"Hogan achieves a minor miracle in applying his deep knowledge of classical Indian thought—about emotions and vision and narrative—to the Indian films that he is so clearly mad about, films that run the gamut from high art to pop culture, Muslim and Hindu, in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu, and English—all sorts of films. The result is a delightfully readable book that will explain much about Indian films to people who thought they knew all about them, and will make many people who thought they never wanted to see an Indian film start watching them."

—Wendy Doniger, Mircea Eliade Professor of the History of Religions, University of Chicago, and author of The Woman Who Pretended To Be Who She Was

"The Bollywood musical is one of the most influential cultural phenomena of our time. Patrick Hogan provides a crisp and original analysis of this art form from a cognitive point of view."

—Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Senior Vice President; Professor in the Departments of Music, Psychology, and Neuroscience; Tufts University

"Having a passing acquaintance with Bollywood has become a mark of hipness among Hollywood filmmakers, who have plundered Bollywood's imagery and energy for commercials, music videos. and feature films. But few have more than a superficial grasp of this vast cinematic landscape, which is why Pat Hogan's Understanding Indian Movies could not have arrived at a more perfect time. What distinguishes Understanding Indian Movies is Hogan's genuine enthusiasm for the films and his eagerness to invite you into this world. Hogan draws many disciplines into play here, but he is particular adept at describing how a film's mise-en-scene, editing, and music provoke the viewer's imagination. Above all, the pleasure Hogan derives from his subject is evident on every page, and it is positively contagious."

—Ken Kwapis, Director of He's Just Not That Into You and The Office

"In making his ambitious argument, Hogan provides startlingly original insights into the way in which cinema—and more particularly Indian cinema—works. Hogan writes in a confident but also careful style. His lucidity is a welcome strength of his book."

—S. Shankar, Professor of English and Director of the Center for South Asian Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Indian movies are among the most popular in the world. However, despite increased availability and study, these films remain misunderstood and underappreciated in much of the English-speaking world, in part for cultural reasons.

In this book, Patrick Colm Hogan sets out through close analysis and explication of culturally particular information about Indian history, Hindu metaphysics, Islamic spirituality, Sanskrit aesthetics, and other Indian traditions to provide necessary cultural contexts for understanding Indian films. Hogan analyzes eleven important films, using them as the focus to explore the topics of plot, theme, emotion, sound, and visual style in Indian cinema. These films draw on a wide range of South Asian cultural traditions and are representative of the greater whole of Indian cinema. By learning to interpret these examples with the tools Hogan provides, the reader will be able to take these skills and apply them to other Indian films.

But this study is not simply culturalist. Hogan also takes up key principles from cognitive neuroscience to illustrate that all cultures share perceptual, cognitive, and emotional elements that, when properly interpreted, can help to bridge gaps between seemingly disparate societies. Hogan locates the specificity of Indian culture in relation to human universals, and illustrates this cultural-cognitive synthesis through his detailed interpretations of these films. This book will help both scholars and general readers to better understand and appreciate Indian cinema.