Picture Abhi Baaki Hai

Rachel Dwyer

Hachette India

304 pages, Rs. 499

Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, released in 1995, marked a watershed moment in popular Hindi cinema. Gone were the fearsome thakurs and the twin brothers separated at birth; in came the celebration of love, with expansive sets, foreign locales and beautifully decked-out stars. The eminent Hindi film scholar Rachel Dwyer looks at Bollywood films since 1991, the year of India’s economic liberalisation, to explain how this cinema has corresponded to—and in some cases birthed—India’s changing dreams and hopes, fears and anxieties.