This weeks picks
Bollywood's India: A Public Fantasy Priya Joshi Columbia University Press, 216 pages, $30 A professor of English at Temple University, Joshi delves into India's indigenous cinema, the creative and commercial forces behind it, and the crowds who flock to t
Bollywood's India: A Public Fantasy Priya Joshi Columbia University Press, 216 pages, $30 A professor of English at Temple University, Joshi delves into India's indigenous cinema, the creative and commercial forces behind it, and the crowds who flock to theaters to revel in the drama, the melodrama, the song and dance. A lively, thoughtful writer, Joshi shows how Bollywood films have mirrored India's social, political and economic changes, and how western films have been influenced by Bollywood trends and motifs. For readers relatively unfamiliar with Bollywood titles, her chapter "Bollywood, Bollylite," about Slumdog Millionaire and the ramifications of its worldwide success, provides a perfect entry point.
The Imitation Game Anchor Bay DVD and Blu-ray Gripping, sad, and true, this is the story of British mathematician Alan Turing, who led a team of code-breakers during World War II to crack the German's daunting Enigma encryption machine. Nominated for eight Academy Awards, the film finds a brilliant man battling with his own sexual identity and restless intellect. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as the heretofore unsung hero, whose life was brought to grievous conclusion. Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong also star. PG-13
John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man Olive Films DVD Commemorating the 60th anniversary of John Ford's 1952 Oscar-winning The Quiet Man, the documentary features interviews with leading lady Maureen O'Hara and directors Peter Bogdanovich, Martin Scorsese and Jim Sheridan, who mull the film's importance, its impact and impossible Technicolor green. It took Ford almost 20 years to get his movie made, and the West Country romance - about an Irish American prizefighter (John Wayne) returning to the mother country to reclaim his family's land, and then to marry the feisty Mary Kate Danaher - continues to charm. A little late for St. Patrick's Day, Olive Films' DVD release is still a must-see. The company has the DVD and Blu-ray editions of The Quiet Man in its library, too.