Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film

Rating:
Summary: Avoid! A "visual" book with four pages of color pictures!
Review: An extreme disappointment. While the subject deserves attention, this book contains only a few black and white photographs, and minimal color photos, the latter from only three to four movies! Written in sophmoric, academic tones, page after page of un-interesting text failed to give any insight whatsoever into an art form that populates more movie marquees than any other place in the world.
And for the over-the-top price, you could probably afford a trip to India to evaluate the topic yourself!

Rating:
Summary: Gorgeously illustrated Oxford UP edition
Review: Readable academic study of visual aspects of Indian cinema, with a terrific chapter on Bollywood movie posters, gorgeously illustrated on almost every page. Get the Oxford UP India edition. Informative, well researched and documented, and stunning to look at.