Melodrama and the Nation: Sexual Economies of Bombay Cinema 1970-2000

This insightful analysis of popular Bombay cinema presents a comprehensive discussion of its contemporary history, background, financing and social and political underpinnings. It maps the cultural landscape of this medium, tracing the relationship between the state, nation, cinema and society. It reviews the ways in which gender and sexuality are articulated in their cinematic organisation and representation, and demonstrates how heterosexuality operates as a stabiliser within this constellation. More generally, it looks at the emergence of heroes and anti-heroes, at the changing faces of masculinity, at femininity and the regulation of desire, and at Bollywood's construction of gender, sexuality and the nation.