Tailored to the choices of its compiler, the scrapbook is an exemplar of graphic authorship and memory making. As one of the most understudied models of personal expression and public encounter, this publication reveals the pluralistic and raw visual samplings of Filmi Jagat (the Cinema Universe), a found scrapbook that is reproduced in entirety as plates following three exploratory texts.
The richly illustrated lead essays by Kaushik Bhaumik and Debashree Mukherjee, probe conceptual and biographical strains emanating from the object, repeatedly stamped on several pages by the alleged owner/creator, Mangaldas V. Lohana. Its composite structure includes clippings from film magazines, song booklets, and advertisements produced between the 1930s-1940s. Therein emerges an intimate and fragmented history of early Hindi film from the pre-Independence period, featuring snippets of lost movies such as Apni Nagaria, Kunwara Baap, Duniya Kya Hai, and Tasveer.
Currently in the growing, assorted collection of Rahaab Allana, his own essay presents 19th century specimens as well as film stills and lobby cards from the 1950s-80s, briefly examining the evolving fashions of visual autobiography. Hence, as an ensemble, this edited volume attempts a sensory connection with photography and print history through personal ephemera, emphasising its cultural value in a digital age.
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