Dark Fear, Eerie Cities : New Hindi Cinema in Neoliberal India

Synopsis: Dark Fear, Eerie Cities analyzes a film form that began to emerge in Hindi cinema in early 21st century - a form that is marked by realism, by focusing on urban life and culture of the new middle class, as well as pessimism, violence, fear and the presence of the 'other' in many forms. The author locates new cinematic developments in a much broader context of sociocultural change in contemporary India, and traces the roots of imagining India 'darkly'. The book looks at the new Hindi cinema from different angles and through analysis of crime thrillers and horror films aims to answer some fundamental questions, Why is there so much of pessimism?; What impact does neoliberalism have on the city and cinematic representations?; Why does the darkness, actual and metaphorical, proliferate?; What haunts the city, and why?; Why is the city so dark and eerie?; And what is the relationship between fear and violence on screen and the actual "dark side" of urban life, crime, insecurity one may feel while living in a metropolis, physical insecurity as well as a psychological, one of competition, a desire to succeed and to belong to 'global India'. Contents: Introduction. 1. Understanding Cinematic Transformations and Neoliberal Culture in India. 2. Objects in the Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear: Imagination and the Other. 3. Haunting and Uncanny Cities of Neoliberal India. 4. Film Noir and the Dark Spaces of New Hindi Cinema. 5. Screening Masculine Anxiety: Men, Women and Violence. Bibliography. Index. What haunts the city? Why is there so much pessimism in our urban lives? And how does this physical and psychological insecurity of relentless competition and a desire to succeed against all odds proliferate into cinema? Dark Fear, Eerie Cities analyses a wide array of films made in the early 21st century to offer a philosophical and psychoanalytical critique of the transforming cinematic imaginary from the pre-1990s feudal family ideal to the contemporary construction of the new middle class s subjectivities in the postcolonial context. Keeping in mind the effects of globalization, market liberalization, and the emergence of new forms of media and its consumption, the book proposes a theoretical engagement with cinematic transformations. Paunksnis presents an interdisciplinary study of a genre of cinema in which crime thrillers and horror films are aimed at answering some of the fundamental questions of our contemporary times.