Abstract
As suggested by the title, Anjali Ram explores the intimate connection between the consumption of Bollywood films and the practice of identity formation among Indian women living in diaspora in Consuming Bollywood. Specifically, Ram examines how notions of gender, nation, culture, and tradition are presented in popular Bollywood films as well as how they are known, negotiated, and challenged by the women who watch these films in their own construction of belonging. This is accomplished through textual analysis, participant observation, and in-depth interviews with both first-generation Indian immigrant women and second-generation Indian American women. As a professor of global communication at Roger Williams University, Ram brings much experience and insights to this project.
Ram begins her book by devoting the first two chapters to laying a foundation of knowledge. She synthesizes major theoretical contributions from the fields of media studies, cultural studies, and anthropology that are relevant to the study of diaspora media audiences. Although this task is indeed a great and vast one, Ram manages to succinctly explicate concepts while also offering explanation for application. She draws heavily from Stuart Hall’s works and studies from other Bollywood scholars, but readers will also find the research of renowned feminist and anthropology scholars.
The subsequent chapters follow a pattern of combined literature review and analysis. At times, Ram will more thoroughly explore historical/cultural events or possibly introduce new concepts before delving into her analysis (making for a lengthy review) whereas at other times she simply reminds readers of key concepts or previous findings. Regardless, her transitions are seamless and logical, providing readers with just the right amount of knowledge to understand her arguments. The author also frequently combines her methods in chapters, which brings nuance and complexity to her thesis. Indeed, the book shines brightest as an example of well-executed qualitative research.
The results of Ram’s study are clear and multiple, contributing greatly to our understanding of how the media affects the construction of a gendered, transnational identity, specially located within the Indian diaspora. Through interviews with immigrant Indian women, Ram discovers how their consumption on Bollywood films is used to reinforce ideas about “Indian” (read: Northern Indian, Hindu) cultural values and thus establish a dichotomy between home culture and host culture, to re-affirm their “Indian-ness” by keeping up with the latest Indian trends (e.g., fashion, music, or pop culture), and to serve as a place to combat feelings of alienation or isolation by offering a generalized and romanced “India” as something familiar. The author supports these findings through her participant observations of community events and textual analysis of Bollywood film. Of note, Ram finds that the industry caters to the diaspora community by creating images of a pure India whom the hero returns to or a modern, global India whose heroes easily cross borders.
Consuming Bollywood is well suited for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses. Students would not only learn much about the Bollywood film industry, the Indian diaspora, discourses of nationalism, and immigrant Indian women’s construction of identity through Bollywood film, but would also learn how to effectively conduct qualitative research methods like in-depth interviewing, participant observations, and textual analysis. I can easily see professors of media studies, cultural studies, and women’s studies using this as a method text. And though Ram does draw connections between different chapters, she also briefly reviews such information, making it easy for instructors to assign select chapters. I would recommend Chapter 3 (“Mediating Memories”) as an example of coherent participant observation and interview analysis combination, Chapter 4 (“National Texts and Transitional Identities”) and Chapter 5 (“Gender and Viewing Pleasures”) as examples of unified interview and textual analysis scholarship, and Chapter 6 (“Gender Transitions”) as an example of critical textual analysis.
However, there are some small caveats to this book. Much of the text centers on analysis of 1980s to 1990s’ Bollywood films and interviews conducted around the mid-1990s. It is not until Chapter 6, the penultimate chapter, that more recent films are examined. This does not make the project less significant, but it does make it feel dated and raises questions about evolving trends and if the interviewed first-generation Indian immigrant women would have different thoughts today. As if foreseeing this criticism, Ram conducts interviews with young second-generation Indian American women about their consumption and negotiations of identity in Chapter 7. Although insightful and a nice juxtaposition to an older generation of immigrant women, I was disappointed that only three women were interviewed and that their interviews occupied considerably less space than the other interviews as well as less space than the textual analysis in that chapter.
Despite these limitations, Consuming Bollywood is an engaging and enlightening read. Media, cultural studies, and gender scholars alike will find the text interesting and informative in their research into Bollywood’s impact on identify and place-making practices of those located within the Indian diaspora. Similarly, professors will find it useful as a “method book” for teaching upper-level undergraduate and graduate students about qualitative research methods, particularly textual analysis, participant observations, and in-depth interviewing.