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House Full: Indian Cinema and the Active Audience by Lakshmi Srinivas (English)
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Item specifics
- Condition
- Brand New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. See all condition definitionsopens in a new window or tab
- ISBN-13
- 9780226361420
- Book Title
- House Full
- ISBN
- 9780226361420
About this product
Product Identifiers
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
ISBN-10
022636142X
ISBN-13
9780226361420
eBay Product ID (ePID)
4038252818
Product Key Features
Number of Pages
312 Pages
Language
English
Publication Name
House Full : Indian Cinema and the Active Audience
Subject
Film / General, Sociology / General, Asia / India & South Asia, Film / History & Criticism
Publication Year
2016
Type
Textbook
Subject Area
Performing Arts, Social Science, History
Series
Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries Ser.
Format
Hardcover
Dimensions
Item Height
0.1 in
Item Weight
19.8 Oz
Item Length
0.9 in
Item Width
0.6 in
Additional Product Features
Intended Audience
Scholarly & Professional
LCCN
2015-047974
Dewey Edition
23
Reviews
Drawing on over fifteen years of observation, employing innovative research methods, and collecting an exceptional breadth of data, Srinivas reveals provocative sociological lessons in mundane activities that most of us would miss, such as the ticket queue, or the mahurat ritual that marks the official start to filming. Her methodological and conceptual insights can be applied to any large city in India, not only those sites as linguistically and culturally diverse or as cosmopolitan as Bangalore, and they offer fruitful models for other scholars of urban India., This book is a wonderful, nuanced portrait of one of the chief creators of popular Indian cinema: its audience of hundreds of millions. Srinivas's writing is as lively as the phenomena she so richly details., Srinivas powerfully demonstrates that in India, cinema-going is foremost a social event undertaken and experienced in often large groups. The book has eight captivating chapters that offer the reader detailed observations of the organization of making and consuming Indian films as well as a discussion of the theoretical contribution of the study to a sociology of cinema-going in particular and a sociology of film in general. . . . Also fascinating is Srinivas's treatment of the importance of space and locality for the film experience. In short, the book provides a deluge of resources to fundamentally rethink reception as conceived by scholars in media and cultural studies that thus far have often focused on the individual viewer of film as an interpreter or 'reader' of content preproduced by film creators. Srinivas's ethnography powerfully demonstrates that film consumption is not simply amatter of individual viewers' interpretations but an interactional process through which experiences emerge that feed back into the production of films. Therewith, it offers numerous points of connections to interactionist debates about media production and media consumption., In House Full , Srinivas provides us with a rich, insightful, and evocative ethnography of cinema audiences in India, in a time when the place and role of cinema in this hugely diverse and dynamic country is rapidly changing as a consequence of the globalization of the multiplex. Far from being an individualized, anonymous experience, as is the case predominantly in the West, the cinema experience in India is pictured by Srinivas as a deeply social, collective, and performative act., A most enjoyable and even fun read (rare in sociology) that provides both an acutely immersive and profoundly empathetic rendering. . .Drawing from a small, but potent, body of work on ethnographic studies of film reception, Srinivas formulates an impressive research design in Bangalore, India. . .House Full is an impressive, necessary, and innovative study that pushes conventional sociological renderings of media toward their social realities., Srinivas's originality starts with her fundamental insight that understanding film requires understanding every aspect of film: its distribution as well as its production, and, especially, the role of the audience in choosing, buying tickets for, sitting through, and reacting to movies. Srinivas makes clear that differences in film viewing make us aware that something we have taken for granted as a fixed, unchanging aspect of filmgoing is actually a variable quantity, whose variations shape specific film experiences for real people in various places and times. In so doing, she outlines a vast field of study of comparative film experience in different social and cultural circumstances. This is an excellent book., That such practices of reception, even in darkened cinema halls of the late twentieth century, remained quite 'normal' for a significant segment of humanity has been richly documented by sociologist Lakshmi Srinivas in House Full , her engaging study of the 'active audience' of South Asian popular cinema. Based on extensive fieldwork, primarily in the late 1990s, in the burgeoning metropolis of Bangalore (now officially Bengaluru) in Karnataka state, Srinivas's book turns its focus away from the 'reading' of films as 'texts'--the predominant mode of cinematic analysis, which, she argues, is itself a byproduct of the learned discipline of silent, individualized reading--to look seriously at audience reception and its attendant practices, permitting her to conceptualize and examine the presentation of films as collectively-staged 'performance events.' . . . The examination of . . . messages must remain, in my view, a desideratum of comprehensive film studies, though additional and supplemental research on the context of film reception--so excellently pioneered in House Full --should be equally welcomed., Srinivas's book is a refreshing contribution to the study of popular south Asian film, by its acknowledgement of the ways in which different actors, including the audiences, make films, but also by its focus on the social spaces that go beyond the theater itself. It offers a rich ethnographic account on the practices and experiences that surround cinemagoing and its social situatedness. The book knits together rich fieldwork data, personal experiences, theory and analysis and shows how the trivia of cinemagoing do matter. One of the most innovative points made in the book is how spatial cultures define cinemagoing, something barely touched upon in earlier accounts on cinema in South Asia and beyond. Taking this together the book offers a range of material and observations to reflect on the cultural production of film., Srinivas's originality starts with her fundamental insight that understanding film requires understanding every aspect of film: its distribution as well as its production, and, especially, the role of the audience in choosing, buying tickets for, sitting through, and reacting to movies. Srinivas makes clear that differences in film viewing make us aware that something we have taken for granted as a fixed, unchanging aspect of film-going is actually a variable quantity, whose variations shape specific film experiences for real people in various places and times. In so doing, she outlines a vast field of study of comparative film experience in different social and cultural circumstances. This is an excellent book., This is urban ethnography at its best! Srinivas has immersed herself in the filmgoing activities of a large city, engaging at the same time with the film industry, the contemporary Indian urban class structure, the heterogeneity of a city's population, and the negotiations that occur between different social elements on a daily basis. Few books on the Indian cinema range so widely to pull together the observations and obligations of film stars, producers, distributors, theater managers, ushers, guards, moviegoers, film critics, fans, and the 'low-life' scalpers and hangers-on who congregate around Bangalore's dozens of cinemas. The detail of personal interaction that Srinivas offers is unparalleled and her breadth of reading on the film industry and grasp of pertinent theory is impressive., House Full is a welcome addition to research on Indian cinema in general and audiences in particular. This is the most detailed record yet of an important moment in the history of cinema and urban cultures in India. . .The book is well-researched and is accessible to scholars and students alike.
Dewey Decimal
791.430954
Table Of Content
Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Participatory Filmmaking and the Anticipation of the Audience Chapter 3 Cinema Halls, Audiences, and the Importance of Place Chapter 4 Audiences Negotiate Tickets and Seating Chapter 5 Families, Friendship Groups, and Cinema as Social Experience Chapter 6 Active Audiences and the Constitution of Film Experience Chapter 7 "First Day, First Show": A Paroxysm of Cinema Chapter 8 Conclusion Notes References Index
Synopsis
India is the largest producer and consumer of feature films in the world, far outstripping Hollywood in the number of movies released and tickets sold every year. Cinema quite simply dominates Indian popular culture, and has for many decades exerted an influence that extends from clothing trends to music tastes to everyday conversations, which are peppered with dialogue quotes. With House Full , Lakshmi Srinivas takes readers deep into the moviegoing experience in India, showing us what it's actually like to line up for a hot ticket and see a movie in a jam-packed theater with more than a thousand seats. Building her account on countless trips to the cinema and hundreds of hours of conversation with film audiences, fans, and industry insiders, Srinivas brings the moviegoing experience to life, revealing a kind of audience that, far from passively consuming the images on the screen, is actively engaged with them. People talk, shout, whistle, cheer; others sing along, mimic, or dance; at times audiences even bring some of the ritual practices of Hindu worship into the cinema, propitiating the stars onscreen with incense and camphor. The picture Srinivas paints of Indian filmgoing is immersive, fascinating, and deeply empathetic, giving us an unprecedented understanding of the audience's lived experience--an aspect of Indian film studies that has been largely overlooked., Film studies have traditionally focused on texts, meanings, techniques, and appreciation/criticism. Now, we have in House Full an ethnography of movie-going and movie-goers, in India of all places (Bangalore), where the focus has been shifted away from the movie-as-product to the study of patterns of social behavior in production, marketing, and consumption of film. India is a place of surprises, and that goes for movie theatres and film patronage: House Full presents a raucous, multi-ethnic, multi-class tableau. You would guess the audience is Srinivas's focus, and that is accurate, because in India they have a role in choosing, buying tickets for, and sitting through and reacting to movies (participating loudly and interactively) that differs from what North Americans are used to. Srinivas's interviews with audience members (across ethnic and class lines), distributors, movie theater managers, and also the actors, directors, writers, and other production crew make for fascinating comparisons to what we in the west are used to. The interactional character of her study places it firmly in the tradition of the Chicago School of sociology. Lest we forget, meanwhile, India is the largest producer of feature films worldwide, with the largest market in terms of films produced and audiences reached (selling 4 billion tickets annually).
LC Classification Number
PN1993.5.I8S674 2016
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- i***e (138)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseI bought this book because I am looking forward to wintertime when I can’t be outside gardening. I want to learn something new, and this fits with another purchase I made of a Lenormand deck. The book is in good condition as stated, even though it was used. A nice, reasonably priced item.
- t***n (2190)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseGreat item, easy transaction. Thank you!
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Seller feedback (1,055,535)
- i***e (138)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseI bought this book because I am looking forward to wintertime when I can’t be outside gardening. I want to learn something new, and this fits with another purchase I made of a Lenormand deck. The book is in good condition as stated, even though it was used. A nice, reasonably priced item.
- t***n (2190)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseGreat item, easy transaction. Thank you!
- 8***9 (2396)- Feedback left by buyer.Past monthVerified purchaseFast and easy