MA, MPhil, PhD (ABD), New York University. Author of two book chapters on Indian cinema in Bollywoodising Literature Forging Cinema: Adaptation & Hindi Cinema (Research India Press, 2015) and The Cinema of India (Wallflower Press, 2010). Also published peer-reviewed articles, photo essays, and book reviews in Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, Hitchcock Annual, Screen, Asian Studies Review, and MARG. Guest curator at the Museum of Moving Image for Cinema Playhouse Film Screening Series (2018-19) and co-curator for the India Kaleidoscope Film Festival (2016 and 2017). Special interests in Indian cinema, star studies, film festivals, and the pedagogy of cinema studies. SLC, 2019-
Undergraduate Courses 2019-2020
Film History
Indian Cinemas
Open , Seminar—Fall
This course is designed to introduce the different periods, forms, and idioms of Indian sound cinema (post-1931) to both those who are initiating their study of Indian cinema and those who are interested in contextualizing and expanding their current understanding of the cinematic medium within the Indian subcontinent. The course aims to: (i) provide a systematic introduction to the historical and linguistic range of production that Indian cinema studies attempts to address; (ii) introduce the key films, directors, stars, genres, formal techniques, and themes of Indian sound cinema; and (iii) emphasize the interdynamic relationship between India’s regional, national, and global cinema. Starting with pre-independence Indian cinema, the course moves chronologically through the decades to the contemporary period, all the while providing a political, economic, social, and cultural background to the universe of these plural film practices. The required readings encompass a multidisciplinary approach to the study of cinema in India and include both conceptual and historical writings on the different aspects of Indian cinema. The lectures, along with the readings, intend to introduce students to the predominant critical approaches in the field of Indian cinema studies. The writing component of the course encourages students to develop their skills of analysis and interpretation to address either/both formal questions (such as issues of aesthetics, narrative, genre, visual style) and sociocultural questions (such as issues of representation, tradition/modernity, private/public, nationalism, globalization, etc.).