Essays exploring the lasting impact of Habib Tanvir's pioneering theatre which blended tradition with modernity in the post-Independence Indian theatre scene.This collection of essays delves into the profound legacy of Habib Tanvir (1923–2009), a luminary in the post-Independence Indian theater scene. Tanvir's decades-long contributions as a director, poet, playwright, and actor are explored by a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, and peers. The book examine...

The five essays in this book reflect many years of the author's sustained academic engagement with dramatic forms and traditions. The opening essay traces the historical trajectory of modern drama in Europe from its bourgeois period through the period of the liberal dissent to the more recent periods of radical alternative. The subsequent essays deal with certain specific examples of that drama in India and the West, such as Shakespeare adaptations on the Parsi theatre stage, Habib Tanvir,...

Print and Pleasure tells the story behind the boom in commercial publishing in nineteenth-century North India.How did the new technology of printing and the enterprise of Indian publishers make the book a familiar object and a necessary part of people’s leisure in a largely illiterate society? What genres became popular in print? Who read them and how were they read?Our perception of North Indian culture in this period has been dominated by the notion of a competition between Hindi and Urdu, ...

This book addresses the political and aesthetic concerns of modern Indian theatre, tracing its genealogies, and looking in particular at its appropriation of 'folk' theatre. Starting with the plays of Bharatendu Harishchandra in 1870s Banaras, the book moves forward to Jayshankar Prasad and Mohan Rakesh, landmark figures in the history of modern Indian drama. Dalmia then focuses on the intense urban interaction with folk theatre forms, their politicization in the 1940s and later again in t...

One film out of every five made anywhere on earth comes from India. From its beginnings under colonial rule through to the heights of Bollywood , Indian Cinema has challenged social injustices such as caste, the oppression of Indian women, religious intolerance, rural poverty, and the pressures of life in the burgeoning cities. And yet, the Indian movie industry makes only about five percent of Hollywood's annual revenue. In this Very Short Introduction Ashish Rajadhyaksha delves ...

In this remarkable collection of 100 manifestos from the last 100 years, Alex Danchev presents the cacophony of voices of such diverse movements as Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, Feminism, Communism, Destructivism, Vorticism, Stridentism, Cannibalism and Stuckism, taking in along the way film, architecture, fashion, and cookery.Artists' manifestos are nothing if not revolutionary. They are outlandish, outrageous, and frequently offensive. They combine wit, wisdom, and world-shaking...

Kaiwan Mehta takes the reader for a walk through the streets and past the buildings of the ‘native town’ of colonial Bombay, reading their histories and excavating their memories, while continuing to negotiate their present context. This historic neighbourhood of Mumbai, fondly referred to as Bhuleshwar, has remained a residential and religious hub as before, while thriving as the city’s essential commercial marketplace today. It retains a complex history of migration and community, which ...

THE EYES OF THE SKINFirst published in 1996, The Eyes of the Skin has become a classic of architectural theory. It asks the far-reaching question why, when there are five senses, has one single sense – sight – become so predominant in architectural culture and design? With the ascendancy of the digital and the all-pervasive use of the image electronically, it is a subject that has become all the more pressing and topical since the first edition’s publicati...

While we have become familiar with the idea of "Bollywood" here in the West, we know little about the industry's films beyond a certain celebration of kitsch. Bollywood, the latest in Wallflower Press's Short Cuts introductory series, surveys this style of filmmaking from its origins in colonial times to the present, tracing its impact on both the Indian and global imagination. Chapters explore the history and workings of the industry, the narratives and aesthetics of its films, v...

'I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage.'Peter Brook's seminal book, an acknowledged classic of theatre writing, sets out many of the ideas about theatre which informed his lifelong work as a theatre director, from his iconic 'white box' production of A Midsummer Night's Dream and his ground-breaking adaptation of The Mahabharata, to his work at the International Centre for Theatre Research.Available as an ebook for the first time sin...

'Prepare to laugh, sob and dance: this lively history of Indian cinema is imprinted with the memories of a life-long cinephile.' The Telegraph'A gem of a book and a must for film lovers everywhere' Abir Mukherjee'My biggest recommendation of the year. Sunny Singh's honouring of story and history shine through powerfully - an exquisitely enjoyable read' Nikita GillLike all Indians, Sunny Singh was born and b...

From one of the country's most eminent reviewers and academics, a delightfully sceptical and devastatingly intelligent assessment of the true value of art.