As a film-maker and film historian B.D. Garga has closely witnessed and participated in the growth of Indian cinema from the early 1940s. With more than fifty years’ experience as a film journalist, and having served on various national and international film festival juries, he is probably India’s foremost authority on the subject of cinema. In this extraordinary collection of essays, Garga delves into the vast repertoire of his scholarship and experience to provide an insider’s view of Indian and international cinema over the years. Even as he discusses the contribution of men behind the screen–the director, editor, cinematographer-he profiles some of the greatest masters of Indian cinema, like Himansu Rai and P.C. Barua, Bimal Roy and Raj Kapoor, while critically analysing some classic films from the golden era of cinema in India–Devdas (1935) and Sant Tukaram (1936) to Mother India (1957) and Mughal-e-Azam (1960). Embellished with over forty exquisite and vintage photographs from the author’s private collection, The Art of Cinema also contains fascinating essays that highlight the contribution of the soviet masters to international cinema; address important issues like film censorship, sex in Indian films and the relationship between film and politics; and provide a memorable account of the origins of cinema in India and the country’s many cinematic milestones.
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