Provincializing Bollywood

Bhojpuri Cinema in the Comparative Media Crucible

Provincializing Bollywood argues that Bhojpuri cinema exemplifies the overflow of a provincial derivative form that defies its place in the given scheme of things. Situating it at the intersection of vernacular media production and the infrastructural-political reordering of provincial north India, the book shows that Bhojpuri media's characteristic 'disobedience' is marked by a libidinal excess - simultaneously scandalizing and moralizing - to address the inexact calculi of Bhojpuri speaking region's 'underdevelopment'. Bhojpuri media therefore demands that it is assessed not merely for its internal content but within the comparative media crucible, marked by interpenetrating forms and histories as diverse as those of ecological distress, musical traditions, gendered segregation, real estate, urban resettlements, and highway modernities. Foregrounding the libidinal excess, language politics, and curatorial informalities, Provincializing Bollywood synthesizes Bhojpuri media's spectacular public insubordination and its invocation of a shared debt, which is by no means regional in its provenance.

"This brilliant book, boldly comparative and bristling with ideas on every page, reads the re-emergence of Bhojpuri cinema in the new millennium as symptomatic of an "overflow" of north Indian provinciality. The "scandal" of this new Bhojpuri cinema and media prompts a deep meditation of what it means to be a province. Akshaya Kumar provides critical insights into how "libidinal belligerence and skewed entitlements" find expression in the "comparative media crucible" while negotiating local, regional, provincial, and vernacular imaginaries in popular culture. A deeply rewarding and provocative read." -- Francesca Orsini, author of Print and Pleasure: Popular Literature and Entertaining Fictions in Colonial North India

"Akshaya Kumar's ultimate interest is the political formation of contemporary India. Kumar argues that transformations in capital in contemporary India have found their expression in intensified regional identities. When the subaltern speaks here, they are speaking Bhojpuri. To account for this political identity, Kumar has to rethink the operations of cinema and the broader media ecology in which it operates. The result is an ambitious, relentlessly inventive book, opening up new domains for film and media studies." -- Brian Larkin, author of Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure and Urban Culture in Nigeria

Reviews of the Book

Raina, Shriya. (2024). Province and Its Inexact Calculi: A Study in Media and Infrastructure: Review of Provincializing Bollywood: Bhojpuri Cinema in the Comparative Media Crucible by Akshaya Kumar, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021; pp 235, 1,495 (hardcover). Economic and Political Weekly, 59 (47). https://www.epw.in/journal/2024/47/book-reviews/province-and-its-inexact-calculi.html

Srivastava, Anushka., & Dixit, Prabhat. (2024). From the Margins to the Mainstream Bhojpuri Cinema: Review of the Book Provincializing Bollywood: Bhojpuri Cinema in the Comparative Media Crucible: by A. Kumar, Oxford University Press, 2021. 256 pp., $55, ISBN: 978-0190130183. Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 1–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/10509208.2024.2428897

Bissoyi, Sanjay K. (2023). Review of Provincializing Bollywood: Bhojpuri Cinema in the Comparative Media Crucible by Akshaya Kumar, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2021, 256 pp., 1495 INR (hardcover), ISBN: 9780190130183. South Asian History and Culture, 14 (3), 380-382. https://doi.org/10.1080/19472498.2023.2184918

Hardy, Kathryn. (2023). Review of Provincializing Bollywood: Bhojpuri Cinema in the Comparative Media Crucible by Akshaya Kumar, Oxford University Press, 2021. 256 pp., $55, ISBN: 978-0190130183. Seminar, 3–5. https://www.academia.edu/125504773/Review_of_Provincializing_Bollywood_by_Akshaya_Kumar

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