Readings Review

About this exercise: For this exercise, you will need to review the two essential readings for Lecture 8:
Kaur, R 2002, Viewing the West through Bollywood: a celluloid Occident in the making ,Contemporary South Asia, vol. 11, no.2, pp. 199-209.
Desai, J 2003, Bombay Boys and Girls: The Gender and Sexual Politics of Transnationality in the New Indian Cinema in English, South Asian Popular Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 45-61.

The readings for this week s lecture present rather different analyses of recent developments in Indian cinema, especially in relation to the cosmopolitan and diasporic Indian communities which have emerged globally over the last two decades, and which are argued to be both a theme of, and a potential audience for, the films being produced. This exercise asks you to provide a synopsis and critical evaluation of the two scholars research. In your response, focus not only on the content of the articles, but also on the quality of the argument, the underlying assumptions both authors are working with, and the theoretical rigour with which they develop their ideas. Which author seems to you to present the more compelling interpretation of Indian cinema as travelling culture , and why?