12/kapoors-bollywoods-first-family.html

(modified to correct spelling)

[Darshana]

Don't know if it was me, but I also am crazy about Jabberwock, to a somewhat surprising degree he gets interested in and writes about thing that interest me, and I always like/respect what he has to say!!

I have the original hardcover of Madhu Jain's book, I ordered it from someplace - India, London, Canada - as soon as I heard about it! 

If somebody hunts around on the other Amazons and finds the new one, please post.  I think it's likely to have Kareena on the cover.  Publishing date has to be 2009 for it to be the new one.

[leaf]

Sepia Mutiny has a review up of Global Bollywood.
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/005807.html#more

[Darshana]

Ok - the book I got from Amazon is the right book, the new edition with Kareena on the cover.

[filmifan]

an AR Rahman biography is being released this week:


Rahman's biography releases on June 10

Penguin India on Friday said it will publish a biography on music composer AR Rahman titled AR Rahman: The Musical Storm on June 10.

This is the first authorised biography of Rahman to have been written by Chennai-based Kamini Mathai.

The book talks about the death of Rahman's father RK Sekhar when Rahman was nine; his efforts as a teenager to keep the family afloat by playing sessions, missing schools; his reasons for embracing Islam and turning to Sufism; his discovery by Mani Ratnam and his subsequent ascent to fame, Penguin said in a release.

Earlier this year, Rahman created history by becoming the first Indian musician to win an Oscar.

A R Rahman: The Musical Storm is priced at Rs 499.

[Vinita]

I just got a look at the galleys for Anupama Chopra's book about ShahRukh  King of Bollywood: Shah Rukh Khan and the Seductive World of Indian Cinema

and - I'm not going to be disappointed - I like her as a writer, and there is a lot of stuff in this book I haven't encountered before, about his family, history of his career, etc - she's clearly talked to lots of people.

Also I think it's going to be a good intro to Bollywood so am thinking about it as a gift for the friends who watch the occasional movie with me.  (As you probably know she writes for the NY Times and other places, and is married to VV Chopra of Mission Kashmir etc fame, so she's got the skill and the access.)

I heartily recommend this book, not only to SRK fans but to fans of Indian Cinema.  Although she has used events from SRK's life to organize her book, she does a through job of explaining the history and the industry of making movies.  I really enjoyed learning about the reason behind the success of Big B's Angry Young Man Persona and SRK's Rahul/Raj Persona.
I was still  in India in 1988 when QSQT was released.  I didn't realize it at that time, but there was a reason why that movie was a success.  I only knew that my mom let me watch it, when she usually didn't, unless she had seen it first. 
All in all, a book that will keep you entertained and will educate you at the same time.  I am buying a copy of my own since I have kept the library's copy for about three months now and they want it back.   

[nicoletta]

As I have found - at last- a bookshop that can supply Anglo-Americano books in reasonable tiime , I ordered Madhu Jain's book about the K-family, and spent most of my summer reading it. Intelligent, well written, with a lot of insight, imo. A bit cautious, at times , but that is understandable. My only problem was that the sequence of events was not so clear sometimes (for a non-desi). I learnt a lot of things, however.

[latishya]

was the name of the protagonist there Ashok Banjara? That's what's sticking in my mind- I think the book may be "Show Business" by Shashi Tharoor

i couldnt finish this one - it was too bitter and cynical in tone. the authors antagonism toward and contempt for the film industry colored his writing so much that reading it was an acidic experience. he clearly felt that the escapism and unreality of the film industry was not merely trivial frippery but a sin and a crime when india has such serious issues to address. no wonder he ended up going into politics instead - a noble profession completely free from the meanspiritedness, pettiness corruption and venality of the film industry he condemned on evry page of 'show business'.

[Dil Bert]

Just got Bollywood Posters, by Jerry Pinto & Sheena Sippy.  (Jerry Pinto is the author of the book on Helen)

The book is quite impressive, with high quality reproductions of a good mix of old and new posters.  It's great for a coffee table, or to carefully cut out posters and frame them.  The book also has text, which I'm sure is quite interesting given Pinto's previous work.

[nicoletta]

I agree with you, Dil Bert, Bollywood Posters is a really fine picture book, the texts are short but interesting ,not the usual stuff. I was struck by the modern poster for Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam: does anybody know if that was  done for a remake ( ) or for some new screening of the GDutt movie?

[Darshana]

i couldnt finish this one - it was too bitter and cynical in tone. the authors antagonism toward and contempt for the film industry colored his writing so much that reading it was an acidic experience. he clearly felt that the escapism and unreality of the film industry was not merely trivial frippery but a sin and a crime when india has such serious issues to address. no wonder he ended up going into politics instead - a noble profession completely free from the meanspiritedness, pettiness corruption and venality of the film industry he condemned on evry page of 'show business'.

Glad you don't like him, I don't either, I don't like things he says about Bollywood - ignorant, really.

[mainhoonemily]

Does anyone have any recommendations for books that are like Bollywood movies?  I'm not really interested in reading about the making of movies, and a lot of Indian fiction is too heavy in subject and tone for my taste, but I would love it if I could find some books that are similar in plot and tone and setting to most Bollywood movies.

I recently read and liked 2 States, by Chetan Bhagat, and the more teenager-y Koyal Dark Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth.  Bollywood Confidential by Sonia Singh came close, too.  I'm not into chick-lit, so no "hindi bindi club" type titles, please.

[chinchinchu]

Does anyone have any recommendations for books that are like Bollywood movies?  I'm not really interested in reading about the making of movies, and a lot of Indian fiction is too heavy in subject and tone for my taste, but I would love it if I could find some books that are similar in plot and tone and setting to most Bollywood movies.

I recently read and liked 2 States, by Chetan Bhagat, and the more teenager-y Koyal Dark Mango Sweet by Kashmira Sheth.  Bollywood Confidential by Sonia Singh came close, too.  I'm not into chick-lit, so no "hindi bindi club" type titles, please.

I guess you would call it chick lit, though I haven't read hindi bindi club so not sure if it is like that anyhow, but definitely Imaginary Men has a filmi plot.

[Havai]

  I'm not really interested in reading about the making of movies, and a lot of Indian fiction is too heavy in subject and tone for my taste, but I would love it if I could find some books that are similar in plot and tone and setting to most Bollywood movies.

Have you tried Sacred Games, by Vikram Chandra?  It's a doorstopper (this could be a good thing if you're looking for Bollywood-ishtyle length, too!), but it's got a very Bollywood-thriller kind of feel to it, at least I thought it did; gorgeous models, wicked gangster bhais, too-wealthy frou frou Bombay ladies, and a good-hearted sardar policeman at the center.