Bombay Cinema and Postmodernism

Abstract

The chapter explores the inception of the postmodern trends in postmodern cinema in India. It argues that the postmodern cinema in India is a result of multiple factors including foreign investment in Bollywood, the prevalence of the postmodern cinema in the West in the 1970s-1980s, and the experimentation within the cinema industry. This study explores the fact that though there weren't many films to qualify as postmodern cinema, there was a presence of postmodern thoughts in many such films. It tries to locate the representation of poverty in postmodern cinema in Bombay cinema. One of the first movies to portray poverty in the new light with a postmodern approach was Salam Bombay. Similarly, Shwet was another postmodern movie that drew a parallel between a postmodern hero and a poor farmer and tried to show that the tragedies in the modern world unite in death. The chapter sketches a historical trajectory of postmodern movies in Bombay cinema.