Bollywood Horrors - by Ellen Goldberg & Aditi Sen & Brian Collins (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Bollywood Horrors is a wide-ranging collection that examines the religious aspects of horror imagery, representations of real-life horror in the movies, and the ways in which Hindi films have projected cinematic fears onto the screen.

Part one, "Material Cultures and Prehistories of Horror in South Asia" looks at horror movie posters and song booklets and the surprising role of religion in the importation of Gothic tropes into Indian films, told through the little-known story of Sir Devendra Prasad Varma. Part two, "Cinematic Horror, Iconography and Aesthetics" examines the stereotype of the tantric magician found in Indian literature beginning in the medieval period, cinematic representations of the myth of the fearsome goddess Durga's slaying of the Buffalo Demon, and the influence of epic mythology and Hollywood thrillers on the 2002 film Raaz. The final part, "Cultural Horror," analyzes elements of horror in Indian cinema's depiction of human trafficking, shifting gender roles, the rape-revenge cycle, and communal violence. This book also features images (colour in the hardback, black and white in the paperback).

Review Quotes

"All told Bollywood Horrors is a welcome treatment of an underdiscussed topic within South Asian studies, media studies, and religious studies. The volume treats a variety of topics and perspectives, setting the standard for further exploration into a rich and largely untapped field. The volume is sure to interest scholars in the above-mentioned disciplines, as well as Bollywood and horror enthusiasts as well." --Reading Religion

"[T]he collection marks a promising start of critical discussions of the connections between Indian religion, myth, and Bollywood horror films. Apart from helping the global horror enthusiast take a notable step toward exploring the wide variety of Bollywood horrors, these essays will aid scholars of religious studies by drawing attention to the notable afterlives of the avenging female goddess of Hindu religion as well as the vilification of tantraand its followers across cultures. Most importantly, the collection caters to the cross-cultural approach of religious studies when it explains the notable similarities between the male viewers of Bollywood horrors and American slasher films." --The Journal of Gods and Monsters

"[T]his anthology's breadth is also its strength: Bollywood Horrors is not principally a book for horror film scholars, but its wide range of texts and approaches opens it up to a much broader audience and readership." --Journal of Religion & Film

"This phenomenal collection explores a complex cinematic genre through the lenses of religious studies, aesthetics, and socio-political issues in India. Each chapter is illuminating on its own, and the book, as a whole, richly theorizes the horror genre within the cultural context of South Asia. The book will be of great interest to anyone in the fields of Religious Studies, Cinema Studies, South Asian Studies, and Critical Theory." --Daniel M. Stuart, Associate Professor of Asian and Buddhist Studies, University of South Carolina, USA

"Provocative and wide-ranging, the essays in Bollywood Horrors contribute to the small but growing literature on Indian horror cinema, while interrogating the notion of "horror" itself as both entertainment genre and aesthetic-cultural category. The authors highlight neglected religious and folkloric themes in "cult" films and examine the "cultural horrors" of post-Liberalization India and the global capitalist economy in which it is enmeshed." --Philip Lutgendorf, Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies, Emeritus, University of Iowa, USA

"This book persuasively complicates classic distinctions in Film Studies between art-horror and natural-horror by attending to Indian folklore, religious iconography, demonology, myth and ritual. The collection demonstrates Indian horror cinema's generic hybridity, the enduring relevance of classical Rasa aesthetics in understanding its affective range, and the horror genre's function in figuring everyday violence and trauma in India." --Sudhir Mahadevan, Associate Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, University of Washington, USA

"This captivating book provides several insightful perspectives on an overlooked topic of Bollywood horror movies." --Religious Studies Review

About the Author

Ellen Goldberg is Associate Professor of South Asian Studies in the School of Religion at Queen's University, Canada. She is the author of The Lord Who Is Half Woman: Ardhanarisvara in Indian and Feminist Perspective (2002), and co-editor of Gurus of Modern Yoga (2014).

Aditi Sen is Assistant Professor in the Department of History and the School of Religion, Queen's University, Canada.

Brian Collins is the Drs. Ram and Sushila Gawande Chair in Indian Religion and Philosophy and Associate Professor of World Religions at Ohio University, USA. He is the author of The Head Beneath the Altar: Hindu Mythology and the Critique of Sacrifice (2014).