Indian Art Cinema and its Cultural Elites

This book provides a nuanced exploration of Indian art cinema within the context of its middle-class audience, offering a unique perspective into the nation's post-independence cultural landscape. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of cultural production, Jyotika Virdi rejects a traditional chronological approach to art cinema, instead, she centers Nehruvian era class politics in her analysis, examining films like The Apu Trilogy (1955-1959) and Godam (Warehouse)(1973) to showcase the complex and contradictory nature of the Indian middle-class, who were both the creative producers and consumers of alternative cinema, especially during the political turbulence of the late 1960s and 1970s. Incorporating a meticulous examination of key auteurs such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Mani Kaul, and Ritwik Ghatak, contextualised against cultural shifts and societal influences, this study reevaluates the intricate relationship between art films, the state that supports them, and the ruling cultural elite, whose influence is inversely proportional to its minuscule size.