Starry night in London -- A Bollywood study is released

Starry night in London -- A Bollywood study is released
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

LONDON, MARCH 19: It isn't often that Amitabh Bachchan and Gulshan Grover are called upon to endorse academic research even if it deals with Bollywood. But, the launch this week of a study on the idea of love, sex and romance in the cinema-centred culture of Mumbai saw both stars performing roles that they are clearly untrained for.

The book All You Want Is Money, All You Want is Love, subtitled Sex and romance in modern India, is the result of Rachel Dwyer's fascination with the world of Bollywood. Dwyer teaches courses on Indian cinema, Gujarati language and Indian literature at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies. Anyone who expects Stardust-style revelations about the loves and lives of Bollywood star and star-makers will be disappointed.

Couched in the language of cultural studies, Dwyer's book examines the representation of the world in Yash Chopra's films, Shoba De's novels and Stardust magazine. Dwyer says that this is the world defined by what she calls "new middle class" , who, apparently set cultural and consumption trends that the rest of the country aspires to. Asked how large the group was, she said: "It can't be identified in sociological terms, but through their behaviours, culture and consumption."

The rather unusual crowd - for an academic book launch - of film journalists and unidentifiable socialites waited excitedly until, Bachchan, the surprise star guest arrived. Before that Gulshan Grover read from the Big B's foreword to the book. Grover had, probably never in his illustrious career sight read such a long text and had some considerable trouble tripping over phrases and stopping dead when faced with the word "dissertation".

Bachchan, who is Britain for the filming of another Yash Chopra production, also starring Aishwarya Rai, was all praise for Dwyer's book. While praising her effort, which he said would surprise the severest critic, he said there were "grey areas" in the assumptions she has drawn from "film glossies". These he says are "not the true representations of many of the happenings she refers to".

Dwyer is currently working on a book on Yash Chopra and hopes to go on to study popular culture in small-town India.