Film has always acted as a window to the society where it brings out various essences of life. India has always shown prominence in representing its inheritance and rich cultural lineage through different layers of films. Right from “Raja Harishchandra” as a full-length feature film in 1913 to the most contemporary films released on OTT, everything and everyone embedded in any of the films made in India has some level of relevance to the time and society, therefore, they can be called contemporary while projecting some form of social message through their presence. The book “Indian Contemporary Films and Societal Reflection” presents a collection of a list of reviews based on some of the perspectives and concepts portrayed through films like commercialism, gender identity, gender representation, portrayal of power, cinema as a form of art, casteism in cinema, political discourse in cinema, inequality, resilience, relationship, oppression, animation, celluloid reverberations, propaganda and agenda planning, and many more. The twenty-six enthralling chapters from forty-nine authors are collected in this book, which would provide an extensive understanding of different perspectives of films and help identify the societal portrayal of films in various ways.

Cinema in India is an entertainment medium that is interwoven into society and culture at large. It is clearly evident that continuous struggle and conflict at the personal as well as societal levels is depicted in cinema in India. It has become a reflection of society both in negative and positive ways. Hence, cinema has become an influential factor and one of the largest mass communication mediums in the nation. Social and Cultural Dynamics in Indian Cinema is an essential reference source that discusses cultural and societal issues including caste, gender, oppression, and social movements through cinema and particularly in specific language cinema and culture. Featuring research on topics such as Bollywood, film studies, and gender equality, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academicians, film studies students, and industry professionals seeking coverage on various aspects of regional cinema in India.

Promoting sustainable living across seventeen essential areas throughout the planet has been the agenda that was adopted in 2015 by the United Nations with a deadline of 2030. After nine years into the future since 2015, most nations still need to gear up to their full potential to fulfill the targeted development. Although the United Nations has been publishing its annual SGD progress reports since 2016, along with a list of portals where the parameters can be measured for individual nations for each one of the seventeen goals, the perspective of researchers, and practitioners provides a unique perspective on the progression. Despite the rigorous attempts from the United Nations, regulatory authorities, and government initiatives, the gap remains, and the fulfillment of the targets for all seventeen goals till the end of 2023 remains uncertain. The book “Sustainable Development Goals: A Handbook Based on Media Perspective” offers a collection of concepts and perspectives on areas like effective administration, media advocacy, digital literacy, responsible usage, integrating inventory management, greening efforts, digital citizenship, revival of tribal culture, green products, sustainable urbanization, pastors as social media influencers for sustainable development, agrarian sustainability, programs on sustainability, influencers of sustainability, social media activism, women’s health, representation & empowerment, sustainability in films and entertainment, sustainable living, mindful consumption, climate advocacy, public awareness, waste management, sustainable communication, green practices, environment-friendly technology, multiculturalism, environmental communication, democratic governance, health communication and many more. Collectively, the chapters would help in understanding the different perspectives of sustainability through the lens of media and communication.

This book traces the historical evolution of Indian cinema through a number of key decades. The book is made up of 14 chapters with each chapter focusing on one key film, the chosen films analysed in their wider social, political and historical context whilst a concerted engagement with various ideological strands that underpin each film is also evident. In addition to exploring the films in their wider contexts, the author analyses selected sequences through the conceptual framework common to both film and media studies. This includes a consideration of narrative, genre, representation, audience and mise-en-scene. The case studies run chronologically from Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951) to The Elements Trilogy: Water (2005) and include films by such key figures as Satyajit Ray (The Lonely Wife), Ritwick Ghatak (Cloud Capped Star), Yash Chopra (The Wall) and Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!).

This book is a collection of incisive articles on the interactions between Indian Popular Cinema and the political and cultural ideologies of a new post-Global India.

Haunting Bollywood is a pioneering, interdisciplinary inquiry into the supernatural in Hindi cinema that draws from literary criticism, postcolonial studies, queer theory, history, and cultural studies. Hindi commercial cinema has been invested in the supernatural since its earliest days, but only a small segment of these films have been adequately explored in scholarly work; this book addresses this gap by focusing on some of Hindi cinema’s least explored genres. From Gothic ghost films of the 1950s to snake films of the 1970s and 1980s to today’s globally influenced zombie and vampire films, Meheli Sen delves into what the supernatural is and the varied modalities through which it raises questions of film form, history, modernity, and gender in South Asian public cultures. Arguing that the supernatural is dispersed among multiple genres and constantly in conversation with global cinematic forms, she demonstrates that it is an especially malleable impulse that routinely pushes Hindi film into new formal and stylistic territories. Sen also argues that gender is a particularly accommodating stage on which the supernatural rehearses its most basic compulsions; thus, the interface between gender and genre provides an exceptionally productive lens into Hindi cinema’s negotiation of the modern and the global. Haunting Bollywood reveals that the supernatural’s unruly energies continually resist containment, even as they partake of and sometimes subvert Hindi cinema’s most enduring pleasures, from songs and stars to myth and melodrama.