Monday, September 13, 2010

Cinema Bhojpuri

A joy to read and informative; the footnotes are as interesting as the narrative itself

Cinema Bhojpuri
Avijit Ghosh
Penguin; Rs 399; Pp 297
I learnt to speak Bhojpuri before I could speak Gujarati. It was one of three languages of Fiji. Officially called Hindustani, it was Bhojpuri mixed with other languages of UP and Bihar, and spoken by the indentured labourers on the sugar plantations.

So I am partial to Bhojpuri films but in Delhi you have to go to a flea pit in the walled city to see them. They are not meant for the multiplexes and are not available on DVD. The films are popular with male migrant workers in places like Ludhiana and Malegaon, where they are screened for a few weeks. In the cow belt itself, they have been known to run for twenty-five weeks and more.

Avijit Ghosh’s Cinema Bhojpuri is a joy to read and informative; the footnotes are as interesting as the narrative itself. He has taken the trouble of listing every Bhojpuri film made since the first, Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chahaibo (1962), to the end of 2008 when 69 Bhojpuri films were produced.

Full review here Outlook

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